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And we're live on match day as Doug reaches for a buffalo wing He's got it. Oh, and he's gone for a can of Beepsy too. What a finish There's no doubt about it. It just tastes better. Match days deserve Pepsi. Mornings have a rhythm You can hear it Feel it? And it quuaker, we fuel it with one hundred percent whole graines and a good source of fiber in every bowl, helping you turn that rhythm into your soundtrack for a great day Fuel to start whatever's next Quaker, official sponsor of VVA World Cup twenty six Who makes a good toasty makeake aside from prayer? Why am I dischhervaled, but never shheraled? You know, we try and keep this show as a refuge from the travails of the world So I just feel I should say right up top, content warning, clowns.. I know. They're not for everybody. Matt has been in touch to say Helen. You can't casually drop the sentence, like that library of clown makeup where it's all on an egg, into a podcast, and not elaborate further So please elaborate further Have you not heard of the Cown Egg registry, which started in nineteen forty six It's a library of clown makeup where a clown's unique face is painted onto originally an egg shell and now they use ceramic eggs because they're a bit more stable I was going to say famously prone to breakage, eggs. Yeah, but quite useful for recording the contours of a face because it is three dimensional. And it's sort of like a copyright library almost because it was considered bad form to use another clown's look. Obviously Duplication can happen by accident And you can still do it. You can go to clownsinternational. com slash egg hyphen registry And for a year membership And two eggs, one for the library and one for you. It's sixty pounds plus shipping Clowns International There's something inherently funny about the idea of any kind of authority for clowns. like they's such They're such sort of instinctive disruptterors. It seems odd they'd have a union. I don't know, mayaybe that's what they need to keep things An archic in the right context. When it's business, it's all business And there's one person at a time who does all of the clowns. I think the current artist has been doing it for about ten years. Is it like voodoo dolls if you smash one on the floor, does the real clown die? Oh god, I haven't tested. That's what happened to Rrimaldi. Someone made omelet Oh. Actually how did Grimaldi die might be something? I mean, he'd be dead by now anyway Oh yeah, I've done a podcast about him before. It was something Victorian and morbid, but you know, it was the era He had a horrible life actually. Yeah. Like the cliche like tears of a clown Basically comes from him, terrible life. Child star, alcoholic. But I bet he had his great egg. Grimaldi and his wife had a suicide packed, but when they poisoned themselves, they just got stomach cramps and didn't die You are donon't trust a clown to get it done. That's what I'm saying. That's exactly it 's why they in the union O prop of other Deathly entertainment that we've been talking about recently, Jordan from South Wales writes I think the Butler did it thing. is from the game Kudo, is it not No, because the butler isn't a potential suspect, Jordan. The original character is a scarlet mustard, white green peacock plum A butler has been added in certain spin offffs of Kludo. Yeah, like the film and the video game But he's not really Con So no, it doesn't come from that I think also the phrase predates the game, right? It is a really fun story, the origin of Kluto. Yeah Tell me more, tell me more. The inventor was a piano player. Tell me more, tell me more He used to like murder Mystery evenings. A U. thenen he had a good idea,u And his wife was a visual artist. Oh, handy. And then what happened is after he'd had the idea of being like a piano player in a hotel bar seeing murder Mysty Eings and thinking ah, game. World War two happened And he was too old to fight. He was at home with his wife a lot He created the gaming concept, she created the visual concept, basically spent their evenings during World W like during the Bitz where they couldn't leave the house Brainstorming Kudo, which is wow. Why it's such a carefully finesed because they had loads of time every evening to do The choices were, you know, sit and listen to the wireless or design a board game and they did that for ages. and weirdly their neighbourors wereere Jeffrey Ball and his wife, Jeffrey Ball, the guy who invented Bcuccaneer. What So he had the professional game tester on hand to come and like iron out the creases. and then Bull said to Pratt Amazing noun bas names aren't they? Bull said to Prat, comeome and meet Watdingtonons. I've got a contact. I reckon they're going green light it and they did. Gosh. That's how clead that happened No Well that's a very productive use of the Bit. Welluspectakes it worth it, doesn't it? I don't know. One of the weapons that you could play with in the original, which was called murder, exxclamation Mark. It was Waddington's that came with the name Klludido was a bomb The weapons included a poison syringe and bomb It'd be pretty fucking obvious if it was a bomb that killed them. Yes, yeah. The suspect has half a torso. I wonder what weapon was there. Yeah They're just trying to take out every character in one go. Yeah, I think choosing the room would be fairly straightforward as, wouldn't it? Was it the library that's been completely devastated? Yes, it was the library Ben from Genevever has been in touch as well. He says I live in Genvevver and went to the Winter Olympics in Milan about two hours away on the train.. I was going with a Canadian friend, so we chose ice hockey. Yes, obligatory. I guess you can relate to this now. Have you become hockey fans No, I'm fine. Do you have to have like a limited amount of hockey chat just to get through conversation like you do football here though? Is that like the status Actually I'd say that people are a lot less inclined to force their favorite sport on you than Brits who like football are. I haven't had to have hockey chat that I didn't want to have And also we have been watching curling, which is a big Canadian sport Well, o, so park that thought because it's relevant. Ben from Jediver went to see the ice hockey with his Canadian friend and says, and we watched a wildly entertaining match in the almost finished new arena. I'm glad you said that because I remember the love of twenty twelve park was never finished clearly. J like just it didn't look tested. Do you know what I mean? It looked like they just kind of hand painted the last bit, but you're like, this shouldn't end here. Where's the bin? stuff like that Anyway, Ben continues. in between the periods perod of the hockey play Right. Instead of any sort of show We watched on as large stout trucks Zambonies That's right madeade the ice look lovely and fresh I just said stout trucks in a weird way like they distribute stout the beer, but he just means large trucks. That's what the ice is made out of. Yeah yeah. it's just a slush of Guinness heads. So Helen answers me this, what does the Zamboni actually do People also came on to shovel the ice is the Zambonei doing something different