Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu
I must remember to get myself an up-to-date dictionary. Welcome to summer; here’s hoping for a good one. But first let’s cause some anguish with the number puzzles:
1.224 O in a S
2.32 P in a S of CM
3.7 RN on BSMB
4.3,097,600 SY in a SM
5.1819 B of QV
6.2 K of SP (to H and H)
7.77,500 SM (approximately) is the A of the O-TA
8.53 S in TT-T
9.35,274 O in a T (or MT)
10.540 D is the S of the A of a P
I don’t know why but this time 5BY4 is about the largest lakes in the United Kingdom. It might be just following on in my brain from the big islands last time. You might notice that all ten of them are in either Scotland (seven) or Northern Ireland (three). If you are not sure which are which, you should get a clue from the spelling of the ‘L’ words; but that’s not the puzzle – sorting them into size order is:
1.Loch Maree A. 1st (147.87 square miles)
2.Loch Shin B. 2nd (42.28 square miles)
3.Loch Awe C. 3rd (27.45 square miles)
4.Loch Ness D. 4th (21.78 square miles)
5.Loch Lomond E. 5th (13.3 square miles)
6.Lower Lough Earne F. 6th (14.85 square miles)
7.Upper Lough Earne G. 7th (11.03 square miles)
8.Loch Tay H. 8th (10.3 square miles)
9.Loch Morar I. 9th (10.19 square miles)
10.Lough Neagh J. 10th (8.7 square miles)
You may be interested to know that, for comparison, the largest lake in England is Windermere at 5.69 square miles – or maybe you are not, but you know now. And while I’m at it, you’re probably not interested that Wales’s largest lake is Llyn Tegid at 1.87 square miles.
Right, it’s Trivia Time now – a bit of a mixed bag this time; I didn’t want you get complacent (‘cos I’m mean like that). But then, you wouldn’t want ten questions about the colours of animals under their hair, would you.
1.We all know that polar bears are white, but what is the colour of their skin under all that hair?
2.We also all know that electrical current is measured in amps (actually amperes), but what is measured in volts (commonly referred to as ‘voltage’)?
3.What widely used household (or laboratory) object was invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892?
4.Cunard currently has a new ship under construction, due to enter service in January 2024. What is its name?
5.Kings Henry II, Henry III, Edward I, Edward IV and Henry VII all had queens consort with what name? And who is missing from this List?
6.And similarly (but different), who was the consort to the Nine Days Queen, Lady Jane Grey?
7.What creature has the binomial name pulex irritans?
8.The first example of what technical device was built in 1960 by Theodore H Maiman, working at Hughes Research laboratories in California?
9.What world record did Percy Lambert set at Brooklands motor racing circuit on 15 February 1913?
10.What speed target was exceeded for the first time on 10 March 1956 by Peter Twiss and in what aircraft?
Well, that’s about it for this time. You are now officially allowed to go out and enjoy yourselves, unless somebody with more authority than I has some other claim on your time. Have a good summer.
Andy Pirson
As usual, here are the solutions to the puzzles set in the April/May Idle Moments column
Number puzzles:
1.12 Edges on an Octahedron
2.72 is Two Cubed Times Three Squared (Andy’s Age)
3.2 Staircases on a ‘Boris Bus’
4.6 is at Three O Clock on a Dart Board
5.10 Acres in a Square Furlong
6.4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse
7.1,728 Cubic Inches in a Cubic Foot
8.2 Red Lines on the Floor of the House of Commons
9.10,500 Santander Bicycles in London
10.160 Fluid Ounces in a Gallon
5BY4 the world’s Biggest Islands:
1.Victoria Island (Canada) – 8th [83,897 square miles]
2.Great Britain – 9th [80,823 square miles]
3.Ellesmere Island (Canada) – 10th [75,767 square miles]
4.New Guinea – 2nd [303,381 square miles]
5.Madagascar – 4th [226,658 square miles]
6.Borneo – 3rd [288,869 square miles]
7.Baffin Island (Canada) – 5th [195,928 square miles]
8.Honshu – 7th [87,200 square miles]
9.Sumatra – 6th [171,068 square miles]
10.Greenland – 1st [822,700 square miles]
General knowledge:
1.Value Added Tax (VAT) was introduced in Britain on 1 April in 1973.
2.Dame Cicely Courtneidge was born on 1 April 1893 in Australia (Sydney).
3.Physician William Harvey was born on 1 April 1578. The fundamental property of the human body he was the first to discover was the circulation of blood.
4.The Times become the first newspaper to publish a daily weather chart in 1875.
5.Scott Joplin, the ragtime pianist and composer, died on 1 April 1917.
6.Tinos I, the United States’ first meteorological satellite, was launched on 1 April 1960.
7.David Gower, captain of the England cricket team (born on 1 April 1957), played for Leicestershire (1975 to 1989) and Hampshire (1990 to 1993).
8.The administrative county of Greater London came into being on 1 April in 1965.
9.The Swedish word Ombudsman first came into use in Britain when Sir Edmund Compton became the first Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration on 1 April in 1967.
10.The use of the treadmill as a means of hard labour finally ended in British prisons on 1 April 1902.