Answer Me This! - AMT336: Slush Puppies, Hush Puppies and Streaking

Episode Date: July 28, 2016

There are many refreshments in Answer Me This! Episode 336: tea, milk, and a drink Olly describes as 'mashed-up urinal cake in a glass'. It's the new hipster cocktail! There's more about this episode at http://answermethispodcast.com/episode336. Tweet us http://twitter.com/helenandolly Be our Facebook friend at http://facebook.com/answermethis Subscribe on iTunes http://iTunes.com/AnswerMeThis Buy old episodes and albums at http://answermethisstore.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Has doping been recognised as an Olympic sport? Answer me this, answer me this Can I win a gold medal for a witty retort? Answer me this, answer me this Helen and Ollie, answer me this In Answer Me This episode 334, we had a question about people having sex at or with public landmarks what was the one that was mentioned ollie it was the las vegas equivalent of the london eye yeah it was called the high roller yeah so it's like a big wheel that you go around yeah well don't don't undersell it i mean it's

people spending 20 a time to do that and we thought probably wouldn't have so much sex on the london eye but anonymous has written in to say i used to work at the london eye you have so much power and i know for a fact That all sorts of depravity took place on board We would hear of couples engaging in more than just heavy petting We even heard tell of a man receiving a blowjob in a full car Potentially up to 28 guests That's beyond

That's publicly indecent isn't it Unless all 28 are joining in Or at least they're fond of watching Well Phil has been screwing in Peterborough cathedral under the disproving eye of god he says helen you said no one would have sex in a cathedral i didn't say that i uh suggested that it'd be a bad idea yeah uh he says a few years ago peterborough had a passport office that's how every romantic story begins isn't it uh where you could turn up on the day and get a passport yeah uh two days before i was due to fly on holiday with a group of friends i discovered i no longer had a passport

it'd been stolen in a burglary so off to peterborough the next day i'm glad he has to explain why he was in peterborough that's the part he's ashamed of now i don't know if you've ever been to peterborough he says but mid-morning midweek there isn't much to do so my girlfriend and i wandered around board until we arrived at the cathedral. There weren't many people about, and I don't know who suggested it, but we decided to enter one of the private chapels in one of the transepts and play behind the altar.

It is fair to say that neither of us lasted long. By the grace of God. John from Wimbledon. I recently went on a shopping trip with my mum where we parked in the mother and child parking spaces. Considering I'm 41 and my mum is 72, were we legally and morally allowed to do this? Morally, no. Morally, definitely no. I may have previously found this funny in a former life, but now I'm someone who struggles with a baby to go shopping. I'm

outraged by this bragging, John. Is there an actual age limit on this, though? There probably isn't a formal age limit, because I could imagine there are children that have difficulties that are older, which might you could reasonably say need the extra space. But by the time you're 10, say...

If you're not in a car seat anymore, you don't really need to be in the parent and child bit. So there's no legal thing stopping this. So he's just taken semantic advantage of this. Yeah, legally. Well, this goes for all parking on private land, by the way. So if ever you get a ticket, so-called, in your Asda or your Morrisons or whatever,

there's not really any legal obligation to pay that at all because it's private land. They did put a sign up saying we'll give you a ticket so called in your asda or your morrisons or whatever uh there's not really any legal obligation to pay that at all because it's private land they did put a sign up saying we'll give you a ticket but you don't actually really have to pay it it's the right of the company to give you a fine but um it's fairly arbitrary and unenforceable really it's not it's not public land that the council are enforcing i remember because i grew up in a private road i think there was someone who did print out his own parking tickets for people who parked there when they were going to the station you will get the odd person like that who was very odd needs an unconventional life we needed hobbies in tonbridge wells but i mean the supermarkets can come unstuck with this as well because the whole reason that they farm out the administration of the parking tickets to a private company is that they're

not responsible so that when you then go in the shop you don't negatively associate your experience with getting fined in the car park with the brand i think you still would of course you do and this came to a head a few years ago i remember asda were in the news because they actually gave a nine months pregnant woman a 70 pound fine for parking in the parent and child bit oh come on the child is nearly out exactly and of course the argument is well she has a child on board it's just not in the car yeah it's on her so i think generally speaking you can kind of get away with it but i think if there's no young child there you're really pushing the definition here's a question from jude in auckland new zealand who says uh how to answer me this where did that ever so romantic poem roses are red violets are blue

etc originate from well like folk music it's quite hard to pinpoint a definite origin for this, and generally people attribute the germ of the idea to Sir Edmund Spencer's very long poem, The Fairy Queen, that first came out in 1590. Could you hear from the way I said,

