Answer Me This! - AMT245: Smells, Bouquets and Annie Lennox

Episode Date: February 7, 2013

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Hey listeners, I hope you stuck around to the end of last week's podcast, because right at the end, I inadvertently set you a challenge which was essentially deciding whether I was right in thinking that you would remember Arrested Development's 1992 pop hit Mr Wendell or whether Martin was right that you wouldn't. And guess what we're covering this right at the top of this week's episode so I think we can safely conclude that Martin must be wrong. In your face Martin. Yeah there are four people on Twitter who know who Arrested Development were. Well, actually, this is the thing, isn't it? We've had lots of you write in to say, of course I get that reference.

It probably is more than four. It's probably more like 24. But, of course, if you don't know the reference, you're not going to write in and say, I don't know it, because then you look stupid. So, Martin could be right that the majority of the listeners didn't. How much do you think the $2 in Mr Wendell would be worth now? You know, $2 is just a snack for me, but it means a big deal to you.

What are you going to get out of Pret-a-Manger for two dollars? Well, two dollars is, yeah, what's that, one pound thirty? Popcorn. Yeah, maybe an egg sandwich

if you take away. One of those half sandwiches though, not a full one. Yeah, yeah, half sandwich. Doesn't mean a great deal to anyone. Interesting arrested development fact,

by the way. The band Arrested Development sued the TV show Arrested Development. Oh. That's upset me. No one is going to mistake the two exactly and the psychological syndrome uh piped up so excuse me i think i was here before all of you but anyway uh gareth from vancouver gets a worthy mention amongst those people who recognized uh this reference the legion of you um because uh he's well he's kind of the king of cultural references because he says

I got the reference to Mr Wendell, Helen. Nailed it, Gareth. But I also remember the episode of Game On in which the nose was cut off the cheese. Well, see what else you can fox him with, Helen. Maybe something you spotted in the background of an episode of Twin Peaks. Hey, you remember that sitcom

set in a tennis academy called Phenom? Get back to me on it, Gareth. I don't even know if you're joking. Mid-90s Channel 4. It's incredible, isn't it, to think what you could do with your brain if you weren't wasting it with all this shit? It's so awful. It's amazing. Seriously, she's got a massive head, literally.

Like a massive big skull. Like Shakespeare. She could put so much in there. I have a really thick skull. That's the Zaltzman thing. Big head. Not necessarily a bigger brain. But it's good that i have a thick skull because the other day a large bottle of cobra fell off the top of the fridge about five feet onto my head and actually wasn't it on top

of the microwave on top of the fridge as well so it's quite a lot of height there it was a big fall it was a big bottle of beer and i survived because of my thick zaltzman skull uh right time for a question now this is from matthew in camden uh who says i just smelt a man passing me in the street he says this was unintentional it usually is i the only time i ever do anything with intent regarding smelling people who pass me it's intending not to uh i'm not that proud of this it's just true if i see someone who looks like they've been sleeping rough for a bit too long and I think they might smell, I actually breathe out as I approach them

so that I don't breathe in until I've passed them so I don't get that horrible smell. Or often, if a lady is wearing a very strong vanilla perfume, I have to run off as well. How can you tell visually, though, that someone's... You've already smelt it by that point. She's got a big V written on her face. Yes, Matthew says,

this man who passed me in the street was wearing the abercrombie scent and there was a decided tug in my loins uh that was probably a tendon or maybe your pants were too tight i think he's suggesting he's getting a stiffy helen just at the smell of this man helen answer me this is there some scientific reason for my lusty urge uh i wonder whether it is triggering a kind of scent memory because those are really powerful um even if you don't want them to be yeah especially matthew if you've walked past a branch of abercrombie and they've been one of those uh muscly pubeless teenagers standing there in their pants outside getting hypothermia because it's britain that sounds very degrading thing to find attractive that's well

some people do it sells helen anyway, I always feel sorry for them because they're teenagers. If it was girls, they would not allow it, would they? They're getting paid for doing nothing. If it was girls, they would be paid a lot less and it'd be in a bar that was windowless. Yeah, anyway. Anyway.

