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.
CAN you tell me anything about a comedian called Jimmy Wheeler who I saw occasionally on TV in the 1960s? He always ended his act with, “That’s yer lot”.
T Stephens, Barnet, North London JIMMY Wheeler, real name Ernest Remnant, had a long radio and TV career lasting from 1928, when he was still in his teens, to the 1960s.
He always ended his act with the catchphrase, “Aye aye, that’s yer lot” which was later adopted, as a tribute to him by fans such as Ian Dury and Ray Davies. His act often included his favourite joke:
“A bloke went into a chip shop and asked, ‘Have you got any chips left?’ ‘Yes,’ says the chip shop owner. ‘Serves you right for making so many then’.”
He died in 1973 at the age of 63.
THE first time I ate the dessert called Eton mess it was chocolate because of its resemblance to the muddy playing fields of Eton. Now it is always white with fruit and no one seems to have heard of the chocolate version. If I am right, why the difference?
Renee Ives, by email I’VE never heard of the supposed resemblance of an Eton mess to muddy playing fields but I suppose it’s possible if chocolate is used.
The origins of Eton mess are obscure with even the meaning of “mess” in the name in doubt. As well as being a haphazard jumble of things, “mess” was also an old word for a dish at a feast.
The earliest known reference to Eton mess was in 1896 and the ingredients, as served at EtonHarrow cricket matches and Eton prize-giving feasts, were strawberries, whipped cream and broken bits of meringue. The chef Heston Blumenthal suggests, “There is evidence that it was originally made with bananas or strawberries at the Eton College tuck shop”, and more recent variations include other fruits such as passion fruit and mango.
Chocolate meringue, chocolate ice-cream and chocolate sauce are also often included but I don’t think that was the original way.
I’M curious as to how dates are pitted commercially to produce dates with no stones.
Gerald Jones, Newbury, Berkshire THE European Patent Agency worldwide database lists over 80 patents for mechanical date-pitters.
The usual technique is to pour the dates onto a production line with holes of gradually increasing diameter. The dates jiggle over the line and fall through the holes when they reach the right size.
This ensures that each date falls into an individual cylinder pointing upwards. Then an array of rods chomps down on the dates and pushes out their stones.
There’s a neat non-mechanical way to remove date stones with a pair of chopsticks. You just push them into one end of the date and out the other and they take the pip with them.
The method outlined above Red And White Spots Trolley, £22.99. 03456 402020/ argos. co.uk With a sturdy steel body and four wheels to make it simpler to navigate without losing balance, this trolley has a capacity of 82 litres and comes with a tartan cloth and removable top cover. basically does much the same thing. PLEASE can you tell me when and why Mothering Sunday changed to Mother’s Day in Great Britain? Mother’s Day in Australia and the US is May 14 so why has it changed here? Christine Comins, Bognor Regis, West Sussex WHAT we are talking about is two events with different origins which have merged into one. Mothering Sunday is an old European Christian holiday dating back to the 16th century which always fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
The name referred not to a female parent but to a person’s mother church, which was where they were baptised.
Mother’s Day however began in 1908 in the United States when Anna Jarvis campaigned for a day for mothers to work together for peace and for everyone to honour or commemorate their own mothers.
Mother’s Day is now celebrated worldwide which each country selecting its own date, usually between March and May and most often on the second Sunday in May.
Only in Great Britain, Ireland and Nigeria does it coincide with the old date of Mothering Sunday. by TWO questions: I know that Members of the House of Commons always refer to the House of Lords as “the other place” or “another place” but what do the Lords call the Commons? And when were the Houses of Parliament built? Michael Parker, Evesham, Worcestershire BY tradition, neither House mentions the other by name. The Lords also call the Commons “the other place” or “another place”. The Palace of Westminster, which houses the Commons and the Lords, was originally a royal palace dating back to the 11th century but was mostly destroyed by fire in 1512. After that it served as the home for our Parliament but burnt down again in 1834.
The building we now know was built between 1840 and 1870 and was designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin.
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