and also why rear axle steering Well, the rear axle steering, as far as I can glean and bear in mind that about thirty seconds of reading how vehicles actually work makes my brain go No, no, no, is because ice is slippery, as you may know, Ben And that means the vehicles sort of slide around on it less and also like tires at the back don't lift off. Yeah you don' get drift behind you so you can kind of see what's happening in front of you, that kind ofance. carap no, no But the visibility is appalling, like regardless of drifting, if you're sitting at the back and you've got a big enormous hood in front of you You can't see what's going on under the it must be difficult to drive. Yeah, well the driver is driving behind a big tank. That's why the front of his Zambonei is so big What DZumbo needs are doing? is shaving the top layer of ice off the rink. Then they suck it into that tank. And then they squirt a layer of water onto the ice to clean it. They suck that back up. and then they squirt another layer of water, a clean layer of water to make a new top layer. It usually melts the ice that is still there And then it refreezes smooth And the breaks in ice hockey games are usually just long enough for that whole process to happen, but they currently have a show because the Zamboni needs to go over the ring. And the reason why it's doing this is because the ring gets all rutted from the skate blades and the shovelers go out ahead of the Zamboni to pick up the ice scrapings that have occurred during the game. It's basically like a snow that is generated by the blades. and that can disrupt where the puck is going, it can get flicked into the players's faces and it can gather quite significantly at the edges. So the shovelers have like ninety seconds to get all of that out of the way and then the Zomboni can do its job And I never thought about this before, but it makes sense now that I've read it. The whiteness of the rink isn't just the color of ice, it's a layer of white paint that is somewhere between Bottom layers and the top layers of the ice Oh right yeah. so like a sellotape roll. It looks like the color of the cardboard at the bottom You mentioned curling. Yes. I parked it. let's return it. Yes. I was watching the curling. differentiffnt kind of ice hlly. right. Curling's got a bobb ice So they have to wear special shoes that look almost like orthopedic shoes.. Do the ones I mean they look like they' made like clers. It looks a bit like the Book of womoman on Iice, doesn't it? That's the vib. Exactly. Exactly. They really do look kind of like they've done something deliberately sort of spare. You know, you compare it to premiership footballers whose shoes now are like fluorescent orange, and pink green laces and stuff. I was kind of looking at thinking, Why is no one and the answer is, I suppose because it's not worth Aidas developing a curling shoe is it because not enough people do curling. That's the reason. They don't have to be orthopedic looking. They just do tend to be, but they have like different soles. You can adapt just your own shoes with some gaffer tape to make it smooth to glide. but I was really disappointed in the British curling teams outfits. They were the most boring corporate looking t shirts. They They were corporate away day. they were yeah, yeah, yeah. comeome on, these people are in the Olympics. giveive them something better to wear. they deserve it. You're right. It was Rich you seen that at playing tennis the weekend was the look wasn't Molly, age fourteen weeks and six days. Gosh has allegedly written in. Fact checker on aisle three She says I've been listening to lots of nursery rhymes recently, particularly when my mum is trying to get me to nap So Helen answers me this Who is We Willy Winky Is he based on a real person and why does he tell the children to go to bed Well why does he tell the children to go to bed is becausecause kids poetry is usually about getting children to do things like not be naughty or shut up or go to bed. We willy winky is not only a child running through the town supposedly exorting children to go to bed. He is the sleepless child who refuses to go to bed Okay, just as a reminder for people, I just I have here a copy of Nursery rhymes. Lovely. A collection of over a hundred favourites And I read this with my kids tonight in preparation Did they like it? They were a bit foxed by any of the historical ones. They're a bit like what? But I'll just read it for people who don't remember it.. We Willy Winky runs through the town, upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown. raapping at the window, crying through the lock Are the children all in bed? it's past eight o'clock. Eight o'clock It used to be ten o'clock. Oh really? That's shrinkflation. I read it and like a lot of these, I'm like Iort get the gist. I get it Scotish I get that it's a kid in the street I get that he's doing some sort of come and play with me kids thing But what's not clear actually, from the words, I didn't think is You know, are the children all in bed it's past eight o'clock? eight o'clock in the morning or the evening? Like you just say it was ten so that would make it clearer, but like he could be waking them up in the morning, couldn't he He's out for a play. Where's everyone? Come and play with me. So I didn't get what was going on Well, he's in his nightgown, Ollie So that's a hint that it's the night. I bet yeah he could have wandered out in his night gown early the morning no? The cats asleep, the henss asleep, the dogs are asleep It's just we Willy Winky, who's not asleep Well, you see you've added a second verse there. My book and It's a five verse thing. Fine. Okay I'm not. I don't mean you invented the verse. I'm saying I don't have the second verse I didn't know about the cat and the dog Yeah, well, there's plenty more evidence. Fine, tellell me, tellell me about it. You're getting a non canonical version of. Fine fine. Youually it's ten. Okay. I mean, I don't know if you want me to read all five verses of it Patreon. com slash on to me this. You know I would. But hes yeah, he's running around, he's making noise, he's wriggling. and then at the end, the last verse is about a weary mother dealing with her child battling with sleep Is there a thing where maybe We Willy Winky was a naughty child that didn't sleep and there he's cursed around the earth roow telling other children to sleep That would be the like tenth century version. there were a lot of people cursed to roam the earth. But in answer to this baby's questions, the character was not based on a real person Wey Winky the poem was written by a cabinet maker named William Miller. first appeared in print in Scott language in a book called Whistle Binky Stories for the Fireside in eighteen forty one, and then an English version was published three years later. The first verse, the bit you read, I believe, appeared in an English poetry compilation in eighteen twenty and William Miller can't have written that or is very unlikely to because he was only ten at the time So I wonder if he encountered that and then expanded it into the full Scots poem later The term Willy Winkie was kind of in the public imagination already, particularly in