Join the Q: World of Q
Created | Updated Feb 7, 2016
Join the Q: World of Q
When I sent in the first instalment in this Post article series, our esteemed Editor Dmitri was intrigued as I hadn't given away the theme of the series. However, my first thought after reading his comment was, "Ah, I hadn't thought about a theme..." No problem, though, because the theme is just my own musings about a variety of topics1.
Today, following on from my Q logo, I thought I would do a round-up of my favourite Q things. I have been collecting them since I first opened my Personal Space here on h2g2.
The first item that I added to my Q list is of course Queen, who have been my favourite band since I bought their Greatest Hits II album in 1993. It was an honour for me to be able to fill a gap in the h2g2 Edited Guide by writing an Entry about my favourite member of the band, the Quiet John Deacon.
The second item in the list is Quentin Crisp – I first encountered his autobiography The Naked Civil Servant in the library in 1996, but didn't pluck up enough courage to read it until about 2009 when I found a vintage copy in a second hand bookshop. I don't know if I would have been better off if I had read it sooner than I did, as it contains some very wise words of wisdom about being oneself that would have been very helpful to younger me, but when I did read it I was able to appreciate it, so that was the main thing. I have noted that there isn't an Entry in the Guide about QC2, so that's on my list of things I'd like to do, but I know it will be quite a challenge to summarise his life into Entry form.
There is an Entry in the Guide about Star Trek the Next Generation which features mention of the entity Q. The actor John de Lancie, who played Q, was very impressive in the role, and in particular his voice is deliciously sarcastic and drole, so he also impresses me in his role as the voice actor for the Q-like creature Discord in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV show! There is also an Entry about Q in James Bond so I added that into my list – seeing the gadgets he had created and specially selected for Bond is the highlight of the films for me.
Another Entry I would like to write is about Brideshead Revisited as I really enjoyed the TV series with Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons. A particularly memorable scene was at a party organised by Anthony Andrews' character Sebastian Flyte – a basket of Quails' eggs featured on the buffet table. I thought nothing much of it at the time, although I had found it amusing and decorous to see Sebastian eating the tiny eggs, as I didn't think I would be able to get any myself anyway. However, a few years later, I happened to be in my local corner shop and discovered a pack of a dozen at half price so I bought them to try. Quick to hard boil, and fun to de-shell, they taste pretty much like hen's eggs but I do enjoy the eating experience and I pick some up as a treat whenever the local shop has them in stock.
The final and funniest item on my list of Qs is Quisp, a (presumably discontinued) breakfast cereal that I read about in Dmitri's Entry about the voice actor Paul Frees. I really like the name Quisp, because it is like a nickname for Quentin Crisp, so it amuses me greatly indeed!
If there is anything else Q-related that you think I might be interested in, do let me know by leaving a comment at the bottom of this Entry!