I wonder if perhaps you've passed one of those gentlemen before, found them sexually attractive and so you're triggering the emotion memory of that. My emotion memory though is really weird because it's... I suppose, because it's attached to a lot of experiences in my teens of pulling people who smelt of booze and cigarettes. Neither smells of ones that I particularly like,

but often I get away from a particular booze and cigarette combo and that, I think, that's the pulling smell. Can't stop me now. It's revealing, isn't it? That, you know, for one man, it could be the smell of Abercrombie, for you it's the smell of stale cigarettes and alcohol carpet here's a question from tina who says will he answer me this do you know what the song white a shade of pale is about yeah it's

about a band taking too many drugs and then writing a thing that people for years later like what's it about and they're like oh we're not going to tell you in this interview we're going to tease you they're not going to ever tell you because it's about drugs it's meaningless they don't know yeah they don't know they have no memory of writing it almost certainly but i mean there are some images in there whiter yes yeah like the drugs are white the phrase whiter shade of pale apparently is to do with the bloke who wrote it saw a girl at a party say it to another girl as in you're feeling a bit sick you're looking a whiter shade of pale and the phrase just kind of stuck in his head as he did all those lines and when he talks about the 15 vestal virgins people have said that's maybe groupies it's a summer of love thing so

like you know it could be a vw camper van full of hot chicks and when annie leddocks so memorably covered this song do you think that she just created a different narrative for it? Because she doesn't seem like the Vessel Virgin type. No. And I think to persuade Annie Lennox to sing a song about anything, you have to tell her it's about orphans in Rwanda. Even if it's not. Or Nelson Mandela getting out of jail. Yeah.

The record company are like, for your next song, Annie, we'd like you to do a cover of Come On Eileen. It's about the Spanish Civil War. And then you could do Heroin by the Velvet Underground, which is about Joan of Arc. I got a question. Email your question to AnswerMeThisPodcast at GoogleMail.com

AnswerMeThisPodcast at GoogleMail.com AnswerMeThisPodcast at GoogleMail.com. Answer mail in this podcast at Googlemail.com. Answer mail in this podcast at Googlemail.com. So retrospectives, what historical events are we ticking off on this week's run of Today in History? On Monday, we bring you the real story of the mutiny on the bounty. On Tuesday, the anniversary of the day somebody invented the meatball, but who? On Wednesday, the iconic British car that ripped off an iconic American car. On Thursday, how American airlines invented air miles.

And on Friday, the UFO sighting that gripped colonial America. We discuss this and more on Today in History with the Retrospectors. Ten minutes each weekday, wherever you get your podcasts. There's a question from Emma who says, I have a lovely new boyfriend. For two or so months he is too young for you. Hands off, Emma. Everything is going very well.

Having met relevant friends and family. Oh, only the relevant ones. No, Uncle Jim, you cannot meet my new boyfriend. You are irrelevant. You are a subplot. We each have good feelings in regard to our future together. Well, everything sounds fine,

Emma. Why have you written to us? Just one thing. Oh. We actually met through an online dating site, and each time the question is asked, oh, so where did you meet? I shift uncomfortably in my seat and mumble something about meeting at a party. He's aware that I haven't exactly told the truth to my family and friends,

but he says he doesn't mind. I just feel that at the age of 24, with a professional job, that having to say, I met my partner online seems a bit odd. Does she mean 24 is too old to say that or 24 is too young to say that? I have a theory on that, Helen. Okay, I'll wait. But let's get to the question first. Yes, Ollie, answer me this.

