Celebrities and Experts.

The Celebrity Expert.

It seems that we now live in the age of celebrity and the expert. I have for some time been a lover of quiz programmes pitting my wits not so much against the contestants more the questions. Some are better than others in the sense that some have a better variety of questions and topics.

There are some such programmes that I am absolutely hopeless at the ones where the there is a large number of questions based on soaps films or celebrities. I can never answer such questions simply because I do not watch enough films and I watch no soaps at all.

Now the worst kind of quiz programme in my opinion, and I am well aware that this is only my opinion and not shared by very many others, are the celebrity version of a quiz. It seems though that if there is a quiz programme before very long there will be a celebrity version.

I find myself thinking, "Oh no not another one?"  I gave up on those finding the questions not worthy of being asked, or because I felt embarrassed for the celebrity when so often there was hardly a question they could answer.

Another thing that I found off-putting was when announced that it was a celebrity programme and I was told who the celebrities were I never knew any of them. Of course, this was probably because I do not watch soaps.

Now I am acutely aware that I am probably at this moment sounding a little snobbish but let me make a plea against this. There are some of those programmes I really do enjoy and my pleasure is diminished by the celebrity content.

I am told that one of the largest selling genres of magazines sold by newsagents and supermarkets are those dealing with celebrity. This certainly lets me know that once again in my life I am in the minority group.

The other interesting and growing groups of people are, "The Experts." We now seem to have experts on almost every category under the sun. They are brought in more and more frequently to add something extra to the report. "Let us ask the opinion of the expert." Frequently the only expertise necessary seems to have been working in that field for one or two years.

I often found it amusing when sitting in court as a magistrate that a lawyer would bring in as a star witness an expert, often who seemed to know very little at all about the topic.

You can't always go by expert opinion, it is not always reliable.  A turkey, if you ask a turkey, should be stuffed with grasshoppers, grit and worms. A great deal I suppose depends on what we mean by an expert. 

The only thing worse than an expert is someone who thinks he's an expert.

Here is a true tale that has both ingredients, celebrity and expert.

While she was enjoying a transatlantic ocean trip, Billie Burke, the famous actress, noticed that a gentleman at the next table was suffering from a bad cold.

"Are you uncomfortable?" she asked sympathetically. The man nodded. "I'll tell you just what to do for it," she offered. "Go back to your stateroom and drink lots of orange juice. Take two aspirins. Cover yourself with all the blankets you can find. Sweat the cold out. 

I know just what I'm talking about. I'm Billie Burke from Hollywood." 

The man smiled warmly and introduced himself in return. "Thanks," he said, "I'm Doctor Mayo from the Mayo Clinic."  

One thing for sure, you can relax knowing that this blog post was written neither by an expert or a celebrity but I do hope you found it worthy of a little read. I am off to see what celebrity show, quiz or programme I am going to give a body swerve to this evening. 

Have a marvellous day.