ZURICH, SWITZERLAND. The local broadcasting cooperative recently devoted a segment of its quiz program "3 vor 5," a fixture the species itself classifies as possessing cult status, to November: the month, the concept, the archive of it. Listeners competed to prove their command of pivotal Novembers now safely concluded. Our observation lasted forty-seven minutes. The November currently underway was never mentioned, presumably because it had not yet earned the right to be remembered.
The signature tally, kept as always: at minute nine, the studio panel produced its second collective sigh of nostalgia. By minute thirty-one we had logged eleven historical Novembers invoked, zero references to the one in progress, four apologies for imperfect recall of events predating the speakers' grandparents, and one round of applause for a caller who located the year 1918 unassisted. Demand to publicly remember exceeded airtime. Latecomers were placed on an official waiting list, Formular N-11, "Anmeldung für Erinnerung," which is to say the queue of the queue.
The scoring system rewards correct recollection with points and punishes incorrect recollection with nothing, dignity being a currency locals store separately from judgment and spend freely. One contestant answered a question about the 1918 general strike with details of the 1919 general strike, was corrected, apologized twice, and received warmer applause than the winner. A wrong memory, performed sincerely, outperforms a correct one delivered plainly. This is not a flaw in the format. This is the format.
"A turning point is only examinable once it has stopped turning," explained Beat Gerber, the program's supervising producer, with the calm of a man describing weather. "The current month could still go either way. We do not quiz on unfinished material." A retired schoolteacher calling herself Martha was awarded full points for her grasp of a November seventy years before her birth. "I know exactly what that month meant to my grandmother," she said. "My own November consists mainly of dental appointments. I look forward to its centenary."
By minute forty-seven the count stood final: nineteen completed Novembers maintained in flawless working order, one unfinished November blinking overhead, ungraded and therefore invisible to the examiners. The cooperative has already scheduled next year's quiz, and next year's quiz will cover this November, which will by then have stopped moving and become safe to love. The locals revere the pivot precisely one revolution behind the present. It is the only position from which the view does not change.