Scotland because it was a nickname for King William IId of England, second of Scotland, and it was this like sardonic nickname for him in the late seventeen hundreds because the Scots really didn't like him He had ordered the massacre of Glencoo to punish people who refused to make an oath of allegiance to him and his wife Mary as monarchs. He was also Protestant and the Jacobites wanted him out. He never went to Scotland, but he wasn't an insomniac, crucially. Did he do a lot winking Maybe I think they're just like taking the piss out of him by calling him Willy Winky. But I don't think this poem was about him dressing up in a nightgown running around town. I think it's just like, oh yeah, this term that people know already. And then of course, there's a direct line to Wicked Willie, the book nineteen eighties. God. Rember those Yeah, Well, I'd blissfully forgotten until just now, so thanks. I Googled it because I'd remembered it wrong. Okay, so how had you remembered it? So how I'd remembered it is from the merch. So in the eighties and I remembered it because it was inappropriate. I mean, I remember being like on holiday in tourist shops in places like Spain and Cyprus And they'd be selling like cock and balls with smiley faces on it stuff. next to the toys for me when I was eight. Right. And I thought it was funny becausecause it's aillie but now I think about it. it's a bit weird because the whole thing was kind of like Wickedillie he's got a mind of his own He'll stiffen of his own accord. That's what Wicked really is. Right. And he's never far from a pair of funny boobs bit weird for kids to have that, you know around Well it wasn't aimed at then, was it? Well, it was on the same shelf though, in that Spanish way. Okay. When' on the continent And I'd remembered it, as I said, as penis and balls, but I don't know if that wasn if that was rip off merch because I looked at Wicked Willie and actually interestingly, Wicked Willie is just a shaft. Really no balls. There's no testicles at took no balls at all. You know, he's to no good all the time U let me out. And it's actually quite an aggressive, kind of like u like an angry. Well, he is wicked, remember? Yeah A thing I didn't know either is have you heard of a year in Provence? Yeah. Yeah, the Peter Mayle book. That was a very big hit In the nineties. Correct. I may even have read it and can't remember anything about it R. Don't drink your tea whst I'm saying this ' because you might spit it out. I'll put it down. Okay. Thank you for the warning. Peter Mayle went to Provence with his Wicked Willie royalty money. He wrote Wicked Willie. What? Yeah What? Yeah He's wicked Willie. He's the wicked Willie guy. He didn't illustrate it. so often, you know, when you say who wrote Wicked Willie, you get the name of the illustator, but it was Peter Mayle's story I didn't realise there was much writing involved, but I suppose it is a literary adaptation.. Exactly So anyway, that's what I learnt today. Peter Mll wrote, Wicked Willie. Yeah And that's how he was able to buy a house in Provence and then make even more money. Wow, some people just have a knack. Exactly, yeah yeah, yeah. Out of such little, such thin groll. I've got a penis. I'm going to write a story about having a penis. Then I'm going to write a story about what it's like to have a house and people are going to like that Yeah, you know, just look around and find inspiration in the cuidans. Anywhere, anyywhere. Wow He didn't even get round to writeing one about his balls. I mean, that's what I mean. It's amazing. That was going be a separate spin off. It was gonna be the better call Saul of Wicked Willie That's a cool book. That's a cool book, than you M. Ch J. thenen email your questions To anser me this fodcast at googlemail. com answer me this podcast at googlemailot com anser me this podcast at googlemail dot com answer me this fodcast at googlemail dot com So retrospectors, what historical events are we ticking off on this week's run of Today in history? On Monday why Waltzing Matilda isn't the Australian National Anthem. On Tuesday, the true story behind the Magna Carta. On Wednesday, the only James Bond song to ever get to number one and you'll never guess which one it is O Thursday, the comic ineptitude of the Thieves who tried to steal Edvard Monks's the Scream And on Friday, we remember the days when Coca Cola had cocaine in it. That's today in History with the Rrospectors. ten minutes each weekday, wherever you get your podcasts. Here's a question from Amy Amy says, Ollie answ me this, What was the point of the winging font? I saw there was a controversy about it, but dared not Google it further Everyone just wants us to have the awful search history that they don't want. Yeah. I thinkre cowards we' too late to turn back on that road.. Just using cognitive brrazing, you don't have to. Let's put to one side the controversy, I'll get there Wingings the font available with Microsoft productucts from nineteen ninety two onwards, designed in nineteen ninety I think the era kind of tells you what wingings is It's early emoji, basically. I mean, it's a series of symbols that you can produce with your keyboards knowing that throughout human history since hieroglyphics, People have liked the idea of communicating in images rather than Codex lettering. knowning it would be cool to get that onto a computer. But in an era, the early nineties when The kind of thing we take for granted now was completely impossible to imagine. somethingomet like copying and pasting from the internet like you do now when you see a symbol you like, even having the internet. Even having the internet knowing what the internet was having the download speeds to see the picture on the internet All of that was years away. even A simple icon of like an envelope, if you wanted to put an email address on some headed note paper to get that onto a floppy disk. so that you could put it on your friend's computer would have been a trip, you know, You'd physically have to save it and move it around. It would have been a three film journey like Lord of the Rings to get on a floppy disk So this was a way of getting high quality scalable images that didn't clog up your hard drive onto everyone's computer. Your two hundred fifty six megabyte hard drive. Yeah, yeah You put this language, bundle it in with the floppy discks that people are loading into their computer to put word onto it anyway. And then one of the fonts is the vehicle for this new I was going to say language, but it wasn't intended to be a language and that's where the controversy is misplaced. Oh language controversy. I'm so tired.uch a foreign subject to you. ye. The whole controversy came from people treating it as if it were a language. I say what happens if I type out these words It wasn't they had never occurred to the people who made wingings that that's what you do What they thought you'd do is open your manual to Windows ninety five I think, hm I've got a restaurant, How do I get a picture of a sausage? And itt even say page ninety six images. Th then you'd scroll down and youd say, Ah, press Ctrol X and I'll get a sausage if I choose wingings. They're not thinking you're going to spell out words. It wasn't