Should I come clean? You should do whatever you're comfortable with it's obviously your comfort that stop your discomfort that's stopping you from admitting that you met on an online dating site don't force it if you feel uncomfortable the question i would ask is why why do you feel uncomfortable that you met on my dating site surely everyone does that now masses except except uh i was talking to my girlfriend's younger sister about this, who is 22, and she said that she wouldn't ever go on an online dating site because it's seen as being

a naff thing to do. It's seen as something you do when you're a bit older, when you've failed to find people. So for her, what was that cut-off point of becoming older and therefore needing the dating site? I think about 26. Oh my god, that's so old it's interesting by then it's curtains for you i like you helen had assumed that everyone in the

generation younger than us because most people our age are comfortable with it would be totally fine with it but actually apparently it's still a bit of a taboo which is interesting isn't it because i think even 10 years ago people were no longer ashamed that this was the way they'd met but if it's such a problem for you emma why don't you make up some really outlandish way that you met that oh i met him because i did a skydive and i landed on him you might feel most comfortable telling a lie that is quite close to the truth so you could say that you were set up on a blind date by your friends or that you met in the restaurant or bar or cinema wherever you did go on your first date yeah by our friends firefox and chrome i i disagree with you, Wally,

about her only doing what she's comfortable with. I think she would be uncomfortable for a short period of time, but then comfortable that she told the truth. Whereas at the moment, the fact that she's written to us suggests she's not comfortable with her lie. I suppose it depends what website it was, mind you.

If it was womenbehindbars.com, then I'd understand you feeling a bit reserved. Uniform dating. What is that about listeners? Are any of you on that? Because that seems degrading in both ways really Well, now it's interesting that

I've always interpreted the need for uniform dating to be that people who work in various services like the company of other people and they understand, exactly, so if you're in the police you understand someone who works for an ambulance I don't think it's necessarily saying I'm turned on by paramedics, but it's always interpreted

that way in the press, isn't it? Well because the adverts are like, ooh if you find bus conductors sexy, it's not saying if you want to be the pen pal of someone in the army for six months and then when they come home you'll meet them and have a wonderful romantic union. Yeah, well that's right, because it's less of a story isn't it? It's like

you know, if it's Christian dating or something then you understand that it's because they have because they come from the same place, well, that's right, because it's less of a story, isn't it? It's like, you know, if it's Christian dating or something, then you understand that it's because they have, because they come from the same place religiously. It's not because it turns them on. But for some reason, when it's uniforms, people always assume that it's a sex thing. I think if I were the uniformed person, I would think, do they like me

or just the clothes that have been supplied to me by the government? Yeah. I think you'd find that out fairly soon, though, wouldn't you, if they start humping your clothes when they're in a closet, for example. So having lived this lie, how does she now undo the lie? Does she just say, actually, I lied?

Or does she just start feeding in the story when new people ask her and hope it gets back to the old people and overwrites their memory? I don't know, Helen, because the whole time you were saying that, I was trying to recall the lyrics to Stop Living the Lie by David Snedd. Oh, no! All I could remember was... How could you do that? Sorry, that's going to be in your head for the next week. Maybe Gareth by David Sneddon. Oh, no! All I could remember was... How could you do that? Sorry, that's going to be in your head for the next week.

But maybe Gareth from Vancouver will write in and say, I remember David Sneddon. Thousands wouldn't. Was that a Fame Academy person? He won the first series of Fame Academy. He's a songwriter now. He writes songs for Hurt. He was like a young Gary Barlow.

But seriously, do you remember how it went until the bit where it went, Stop living the lie. Yeah, but before that, how did it go? So bland, so bland. What was the lie that he was living? I think it was something to do with the correct visas for the country he was visiting at the time.

He was only on a student visa, but he was no longer a student. Right, yeah. Actually, I'd forgotten this, but I've seen David Sneddon on the street. I saw him once on Upper Street. I was on the 19 bus. And you were like, that's David Sneddon!

Everybody, go to that side, that's David Snibber! No, I did exactly what anyone in my position in the 21st century would do. I reached for my smartphone and I started composing an ironic tweet about it. And then I thought, no, that's a real man. I'm not going to belittle him, but like, oh, look at him trying to be all clever living. Hello. I'm Wilson. The ball from Castaway, and here is my song about my favorite balls.

