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.
ON a recent episode of Antiques Roadshow the presenter valued a prize from a lady that featured memorabilia from a Christopher Reeve competition and stated that Reeve was the first Superman.
I used to go to the cinema every Saturday morning in the late 1940s and early 1950s to see my idol Superman and had all the Superman annuals. Who was the real first Superman?
Gillian Browning, by email THE former musical star Kirk Alyn was the first actor to play Superman in live action form in 1948 and won critical acclaim.
He “flew” with the familiar cape and had “S” stamped on his body-hugging costume but wasn’t given a credit in the 15-part movie serial in an apparent attempt to try to convince children Superman was real.
In the 1950s, George Reeves, who had a small part in Gone With The Wind, starred in 104 episodes of a Superman series.
I DO appreciate the Richard and Judy column. There was reference to Stephen Hawking’s statement that no one created the Universe.
As it is vast beyond measure, I wonder how it exactly came into being in its beauty and precision?
Graham Wilson, Edinburgh STEPHEN HAWKING, below, spends a long time discussing it in his new (posthumous) Brief Answers To The Big Questions book.
He concludes that: “The universe itself, in all its mind-boggling vastness and complexity, could simply have popped into existence without violating the known laws of nature,” and goes on to say, “... it is possible that nothing caused the Big Bang. Nothing”.
Talking of the Creation, he says: “The simplest explanation is that there is no God,” but he doesn’t rule out the possibility. HOW many countries around the world have a policy of birthright citizenship, meaning that if you’re born in a particular country you automatically become a citizen?
Chris Schuman by email THE automatic right to citizenship for anyone born in a country dates back to Roman law and was accepted throughout Europe until recently. Known as “jus soli” (the right of the soil) it has gradually been replaced by “jus sanguinis” (right of blood), which restricts automatic citizenship to those born to people who already have it. Ireland was the last European country to adopt this limited form of jus soli, which it did in 2004. At the present time, the only countries with unrestricted birthright citizenship are almost all of North, South and Central America, Caribbean nations, Chad, Lesotho, Tanzania, Pakistan and Tuvalu.
This week, Donald Trump suggested that the US may also give it up.
Unrestricted birthright citizenship is also given in most countries to otherwise-stateless people born within their borders or on ships or planes flying their flags.
WHY is the size of writing paper known as Foolscap so named and what are the earliest origins of it?
David Garbutt via email I’VE often wondered the same thing! It turns out that by Foolscap, a size of writing paper slightly taller than A4, is named after the watermark which was most commonly used for this size of paper from the 15th century onwards. The mark was of a court jester – the Fool – wearing his distinctive bell-tipped multi-pointed cock’scomb cap.
Is there anything you can’t answer? Try us! Here’s how you can ask a question: By email:
put “questions” in the subject line and send your question to william.hartston@express. co.uk
By post:
to Any Questions, c/o Dominic Midgley, Daily Express, Number 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN
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