Hello and a (somewhat belated) Happy New Year to you all. I am feeling at one with the world having spent a quiet Christmas, notable for the fact that (unlike the previous two) I was not confined to a hospital ward and clad in only an open back frock and bright red non-slip socks.
So how to start Idle Moments for a new year? I decided on ‘FIVEbyFOUR’ and, in a fit of self indulgence, rummaged through my vinyl collection to challenge you to pair up a few albums with their performers. You might recognise a little bit of bias (not as much as I might have inserted) towards the realms of folk music; I make no apology for that. So can you match these up (and how many names do you recognise)? I have included the years in which the albums were released in case it offers some assistance.
1. Alison Moyet A. A King at Nightfall (1975)
2. The Watersons B. If You Could Read My Mind (1970)
3. Pete Atkin C. Gorilla (1967)
4. Joni Mitchell D. The Rout of the Blues (1970)
5. Fleetwood Mac E. A Song for All Seasons (1978)
6. Bonzo Dog Doo/Dah Band F. Poems, Prayers & Promises (1971)
7. John Denver G. Blue (1971)
8. Gordon Lightfoot H. Raindancing (1987)
9. Robin & Barry Dransfield I. For Pence & Spicy Ale (1975)
10. Renaissance J. Rumours (1977)
Up next is a third dip into my collection of BAZY Celebrities, whose initials are consecutive letters of the alphabet but reversed:
1. GF: American female tennis player
2. NM: Eldest ‘bright young things’ sister
3. SR: Jazz saxophonist
4. CB: Celebrity snapper
5. IH: Composer daughter of Gustav
6. GF: Archbishop of Canterbury
7. BA: Comedy partner of Lou
8. JI: Learned the Truth at Seventeen
9. ON: Brazilian architect
10. ML: Beach Boy
When it comes to the Trivial Knowledge bit, you may have noticed that I like to select (at least some) questions that have a common theme. I was thinking of trying to base this month’s on years ending in 26 but failed dismally to find any that I found interesting. Instead I went for the other stock solution of picking events during the circulation months of the magazine and here are some of those:
1. HMS Thunderer, the last battleship to be built on the River Thames, was launched at Silvertown on 1 February; in what year?
2. On 7 February 1974, which British colony of the Windward Islands became an independent Commonwealth country under its first Prime Minister, Eric Gairy?
3. The actress Maureen O’Sullivan gave birth on 9 February 1945 to a daughter who subsequently also became a famous actress. Who was that child?
4. Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days Queen, was executed for high treason on 12 February of what year?
5. On 19 February 1878, Thomas Edison was granted US patent No. 200251 for which of his many inventions?
6. Charlie Chaplin was knighted by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 4 March – in what year?
7. On 7 February, the Victoria Line of the London Underground was opened to regular passenger traffic; in what year?
8. The composer Sir William Walton died (at the age of 80) on 8 March 1983 at his home on what Italian island where he had lived since 1956?
9. On 20 March 1980, the ship Mi Amigo ran aground and sank, thus terminating the broadcasting of what pirate radio station (and after how many years of operation)?
10. Mark Brunel’s Thames Tunnel, between Wapping and Rotherhithe, was formally opened on 25 March in what year?
So, there we are; another Idle Moment comes to an end. I do hope you will find something much more interesting to do until the April/May London Drinker arrives.
All the best.
Andy Pirson
Here are the solutions to the puzzles set in the December/January Idle Moments column.
Cryptic stations:
1. Boggy portal – Moorgate
2. Miners’ plantation – Colliers Wood
3. Skint boy in the woods – Ladbroke Grove
4. Captures a stream – Snaresbrook
5. Bottom included? – Arsenal
6. This way to Scotland? – Caledonian Road
7. Where the rabbits live – Warren Street
8. Incinerated tree – Burnt Oak
9. Alpine retreat – Swiss Cottage
10. Perfect square of trees – Nine Elms
5BY4: (Arrondissements de Paris)
1. 1st – Louvre
2. 2nd – Bourse
3. 3rd – Temple
4. 4th – L’Hotel de Ville
5. 5th – Pantheon
6. 6th – Luxembourg
7. 7th – Palais Bourbon
8. 8th – L’Elysee
9. 9th – L’Opera
10. 10th – L’Entrepot
General knowledge (Twelve Questions of Christmas)
1. The scientist born on 25 December 1642 at Woolsthorpe near Grantham was Isaac Newton.
2. Radium was discovered and isolated by Pierre and Marie Curie on 26 December in 1898.
3. HMS Beagle (carrying Charles Darwin) departed from Plymouth Sound, on its five-year circumnavigation of the world, on 27 December of 1831.
4. The area designated as Britain’s first national park, on 28 December 1950, was the Peak District.
5. Britain’s first ‘Ironclad’ battleship, HMS Warrior, was launched at Blackwall on 29 December in 1860.
6. Rudyard Kipling, the English writer and poet was born on 30 December 1865 in Bombay (as it was then known).
7. The chimes of the Great Clock (Big Ben) were first broadcast on 31 December in 1923.
8. The Commonwealth of Australia was created by the amalgamation of the six states and two territories on 1 January 1901.
9. The first municipal crematorium in England, opened on 2 January 1901 (by the Lord Mayor), was in Hull.
10. The leader of the first overland expedition to reach the South Pole (on 3 January 1958), since that of Captain Rober Falcon Scott in 1912, was Sir Edmund Hillary.
11. The first pop music chart, based on record sales, was published on 4 January in New York in The Billboard magazine on 4 January in 1936.
12. The first automatic ticket barrier on the London Underground (which came into operation on 5 January 1964) was at Stamford Brook station.
[Sorry about the ‘overland land’ in question 10]