semaph It was just a way of getting the images on there But you can't determine how people use yourour novelty typeface Once it's out. So You know, before I get to the controversy, let's just do some etymology because you're like teas this so much, Yes. So any idea where winging may have came from as a root? I'm assuming the rhyme was attractive. The wing, I'll tell you, comes from windows. So the wing is Microsoft. and is the dings just so that it rhymes No, it has its origins in the phrase dingbat font, which was a thing before wingings. So a type of font that uses alphabetical or numerical characters and ornamental and typographical glyphs Okay is called a dingbat font And that comes from the printing press, like it's been there for hundreds of years. And it's for things like ornamental pieces to do title pages and contents and stuff like that So it's not a letter. It's like, I want a frilly bit around the edge That's a ding bat. P a ding bat? Yeah.ool. That may have just been on a masopic. It might have been like some gazer who was like, Ohh yeah, pass a ding bat because it sounds funny and it sounds a bit like the sound it might make when it hits the floor or something It could come from Dingus, the Dutch word for things H Byway, ding bat is a thing with precedent. Wing dings is the windows ding bat. There you go. let's get ont to the controversy. Yeah, controversy time. I'll are you do. This's where things take can turn for the less fun So like I say, But Weirdos used to spell things out with wingdings to see what it looked like and whether it had a secret message in it. because long before COVID, people were certain that Bill Gates was trying to communicate some terrible message through his products Conspiracy theory number one emerged aroundan about nineteen ninety two shortly after the release of Windows three point one, when people noticed that when you spell out NYC as in New York City. You get what the New York Post described salaciously as quote A secret anti Semitic message apparently urging death to Jews in New York City. What That would be A skull and crossbones is the n A star of David is the capital Y And a thumbs up is the C. I mean, that's weak, isn't it That's unfortunate. I mean, it could have just been a bagel with a thumbs down and it have the similar ur I think if you were typing Jew and it was like bomb, bomb, skull and crossbones, that's more to that. You know, NYC It's like when I typed into Google Maps once and it just went to China. I mean, I typed in Oi, you know, by comparison, OW LY, obviously some of the same letters there So that in Wingding's Capital letters is a flag, two sad face emoji and a star of David. Yikes. Exactly. ye. My surname is a bomb, Peacefingers, skull and crossbones, skull and crossbones. That's a very mixed message. Yeah So it seems fairly obvious that this was nonsense, but In this sort of early day of internet conspiracy theory, these things would travel for years because no one could instantly disprove them. P would put them in these massive groups emails. you remember those that like your weird uncle would send you That went on for years and then of course, second controversy number two, two thousand one shortly after the terror attacks on september eleventh You were at peak mad uncle email time then 've got this conspiracy already, NYC Death to Jews And so people like, lookook This is what it is. And also look at this, how many random words were they typing into wingings to see what they are? Apparently, if you typed Q three, three, and Y in doing things. So Queenie. Yeah. So the spam weird Uncle Email said that Q threety three was the flight number of the plane that crashed into the Twin Towers first Was it No If you typed Q three, three, N Y iningings, you got an aeroplane Two symbols that looked a bit like two towers And then NY, which as we've said before, is the Skull of Crossbones and the Sar of David So people like, Aha. I mean E if that was even if Bill Gates had planned nine and eleven. What ge tr It's a sophisticated plan. I mean, you can't summarize it as that, can you? Anyway, Q thirty three wasn't the flight number, that was myth. and the graphics that supposedly with the North and South Twer of the Twin Towers were documents. There's a thing isn't there? when people who are having mental health breaks start to see patterns and that's quite common with kind of paranoid psychosis and stuff like, you know, we can start to say, oh, letter box I walked past had, you know, ZX F seven one that's You know, the name of my first computer and then know and you can look for patterns. People are very good at spaying patterns And code is something you know, it is true, isn't it? that people that have secret agendas communicate in code. So I suppose wingings appearing to be a bit like a code you could crack And computers being something that people kind of generally skeptical about, you know, this thing that's arrived in every office in every house I think all of that combined to create this kind of paranoid atmosphere, but it gets so ridiculous. like after it's then disproven that Q thirty three was the bl of it. You then get like, no, but the The age of the first al Qaeda terrorist, he was thirty three. So it's about him and Kef Kada. Well, this is some Swifties's level of easaster egging, isn't it? Yeah. And then someone said, No, it's the age Jesus was when he died. Again Osama bin Laden's too busy to do a cryptic crossword about this. Are there no more recent Wingings conspiracies or did the fact that Wingings isn't such a feature anymore really ruin that whole trope It's gone. Probably for the best. But the font hasn't pleasingly There's now one called Webdings. Actually, when they released Webdings, Microsoft insured then to try and nip this in the bud, but of course you can't If you were to type NYC into webdings, you wouldn't get anything that could be interpreted as after the jese. So you now and I A heart and a city skyline. You know, like I heart and why? Wow, they've erased the Jews from New York. Yeah. my God that's worse antisimetis. I mean, you't win, can you? But it's like at the same time it's like acknowledging that you can reverse engineer it that way isn't going to quiet in the people that thought you'd engineered it that way in the first place. That's the problem. Yeah you've got to pick lane haven't you?ike either the symbols are not interpreted to be written as words or oh yes, this is a terrible mistake. we should correct it. But like knowing that people are going to type in NYC to see what they get, that's kind of that is problematic about what your intentions were before And as per our millennium bug conversation last episode, there was a bit of paranoia about the word millennium as well as we went into this century becausecause it had a skull and crossbones and a bomb in it Maybe they should have put their skull and crossbones and bomb symbols on letters that were less frequently used. Yes, I think that's probably right. Yeah, like a dash or something. Yeah plus. Yeah, the little like squiggly thing You think of matilda. COVD nineteen. Oh sit Okay, it's a thumbs up. Yeah, pandemic. am I right. A square The Windows logo, some ancient Egyptian symbols that I