THE BIG QUESTIONS
With The Queen’s funeral, we have seen lots of Union Jacks recently. Where does the word Jack come from? – I
Jack was a word used as long ago as the 14th Century to describe something as small, or not as good as something, as in “jack of all trades”.
Small flags, as opposed to the large ensigns flown from the bows of ships, were known as jacks.
In the late 17th Century, the British flag became known as the Union Jack.
I watched an old movie, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, on TV this week. Was the weird mountain where the aliens landed real, or was it a bit of special effects trickery? – A
The mountain, Devils Tower in the US state of Wyoming, is real.
It rises 1,267ft (386m) above the Belle Fourche River, and is 867ft (265m) from base to summit.
Native American tribes such as the Cheyenne, Lakota and Kiowa knew it as “Bear’s Lodge” “Aloft on a Rock” or “Great Grey Horn”.
The name “Devil’s Tower” was coined in 1875 when an interpreter on an expedition led by Col Richard Irving Dodge, misinterpreted a local
name to mean “Bad God’s Tower”.
I love Capercaillie, the band, I mean, and know that a capercaillie is a bird, but what does the word mean? - L
Capercaillie is a corruption of the Gaelic “capall coille” meaning “horse of the wood”.
They spend a lot of time on the ground, but may also be found in trees, feeding on shoots and buds.
Sadly, the capercaillie is in decline, and numbers are so low that there is a risk they may be extinct in the UK in the 20 years.