The Sun-Herald

The Tribal Mind: How wide is your cultural literacy?

To vote for the most annoying people and programs on TV, go to The Bogies

by David Dale
Every quarter this column submits the natIonal GST accounts -- where GST stands for the groovy, successful and transient entertainments which have filled the leisure time of Australians in recent months. Lets begin with a quiz to test your cultural literacy. If you get more than five of these right, you can rejoice in being attuned to the latest tastes of your compatriots. If you get less than five right, you can rejoice in being distinct from the common herd.

You'll find clues in the charts below, which list pleasures consumed by more than a million of us between January 1 and March 31. But don't look down there yet. And definitely don't go to the answers yet.

1 Who kept saying "Come back, come back to me"? To whom? In what?
2 Give the last two names in this set: Amazon, Angel, Bionica, Destiny, Nitro ...
3 Who said: "God didn't do this, we did." In what?
4 Fill in the missing words: Novak -- defeated Jo-Wilfried -- in the final of -- -- --.
5. Who shot Alphonse Gangitano? And then who ordered a hit on the person who shot Alphonse Gangitano. In what?
6 "There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes." Who sang this, on what?
7 Give the last two names in this set: Graeme, Demi, Rhys, Rhiannon, Henry, Vanessa ...
8 "I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was written about a sandwich." Who said this, in what?
9 Complete this chorus, and name the source: "I wanna take you away, lets escape into the music. DJ let it play, I just can't refuse it. Like the way you do this ... "
10 Give the last two names in this set: Peter, Chris, Lois, Meg ...

Now here are the clues ...

The movies we're seeing. At the cinema: I Am Legend ($23m worth of tickets sold); Alvin and the Chipmunks ($17.5m); 27 Dresses ($15.5m); The Golden Compass ($15m); Enchanted ($12.5m); American Gangster ($11.5m); Juno ($11.5m); Atonement ($10.5m). Top selling DVDs: Family Guy - Blue Harvest; Ratatouille; The Simpsons Movie; Futurama - Bender's Big Score; Hairspray.

The books we're reading. Underbelly: The Gangland War, John Silvester & Andrew Rule; 4 Ingredients, Kim McCosker and Rachel Bermingham; 7th Heaven, James Patterson; Atonement, Ian McEwan; People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks; Duma Key, Stephen King .

The music we're playing. Top selling albums: Sleep Through The Static, Jack Johnson; Thriller, Michael Jackson; Hook Me Up, The Veronicas; Spirit, Leona Lewis; Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna, from which came the top selling single, Don't Stop The Music.

The TV we're watching. Top rating shows in the mainland capitals: Australian Open Tennis Men's Final (7) 2.3 million; Gladiators (7) 1.8m; Border Security (7) 1.7m; So You Think You Can Dance Australia (10) 1.6m; One Day Cricket Australia v India final (9) 1.6m; RSPCA Animal Rescue (7) 1.6m; CSI (9) 1.5m; Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (9) 1.5m; Underbelly (9) 1.2m (but would be 1.8 million if it had been shown in Melbourne).

Click here to check your answers

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). To discuss Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.