Did you do the frosh quiz in university? Or whenever you went to school? The Frosh Quiz was this list of very random questions that was circulated, via email at the time, with the idea that we were all getting to know each other. The sender would fill it out and email it to as many new friends as they could think of, who would all read those answers, then delete them and put in their own, and forward along to all their new friends, plus the original sender. It was the most interactive edge of the old trend of email forwards.

The questions would range from slightly relevant stuff like “city or country?” “morning person or night owl?” and totally random like “what’s the last thing you ate?” and “what colour are your socks right now?” In my memory, most versions had about 30 questions.

I LOVED THESE. I am nosy and friendly and whenever the conversation naturally prevents more questions I am disappointed. I ALWAYS want to know the last thing you ate and what colour your socks are. Frosh quizzes persisted long after I was frosh, through all four years of university with ever-varying questions, and I pushed them on my now-real friends and the kindest ones responded.

After university, the universe of email forwards stopped providing Frosh Quizzes so…I started making my own. On my blog and then on Facebook, I asked my own little questions, answered them and encouraged others to do the same—the kindly and the bored did so. Heaven!

I’m in my forties and I haven’t made a Frosh Quiz in a long time but, look, they’ll give ANYONE a Survey Monkey account and I’ve had a miserable cold this week, so I made a new kind of Frosh Quiz, one designed for those of us whose age is creeping on up there. The questions are of a decidedly less youthful cast, the free version of Survey Monkey only lets you have 10 questions and they are all multiple choice. You barely have to write anything!! You know it will absolutely make my week if you participate in this nonesense…