Answer Me This! Podcast

** Click here for Episode 107 **

It seems George from Redcar‘s ringpull collection has captured your imaginations as well as ours – or at least that of Terry from Shropshire, who emailed us to say:

After George from Redcar’s ringpull collection in episode 106 I thought you may find this article interesting. George has enough for 10 handbags and can raise awareness about sexual health in the third world with his collection – which is rather ironic I feel for someone who collects ringpulls (sorry George).

Careful, Terry – George is just doing this for a hobby; he doesn’t want to be putting homeless Brazilians out of business. OR DOES HE? There must be some reason for the collection, and that seems no less plausible than any other we can think of.

By the way – do any of the rest of you have a similarly barmy-but-impressive collection? If so, please tell us what it is in a comment below; we promise not to mock. (Unless you are a 40-year-old man with a room full of Hello Kitty emery boards, in which case we retract that promise.)

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** Click here for EPISODE 103 **

We’ve got some feedback from you lot about the last couple of episodes. Firstly from Suhail from Pakistan:

In Episode 102, on the topic of the second most funniest podcast in the world, Olly suggested that there could be podcasts in other languages that you don’t know about – for example in Pakistan. Well you should be know that there are absolutely no comedy podcasts in Pakistan, so at least from my side I can say that you guys actually are second funniest podcast in the world.

Wahey! That’s all the proof we need, so thanks Suhail; we’ll press on getting our ‘2nd funniest’ medallions minted.

Next we heard from Robin from Southport, regarding Episode 103:

Listening to this week’s podcast took me back to my youth. ( I am probably your oldest listener, at a youthful 55 and three quarters.) You were discussing whether the cinema still shows the film if they haven’t sold any tickets. Back in the old days, when the cinema was known as the pictures, they used to show two films in a programme, the main feature and the B movie. They would show the films continuously.

We would go into the pictures when we arrived, and usually one of the films would be showing. We would then sit through both films, but when we got to the part of the film that was showing when we arrived, we would leave the cinema (unless it was a particularly good ending, in which case we would stay on and see the ending again). If we wanted we could arrive at the pictures as the shows started in the early afternoon and see the films several times, leaving after the last showing. This seems very strange, but in the 60s it was common practice. No wonder drugs became popular!

Frankly, watching films on a loop sounds far more our thing than the wilder aspects of the 1960s; but perhaps that decade would have been wasted upon us… Anyway, our final Will:

I do not regard myself as someone easily susceptible to advertising, but after hearing your latest podcast I left the house for a light lunchtime stroll and felt compelled to take a detour along the main road (which I never do) to buy some Wine Gums (which I have never done). I’m not even that fond of Wine Gums so the action immediately struck me as out of character. It only occurred to me hearing the podcast again that Wine Gums were a central feature and that – clearly -somehow you had used your clandestine persuasion tactics to compel me into buying them.

Answer me this: are you being paid a massive retainer by Maynards for podcast product placement? And are there any other major brands palming you off with cash? Should I expect to be buying a Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition of 7even even though I don’t have a Blu-ray player (nor know what Blu-ray is)? Or will I be booking last-minute holidays at Center Parcs next week, even though I live alone, have no remaining family and hate cycling?

Golly! As if we’d be veritably capable of such devious trickery. Our feelings are so hurt, Will.

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Last week, ovaries were ruffled and coos were unleashed when Archie piped up on the phoneline to become AMT’s youngest ever questioneer. But not even high-pitched infantile cuteness could disguise the fact that he had failed to adhere to correct question-posing form, so young Archie was summarily bitch-slapped back to the sandpit. What sort of impact might such admonition have on a young psyche? Father-of-Archie Dean from Suffolk has filled us in:

I have listened to podcast 99 with pride and heard my little lad Archie’s question being thrown out by Olly! Just thought you might like to know that he took your words on board and tried to “go back from where he came from”. To give the lad his due he was almost up to his knees before the wife noticed. My wife is obviously a little upset at this turn of events and is talking about divorce; however Archie did find my best watch which I thought was lost forever in her lady parts, so a positive outcome after all!

Which got me thinking…Answer me this: why do people like potholing?

Having never committed myself to anything more adventurous than unclogging the drain, I find myself unable to answer that question; but if any of you readers are keen speologists, please comment below to enlighten us about the pleasures of potholing. Everyone else can vote on the following:

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** Click here for EPISODE 96 **

We have some feedback from Episode 96, firstly courtesy of Meg from Carlisle in response to Laurence from York’s question about external news reports:

When I’m not being an Answer Me This! Listener (and sometimes when I am), I am a hot young journo very much like Lois Lane. While I actually work for a newspaper, I often encounter TV reporters when I’m out on the road. So, to answer the fellow with the sweaty-pitted teacher:

1. TV news is a visual format and as such needs to be interesting, or at least varied, to look at. You’d soon notice if it was just some people in a room.
2. TV news needs to be different from its radio/newspaper/internet-based brethren, otherwise what’s the point?
3. Believe it or not, those guys usually aren’t being told what to say. In my experience, TV journalists just turn up on the scene and do what we all do – ask a few questions and try and work out what’s going on. I’ve seen a News 24 girl report to camera completely off the cuff, without any notes, seconds after admitting she had no idea what she was about to say.

A thrilling insight into the fast-paced world of tv news! And now a thrilling insight into the world of programming languages, thanks to James in Cornwall:

This, #!, is a shebang. It is a bit dull really, but it is used in a few programming languages on Unix.

Yup, I think that’s just the answer James from Glasgow was expecting us to give…

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