THE BIG QUESTIONS
I’m pretty proud of the cactus I’ve grown on my kitchen windowsill as it’s about 8in tall – but how big can they grow in nature? – H
A lot taller!
In Mexico’s Sonora Desert, Baja California, a cardon cactus was discovered to be 63ft (19.2m) tall.
However, the largest cactus was grown by students in a dental college in India, which is an astonishing height of 110ft (33.5m) and is still growing.
My birthday is coming up at the end of this month, and I’m hoping to be given a few more bottles of whisky to add to my collection of 46 bottles. Do you know of anyone with more? – N
You have to go to San Diego, California, to find The Whiskey House, where there are 2,467 varieties of whisky on offer. However, these aren’t only Scotch whisky, as there are drams from 23 countries and 42 US states. Prices start from $7 a glass, up to an eye-watering $1,100.
The most valuable individual collection is owned by Nguyen Dinh Tuan Viet of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. His collection is worth more than £13 million.
You were wrong to say that, apart from the home nations, only Australia had produced a world champion. Cliff Thorburn (Canada) won in 1980 and Ken Doherty (Republic of Ireland) won in 1997. Wilson Burt, Stenhousemuir
I enjoyed watching the results of the local elections this week, now can you tell me where in the world is the largest electorate? – A
That is India which, in its General Election of 2019, saw 613,146,768 people cast a vote.
Held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, the count took four days, before returning Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party as the country’s Prime Minister, a post he had held for the previous five years.