The young contestant from Paris was a chemistry whiz. Hot as a Bunsen burner, Pierre Poitrinal, 17, answered question after question on Radio Luxembourg's Quitte ou Double, the Gallic Double or Nothing that is Europe's most popular French-language radio quiz. When he was through talking of ekasilicon and the halides of uranium a fortnight ago, Pierre had won 2,048,000 francs ($4,876.19) and was still going strong.
Because Pierre is an apprentice welder with little classroom training in chemistry, the French press turned him into a national celebrity. "By what detour," thundered Brussels' Le Peuple, "did Poitrinal, incontestably gifted for the exact sciences,...
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