Football, rugby ball, volleyball ball, tennis ball, zoe ball, basketball, net ball, handball, debutante ball, bowling ball, baseball, big sweaty ball. Answer Me This Sports Day, a marathon of fun and games, out now at answermethispodcast.com slash albums. Listeners, if you want to get in touch via the telephone, then this is the number you need to dial. Or you may Skype answer me this. You may. You may. This person was also given permission to do that. Anthony from Leyland. Helen Arley, answer me this. I was wondering the other day, where did the ritual of a bride throwing the bouquet to all the other people at her wedding come from? This is a bit of a weird one. We like it when it's a bit weird, don't we, Helen? Oh, yes, we love it weird.

We feast on it. Well, you could actually have feasted on a bridal bouquet because way back when in the Middle Ages, they used to be made out of garlic and dill. I'd actually prefer that. When the brides were walking down the aisle with the garlic and the dill, they would feed the guests the dill

because that was meant to be a herb that made you feel more sexy. Oh, whenever I'm having a smoked salmon bagel, I'm ready for anything. You know what's the sexiest food? Potato salad. Why do you think they call it a dildo? But anyway, what they also used to do at weddings

was tear off bits of the bride's dress, which was meant to confer some of the romantic luck onto the people that got a bit of the dress as a token yes and then uh over the years when people started spending more and more extortionate amounts on wedding dresses the tradition mutated into this thing that the bride can carry that's clearly temporary anyway yes that's right and also a distraction because you can throw it over there and then scarper you can throw it over all the really weird people who are grabbing onto your dress, can't you, and then run away. Classic distraction technique, isn't it? Look over there, run.

I often do that with a dog and a tennis ball. I'm going to start taking tennis balls to weddings. But surely some brides would like to dry the flowers in their bouquet and keep the bouquet. Well, then you have to snatch it back off the spinster that's grabbed it. Also, I just realised I'm saying bouquet, but people usually say bouquet. I've never given it any thought.

I say bouquet. Do you say bouquet? It's not a word I have much occasion to say. Martin, I just realised I'm saying bouquet, but people usually say bouquet. I've never given it any thought. I say bouquet. Do you say bouquet? It's not a word I have much occasion to say. Martin, bouquet, bouquet? Bouquet. I've never had a bouquet or bouquet. Yeah. You didn't have a bouquet or a bouquet at your wedding? No. Why not? Because I thought about them, and I thought, I don't see the point of those. Yeah. I don't even like the deconstructed

bouquets where they're made out of a bundle of vintage brooches or something, because it's still something that I'd have to carry and our wedding had quite uneven terrain. Yeah. I needed my hands for balance. What about a wedding walking stick? That would be cool. Florists must piss themselves laughing when they get a quote for a bridal bouquet, mustn't they? It must just be like, well

whatever we charge for a normal bouquet but times a million. How much for a bunch of celery? 400 quid. Hi, this is Alex from Xinjiang. Helen and my best friend is getting married and Bunch of celery. 400 quid. Hi, this is Alex from Xinjiang. Helen, I'll answer this. My best friend is getting married. And obviously I need to wear a suit for this. Can I wear the same suit I wore for my own wedding two years ago?

It's a good suit. And I think it would look pretty nice. However, it's just tainted with my failed marriage. So can you wear the same suit to a different wedding? I was all for it, Alex, until you went on about the failed marriage. Yeah, you're asking two questions really, aren't you? Can you recycle a suit that you wore at a wedding? Yes, if it's a nice suit, I think they'll be pleased you're wearing such a nice suit.

Yeah, especially, I think you can be pleased you're wearing such a nice suit. Yeah, especially, I think you can't say it the other way around. I don't think you should wear for a wedding, for your wedding, a suit you've worn before. I think it should be new. Someone I know is doing just that

and I thought, yeah, if he likes that suit more than another suit, then why not? I'm not saying it has to be an expensive suit or even a new suit. It can be secondhand,

but it should be new to you. Get a cheap suit that's worse than your other suit that you might want to wear. Yeah, I do think it should be special, yes. But anyway, the second question, far more interesting, is actually if you've had a failed wedding,

can you then wear that suit again or is it jinx? Maybe this will reset the suit back to a positive suit. I had a car crash once wearing a gap jumper and for the rest of the time I had that jumper, my friend who was with me at the time would never get in a car with me again. Wow! Just in case. It's not the jumper that was driving, it was you!

