The myth of European educational superiority was brought to a crashing halt this weekend, part of which I wiled away by watching a German game show. I was on the verge of some kind of seizure after staring, dumbfounded, while a contestant hemmed and hawed for two minutes and 17 seconds (yes, I timed him) over where the Rennissance started.

And then he got the answer wrong.

Now, c’mon, I’m not expecting much — but when you have a three-question multiple-choice quiz and you end up saying Spain, for goodness sake, that’s when you head off back behind the TV studio and shoot yourself. I turned the show off after the next contestant successfully guessed how many grams are in a pound of butter, but couldn’t figure out who Shuster and Siegel created. Sigh.

Ah, well. In other television news, I discovered that my set can receive multiple languages, enabling me to watch shows not only in German, but also in French and Spanish. Not English. Noooo — though I do get all the dubbed U.S. movie my heart could desire (not, upon reflection, a very large amount.). I do have to admit, though, that, contrary to all expectations, Will Smith can actually be funny. All it takes is to give him the voice of a hyperactive chipmunk on helium. I’m telling you, it made Men in Black a much more entertaining move.