The Daily Teaser …

Blimey, but Doctor Kevin don’t half choose his times to phone … !

But at least we can say his acupuncture’s going well enough …

Let’s get moving on, shall we … ?

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Oh …

Yesterday’s showing the Jeremy Clarkson series, Inventions That Changed The World. And the episode they’re showing … ?

Is the one all about the telephone.

Fascinating to see the Visual Telegraph: something I know Terry Pratchett uses a disguised version of, in many of his later Discworld novels.

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Let’s get moving on, shall we … ?

After all, as fascinating as this might be, I’m sure this sort of thing isn’t why you’re reading this … !

Yesterday’s teaser saw Trevor and Kaiju — the Dream Ticket, back in action — going head to head: with Trevor scoring 5 out of 5* and and Kaiju bagging 4 out of 5*: and agreeing with me, I think, that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — while they won us WW2 — weren’t exactly the most morally comfortable way of doing so.

Those were strange days, to say the least …

Let’s move onto today’s questions, with the ‘How To’ and License shall we … ? Before I get too depressed about what was, after all, a terrible event …

Q1) 7th August, 1972, saw Idi Amin order the Asian population out of the country he ruled: which African country was it … ?


Q2) 7th August, 1958, saw the birth of the better known of Iron Maiden’s lead singers: what’s his name … ?

Q3) More to the point, what was the name of the singer who first recorded for Iron Maiden … … ?

Q4) 7th August, 1679, saw the maiden voyage of Le Griffon: this was the first ship to successfully sail — pay attention, Trevor! — on at least three of the … what?

Q5) 7th August, 1782, saw President George Washington order the creation of the Badge of Military Merit: how is this medal now known … ?


Q6) And finally … 7th August, 1876, saw the birth of spy, courtesan and exotic dancer, Margaretha Geertruida “Grietje” Zelle MacLeod: how was she better known … ?


And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 6th August, 1945, saw the dropping of the first atonic bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. How many people died instantly as a result of this bombing: 70,000, 80, 000 or 90, 000… ?


A1) 70, 000. Or 80, 000, depending on who you ask. (I can always remember an old boss of mine telling me that he always put the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on a par with the Holocaust. The boss in question was Jewish: I was 20 or so at the time, and that always stuck in my mind.)

Q2) 6th August, 1925, saw the birth of American actress, Barbara Bates: which 1950, Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed film was her best known … ?

A2) All About Eve.

Q3) Whilst we’re on the subjects of births, 6th August, 1963, saw the birth of which notorious computer cracker … ?

A3) Kevin Mitnick.

Q4) 6th August, 1825, saw which country gain independence from Spain … ?

A4) HTMLBolivia.

Q5) 6th August, 1991, saw Tim Berners-Lee release the code that defined the World Wide Web to the world: most web pages are made up from what type of document … ?


A5) HTML, or hypertext mark-up language documents.

Q6) And finally … 6th August, 2005, saw the death of which former British Foreign Secretary … ?


A6) Robin Cook.

Enjoy those, everyone …

I’ll catch you all later …

* Or the other way ’round: Wikipedia suggests 70, 000 on one page, 80, 000 on another, and 90, 000 on yet another. Oy VEH!