I think it's important, though, Alex, to check whether the suit you had for your wedding is going to be suitable for the time of year. Suitable, I didn't mean that. I mean, I meant it, but I didn't intend it. Is it going to be suitable for the climate at this new wedding? Say if you've got a linen suit and the wedding's going to be cold, you don't want to wear that.

Or if you've got a wool suit and the wedding's going to be hot, you don't want to wear that. Right if you've got a wool suit and the wedding's going to be hot, you don't want to wear that. Right. You don't want to be sweaty. There was a couple in the sun on Sunday last weekend who were getting married in onesies. They should not be allowed. I don't know if they were just doing it so they got in the paper.

They should not be allowed. They should not be allowed to be near people at all. If that's their intention for wearing the onesies. The thing is it was kind of fun. Especially this week when everyone's allowed to be near people at all if that's their intention for wearing the onesies i think the thing is it was kind of fun like especially this week when everyone's been saying you know what you should be able to marry whoever you want if you're an adult you know everyone's entitled to equal rights of marriage no everyone should be entitled to wear whatever they want everyone should be entitled not to marry somebody who would be willing to wear a onesie to a wedding

even if they're just a guest but if you're but if you're also inclined to wear a onesie to a wedding, even if they're just a guest. But if you're also inclined to wear a onesie, then you're marrying the right person, aren't you? You should think I should not inflict myself on someone else. It's your wedding day. Wear something good. You can wear a onesie every evening on your own sofa. Yeah, this was a special onesie, though. What, was it crotchless?

I suppose normally in the wedding suite, it's tricky to get the lady out of her dress anyway so in a way it doesn't matter but it's going to take the man an equal amount of time that's traditionally why they tie things to the back of a wedding car metal objects they put a tin opener on there so the man can get her out the dress is that true?

no no I don't think so good that you sort of believed it for a second though well no I believe that it was a traditional joke I just made it up yeah no I know that now, Helen. It's nouveau. Yes, but the style of Call My Bluff

that you succeeded in doing was I believed it was a traditional joke. If you think you confessed them with a tricky question send it in on that internet thing to answer me this to answer me this podcast at googlemail.com

Here's a question from Neil from Crawley Who says, Ollie, answer me this Did people live in Downing Street prior to it Becoming the home and office Of the First Lord of the Treasury? Yes, obviously, it would be a bit weird In preparation for it becoming The Prime Minister's house

Get out, everybody, get out It must be empty for 200 years to keep it chaste. Oh, really, if they only had it for that long? Because he also says, if so, did the government buy the whole street or just numbers 10 and 11? Downing Street was built by a bloke called James Downing, who very modestly named it after himself. It's better than calling it Government Street, isn't it?

Well, no, but it wasn't Government Street. It was houses built by James Downing. That's what it was. They had a nice aspect onto St James' Park. They were near the seat of power. Very convenient for work. Very convenient. They were always designed for persons of stature.

Difficult to buy anything, though. I mean, there's that tiny little convenience store on the end of Westminster Bridge, but where are you going to get... You're going to have to walk all the way up to Victoria Street to get toilet roll and stuff. Yeah, that's right. But it was built for, I imagine, people who did work in the government,

but it was a private venture. It wasn't owned by the government. It's a number 10 Downing Street. The Earl of Grantham, like as in the character Hugh Bonneville plays in Downton Abbey, the Earl of Grantham lived at 10 Downing Street. Wow. From 1699 to 1703. Where did he buy his toilet roll?

