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.
JUST after the Second World War a man and two young children came to England from the US for the children to swim the English Channel. As far as I can remember permission was refused. What happened to them? Did they ever swim the Channel?
June Bartholomew, by email IT’S a terrible story. The children were Bubba Tongay, five, and his sister Kathy, four. Known as the “Aquatots” they had been raised from birth to be swimmers and could even swim before they could walk.
When they arrived in England in 1951 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was outraged and their swim was banned by the Home Secretary. The French also denied them permission to swim the Channel from their side.
Two years later Kathy Tongay died at the age of six from injuries caused by a high dive and possible beating from her father.
He was charged with seconddegree murder, convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour.
Bubba grew up to become a beach control officer at Miami Beach. He never swam the Channel.
MY late husband and I always called the liquid antiseptic TCP “Tom Cats’ Pee”. It certainly smells like it. Can you confirm whether or not this product contains that ingredient? I believe urine is a natural antiseptic, so I think it’s a logical question.
June Platt, Sheffield TCP took its name from trichlorophenylmethyliodosalicyl, which was the chemical it was made of when it first appeared in 1918. The formula was changed in the 1950s, since when it has been a combination of phenols containing carbolic acid.
Since that is also found in urine, your suggestion is indeed not all that far-fetched. I KEEP seeing articles mentioning people who have lost their homes because of “death duties”. What are these duties, who gets them and why? Elizabeth Smith, Rugby, Warwickshire DEATH duties, which since 1986 has been called inheritance tax, date back, like so many of our taxes, to the Napoleonic Wars when the British government needed to raise money to fight the man they called the “Little Corporal”.
The tax is paid on the estate of someone who has died but there is nothing to pay if the value of the estate is below £325,000 or if everything is left to a spouse, civil partner or charity.
Also, the £325,000 threshold rises to £425,000 if the home is The Constantine bow tie collar and lead set, £17.99. 0161 947 5900/ getting personal. co.uk A stylish bow tie collar-and-lead set is hand-stitched in plush blue velvet. The detachable bow and fully adjustable collar will fit any dog. left to either the children or the grandchildren. HOW many people are employed as linesmen during Wimbledon fortnight? What do they do the rest of the year? Jacqui Bloxham, Wolverhampton THERE were 345 people working as chair umpires and line umpires at Wimbledon. Each day, 42 are assigned as chair umpires with the rest as line umpires.
During the rest of the year most of them work at other events as members of the Association of British Tennis Officials. HAS Dick Van Dyke ever played the role of a villain on television or in a film? NOT often but he certainly has. In 1974, in an episode of Columbo called Negative Reaction, he played a wifemurderer; in a Matlock episode The Judge in 1986 he played a A pretty pattern of cats in an arch with a scratching base is the perfect furniture-saving household accessory for your moggy. P Rhodes, Leeds by killer judge; and in the film Dick Tracy in 1990 he was a corrupt district attorney.
WHEN and how did the first “elephant” get “in the room”?
E Baldwin, Islesteps, Dumfries I TAKE it you are referring to the expression “elephant in the room” meaning an obvious problem that no one dare bring up in a discussion.
The expression in that sense dates back only to the 1950s but the idea behind it is much older. In 1882 Mark Twain wrote a short story The Stolen White Elephant about some inept detectives who couldn’t find an elephant standing in front of them.
In 1814 the Russian author Ivan Andreyevich Krylov wrote a story about a man in a museum who fails to notice an elephant.
But the original idea may have come from the philosopher Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753) who wrote about the impossibility of establishing the non-existence of an invisible elephant. Personalised medium paw print bed, £25. 0871 231 2000/ jdwilliams.co.uk This pet bed is manufactured from 100 per cent polyester featuring a pretty paw print design and can be personalised with any name up to a maximum of 20 characters. inaccurate please go to www.express.co.uk/contactus where you will find an easy to use form. Alternatively you can write to Readers Editor, Daily Express, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN. We will do our best to correct it as soon as possible.
If you have a complaint concerning a breach of the Code please go Dogs love yanking at things and this toy is strengthened by a tightly woven strap inside it which can withstand a great deal of robust “yanking”. Comes in a pack of two.
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