The Saturday briefing
IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
MY husband and I regularly watch The Chase on ITV. In the final part of the quiz the contestants who get through are asked to choose either set A or B questions. I always wonder what the difference is between the two sets of questions?
Mary Eynon, Thatcham, Nr Newbury, Berkshire AS I understand it, the contestants choose A or B from a bag containing two balls with those letters on them. That’s to avoid allegations (which have occasionally been made) that the Chaser gets easier questions.
The questions in the two sets are, as far as possible, made equally difficult but this method ensures that who gets A and who gets B is completely random.
AROUND 1960 I often travelled on the London Underground and enjoyed reading the advertisements on trains. Part of one has stayed with me which started something like: “The problem in a satellite, Is where to put the cat at night.” This was soon after the Russians launched Sputnik and began the space race but what was the verse advertising? It's all very frustrating. Please help.
David Watson, Lincoln IT was part of a campaign for the International Wool Secretariat (now The Woolmark Company). Yours was one of a number of very witty verses all ending with the same line: “The problem in a satellite Is where to put the cat at night For if you want your mind at ease
How can you let poor Pussy freeze?
The answer reads on your computer A woolly overcoat will suit her From sheep to bleep all know the rule
There is no substitute for wool!”
IS it true that the pop group Frankie Goes To Hollywood took their name from a news cutting about Frank Sinatra going in to films? My dad does not believe it.
P Pope, Isle of Wight WHAT you say is almost true but it was a painting made to look like a news cutting. The painting was featured in a book called Rock Dreams published in Orla Kiely Big Spot Flower Plant Pot, £23. 0800 587 7645/ amara.com There’s a real retro hippy charm about this colourful 13cm-diameter pot that is made from tough enamel and is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. This medium-sized pot is ideal for growing herbs and small plants and also comes in small and large. the 1970s which included a work by the Belgian artist Guy Peellaert who specialised in pictures of pop stars in realistic situations.
This one showed Frank Sinatra being helped by a policeman through a mass of fans at Grand Central station in New York. The headline was “Frankie Goes Hollywood” with the sub-heading “Bobby-sox brigade cause near-riot scene”.
Holly Johnson, the band’s lead singer, says he saw the headline, added the word “to” and Frankie Goes To Hollywood was born. Cadix Red Acacia Barrel Planter, £23.99. 03456 402020/argos.co.uk This bright red wooden barrel planter has been made from Acacia wood and measures 46cm x 28cm. With a drainage hole, it can be used outdoors and is frost and weather resistant. by
WHEN man walked on the Moon, how is it that the sky appears pitch black in photos and film of them with no stars visible?
P Bond, March, Cambridgeshire THIS is often advanced by conspiracy theorists in support of their view that astronauts never went to the Moon but really it’s not difficult to explain. Pictures of the Moon landings were all taken in sunlight when the Moon’s reflective surface was much brighter than the sky and light from the stars was comparatively very weak.
To get pictures of the stars would have required a much longer exposure than pictures of astronauts and equipment on the Moon’s surface. It’s a bit like trying to photograph the stars from Earth during the daytime.
CAN you explain why there are so many hospitals with “Royal” in their name? There's Royal Marsden, Royal Free, Royal London, Royal United, Bath, Royal Berkshire and many more, while others are equally if not more prominent and not “Royal”.
YOU could say that some hospitals are born Royal, some attain Royalty and some have Royalty thrust upon them. The original royal hospitals were founded by Henry VIII and given the Royal name from the start. Others have applied to the monarch to call themselves Royal, by virtue of their royal patronage or because their status within the community deserved it, while in a few cases the title has been bestowed by the Queen or King long after they first opened.
When the Queen visited the London Hospital on the occasion of its 250th anniversary in 1990 she changed the name without even being asked and it has been The Royal London Hospital ever since.
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