Answer Me This! Podcast

** Click here for Episode 190 **

Ben from Southampton has done the research that we couldn’t do in the fields of Wales the other week:

I just listened to episode 189 where the provenance of Ferris wheels came up. You’re right that they were named after a Mr Ferris but here are some further details, as learned from the brilliant book The Devil In The White City (movie rights owned by Leonardo DiCaprio).

I highly recommend the book if you are into either the macabre or architecture.

It sounds like a treat! I’m looking for books to read during our month off; readers, please make your recommendations in the comments. They don’t need to be about the macabre or architecture, although I do imagine these to be common enthusiasms amongst you.

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** Click here for Episode 188 **

I’m not the only person to ‘win’ a piece of crap from a local radio station! James from Salisbury is similarly garlanded:

I entered a competition on North Devons local radio station when I was 9, and won a Gabrielle CD! It was shit, and I used it as a coaster.

I also won a set of erasers (because saying I won a set of rubbers sounds perverse) in a Radio 7 competition about 4 years ago. They are still in the packaging.

What are you complaining about, James? Both of these could make perfectly adequate Christmas presents for relatives you don’t particularly care about. As for other business raised by last week’s episode, Dom says:

Both MI5 and MI6 actually advertise jobs on their websites. If your listener still fancies becoming a spy then that’s not a bad place to start. Not quite as exciting really, is it?

It’s unlikely to end up in a John le Carré novel, true. Likewise those other famous users of covert communications, The Wanted; Joel from Hamburg notes:

Look up the sign language for ‘lesbian’. The guy from The Wanted in that mall may have just been communicating with deaf fans…

[Insert requisite joke here about how you’d have to be deaf to be a fan of The Wanted etc etc.]

Like us, Sarah in Liverpool has been overthinking the disparate boyband (and also spending her days the same way as I do, even though I’m not a student. Ready for your morning dose of Gilmore Girls, Sarah?):

While attempting to doze off listening to your podcast, you managed to inadvertently wake me up by mentioning my favourite current boyband, The Wanted. And when I say favourite, I rather mean my favourite boyband to make fun of.

As a university student I have spent many hours staring at a television flicking between Neighbours and music channels and The Wanted have struck a chord with me, particularly due to how ramshackle the band looks. So I was incredibly happy to hear you’ve also analysed and been frustrated by this band, and like me you’ve seemed to scrutinize them enough to give them nicknames. These names are:
Sexy Thug
(The unfortunately named) Little fish eyes
Paul from A1
Hot Cow (Specifically the Lactofree cow)
The boy who turned up at the wrong band auditions.

It’s a game you can all play! Everybody, consider yourself continuing the grand tradition begun by Smash Hits when they dubbed Melanie Chisholm ‘Sporty Spice’, and think up nicknames for the five members of The Wanted. Here are your prey:

The Wanted: pop pick'n'mix

For bonus boyband points, guess the member who a) is secretly gay; b) will be the first to leave for a solo career; c) is planning a career in acting; d) has knocked 5 years off his age; e) is pretending that he doesn’t have a degree from a top-tier university.

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** Click here for Episode 186 **

Oh, last week’s episode, dispatch from a more innocent time, a time when our greatest problem was what to do with the space under a cabin bed… Let’s return to that carefree world for just a moment, with this response from Hannah:

I had a Cabin bed for a while from IKEA. It barely fit in the room.

I also had some shelves under this bed which were laden with videos. I had also just discovered the joy of spreadsheets and Excel (yes, I know I’m strange) so I spent an afternoon labelling all the videos with special codes and then running a video rental store for my family and friends. I would use a spreadsheet to document when videos were out and in. I still have some little special membership cards and seem to remember that I made quite a few quid from running this little bedroom store.

Awww, young Hannah was almost as nerdy as this kid! Readers, were any of the rest of you running small businesses out of your childhood bedrooms? I’m prepared to bet that some of you could even have given Olly ‘Dragon’s Den Junior’ Mann a run for his money.

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** Click here for Episode 183 **

I am most impressed by the solution James in Nottingham came up with to his own problem:

This is in response to my question last week about what I should do about this online paramour coming to visit me. Well I actually like this guy and he is a bit fragile so I didn’t want to disown him, so I resigned myself to give man up and give him a blow job as Olly suggested (actually I think Olly suggested a handjob – but does anyone who has actually had sex like a handjob? why not just wank yourself?).

Now I was quite please at how things had turned out: I managed to not sleep with someone I don’t fancy and he left with his ego increased and not hurt. But some of my friends think I should be ashamed of myself for my Machiavellian manipulations. Have I broken some moral code or should I congratulate myself for a job well done?

It looks like you manufactured a win for you AND a win for your visiting friend, so that’s certainly a job well done. You did, however, force your attractive friend to prostitute himself, which does present a moral conundrum for you and him. Readers, let us know what you think – and also if you’ve ever come up with as cunning a method as this to let someone down gently.

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