Fame? He can work it out!
QUESTION What jobs did The Beatles have before they became famous?
At 16, John Lennon was playing in a skiffle band, the Quarrymen. He always felt he was destined to become famous and had no intention of doing anything as boring as a ‘normal’ job. When he left school, he went to Liverpool College of Art, where he spent his time ‘having a laugh and playing rock ’n’ roll’.
By 1958, Paul McCartney and George Harrison had joined forces with Lennon. the band played wherever they could get a booking, using a variety of drummers.
In May 1960, McCartney was in the sixth form at the Liverpool Institute when he decided to abandon his studies and go on a tour of Scotland with the group, who were appearing as a backing band for Johnny Gentle.
Despite being the youngest member of the band, Harrison was an apprentice electrician at Blacklers department store in Liverpool when the chance to go on the Scottish tour came up. After deliberating briefly, he decided to quit his job and join the band full-time.
In contrast, Ringo Starr had a number of jobs before becoming a full- time musician. His first was as a messenger boy on the railways. He had been a sickly child and, after five weeks in this job, he had to leave because he failed the medical. He then worked as a barman on a pleasure steamer, sailing between Liverpool and North Wales, until he was sacked for giving cheek to the boss.
Next, he joined H. Hunt & Son, supposedly as a joiner. However, he was given a bike and told to collect orders. After six weeks, he became an apprentice engineer. In 1960, he left to become a drummer with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Ringo joined the Beatles in August 1962, a month before the band recorded their first British single, Love Me Do.
Bev Tilling, Chester. IN The Sixties, I worked for electrical engineers Massey Coggins.
the Beatles were just starting out on the road to fame. In order to keep getting unemployment benefit, you had to show willing to work. So, one morning, Paul McCartney and another aspiring singer, Paul Melba, showed up to learn how to repair electric motors.
I was assigned to teach McCartney how to make electric coils. I remember him telling me they had a gig in Bootle shortly after he started. Soon after that he disappeared, never to be seen again. to think if he’d have stayed he could have ended up with a trade under his belt!
Frank Peate, Liverpool.
QUESTION Do sniffer dogs that are trained to detect drugs ever get addicted?
There is an urban myth that sniffer dogs are addicted to drugs, but there are no known instances of it.
Chemical addiction occurs when the substance is injected, ingested or inhaled in significant volumes. Over time, the brain becomes dependent on the active ingredient, craving more and more of it.
Sniffer dogs don’t ingest any of the substance or inhale it in significant volumes, so chemical addiction can’t occur.
Initially, the dog will be trained to look for a toy and when they retrieve it they are given a small reward. this is known as positive operant conditioning.
Once the trainer has taught the dog to search on command, the toy is replaced by items contaminated with a very small quantity of the substance that the dog is being trained to find. It will be offered to the dog to smell before it is concealed.
to prevent the dog from ingesting the substance, it is wrapped in plastic, pierced by pinholes. the sensitivity of a dog’s nose means it can still smell the substance. A dog’s sense of smell is between 10,000 and 100,000 times more sensitive than ours, depending on the breed. It is so sensitive it can identify contraband that has been contaminated by strong-smelling substances.
the dog is trained not to pick up the ‘find’, but to react in some way, such as sitting and looking at the item. they will often whine or bark as well, but that is its way of asking for its reward, normally a dog treat.
Dogs are capable of learning to identify multiple substances, which means they could identify a drug smuggler and a currency smuggler in an airport.
Animal welfare is a great concern for agencies using sniffer dogs and they are limited in the number of hours they can work each day, which are less than those of their human handlers. there are also strict rules governing the dogs’ kennelling and welfare. Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION Who was the writer who replied to a critic: ‘You yourself may prove to show it, That every fool is not a poet.’
The full epigram is: ‘Sir, I admit your general rule, that every poet is a fool, But you yourself may prove to show it, that every fool is not a poet.’
this witty riposte has been attributed to a number of famous poets, including Samuel taylor Coleridge, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, theophile de Viau and Matthew Prior.
the Oxford Dictionary Of Quotations credited Pope, because a similar poem was published in Miscellanies in 1732, a work he co-authored. Yet the book includes the footnote ‘epigram from the French’. It has been attributed to 17thcentury poet de Viau, but only a century after his death.
the earliest known citation of a similar epigram comes from Prior, an english poet, in 1707: ‘Yes, ev’ry Poet is a Fool: By Demonstration Ned can show it: Happy, cou’d Ned’s inverted Rule, Prove ev’ry Fool to be a Poet.’
When Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary Of the english Language in 1755, he used Prior’s poem to illustrate the verb ‘to invert’. Tim Elliot, Worcester.
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