Idle Moments

Idle Moments April/May 2024

March 22, 2024
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Hello again folks. Well here we are again (or perhaps still); as I write this, it’s now just over two months since they let me out of hospital but I’m still not back to normal. That’s assuming, of course that I ever was. Anyway, after the last Drinker appeared I received some criticism (about time, you might say)! My old drinking companion (since the 1960s) was looking at the answers to the number puzzles and said, ‘13 Metres to the First Hurdle in the Women’s One Hundred Metres Hurdles! – who’s ever going to get that?’ And I realised he was right; for a long time I’ve been putting a lot of effort into coming up with new things to count without seriously considering how likely people were to solve them. Consequently I’m giving number puzzles a rest for the first time in about three decades and this time I’m starting with a few brewery anagrams. Yes, I’ve done those to death in the past as well but this time they are all London breweries and they are all new ones since I last did any. Not only that, but for this batch I’ve managed to do just breweries that produce cask beer (according to the CAMRA London Region website), so here they are:

  1. ROLLS ME
  2. WE BORE THE PLUMES
  3. MIND BELOW
  4. GIVES ALL
  5. PETTY CENTRED
  6. PAST TEA
  7. MICK WENT ‘HA!’
  8. TO FINE SPIV
  9. PROTO BELL
  10. NOTED PRIME

Right, now it’s consecutive celebrities time. Like the last time (in December), you might not like No. 2, YZ but it was the only example I could find. Also I could not find a WX or XY. I did find one source giving a name for UV but I could not accept that Urban VI (a pope) was a proper name. This batch finishes off the first run through the alphabet and then grabs a random selection from the more plentiful combinations:

  1. VW: Acorn Antiques proprietor
  2. YZ: Tunisian footballer/manager
  3. LM: Wife of Paul
  4. HI: Triple U.S. Open winner
  5. CD: English male singer (Terence Perkins)
  6. RS: Mandolin Maestro
  7. GH: Laugh-In blonde
  8. AB: 1930’s crooner (from Mozambique)
  9. OP: Clown (from Russia)
  10. EF: What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?

Right. Nearly there now and back on familiar territory; yes, it’s trivial knowledge time. The first few sprang from a travel programme I was watching on the telly the other evening; the Kenilworth questions came from another TV piece about the historic car company and I don’t know why the subject of national flags sprang to mind, it just did.

  1. The Interislander ferry carries traffic between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It sails from Wellington to what town on South Island?
  2. While we are at it, what is the name of the body of water between the North and South Islands of New Zealand?
  3. What is the name of the third largest island of New Zealand, 674 square miles in area, off the southern tip of South Island?
  4. What is the name of the body of water between the tip of Queensland in Australia and the island of Papua New Guinea?
  5. And what is the name of the peninsula that forms the northern part of Queensland?
  6. What is the car company in Kenilworth that builds brand new ‘continuation’ models from its original 1930s blueprints (but adapted to meet current regulations)?
  7. Who was the owner of Kenilworth Castle who built a new wing specifically to entertain Queen Elizabeth I (who stayed for 19 days) in 1575?
  8. The national flag of which European country is white with five red crosses on it?
  9. The flag of which African nation is in three vertical bands in (hoist to fly) orange/white/green – like a left handed version of Ireland’s flag?
  10. The flag of which Commonwealth country in the Caribbean comprises three vertical bands in blue/yellow/blue with a black trident superimposed on the yellow band?

So there we are. All I have to do now is email this and a few other articles off to our illustrious editor and I can stop for a cup of tea (after the exercises that the physiotherapist at the local hospital has given me as part of my convalescence). Have fun until next time!
Andy Pirson

As usual, here are the solutions to the puzzles set in the February/March Idle Moments column. Please note that this column was a reprint from an earlier London Drinker (actually June 2009) because of my long spell in hospital. If I have inadvertently missed any changes that have occurred to make these out of date, please accept my apologies.

Number puzzles:

  1. 5 Formula One World Championships of Juan Fangio
  2. 21 Rolling Stones Top Ten Hits
  3. 2 Stones in a Quarter
  4. 8 Human Beings on Noah’s Ark
  5. 10 Fluid Ounces in a Half Pint
  6. 4 Faces on the Great Westminster Clock (or Big Ben)
  7. 12 Tribes of Israel
  8. 9 Innings per Team in a Game of Baseball
  9. 3 Little Maids from School (from the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan)
  10. 6 Hoops on a Croquet Pitch

5BY4:

  1. Another Part of Me – Michael Jackson
  2. Another Suitcase in Another Hall – Barbara Dickson
  3. Another Brick in the Wall – Pink Floyd
  4. Another Saturday Night – Sam Cooke
  5. Another Day in Paradise – Phil Collins
  6. Another Cup of Coffee – Mike and the Mechanics
  7. Another Day – Paul McCartney
  8. Another Tear Falls – Walker Brothers
  9. Another Night – Aretha Franklin
  10. Another One Bites the Dust – Queen

General knowledge:

  1. Elaine Paige was born Elaine Bickerstaff and Elaine Bookbinder is better known as Elkie Brooks;
  2. Currently riding high in the Formula 1 championship [Oops! Out of date], the Brawn team was bought by Ross Brawn (formerly of Ferrari) from Honda;
  3. The first series of American manned space flights was named Mercury; the name of the following series of two man flights was Gemini;
  4. After Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing, the third man to conquer Mount Everest did so in 1956, on 23 May. If you are really clever, then you know that his name was Ernst Schmied;
  5. And talking of mountains, the mountain first conquered by the German geographer Hans Meyer in 1889 is Mount Kilimanjaro;
  6. Michael Faraday, Karl Marx, Jacob Bronowski and Michael Redgrave are all buried in Highgate Cemetery;
  7. And similarly, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, William Makepeace Thackeray, William Wilkie Collins, Harold Pinter and Anthony Trollope are all in Kensal Green Cemetery;
  8. With much publicity, the brand new [not quite so new now!] A1 Peppercorn class steam locomotive, recently completed [ahem!] is called Tornado;
  9. And still on locomotives, apart from Mallard, the number of preserved A4 Pacifics is five: Bittern, Sir Nigel Gresley, Dwight D. Eisenhower (in the USA), Union of South Africa and Dominion of Canada (in Canada);
  10. The name of the area of west Lancashire between the rivers Ribble and Wyre is the Fylde.