vaguely recognise but aren't sure about a folder and a tape measure It is all there. It's as clear as day. CoVID came out of a Paraohs tomb that's the curse of T Coming coming back And they tried to tell us Wake up, she. I Trying to build a website to bring tourist to radleit, but when I open it up on my smartphone or tablet, something goes wrong and it just looks a bit sh unlike Hartfordshire itself. Well try building that website using squarespace on desktop and devices, it will look simplyce as well designed as Hertfordshire with all that lovely green space County of opportunity and Stevenidge Thank you very much to Squarespace for sponsoring Answer me this. And thanks to you if you've ever used the code Answer when you've been signing up to Squarespace. As indeed, a questionnaire who wants to remain anonymous in case his boss listens, says I've been listening to your podcast for as long as I remember, in school on my iPod Nano when people genuinely didn't have a clue what a podcast was, and now every Bllen seems to have one. Yeah, tell me about it, Eam. I am now a website designer by profession. Anyt timee I get a client that just needs something quick and easy rather than bespoke, I whip up a Squarespace website for them and throw them your podcast discount code answer A thanks. Yeah I will to give you around fifty referrals by now. Shit. But does it actually help you? Yes, because it tells Squarespace to carry on sponsoring the podcast, so it helps us a lot They've got a lot of options. To talk a little inside ice hockey here, We're not on a pay per click deal. Each additional time you type it, we don't get money per se But that is because Squarespace give us a generous sponsorship based on whether enough of you click in the first place. So yes, it helps support not only this show, but other independent podcasts as well to show that there is an audience out there that will listen and follow through Thank you very much. Well, if you want some of this swek'sek Squarespace for yourself, you can use the two week free trial if you go to squarespace. com slash answer. And when you're ready to launch, get ten percent off your first purchase of a website or domain using our code Answer. Time for a question of birds now from Rachel who says My question is about the green parakeets that seem to inhabit every London park I like them, but my father in law hates them because they apparently murder native birds Have you heard this?' apparently men of the squirrels of the sky? Yes, I have heard this. I think that's always the case about invasive species as people are like, oh, it's murdering the native bluebells, the native bees. Yeah. I had no idea there were this many parakeets that it was a problem. whenever I spot them. I think, o how exotic, but apparently there are loads of them. So the question is, Helen asks me this, whereere did they originally come from I've seen lots of varying claims on Reddit posts from Jimy Hendricks releasing them to them escaping from the set of Tarzan. The African quQueen is the one that I've read. Yeah. I'd love to get to the bottom of it, says Rachel I just I think you need to prepare Rachel for not getting to the bottom of it because there's so many bullshit explanations. The explanations that I've heard the longest A that there were escaped pets from Orbington in Southeast London. That sounds like a region specific one to you growing up seeing parakeets. No, well, I didn't see them when I was growing up until I moved to London, but the populations of the parakeets were concentrated around Southeast London and North Kent which makes it plausible because that is where most of them were for a while and the other explanation that is repeated so much but has Certainly not the ring of trruth is Jimmy Hendrix releasing a pair of them in nineteen sixty eight. What? Why like why Hendricks? Why would he have parakees? Why would he release? Because there were love birds. I don't know, and it's like the era of that kind of carnabie street love and paste. S. It mystifies me when people compare them to pigeons. I know that they make mess and eat shit, but they're just whenever I see them, I feel lucky to have seen them. Yes. I take pictures of them. When they land in my garden, I'm excited. Yes. We used to have a lot of them in our window sills in South London It is a bit sad that they're killing off the Robins and stuff, but at the same time I just think they're very beautiful and it's impressive that they can survive in the English climate Be they're from India. They're from like North Africa and the Indian subcontinent And there was a population boom of them in the nineties, which I don't know whether that was because the weather got noticeably warmer or if they just managed to bully enough local birds to really claim their patch. Okay, so the most plausible explanation to me is that because these birds were not uncommon as exotic pets in England from like mid to late eighteen hundreds. Yes. And I think that means you could have several escapees. Exactly. and several small populations growing gradually and that means after a few decades suddenly You're like, o, actually there's quite a lot of these birds, like by the nineteen eighties. I think in the early eighties there were a thousand and Now there are at least thirty thousand. So the population has really boomed since then. Yeah, I've seen estimates of fifty thousand couldould well be. And I've seen academics that have studied them say they have good genes, apparently. I mean, you know, they're not inbred, they're from a wide pool so that would Go more along with your theory that for a hundred years occasionally they've escaped and then mingled with the ones that currently existed than that there was just one incident that caused them all to escape and they're all from, you know, Jimy Hendrixs's Adam andine. Oh yeah, with the African Queen, a film in which this kind of parakeet does not appear, so why did they have them on set? Someone who was c curating the Chelham Science Fest a few years ago there were a few press stories about how she'd said that her dad apparently lived in Isleworth and that was next to the studio where they filmed the African quQueen. And she does remember contemporaneous with the African Queen wrapping That withithin two years, her dad was feeding parakeetets in the garden. And she says she thinks that it was those parakeets that went on to be the progenitors of all these others. How are you said that There you go. She's a size communicator and very good illustrator. Good knowledge. Yeah. When you were a kid, like, I don't know how accurately you're going to remember those things though. I think a narrative forms and then slightly obscures the facts, but also it could be incidental to the African queen because that's also a time when the populations of these birds are steadily rising. That story gets exaggerated in the retellings, doesn't it? Anyway, should they be cold People think they should be cull because there's too many, they're so cute. They're so beautiful. They're the scorewky squadrons that invaded our skies, Martin, according to the telegraph headline. But it's gonna to score quick in a day. They have refused culls so far I feel like Britain