We'll never know. But it didn't become the residence of the prime minister until 1735. Oh, right. So they just bought the street. They weren't built for the government. They weren't purchased all at once by the government. But after a few hundred years, slowly, they all evolved into being owned by the government. But even then, it's not like, you know, you use the phrase of the government.

Yes. But actually, it's all different pots of money, isn't it? So one was the tithe office and one was the Colonial Office or whatever. Well, it's like Victoria Street now. One is the DTI. Exactly like that. One is DEFRA. Exactly like that, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So over time, with hundreds of years' perspective, you're like, oh, that street belongs to the government. But it wasn't really like that. It's more just no one else is going to get any of it. Well, like you say, very convenient location for the Houses of Parliament. Yeah, but it's also a very convenient location if you work as an ice cream vendor in Trafalgar Square, but no one thinks of their industry,

do they? Hello, Ed here. Hello, Nanale. Answer me this. Where does the phrase, I heard it through the grapevine, actually come from? Complete wild guess. Yeah. Shakespeare? That is a much more cerebral wild guess than your wild

guesses usually are. Because I was thinking it sounds a bit like, you know that bit in Twelfth Night where, is it Toby and Thingy are spying on Malvolio? You could imagine, couldn't you, being surrounded by grapevines in a sort of Italianate scene. Yeah. That sort of phrase came about,

even if it isn't in the play, someone said, you know, it's the grapevine scene. Right. Sorry, that was just my instinctive feeling. It's obviously wrong from the way you're looking at it. I think that's quite a sensible suggestion. I'm impressed. But it's wrong.

Yeah, but it's not your fault, Holly. I think it was a really good go, but it's actually a bit later than that. It's your fault, Shakespeare. Why didn't you prefigure Marvin Gaye? Idiot. Anyway, the first recorded use of it was from 1852 and it referred to the telegraph system that had been instituted

in america in the 1840s and the wires looked like grapevines the messages oh so it was kind of like a nickname for the telephone system yeah it's a bit like i guess if someone did a song i heard it through the information superhighway in 1995 yeah actually, Marvin Gaye does sound more like the name of a telephone engineer than a Motown star, doesn't it? No. No? No. I think that's only because Marvin Gaye is Marvin Gaye. Right.

If you went into a little office. Name a Motown star that sounds more like a Motown star. Like Diana Ross. Couldn't that be someone who worked in a call centre? Yeah. Yeah, I suppose that's true. Barry Gordy. Couldn't that be someone who works cleaning toilets?

No, Barry Gordy. That's almost like a name of you know one of those American brands that you're meant to think is made by a rosy cheeked lady in her farmhouse kitchen

it was actually a ruthless corporation yeah Berry Gordy's home cooked biscuits I just don't think Marvin's a sexy name that's all I'm saying

how about this as a name Martin however dream on mate how about this as a sexy name Martin, however. Dream on, mate. How about this as a sex name, Martin? Greg. Yeah.

Does that make you excited? I was thinking about Greg Poops. Do you? I only thought you would think about sticking your dick in a Greg's pasty.

Oh, Greg Wallace. Oh, Cheeks. Cheeksie. God, I didn't know Martin did impressions as well. He's so versatile. It's like we're in the room with Greg Wallace right now.

It's got butter in its biscuits. This is from Greg in Loughborough. Sexy place. It is. Loughborough is a very sexy place. Loughborough. Loughborough, more like. Who says...

Helen, answer me this. I almost forgot the format of the show. We've been on such a long tangent. Helen, answer me this. Why do people say the moon is made of cheese? Because they are scientific idiots Well it looks a bit like it's made of cheese Well exactly Ollie

Yeah Same as the grapevine thing isn't it? Looks a bit like that It's going to become a saying isn't it? It's a big round pale thing Yeah That's why people said it looked like a cheese Why didn't they say it was an apple or something?

