Your questions answered:
We’ve just a booked a holiday in the Florida sunshine, in Fort Lauderdale. So can you tell me who was the Fort named after? – M.
Just north of Miami, Fort Lauderdale has an average temperature of 75°F and has around 3,000 hours of sunshine a year.
The city takes its name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), who was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort on the site, in the mid-1830s. “A watched kettle never boils,” I told my son as he was making a coffee. He shot back: “Hot water freezes faster than cold!” Does it? – L.
This is the Mpemba Effect, but scientists can’t agree whether it is real or not as it is difficult to measure.
There is also disagreement about the parameters required to produce the effect and its theoretical basis.
So I can’t say if it’s true or not. Sorry!
On
transfer deadline day last week, I noticed that Nottingham Forest had signed a player called Pele.
Now the original Pele, part of the 1970 World Cup-winning Brazil is the greatest footballer who ever lived, in my opinion.
My granddad disagrees, as he says that title belongs to Jimmy McGrory, the Celtic striker of the 1920s.
To agree on who is best, we decided that wewouldaskyouwho scored the most goals per game, Queries Man. –J.
Well, I never saw McGrory play, but my own feeling is that Pele is the greatest ever.
However, between the two, McGrory had the best goals per game ratio, with 1.04.
He played for the Hoops from 1922-37 (including 30 games on loan to Clydebank), finding the net 407 times in the league and 77 times in the Scottish Cup. He also netted six times for Scotland, and six for the Scottish League XI.
Pele scored at the rate of 0.93 goals per game.
He scored 767 times in 831 matches, though his total is well over 1,000 if you count friendlies and unofficial matches. However, the player with the best goals per game ratio is someone I expect you’ve never heard of.
I’m talking about Fernando Peyroteo, who played for Sporting Lisbon in Portugal.
Between 1937 and 1949, he scored an incredible 309 goals in 189 games, giving him a goals to games ratio of 1.6.
That’s a record Nottingham Forest’s Pele would love to break. A neighbour has just bought himself a pickup truck as he has a landscaping business. It’s an impressive piece of kit and made me wonder about the first pickup truck. – D.
That was probably the 1925 Ford Model T Runabout.
It was basically a Model T coupe fitted with a flat bed on the rear, perfect for carrying small items.
It had a four-cylinder 2,896cc engine, a twospeed manual gearbox, four wheel drive and a top speed of 45mph. I vaguely remember being ill and off school in the 1970s when I was delighted to see an afternoon telly show that had a long interview with Elvis Costello. Is my memory playing tricks? – P.
No, it’s not, as Elvis appeared on After Noon in 1977, where he was interviewed by Mavis Nicholson.
He played an acoustic version of God’s Comic, which wasn’t released until his 1989 LP, Spike.