has some dangerous sentiments towards immigrants generally But they're probably going to be kinder about the bird ones than the human ones Here's another London question from a Swedish person who says, att the end of July My friend and I are planning a short trip to London because I want to see the Frida Carlo exhibition at Tate Modern, and I've managed to rope in my friend to join me We've both been before, and London is certainly not my favorite city as I hate crowds But I remember the episode where you advised someone on how to spend a hunover day in London and it was very enlightening. I don't remember that, but I wonder what we said I think that was when I suggested going up monument because no one ever goes up monument. With a hangover there's so many stairs. Vomiting off the top of monument. So we are excited to go to London together, says a Swedish person, but we're both adamant on avoiding the subway because it's a crammed sweat lounge. Well, good, because the subway iss in New York, so you're not going to go anywhere near it. Yeah. They mean the tube, of course Ollie answks me this, what should we go and see that does not require going on the tube What area is best to stay in if we want to get around easily but refuse the tube. And lastly, how does one survive London in July? O. I think the fact that you're Swedish and you're saying how do you survive suggests if you don't like sweaty, boxy underground trains, that you're concerned about heat, which is H thing to get my head into at the moment because you know, it is Grey and dismal and freezing cold I do understand that some people might find London in July a little bit much. It can be very sweaty, but it can also be really cold and wet. so prepare for everything. Exactly. Exactly. Your information on the tube is a bit outdated in the sense that the Elizabeth line, the more recent tube line is fully air conditioned. So there's that. Also, I tend to find going on the tube outside of rush hour is Mostly fine, but I've never lived on the tube so there's loads of ways you don't have to go on it. There's an extensive network of overground trains. I'd stay somewhere on the Thames Link line Because that one is a gem. and then it links you to lots of other lines or walkable bits of central London. Yes. well, so I live on the Thames Link line. Yeah's classic. The stop for Tate mododern is London Blackfriars, which by the way is a beautiful station, like architecturally beautiful st on the bridge. You can get off either side of the river, ingeniious. It's good. And you get a view literally the view from the station is like the postcard view of London that you want. know you can see the Tower of London, you can see Canary Wharf, you can see the shower. You don't really need to leave from there. anyway. If you do get off the train and walk to the Tate mododn to the exhibition I would say where you happen to be going anyway, that stretch between Let's say London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge. That's a day for people that don't know London walking along there and looking at everything and you don't need to get on a tube at all at any point. Or just day strolling along the south bank. If the river's low, you can walk along the Thames Beach a little bit, which is also pretty cool. Yes. Yeah, London is a great walking city and lots of the places you'll stay you'll be able to walk get a bus, get an overground train get a tube outside of busy time. But also, when you're on the south bank, get the boat. Oh yeah. It's the transport for London state funded river boats and you can use your credit card to tap in and out get on the boat And you know, then you get a bit of wind through your hair, it goes under Tower Bridge. Yeah, goes to Greenwich. that's got a big hill, that's fun to look at the rest of London on, get some breeze. Yeah, I mean, any outdoor parky bits. Hampson Heath, that's a good place to walk in July. Crystal Palace. That's on the overground right to the park. Don't visit AMT toowers. dinosaurs itinerary for everyone. My survival for London in July is Thin layers of clothing because you can get so many weathers on the same day. cold, sweaty, sticky rainy Sometimes hail If it is hot My two tools of choice are a hand fan And a water bottle you feel like two thirds full, put in the freezer the night before facing upwards so that the next day you can put a little bit of water in the top so you've got some cold water to drink and then you can roll it on your face and your neck that makes it a bit cooler and your wrist and also you've got cold water through the day as it slowly defrosts. Very good. I mean, you know my devotion to the Yetty Cup range of product. So obviously I have access to cool water whenever needed, but I understand you know, those who don't wish to splash out on the Luxury products that I fill my life with might want to benefit from your tips. Yes. well also if you want something cold to touch, then the Yeti cup is leaving you. Yeah, deliberately so Andy on Patreon has a question about something you might eat when you're in London. You might Helen answers me this. Why is the BLT the only sandwich with an acronym? I'd say Andy Why is it a sandwich that has both its own month, April, and its own day, twenty second of July That's greedy. Why do you need a month and a day? I don't understand. There is BLT mononth The month of April is BLT like national BLT month. Oh, it needs a day and a month. I'm sorry, I had no idea you're educated. It has a day, the twenty second of Apl. It doesn't need both. Noly. I'd say a day is max it needs A month, don't be silly. The Holocaust only gets a week. Yeah, Black History Month gets the shortest month BLT guys, two more fucking days. I mean, in BLT months, do you eat a BLT every day? Is that the idea? It's mandatory We should point out, I mean, some listeners won't know. The BLT stands for bacon, lettuce and tomato. You were saying to me the other day you've seen a that. Black Bat blat. Blat, bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato. There's also the Bt bacon egg lettuce tomato., The Bast bacon lettuce avocado spprouts tomato And that is appropriately named In the Princess Bride, you've got the MLT, the Martin Lettuce tomato. Yeah, but you're going to some fairly obscure examples now. I mean, I suppose what he's saying is Okay, popularly. PBNJ. PBN J. The PBJ Yes Marsha on Patreon did actually point that PBJ is also in use in response to Andy's question. That is true. Can we have a showbiz agent, PBJ? We were represented by PBJ management for a time, yes, in the loosest sense of the word. Our photos are on their website. ye Wow. There's the bacon egg and cheese, the BEC. I think that's a particularly New Yorky sandwich though. I did used to go to a greasy spoon for my lunch every day when we worked in Waterloo, Helen. Oh I used to get myself a CCM They called it. Now, I think about it should have been CSM because it was chicken, sweet corn and mayo. Right. I suppose it was corn Chicken C corn They were trying to go for CCM as the acronym. likeike it said that on the sign you had to order it. you wouldn't know otherwise. Yeah, but the BLT, I think often contains mayo that is not remarked upon by the