I wish to send much thanks to those who responded to the Frosh Quiz—it is a great delight to me, and also I will lay off the interactive posts for a while. HOWEVER, I did misunderstand the nature of SurveyMonkey to some degree and for that I must apologize. The Frosh Quiz was marketed by me as a way to get to know each other better, but SurveyMonkey annonymizes the results, so that did not entirely work out. Getting to know each other in aggregate, I suppose. I’m really sorry for anyone who is frustrated by this result.

However, I still got some great data, which delights me even if not attributable to anyone in particular. Wanna hear about it?

Question 1: When is your bedtime? 33% of us go to bed between 10 and 11, and 25% between 11 and 12. I am usually right on the 11pm line and thrilled to me part of the mainstream for once. 21% are between 12 and 1, and no one picked after 1am, or did not know because they just doze off while doing something else (I really thought that could be a thing judging by people on TV but I guess it isn’t). 8% are before 10pm and a wild 12% vary their bedtime depending on when they have to get up!

Question 2: Did you go out as any of the following branded characters for Hallowe’en? The least successful question in the quiz, as 4% picked Care Bear and 83% were none of the above. I for the record was a Popple one long ago Hallowe’en and just assumed a lot of us were branded toys for Hallowe’en at some point. The 13% who picked “other” offered some cheering surprises. (Rice Krispies Elf!)

Question 3: What is the latest time of day you can eat food? Some more surprises here, as 29% can eat anytime they are awake and 62% as long as they haven’t brushed their teeth yet, which is really the same thing but more fastidious. Who knew? I’m in the category of people who cannot eat too late at night or the food will attempt to destroy me from within—that turned out to be a very small category on the quiz.

Question 4: Do you know any of your neighbours? The friendliest category was nicely populated here, with 37% of y’all actively friendly with your neighbours, but the largest category was also mine, 58% of us are smiling and nodding only, and would only ask for help in a dire emergency. No one picked hiring a neighbour child for yard work, again a thing I imagined was real likely from television! And only 4% actively avoid any interaction at all with neighbours.

Question 5: Do you feel like you need to own a TV? Sort of an even split here? 29% don’t feel they need a TV because they can watch stuff on other devices, and 29% feel they don’t need a TV but still like having one anyway (my category). A slightly larger group (37%) does feel the need for a TV while only 4% doesn’t need a TV because TV is bad for you.

Question 6: Do you understand your taxes? Very fraught. Those who do their own taxes with full comprehension is the second smallest group (12%) above those who do them themselves on a wing and prayer (8%). Those who have an someone else do them and then review with medium insight is 20% (plus me) and the majority (58%) have someone else do them and then never look again, which makes me feel better about Mark’s MO.

Question 7: What is the latest year that sounds like a real adult birth year to you? The funniest one. 46% of us picked adults starting between 26 and 29 years old; 17% picked between 22 and 25 years old; only 4% picked between 18 and 21, which I think is legally correct; and 33% picked themselves as the youngest possible adult, which I tend to agree with.

Question 8: Is the AI question and I’m going to give that one a whole post of its own because I have so many thoughts and feelings about it and so did a lot of other people!!! Coming soon!

Question 9: What’s on your earphones at the gym? Another set of surprising responses: fully 54% chose “gym?” by which I assume they mean (and I meant by including that option) that they don’t go to a gym! 17% chose the pumpup playlist, 12% the edifying podcast, and 12% their current audiobook, and only 4% the underrated option of the stupid podcast. No one picked just having the earbuds in for show, playing nothing, to keep chitchatters at bay.

Question 10: Have you encountered a Frosh Questionnaire before? 29% had filled them out before, 4% had seen them before but never filled them out, NO ONE had ever seen an RR original Frosh Questionnaire before (shocking!), and a full 67% had never seen any Frosh Questionnaires before. Thanks to all who played this little reindeer game with me, especially who let me be their introduction to the genre.

Here is some bonus silliness:

RR (coming into Mark’s office) What’s going on with Evan?
MS: What?
RR: I have to leave. Evan is freaking out. I could hear him screaming with his blankie in his mouth. (leaves office, starts down the hall)
MS (follows) Does he have lots of fresh water? I gave him a little from the sink earlier and he acted like I was a god!
RR: Oh, yeah, maybe he’s thirsty. But he was on my bureau earlier, which is a funny way to show it.
MS (now in kitchen, picks up cat dish, fills with water)
RR (also in kitchen) Hey, my sweater! (picks up sweater from kitchen floor) I guess this what Evan had in his mouth, not his blankie.
MS: Ah!
RR: He got it out of the closet and dragged it in here with his little mouth.
MS: Ah!
RR: I guess I’ll wear it to my meeting. (puts on sweater)
MS: You look great!
RR: Thanks! Cat is choosing my outfits now!


(this conversation eavesdropped in university cafeteria one long strange day)
Guy 1: But do you have a photo album? Like on your phone, do you have a bunch of photos of her you can stare at?
Guy 2: No, no.
G1: Do you have a lock of her hair? My grandmother had one from grandpa.
G2: No, I don’t have that.
G1: But how do you yearn? I don’t think you’re yearning right.
(murmurs, some sighing)
G2: What happened was, she asked me if I like guys, and I told her, yeah, I do, I’m into guys, and then I realized later why she was asking, she was trying to ask me out and I should have told her I don’t ONLY like guys, I like girls too, but it was too late.
G1: Is it too late? Are you sure?
G2: I fear it is too late.
G1: Tell me what you like about her.
G2: What do I like about her? Oh…she’s really old-fashioned, like, classic cars, cigarette dashboard. And she’s soft-spoken, like me.

I still don’t know what “cigarette dashboard” means, but omg, I love it!