THE BIG QUESTIONS
I’ve just made my 111th blood donation. A nurse told me a score of 111 in cricket was known as a Nelson, but couldn’t tell me why. – H
A Nelson is named after Admiral Nelson who, it was claimed, had “one eye, one arm and one leg, hence 111. However, Nelson never actually lost a leg.
And it is also wrongly considered unlucky as a batsman is no more likely to lose his wicket on 111 than any other – apart from 0.
I’ve seen enough US cop shows and thriller movies to know that a “John Doe” is an unidentified male, usually on a mortuary slab with a tag bearing the name on his big toe. But why John Doe? – V
The use of John Doe – or Jane Doe in the feminine version – as a placeholder name for an unidentified person has been in use from early as the 14th Century in England.
At the time, John was the most common Christian name in the country, and a doe was a female deer, so that is probably the reason for the name being used. There were also thousands of Eurasian roe deer, and the name John Roe was also commonly used in courts.
Was there ever a Mr Knorr of stock cube fame? – T
There was, a Carl Heinrich Theodor Knorr, a German businessman who founded the Knorr company in the city of Heilbronn in 1836 to supply chicory to the coffee industry.
He produced the first dried soups in 1873, but it wasn’t until 1912, 37 years after their founder’s death that Knorr created the stock cube.
The weren’t available in the UK until 1949.