acronym You don'tast but, don't salt pepper. you don't lab. D don'tist the bread. Exactly. I think that's all right. So I think they were pushing it with the CMM. Well, I think there's a problem as well when they have like a menu of Cub sandwiches You know, so I feel like the club sandwich is chicken, bacon, the third slice of bread. That's the essential ingredients, I'd say But now you get this thing where you know, in sort of, I don't know, hipster joints, they're like, do you want to see our menu of Benedict's? that kind of place You'll get a thing where it's like, do you want to see our menu of clubs? And actually some of the clubs are dangerously close to BLT, I think. Well, the BLT evolved out of the club. Okay, because it is basically a club without the poultry A reason why sandwiches with acronyms are uncommon is because they're just not that practical, right? Because the BLT evolved out the club, which got popular in like the late eighteen hundreds That and the BLT became more popular in the USA in the early twentieth century with train travel. I think that was just quite a common thing to serve on a train And there are recipes around for it in cookbooks from that late nineteenth, early twenteth century period. So it had been around for a bit. The abbreviation is thought to have come up in diners in the US in the nineteen forties, people taking the audio shouting back to the kitchen BLT, like they had a lot of slang about different sandwiches and different drinks and stuff that you could order in a diner. But evenven though it had been around for that long In print, they were still having to explain what they meant by BLT in like the sixties and seventies. So they could say BLT and then have to point out bacon lettce tomato, which really removes the convenience of the acronym. So I think That's probably why if you use an acronym or an abbreviation or an initialism because people are like, that's not an acronym, it doesn't spell out a word. it's just it needs to become iconic before you can rely on it being understood. And it's taken that long because these aren't intuitive enough I know sububway they have a BMT whichich stands for Biggest, meatiest, tastiest. Oh piss off. It doesn't even have a nn in it. I suppose if it's BMT sandwich. Yeah Well E exactly. the point is it has to spell out what in like no one has ever said I'll have a BMT. They have to go in there and look at the menu and it says in brackets afterwards, what's in it? Spicy pepperoni, Genoa Salami and Back Forest toown. I can't call it an MRM. for mechanically reclaimed meat. That would be more honest, though, that would be good. If anyone writes in to say that club sandwich is an acronym for chicken and lettuce under bacon Fire yourself into the fucking sun. That is obvious bullshit. Right, o. It's a popular bullshit it's bullshit. Just like the BLT is not named after a writer for the Chicago Tribune L. Taylor. who died twenty years before the BLT. I can't believe that no one fought to make a bacon salad sandwich for the bail to Exactly.isted. Exactly As the show's resident mayayo expert, I feel it help to say at this point as well that the abbreviation of Mo That is something that I did not use in the nineteen eighties growing up in Britain. I'd never heard anyone say mayo until about nineteen ninety nine. Again, because people had to know what it was. American And they were still getting used to it in the eighties. In Britain, if you said mayonnaise, they probably thought you meant salad cream. Yeah in at least half the country. So I mean, it was a battle on your hands anyway, just to get the stuff. How you suffered? Though life is full of questions, there are answers you must know. No, it will not fall off but moder in all things too. Yes, there probably is, but we won't find out in our life times three. Most people prefer cholerie, but my personal favourite is doll turn four. If you try and slip one, it would ruin your friendhip Here's a question from Jay in Minnesota who says, I've been doing prep for donating a kidney. Wow. I'm super excited. It feels like a really good and valuable thing to do. I think we're going to agree it's a valuable thing to donate a kidney, but it's complex this. The transrplant hospital has run a whole gamut of tests to ensure that I'm healthy enough and all looks good. Yeah. Although the hospital has invested quite a bit of time and money in this donation, they have repeatedly emphasized that I can change my mind about the donation at any stage with no ill will Yeah. My wife has a lot of trepidation. Statistically, there's about a one in a thousand chance of serious negative repercussions aside from the two to six weeks of general post op misery She doesn't want to be the one standing between me and this donation. She knows it's very important to me So she's not going to explicitly ask me not to do it But the doctor's statistics reassuring her Okay. So Answer me this How do I balance her fears? with my desire to make a donation that drastically improve someone's life. Wow. and the transplant team don't have suggestions for this because this must happen a lot. L they must need to reassure people plenty Every don' family would say Are you sure you're going to be all right? Well this Kill And is this dangerous? Yeahah. Yeah you definitely not need this down the line Statistics don't generally sway people about something that is very emotional. Fearing that your partner's going to die is obviously very emotional So find something that is appealing to her feelings. I had no idea that altruistic kidney donation was a thing, by the way. I knew that you could do it for someone you know. Jes see, Isisberg's doing it Ol. For someone he doesn't know. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that. So I thought doctors go looking for matches. I didn't know that you could just say, yeah, I don't need two, take one and someone might need it That's an astonishing thing to do. but looking into it, well here in the UK, the NHS will only take your kidney if they are satisfied that your long term health isn't going to be negatively impacted course But I'm sure. Actually, in the private system in the US in a way the stakes are larger because you can sue a doctor who removes your kidney having told you that you're going to have no long term repercussions. If they're telling you have no long term repercussions, it should be fine That is the information you do present your wife with, isn't it? Yes, there's t I know what she's seen some risk and is worried, but They have done all the tests, they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't let me do it unless they thought it was going to be okay. I mean, again, I think that would be reassuring if you're someone who's reassured by facts, but it seems like that is not where she's at So what would you say to her to get her in the feelings Martin How could I reassure you that my kidney is It's a good thing to do If I were against it, I would say something like you're taking a risk for someone that you don't know and haven't even met. And why take that risk well even if it's a small chance of This Having ad this effffects whyy would you take that risk? Why go inf surgery when you' absolutely have to