Because it's not green It's not got a stalk No if you bisect an apple It looks because it's not green it's not got a stalk if you bisect an apple it looks more like the moon well it's not as catchy the moon looks like a bisected apple tonight dear

but it also looks a bit like a bowling ball doesn't it and people have said that as well yeah but this this expression's from before the cheese thing is really old

there's some weird myth as well that they saw the moon reflected in the water and the village idiot thought that it was a cheese so he tried to eat the cheese and drowned or some ridiculous shit like that.

Or they all had a fight because they thought the village idiot had eaten all the cheese. I'm laughing, but actually we're discussing someone who's mentally retarded dying, so I shouldn't really be laughing. I apologise for that. Well, it might not be...

But if it happened, it's actually horrific, isn't it? It might not be retarded. The local village idiot, you know, someone with actual learning difficulties. Might not have learning difficulties, might have just chosen to be unlearned. Yeah, like me. Idiot savant.

This sounds very much like the discussion we'll be having at your eulogy. He drowned pursuing the giant Mickey in the sky. There's also the issue, of course, that in our lifetime, obviously, we've seen footage of the moon that itself looks old. We've seen black and white footage of people on the moon who are older than us, who are now dead. Dancing around in the dust. Yeah.

So to us, the idea of lunar exploration, although exciting, doesn't seem distant. Whereas even 200 years ago, the moon seemed so unfathomably far away that actually it might as well be made of cheese. You'd never know. Do you know what I mean? So something like that, you could see how someone might be able to convince even a sort of teenager that the moon is genuinely made of cheese because you'd have no idea would you basically how it all works when was when was uh you were going is that 61 or something so i mean even before then even in the 50s you must

have thought oh yeah like maybe we can send a rocket up there but there's no way people but it's obviously made of cheese so we better bring forks yeah let's hope it's not a soft cheese otherwise we'll never get off again. Well, the Apollo missions have had tons and tons of celery into the lining of the spacecraft. Martin knows because we went to the Kennedy Space Centre. Yeah, it's all about celery. It's quite boring, actually. They had a whole exhibition about space chutney. I'm an Anthony this fan

I listen with my nan She is not so keen. She finds it too obscene. I follow them on Twitter. Though Ashton Kutcher's fitter. I want to take things further. Just one step short of murder. I want to look like Harley Mann.

I want to smell like Harley Mann. I want to be like Harley Mann. I want to chase like Harley Mann. I want to look like Harley Mann. I want to chase like a man. I want to be like a man. I want to chase like a man. I want to be like a man. Listeners, get yourself really hyped up now for an exciting question about shelving from the phone line.

James from Bury. Helen and Ollie, answer me this. When organising your DVDs, do you put them in alphabetical order or do you put them in genre? And if you have a TV series and, say, you have one DVD which is Blu-ray and one that isn't, do you split them up or do you keep them together? I'm not sure we have enough DVDs to have a system, do we? We've got three shelves.

I mean, they are badly stacked. Yeah, well, describe your system because, yeah, I'd agree with Martin that it would be an insult to the word to call it a system. Ignore all the other stuff like nail varnish and sweets that are on the DVD shelves. The top shelf, that is games and DVDs that we haven't seen and plan to. Right, oh, so not traditionally racy material like you'd find on a normal top shelf. We keep it in the attic. Middle shelf, that is specifically box sets.

Yeah. Bit of Breaking Bad there. Yeah, Brass Eye a Frank Capra box set 30 Rock Northern Exposure but also we've got a little wooden chest of drawers

that's got some tools and medications in and then bottom shelf it's not medication to take when you watch the box set it's like Breaking Bad themed medication

it's where we keep the crystal meth if you're ever over good to know and then the bottom shelf that is just the rest and everything is double stacked so it's really quite hard to find things and I can't find that is um just the rest and everything is double

stacked so it's really quite hard to find things and i can't find any of the jim jar moosh films where are they hiding out but we have not uh invested in many blu-rays i think we have two and it would not give me qualm to line them up next to the dvds really well i think if you only have two or three blu-rays then it's reasonable to keep them separately because they're kind of for special aren't they yeah it's like when people have a whole dining room that they only go into when they've guessed around uh you know you could be like oh darling should we watch a blu-ray but if you've got a collection of blu-rays and a collection of dvds then i i agree that whether you do them alphabetically or by genre the blu-rays mix with the dvds i know they're different height

