The Daily Teaser — 13-5-2013

Well … 

THAT was a weekend!

Did I tell you I managed to catch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Friday night … ?   I’m still nowhere near getting the write up finished.

Mostly because I’ve been helping my mother, out.   She’s had the garage at the family home converted into an extra bedroom: and we spent the weekend transferring her stuff from one room to the other.

Entertaining … except I’ve possibly sprained something.   Or, at least, worn something out … !

Let’s move on shall we … ?

~≈†≈~

Yesterday’s teaser saw both Debbi and Terrance putting in their answers: with Terrance* scoring eight out of eight and Debbi† bagging seven, it also saw Terrence wishing me well, and Debbi mentioning her most recent post.

Let’s see how they — and you — do with today’s questions, shall we?

Here they are, along with the ‘How To’, License and video …

Q1) 13th May, 1958, saw Velcro registered as a trademark.   Velcro’s inventor had been inspired by the seeds of which plant: burdock, dandelion or daisies … ?

Q2) More to the point, which European country was that inventor from … ?

Q3) Moving on … 13th May, 1981, saw Mehmet Ali Ağca attempt to shoot whom … ?

Q4) May 4th, 1994, saw Johnny Carson make his last TV appearance: on which TV programme?

Q5) 13th May, 1787, saw Captain Arthur Phillips leave Portsmouth, with what later became known as the First Fleet.   To which country were they heading … ?

Q6) And finally … 13th May, 1880, saw Thomas Edison make his first tests of an electric railway.   What was the name of his New Jersey base … ?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 12 May, 1924, saw the birth of comic, Tony Hancock.   What was the name of his radio show … ?

A1) Hancock’s Half Hour.

Q2) More to the point, what was the show renamed as, during the last year of its TV run … ?

A2) Hancock.

Q3) Name either of the show’s script writers.

A3) Ray Galton or Alan Simpson.

Q4) Terry Nation, one of Hancock’s later writers, eventually went on to create which Dr Who creature?

A4) The Daleks.   (He was, of course, the late Terry Nation.)

Q5) Who — in the radio version of the show — played Hancock’s Australian lodger … ?

A5) Bill Kerr.

Q6) Which South African born actor moved on to become a star of the Carry On films, after being sacked from Hancock’s show … ?

A6) Sid James.   (Kerr and James were both born in South Africa, as was Moira Lister.)

Q7) In which episode of the TV series did Hancock famously cut his hand with a bread knife … ?

A7) The Blood Donor.

Q8) And finally … in which Australian city did Hancock die … ?

A8) Sydney.

I’ll leave you with this thought from Samantha Morton …

“I don’t get the point in a lot of biopics, they’re boring. You know what’s gonna happen. You’re just watching actors show off.”

Samantha Morton, born 13th May, 1977

And as today marks a year since the death of noted bassist, Mar-Key, MG and Blues Brother, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, I’ll leave you with this … !

Have a good day, today … 

*        Actually, Terrence, remember saying, yesterday, that Tony Hancock sounded complex … ?   Something I didn’t realise was that the Face to Face interview with him was doing the rounds of the internet.   Probably worth checking out.   (It was also felt to be very intrusive: certainly intrusive enough to have a serious effect on his mental health.)

†        Finished reading it before I started, Debbi: thanking you for the mention … ! :D   (Incidently, did I tell you I was reading William Gibson’s Spook Country … ?   And that the guy’s credited with inventing the term ‘cyberspace’ … ?)