Call me Mrs Highlander!
QUESTION What became of the actress who played Heather in 1986’s Highlander? And where is the rock on which the hero, Connor MacLeod (played by Christopher Lambert), and his mentor, Ramirez (Sean Connery), spar in the film?
The actress who played the highlander’s wife, heather MacLeod, was Beatie edney. her mother is fellow thespian Sylvia Syms, famous for her role in the 1958 film Ice Cold In Alex.
Aged 23 when highlander was released, edney went on to star in the 1990 film Mister Johnson alongside Pierce Brosnan and edward Woodward, 1993’s In The Name Of The Father with Daniel DayLewis and the woeful highlander sequel highlander: endgame in 2000.
She has also appeared in a host of TV dramas including Rosemary & Thyme, A Touch Of Frost, Prime Suspect, Inspector Morse, Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Wallander. however, most viewers will now know her as Ross’s maidservant Prudie Paynter in Poldark.
Jane Fitzgerald, Godalming, Surrey. The rock used for the sparring scene in highlander is the Cioch, a great slab that protrudes at 2,850ft from the face of Sron na Ciche, a cliff face in the Cuillin mountain range on Skye. Cioch means ‘breast’ in Gaelic and refers to the shape of this famous feature.
It is the stuff of legend for climbers. In 1899, the mountaineer Norman Collie noticed a shadow across a great slab while climbing in the Cuillin, but the direction of the sun made it difficult to pick it out from the surrounding rock. he confirmed his suspicions seven years later in 1906, when, with his partner, John Mackenzie, the Cioch was climbed for the first time.
Access is difficult and to scale it requires considerable climbing skill. For the scene in highlander where Connor MacLeod and Ramirez fight, stunt doubles and a film crew were flown in by helicopter.
Ali Linneman, Edinburgh.
QUESTION What’s the German word to describe a last piece of food that guests are too polite to eat? What other words do Germans have that we don’t?
The word in question is Anstandsrest, a guest ( Gast) showing Anstand (etiquette, good manners) and not appearing greedy or ill-mannered to the host by leaving a small piece of food ( Rest) on the plate.
Talking of guests, Zaungaste were people who had not been invited to a function or were unwilling to pay for a ticket, so had to stand behind a Zaun (fence).
Today, it can mean watching an event for free or sitting on the fence and not being willing or able to influence what is happening around you. The German words Angst (fear) and
Schadenfreude (the pleasure of witnessing someone else’s misfortune) are well-established in english usage.
E. Felix Schoendorfer, Stoke Poges, Bucks. My FAVOuRITe example is
Kummerspeck, which translates as ‘grief bacon’. It’s the weight you put on through over- eating when emotional. A loosely related term is Huftgold, ‘hip gold’, known to us as love handles. One to say out loud is H and sch uh schneeb all w er fer,
a portmanteau word meaning ‘one who wears gloves to throw snowballs’, in other words, a coward.
Similar terms include Schattenparker, ‘one who parks his car in the shade’, which is used to refer to a wimp; and
warmduscher, ‘ hot showerer’, for someone who is afraid to leave their comfort zone.
The French term esprit d’escalier, ‘staircase wit’, refers to the terrific comeback you come up with after an argument is over. however, the German Treppenwitz has the same translation, but a different meaning. It is used to refer to an event which, in hindsight, was not a good idea. V er sch li mm be s se rn is a clever word composed of contradictory terms ( verschlimm, ‘to make things worse’, and verbessern, ‘ to improve’). It means making something worse during the act of trying to improve it. In a similar manner, kaputtver-bessern, ‘ broken improve’, refers to someone unskilled trying to do DIy. Erklarungsnot means ‘ emergency explanation’, which is required when you haven’t done your homework or you have lipstick on your collar. Luftschloss, ‘air castle’, refers to an unrealistic dream or delusions of grandeur. Fernweh, ‘far-woe’, is the German equivalent of wanderlust. Kopfkino, ‘head cinema’, is playing out an entire scenario in your mind. Backpfei fen ge sicht ,‘ cheek whistle face’, is a face that needs to be slapped! Weltschmerz, ‘ world- pain’ or ‘ world- weariness’, refers to the sinking feeling that the world is going to let you down no matter what. It was coined by German author Johann Paul Friedrich Richter in his 1827 posthumous novel Selina. he is also credited with inventing Doppelganger, ‘ double- goer’, an apparition or double of a living person. Caroline Mason, Cowes, Isle of Wight.
QUESTION What are the strangest examples of animals stopping sports matches?
FuRTheR to earlier answers, my 88year-old uncle harry told me of attending a football match in Scotland many years ago when a dog invaded the pitch.
everyone from the referee to the linesmen tried without success to shoo it off the pitch, but the pooch just kept running around, entertaining the crowd.
Play was resumed after 20 minutes when they finally got the dog off.
however, harry says that the players were so bad, that for the rest of the match everyone was yelling: ‘Bring back the dog!’
Anne Conway, Dunoon, Argyll. SeVeRAL years ago, I attended a football match at Notts County. The game was briefly interrupted when a squirrel ran across the penalty area.
After several jokers shouted ‘Offside!’ the home fans chanted ‘ One Jimmy Squirrel, there’s only one Jimmy Squirrel’, in homage to their legendary former manager, Jimmy Sirrel.
Ian Berry, Woking, Surrey.
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