I think honestly I wouldn't Well to discourage you if that was something that you felt like you wanted to do. I would probably my tongue and be a bit worried. I think most people feel like that way about a loved one. Becauseuse it sounds like it's very important to Jay to do it. So they've already had that conversation. Why do you want to do it? Because I think it's really important that someonese gets a kidney that they need And also Mart, you don't even really like it when I donate blood I didn't like it when you denate blood and then go for physiotherraapy and pass out. That's the part I'm not a fan. One time. I guess you could reed Nosedayay it, couldn't you and roll VT You know, you'd be like, well, look These are the people that I'm helping. Yeah, you heartless bitch. Look at how they're suffering. Well, it's just a montage of slow moo person with kidney donation frolicking with a golden retrieever, that kind of thing? Well, Well that's the thing isn't it? Like that's partly, like I think you have a couple of things in the back of your head if you're the spouse You're thinking, what if I need that kidney? What if one of your close relatives needs that kidney in the future and you've given it away? What if you need that kidney in the future? because now you've only got one left and you're going to have a risk as result of that. Yeah. But also you are going to be thinking, I mean, you shouldn't But you are going to be thinking in a way that you don't when you give blood. because it's so universal kind of thinking, what if the guy you give it to is just a ananker I do think that when I give blood. I'm like, what if they give my blood to Nizl Fz Now, I think with blood it's different because it's such a I don't know why. I suppose it's just that little bit more it's less personal Be there's this whole thing isn't there like where the recipient chooses in the US, I believe, whether or not to reach out to the donor.. So the recipient can say, I would like to meet the donor And then if the donor has said, yes, I would like to meet the recipient then they can meet But if the recipient doesn't want to do that You'll never know if they're a banker If the recipient does want to do that and then you go and meet them and they'a. I would feel like I'd really I'd wasted Do Wankers deserve to die Ollie? No, but they don't deserve my kidney. I mean, maybe. like my kidney should have gone someone I like. But I guess that's not altruism, is it? That's not charity It's the risk that you take. Maybe that is Jay's spouse's concern. What if the kidney ends up inside a wanker Yeah But listeners, if you have ideas for how Jay can reassure their wife, your advice will be gratefully received. Perhaps you've done this, or perhaps your partner has or another loved one How They reassure you. So send that but also send your questions for future episodes of answering this via the usual contact details which are present on our website Answer mehpodcast. com Don't send your kidneys to us. We have no use for them. Well, also because we don't have a PO box anymore But if you are the kind of person who altuistically likes to donate things, one of the reasons to visit patreon dot com so answer me this is to support us. I'm not making a direct comparison with donating a life saving organ, but I am saying No it's far, far more important than doing that. I'm just saying if you that kind of person, you're not ready to do the kidney. Well, you've already done it. Yeah. I'm just saying it's all on the same road of generosity Thank you if you'd like to support this show with your life bllood. Yes at patreon. com slash answer me this. Yes, donon't send us blood either though. But also because capitalism, you get shit in return. Members of the questuionnaire tier get to watch our live streams and listen ad free to new episodes and bonus bits Members of our four star Hotel Tier unlock an ad free version of our podcast on their podcast app, including all our albums, retro episodes, and bonus bits And Members of Soundbag, the Crem Da Creme The VIPs, the ballers The wicked Willies. They get all of that But their feed also includes Every fucking thing we have ever recorded. I think it's now seven hundred bits of audio Fuck me, that's so many bits. It's the fuck me Ter. includluding our first two hundred episodes themselves worth two hundred pounds when purchased separately So it's a good deal as well as a good thing to do You made a persuasive case. Thank you, Molly. I'm gonna go there, signign up right now. What was the we address again It's patreon d. com slash answer mee this. Anyway, hundreds of answer mee This is aside. We have other work on the internet. Helen? Yeah apparently. What do you have in store for people Well at the illusionist. org and in the podfeeds, there is a recent episode called Cosmic Hairball, which is a fun little musical tour of space language featuring Martin singing some songs that I made him sing Great. I'm really disappointed that you didn't callook episode space milk, which was the working title for. I didn't call it space milk because I told some Iusionist listeners I was going to call it space milk and they were like, o U No such sing as a fish just did an episode called Space Eggs and I was like, I can't participate in a sort of space breakfast themed podcast thing. Could have had a whole space kitchen. I wonder if Space ever considered doing an album called Space Milk. I did see Sace perform in nineteen ninety nine at a ball at Durham University and I fully did not give a fucking shit I don't think they'd been drinking milk that day, Ollie. No. Ask me what's coming up on the modern man, Helen Oh, what's coming up on the Modern Man, Ollie? Oh thanks for asking. In the February edition of The Modern Man My Mthly magazine showow, we try vibe coding. that is when you program an app using just AI prompts. Scary. Jesus Christ. We talk about sex when you have a UTI. And I meet a Londoner who survived an earthquake in Morocco. He spent six hours buried in the rubble. The episode is called Trapped in the Rubber And I' say extraordinary. Fhand about, you know, survival and recovery and why you should always have travel insurance. Yeah. You can find that at modernmanwithwo ends. co. uk. What an incredible mix of topics. Thank you. Martin I new song here. No. It's a dance floor banger. It's good Daddy really cares. Oh yeah. It is an actual banger It's got a really cool music video and If you're go to Martinastrick. bancamp. com and buy it, I will be donating All of the money I make from it to charities and organisations which support trans youth. in Canada and the UK. So please that Is there a way to song pull it for free? We'll put a link for the YouTube video. Okay. Oh the video is really, really good. so Okay good. You should watch that anyway, even if you own the song through money. You'll be singing this number until I don't know, ttill the end of time It's that catchy. I look forward to investigating it myself. Well, that's plenty for you to do. Do send us questions though, that's the main thing. And febcks have answered us back halfway through the month and then the next A fresh episod ofs me This this will be in your pod feed on the last Thursday of March Be