UNDER CONSTRUCTION

FISHING The British Record Salmon was caught by a woman. In 1922, a diminutive Miss Georgina Ballantine (of the Whisky family) caught the fish weighing 64lbs (29k) on the River Tay in Perthshire. The 54" long fish took her 2 hours to land and dragged her half a mile downstream before her ghillie could land it. The fight was so great that her arms were swollen for 2 weeks.

FOOTBALL Some English football clubs have rectangular corner flags and some have triangular ones - and the difference is that a club that has, in its history, won the FA Cup has triangular flags.

INTERNET The very first computer network connection was made on October 29th 1969 by an undergraduate called Charles Kline, attempting to make a computer in Los Angeles communicate with one in Stanford. The very first word he sent was LO. In truth, he was trying to type LOGIN but the damn thing crashed. Ring a bell?

MUSIC In 1981, a little cable TV company began transmitting in New York called Music Television and for their very first opening piece chose a film of an unknown British band called The Buggles – and that song was "Video Killed the Radio Star". That became the first ever true music 'video' (which was ironic, because it was actually film, not video) and the station became MTV. The rest is history.

ORCHID The word Orchid is derived from the Greek word for testicle (orchis) a reference to the shape of its tubers.

PELICON CROSSINGS We all know that Zebra Crossings are so called because they look like Zebras, but few know that Pelicon Crossings are actually an acronym (well, almost) and means PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled. Well, there you go.

STATUES Traditionally, if a statue of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. And if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

GOLF Every June, the most northernly golf course in Iceland, The Akureyi Golf Club, hosts The Arctic Open and, being within the 'Land of the Midnight Sun', the competition tees off at midnight.

TORTOISES Tortoises have little battery-charging cells built into their shells so that when it's light and sunny they tear around manically (as much as a tortoise can) and when the sun goes down they slow up and nod off for the night? And in the winter, when there's no sun at all, they hibernate.

WALES The word Wales is derived from the Germanic word Wahl basically meaning foreigner. Similarly, the word Walnut means foreign nut.

DUCKS Did you know that, for some strange reason that no-one can explain, a duck's quack has no echo.

MUSIC The 1970s BBC music programme, "The Old Grey Whistle Test", hosted by whispering Bob Harris, got its name from an old Tin Pan Alley custom (aka Denmark Street, the famous music centre in London). When a new record had been recorded and the first 'pressing' arrived, they would play it first to the doormen who were always dressed in grey suits. The songs that they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, passed the Old Grey Whistle Test.

SPAIN The Spanish National Anthem, La Marcha, is the only one in the world without words.

THE OLDEST THING The oldest known living thing in Europe is the famous Yew tree in Fortingall Church, in Perthshire Scotland. Estimates have put the age of this tree at possibly 5,000 years old.

CRISPS The sell-by date on packets of crisps is always a Saturday.

MUSIC The singer David Bowie was born David Robert Jones and his first stage name as a teenager was Davy Jones – but he renamed himself after the American frontiersman to avoid confusion with the other more famous Davy Jones – of the Monkees!

THE NAVY The word 'matelot' is often referred to as a 'sailor', but did you know that it is derived from a Dutch word, 'mattenoot' which, literally translated, means 'bedmate'. Hmm.

BIRDS The well known owl call "too-wit, too-woo" is only made by the Tawny Owl, and even then as a 'duel' mating call. The female calls "too-wit" and is answered by a male, perhaps a mile away, with a resounding 'too-woo'.

MOVIE PORKIES In the film Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." Similarly, Sherlock Holmes never said the immortal words "Elementary, my dear Watson."

BRAZIL NUTS The Brazil nut (which actually isn't a nut, but a seed within a nut) has one rather dangerous peculiarity. They are the only nuts that can have their possibly deadly 'proteins' transferred to someone via sex, as in insemination. So if a chap chomps a few Brazil nuts and his wife has a serious nut allergy, the act of sex can bring on an anaphylactic fit…and death.

WORDY SENTENCE The longest continual string of the same word in an English sentence is 11. A teacher has written a sentence on the blackboard and left a gap and asked the class to insert either 'had' or 'had had'. Hence: "Tom, whilst John had had 'had', had had 'had had'; 'had had' had had the teacher's approval.

RULE OF THUMB This commonly used expression is said to have derived from the belief that in 18th England it was perfectly acceptable for a man to beat his wife with a stick as long as it was no thicker than his thumb. Gracious.

SNO-PAQUE Mike Nesmith's mum (the one in The Monkees with the daft hat) invented Sno-Paque, the white liquid paper that was the lifesaver of every pre-computer age secretary.

PAYBACK TIME A fire at an animal shelter near Toronto that killed over 100 cats was discovered to have been caused by mice chewing through electrical cables.

MOVIES In the 1968 film '2001, A Space Odyssey', the central character is a computer called HAL. The name was created by being the 3 previous letters to IBM.

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From the 'never to be published' book, THE RAMBLINGS OF AN ORDINARY BLOKE