boxes but i think actually that's rather nice over a series of units. I think a lot of people are going to be listening to this and thinking, why are you bothering? There's Netflix. Why don't you just download everything? Yeah, hard copies, sometimes useful, you know, guys. And we've got a cap on our bandwidth. And it is that thing of sort of telling people, isn't it, what you like. You know, it's all very well to say, oh, I downloaded Pulp Fiction,

but you want Pulp Fiction on your shelf so that people know you like Pulp Fiction. Until about 2007, I was probably still the kind of person that would categorise my DVD collection. And now because I think, well, it's all just worthless junk, isn't it? It's all just discs in shiny boxes. It's just like when you walk into HMV and you're like, well, this is pointless. It's like that. The rest is noise. I sort of assume that other people i project upon other people that they must come into my flat and feel the same but of course a lot of people probably don't they probably come in and they think oh he's got two copies of bad santa what does that mean you know actually it means two people gave me a copy of bad santa you haven't

got rid of it yet you don't even like it i think it's all right it's all right i watched it this christmas actually all right yeah yeah i think it bears uh once a year viewing but certainly, the 25-year-old Olly Mann would have taken one of those copies and given it to the charity show. Yes. And taken the other one and put it next to my other frat pack comedy films. Whereas the current Olly Mann would like the option to have a copy of Bad Santa, one in the living room and one maybe in your country house that you haven't got yet. Oh, that would be nice, yeah.

You're right. That's what I'll say when people say, why have you got two copies? And then they'll say house that you haven't got yet. Oh, that would be nice, yeah. You're right, that's what I'll say when people say, why have you got two copies? And then they'll say, well, haven't you got everything digital? And then access it from the cloud in your many locations. You know, you can't win with you people, listeners,

is what I'm saying. Although we did win quite significantly after last week's plea to send us the visual evidence of your rude Thornton's request. That's right. You did it, you beauties. If you would like to see the gallery of rude words that you guys have had written on Thornton's chocolates,

we asked for photo proof, we got it. It is on our website. AnswerMeThisPodcast.com slash chocolate hyphen C hyphen bomb. Got that chocolate C bomb. We didn't just have the photographic proof. We also had proof from within the company. I'm Ben. I

work for a branch of Blanton's. After some digging, I found out that unless the person behind the till is personally offended by the message that you put on, they cannot refuse to put a message on.

So if it was a racial slur, we wouldn't be able to do it. But if it was something like happy birthday slur, which we have had, we could do it because it appears to us to be in good fun rather than being in a malicious or cruel way. But apparently, Helen, this is not company policy, according to Thorntons. Oh, I hope I haven't got Ben into trouble then. Well, a lady called Yvonne has tweeted me saying,

Oops, I posted a link to your Thorntons page to my friend who works there. Management saw the post and are calling all employees, warning them they can lose their jobs if they've taken part in it. They're not calling all employees. There must be hundreds of them. Yeah, don't do that, Thorntons. Otherwise, we'll send you a don't-be-a-cum-to-chocolate box. Are we going to get a cease and desist from Thorntons saying stop encouraging people to violate our icing policy?

Oh, it's just a bit of fun, Thorntons. We're not going to get them to do anything really horrible. It's just fun. If anything, it makes you look good because you're giving this personalised service. You're not like one of those evil factories icing only communist slogans onto chocolate. Yeah, that's right.

And as Ben said, they can't refuse certain offers. Now, I've heard some people have said the offer they can't refuse is a £1 tip. So again, Thorntons, look at your own policy there. Think what you're paying your staff. Anyway, you should head to our website to see the gallery. It is great. And also, of course, there are links there as well to download our first three years' worth of episodes.

And also our contact details if you would like to send us a question. And please return next week when we'll try to ruin the lives of some other staff of a shop. Bye!