The Saturday briefing
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...
Q
Who picked the line-up of people for the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Robert Davis, Ealing,West London
AThe famous cover of The Beatles’ 1967 album was conceived by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. They suggested that if the fictional band the LP was named after had played a concert in a park, the cover could be a photo of the group, with the audience that had just watched them. Paul McCartney claims to have given Blake and Haworth the drawing on which to base the design.
The Beatles were asked for a list of people to turn into cardboard cutouts or waxworks. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison chose an eclectic mix of cultural figures, heroes, gurus and friends.
Among the line-up were Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, HG Wells, OscarWilde and Bob Dylan.
Some suggestions were vetoed by record label EMI, including Lennon’s ideas to have Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ featured on the cover.
In the end, 57 cardboard cutouts and nine waxwork dolls were assembled alongside The Beatles. Back then, album covers usually cost around £50.The final bill for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was £3,000. Q
Who was the first person to wear a tie? Where did the idea come from to put a piece of coloured material around a man’s neck?
Wendy Redman, Preston,
Lancashire
AThe tie as we know it today has been around for a century, but the idea can be traced back 2,000 years to the warriors of the Chinese Qin Dynasty, who tied silk around their necks as symbols of power. But neck attire went mainstream in the 1600s, during the Thirty Years’ War, when Croatian mercenaries fighting for French King Louis XIII wrapped colourful cloth around their necks as part of their uniform. It was a tradition that started when women would give a silk scarf to their lovers as a symbol of devotion, which would be wrapped around their necks. The French king was taken with the style, as was his son, the future Sun King, Louis XIV, who began wearing one when he was seven. These were the first “cravats”, a corruption of the French word for Croatian. The style evolved and in the 1920s, Jesse Langsdorf, a New York tailor, invented a way of
cutting fabric on an angle and sewing it in three sections, creating the Langsdorf tie. Britain made its major impact in the 1930s, with the Windsor knot, inspired by the Duke ofWindsor.
Q
In many places, plastic carrier bags have been replaced with bags that can biodegrade. Are these good for the environment or are we just adding another chemical to the soil?
David Daniel, Northwich, Cheshire
ASince supermarkets introduced a charge for bags, usage has dropped 95 per cent, with nearly £200million donated to charities through their sale. But there is confusion over what the alternatives are – biodegradable versus compostable.
Plastic bags are made from a petroleum byproduct, which microorganisms don’t recognise as food, so don’t break down.
Biodegradable bags are often made from similar materials but with compounds added so they disintegrate eventually.
But there is no official ruling as to how long this should take.
Compostable bags have to meet specific standards to be certified as such.They must be made of
organic matter, such as potato starch, decompose within a few months in a home or industrial facility and not leave behind any harmful substances.
In 2019, Plymouth University tested bags in the air, soil and sea.
After three years in soil and the sea, a biodegradable bag was still intact and could carry shopping. A compostable bag performed better, disappearing in three months in the water.
Compostable bags must be able to turn into nutrient-rich humus, which is great for plants. But simply burying is not composting – to compost you need five key conditions – warmth, moisture, microbes, oxygen and time.
Look out for the seedling logo on compostable bags and “EN 13432”, meaning it conforms to all the necessary criteria.
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● By email: put “questions” in the subject line and send to kay.harrison@reachplc.com
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