"Hittites: I don't know that word"

Sorry, photos later, history first. There was an article in the 'paper the other day about how pupils taking History at GCSE had gone down drastically under the last government. It's hard, apparently, and schools try to discourage people from taking it because it drags down their other exam results. Funnily enough, History was my worst GCSE, too. I won't say what I got, because you'll reach through the net and punch me. The problem I had was with the nature of the course, needless to say, not history itself. Heck, the prime part of my History GCSE was WWI, which GCSE History rendered as tedious an experience as it depicted trench warfare to be. Less bloody, though. But back in the '90s we didn't get a run-through of historical events, just snap-shots. The Franco-Prussian War got mentioned as it led to WWI, but I was the only one not to be called an idiot by one of our blood-crazy Art teachers, as I read wargaming magazines, and had thus heard of the Crimean War, even though my knowledge amounted to: insufficient protection against the cold, French with us, Florence Nightingale, some dates, Charge of the Light Brigade (Errol Flynn ;-) ), Balaclava, and Inkerman. General Studies Art also taught me that it was the first war to feature war photographers. Vital subject, General Studies Art. Vital.

"Pete, get back on track!" Er, yeah, so schooling. I was just watching a show called Eggheads with my parents. It contains two teams: quiz-winning champions on one, the titular eggheads, and on the other are the challengers. Today's instalment had a team of young fellas (about eighteen) from King David's School in Manchester. If you have a think, you'll not be surprised if I tell you that it's a school with strong Jewish connections. Whether you're religious or not, you've probably heard something about King David. Anyway, one of the questions on History went to one of their players.

Questioner: Aurelian and Quintillus were rulers of which empire? Hittite, Roman or Babylonian?
Contestant: Well, it doesn't sound Roman. I don't get a Babylonian vibe from it. I don't know the word Hittite. I don't think I've seen it before. I'm going to say Hittite.

Whoops-a-daisy! :-D