The Daily Teaser — 24-3-2013

Blimey, that takes me back … 

I have to admit, one of the more fascinating books I once borrowed from Brentwood Library was a potted history of the Mechanical Turk: a famous — fake — chess playing automaton from the late 1770s, that was destroyed by a fire in the 1850s.

And one of those fakes that people twigged was a hoax: pretty rapidly realised was a hoax, but were always wondering about the workings of.

At ANY rate, someone from the BBC’s just written an article about the Turk: and I thought it worth passing on to you.   You can read it, here.

Right … Let’s get a shift on, shall we … ?

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Yesterday’s Football Crazy Teaser saw Debbi* putting in her answers.   Along with wishing she had a TARDIS, she also managed to bag 5 out of 5.

Let’s see how she — and you — do with today’s Teaser, shall we?

Here it is, along with the ‘How To’, License and video … 

Q1) 24th March, 1401, saw Timur sack which Syrian city … ?

Q2) More to the point, Timur is also known as whom … ?

Q3) 24th March, 1958, saw Elvis join the US Army: which division did he join, after training … ?

Q4) 24th March, 1980, saw the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero: whilst celebrating Mass in which city … ?

Q5) 24th March, 2008, saw which country hold its first ever general election … ?

Q6) And finally … 24th March, 1996, saw the closure of which satirical magazine … ?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 23rd March, 1888, saw the first meeting of the Football League.   In a hotel in which city … ?

A1) London.

Q2) More to the point, on the eve of the first what … ?

A2) FA Cup final.

Q3) What was the first team to be Football League winners, in 1888 … ?

A3) Preston North End.

Q4) Which team’s won the most League titles: Aston Villa, Manchester United or West Bromwich Albion … ?

A4) Manchester United: 19, all told, a mix of 12 League and 7 Premier League (it’s replacement) titles.

Q5) And finally … as originally written, in 1863, how many rules did Football have … ?

A5) Thirteen. (13).

Enjoy those.

I’ll leave you with this tune from Nick Lowe … 

And this thought from birthday boy, actor and — famously —former drill sergeant, R. Lee Ermey …

“The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.”

R. Lee Ermey, born March 24, 1944

Have a good day … 

*        I know what you mean, Debbi.   Still, there’s only a week before the next set kick off.   There’s a clip you can watch, over here.   Oh … And you can feed the word ‘TARDIS’ into Wolfram Alpha … !