Coincidence of the Kit Kat Klub
QUESTION Is there any link between the Kit Kat chocolate bar and the Kit Kat Klub featured in Cabaret?
NO. It’s tempting to think so because Rowntree launched the Kit Kat in 1935 and Christopher Isherwood’s novel Goodbye To Berlin, on which the musical Cabaret was based, appeared in 1939. However, Isherwood named his ‘boys’ club’ just off the Tauentzienstrasse The Lady Windermere.
It wasn’t until 1966 it became the Kit Kat Klub when Joe Masteroff wrote the book for Kander and Ebb’s musical, which was in turn adapted into a film starring Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles.
There is a theory that Masteroff named it the Kit Kat Klub because the initials were KKK and the Nazi-era musical was written during the height of the civil rights movement. Kit Kat bars weren’t introduced to the United States until the 1970s. Katie Williams, Warminster,
Wiltshire.
QUESTION Is it true that Abraham Lincoln had an unusually high-pitched voice? Which other figures from history had unusual voices?
US JOURNALIST Horace White met Lincoln in 1854 and famously described him as having ‘a thin tenor, or rather falsetto, voice, almost as high-pitched as a boatswain’s whistle’. A New York Herald article noted, in February 1860, that his voice had ‘a frequent tendency to dwindle into a shrill and unpleasant sound’.
It proved a political advantage: his voice had ‘much carrying power, that could be heard a long distance in spite of the bustle and tumult of a crowd’.
Spain’s Francisco Franco was, on the one hand, one of the most formidable dictators of the 20th century.
On the other, he was a strange, awkward figure. As writer Javier Marías put it, he ‘always seemed ridiculous: a short, ugly man with a shrill voice’.
Imposing England cricket great W. G. Grace would often cause surprise when a high-fluting West Country burr emerged from his great barrel chest, Cathy McFarland, Altrincham,
Cheshire.
QUESTION Has anyone swum the complete lengths of the Panama or Suez canals?
THE Panama Canal has been swum a number of times, but the most famous crossing was made by Richard Halliburton (19001939) in 1928. Halliburton was an
American travel writer who swam for 50 hours in the water over a 10-day period.
He wrote: ‘I dived into its waters on the Atlantic side, and, by daily stages, swam to the Pacific – locks, lake and all – 50 miles’.
He commissioned himself the SS Richard Halliburton and paid his toll for passage like any other vessel, by tonnage. Since he weighed one-thirteenth of a ton, he was charged 36 cents. Halliburton was a famous adventurer who disappeared at sea while attempting to sail a Chinese junk across the Pacific Ocean.
Swimming the 120-mile-long
Suez Canal is illegal and dangerous due to the heavy shipping traffic, high levels of pollution and strong currents.
H. J. Murphy, Cardiff.
QUESTION What became of boxer Brian London, who once fought Muhammad Ali?
FURTHER to the earlier answers, Brian was from a fighting family. His dad, Jack, was a veteran of 142 bouts. After Brian had been repeatedly butted during a European Championship bout against Dick Richardson in 1960, his father and brother and others jumped into the ring and a mass brawl erupted. It’s recorded on a Pathé newsreel.
D. Warner, Fleckney, Leicester.
QUESTION Have soccer teams in other countries had any incidents similar to the Roy Keane row in Saipan?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, there was a similar incident involving French forward Nicolas Anelka at the 2010 World Cup.
Anelka was always regarded as something of a moody and complex individual, while the team’s manager, Raymond Domenech, had an eccentric style that frequently baffled and irritated players. It was perhaps inevitable that they would clash.
And so they did, when the team headed to the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
France began the group stage with a lacklustre 0-0 draw against Uruguay, but it was during their second match, against Mexico, that matters started to boil over.
With the match scoreless at half-time, things kicked off in the French dressing room. Reports at the time claimed Domenech had criticised Anelka for drifting out of position.
The player responded with a barrage of vitriol, reportedly telling his coach: ‘Go f*** yourself you son of a whore.’ He was promptly substituted, though this did little to improve the team’s performance, as the Mexicans won 2-0.
French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes asked the player to apologise for his outburst, but Anelka refused, and was sent home.
However, he might not have been in South Africa for too much longer anyway – as the French were eliminated after their third and final group game, in which they lost 2-1 to the host nation. Alan O’Gorman, Waterford
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