Answer Me This! Podcast

Thanks to all of you who’ve been in touch with feedback about the contents of Episode 85. Firstly, regarding the ‘club sandwich of the animal world’ which we spotted in San Francisco, Cuthbert spotted the very same pet-stack in this Youtube video, and Fran from Suffolk in her dad’s holiday photos! So, we’re just going to pretend we took this picture ourselves:

Since we’re still on the subject of our recent jaunt to California, here’s an email from our transatlantic food consultant Jim in New Jersey:

I’m writing to disavow you folks of the notion that all Americans like whipped cream (or even syrup) with bacon for breakfast. That is a West Coast/Middle American aberration. The East coast/Mid-Atlantic/Southern norm is eggs, bacon or sausage, oatmeal or grits, and some kind of toast or “English” muffin. Whipped cream for breakfast is part of a whole fantasy dynamic that America occasionally leans toward, with dubious results. (Disneyland, superhero movies, Sarah Palin, etc.)

Don’t get us started on grits though, Jim! Remember how upset you Americans got last time that thorny subject arose.

Finally, here are some handy hints for candid photography fan Mike from Belfast. Firstly, professional advice from Kelly from Great Dunmow, Essex:

To the guy in episode 85 that wanted to take unposed photos without looking dodgy, he should learn to take photos ‘from the hip’, as my photography teacher told us.

I love taking photos of people without them knowing. I hate posed photos; I used to photograph weddings and every time people saw the camera they would pose, so with loads of practice I learnt to take photos from the camera resting at waist height, or from my hips and even with my arms crossed with the camera tucked under my arm. It also helps if you take the photos in places where there are lots of tourists, with attractions around; that way you can make it look like you’re taking photos of the attractions, not the people.

Jack from Tunbridge Wells runs with a similar theme:

Here’s a clever tip:
Get a friend to come along with you and get him to stand in front of you, between you and the person you want to take a candid picture of.
Using the zoom function on your camera, take a picture over his shoulder of the person, and there you have it!
This technique came in quite handy when taking pics in London for GCSE art.

I hope these suggestions have inspired all you aspiring paparazzi and voyeurs. If stealth is not one of your natural qualities, perhaps you should invest in one of these.

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I know we’re on the eve of a new series, but cast your minds back to the last episode of Answer Me This!, listeners, which was number 84, in which we quizzed special guest Josie Long about these nameless things. Well, Jenn from Santa Cruz has emailed in to tell us what is possibly their actual name:

I can’t speak for all of the United States of course, but where I grew up they were called ‘cootie catchers’. Why? I don’t know.

What an attractive term. It sounds like it should denote something they use to mop up at the STD clinic, not an innocent origami toy popular with 8-year-old girls. Anyway, on the same subject, Amy writes:

After listening to your most recent podcast with the question about the little paper origami devices used to precariously predict one’s destiny, I found them for sale (!) in the shop Paperchase. They called them Fortune Pickers. They were part of a Valentine’s gift range. What a perfect way of telling someone that not only are you a cheapskate, but you are a lazy, uncreative cheapskate.

Thoroughly lame indeed. If you’re too lazy even to make something that a tiny child could make with just one sheet of A4, then you ought not have someone to whom to give such a pisspoor Valentine’s present. If you desperately want one of these paper prognosticators but you’re genuinely too busy and important to fold it yourself, send this link to your secretary and instruct him/her to manufacture one on your behalf out of a discarded fax or £50 note.

UPDATE: Clarrie from London adds:

My french family all call it a “cocotte” – which incidentally also means a prostitute or promiscuous woman. NOT SO INNOCENT NOW THEN!!!

Lawks!

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** Click here for EPISODE 83 **

Reluctant as we are to reignite the Great Lightbulb Row of Episode 82, some of you have been in touch with less ranty contributions than Martin the Sound Man’s in response to Gareth from Glasgow‘s question about an everlasting lightbulb. Firstly: they’re real, says Kathryn from Denver!

Here’s an article about a lightbulb in San Francisco that has burned since 1901 – forever for a bunch of dead people!

If you don’t believe it, there’s a webcam of the damn thing. It’s a fascinating 24/7 glimpse into the everyday comings-and-goings of a lightbulb.

Meanwhile, Neil from Essex written in to suggest how you could manufacture your very own everlasting lightbulb:

The reason light bulbs do “burn out” is because of the filament oxidising. Theoretically if you can make a bulb in an oxygen-free environment it will last forever! Unless you have a power surge or… other things… like nuclear war or an angry child with a fully automatic machine gun.

I’m sure that in the event of a nuclear war or armed-and-dangerous child, it would be a great comfort if your immediate concern was potential disruption to your lightbulb experiment.

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** Click here for the Best of Answer Me This! 2008 – Part II **

You may remember that in Episode 77 I gave juggling a thorough dressing-down for being not only a tiresome entertainment (unless fire or chainsaws are involved) but also a wholly impractical method of transporting multiple balls.

Now, although I would strongly advise all of you against taking anything I ever say literally, in this case it amused me greatly that Stu and Maddy in Cambridge did. Says Stu:

After your comments on juggling, one of Maddy’s Christmas presents to me was a set of juggling balls – plus a plastic basket to carry them around in, thus rendering them inert in the attached picture.

Listeners, you make me so proud.

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** Click here for the Best of Answer Me This! 2008 – Part I **

Jack from Leeds is even more useful at answering questions than we are. A few weeks ago he dealt with correct pizza-ordering etiquette; today, he tackles the shitting-off-the-Eiffel-Tower issue from Episode 79:

Helen said that the falling turd would quite seriously injure someone below.

Falling crap ≠ Pain on head.

It’s wonderfully reassuring to know that one can walk around the bottom of the Eiffel Tower without fearing death from turd-inflicted head injury. However, Dame Caution would still advise taking an umbrella.

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