Always Stick with your First Answer.

I recently attended a pub quiz in Whetstone, near the end of the Northern Line and beyond which the elastic that ties me to Camden and Hampstead boings uncomfortably tight. On having the answers read out at the end of the quiz we learned that lack of sleep kills you quicker than lack of food.

I had said that would be the case, but allowed myself to be dissuaded by my very good friend Graeme, who said "no way, you’d get tired and nod off before you died". It was one of those statements that is impossible to argue with at the time, despite it completely ignoring the premise of the question. The correct response would have been "yes, but if you were unable to nod off, if you were denied sleep...". My actual response was

[short silence]

"...aye, obviously."


The record for the longest scientifically verified time anyone has gone without sleep is held by a man called Randy Gardner, who absolutely positively has to be from the USA. This has prompted me to google the name "Randy Mann" of which there appear to be thousands, all in the US. No doubt Americans would redress the balance by laughing at all the people in the UK called Horny, but there aren’t any.