I'd heard of it? What I wanted to do is just leave it sort of open to interpretation as to whether I'd read it or not because you're not sure, are you? I'm pretty sure you haven't read it. Your R was more like, ah, words I've heard of rather than, uh-huh,

yep, no, I'm very familiar with that material. You see, what I was going for was a pitch somewhere in between because the truth is I've got the book on my shelf at home but I've never opened it. Then you're not familiar

with book three, canto six, stanza six which describes a man watching a fairy woman having a bath on a summer's day. Whoa. And it goes, she bathed with roses red and violets blue which describes a man watching a fairy woman having a bath on a summer's day. And it goes, she bathed with roses red and violets blue and all the sweetest flowers that in the forest grew. So at the time, floriography was a big fad in England.

That's the language of flowers. And each flower had a meaning. And before there was mass literacy, this was a reasonable way to communicate sentiments, I suppose. What do you mean? Well, because you could put flowers together and someone would be, I suppose. What do you mean? Well, because you could put flowers together and someone would be like, oh. Oh, you mean like emoji? Yeah, basically like the flower emoji.

Oh, wow. So you'd send people like a combination of five different flowers and that would mean, I think, you're nice. Well, this is a very big thing in Victorian times. I've never heard of that. Because Victorians couldn't actually express themselves because they were so repressed. But on a card, they could put a picture of a rose or something in it here's my bono yeah and so red roses meant true love and desire and blue violets meant faithfulness so maybe that's what he was talking about and then there's a bit of a gap in the history of the poem but it turns up in a late 18th century nursery

rhyme collection called gamma girtens garland and the poem titled the valentine is the roses red the violets blue the honey sweet and so are you thou art my love and i am thine i drew thee to my valentine the lot was cast and then i drew and fortune said it should be you so that fairly clearly that's what it's come from but then in gamma gunton's garland there are also that one that goes roses are red diddle diddle lavenders. That one was very similar. And the rose is red, the grass is green, serve King George, our noble king. Kitty the spinner will sit down to dinner and eat the leg of a frog. All good people look over the steeple and see the cat play with the dog.

When is someone going to send me a Valentine's card with Kitty the spinner on it? So that suggests that roses are red and other plant is another color rhymes must have been really common already to have got into uh gamma gunton scarlet people already playing around with the form yes which is what is i mean when we grew up in the 1980s every playground had its own variant didn't they heavens yes like the happy birthday to you squash tomatoes and stew rhyme yep what was it in your do you remember roses are red violets are blue something something you smell of poo and so are you yeah you look like a monkey and your mum does too yeah yeah yeah that kind of thing yeah how dare you well here is a question from valerie in austin who

says i am a lady in my late 20s over the past decade i've had an odd thing happen to me with surprising regularity i am often offered milk to drink what when i am at people's houses what the fuck well by american standards not odd at all because those perverts always seem to be drinking milk as a refreshment yeah except in tea which is where you want it i don't valerie says this in and of itself isn't odd oh okay she realizes but i seem to be the only one offered this beverage okay Okay. Maybe they think you look like you've got a calcium deficiency. Or you're a baby. Or they're trying to discourage you from

drinking alcohol. Valerie says I don't have any dietary restrictions that would cause this deviation from the normal beverage offerings. I'm lactose tolerant, dammit. So Ollie, answer me this. What odd behaviours have people directed at you and not the people around you?

Do you have your own version of always being the only one offered milk at social gatherings? I feel like I get offered the supersized option at takeaways. Well, you're very tall. More regularly than people that I'm with that don't necessarily exhibit the same physical characteristics. I know that, you know, if you work in a takeaway, you're supposed to offer every customer the option to go large but i've witnessed

them not offer it to some customers and then offer it to me it's as if they've read my mind and they're like yeah this seems like a likely sale uh another thing that happens is people who know me for this podcast and other things like that assume that i'm really into geek stuff when i'm not yes so uh even if the context is i've just been saying the very words why do they keep making such shit terrible films for children uh they will then come back and say oh yeah but aren't you really excited about mystic avengers 16 and i'll say no i don't know what that is because i've as i've just told you i'm not into geek stuff but they just they will not believe right that like a certain kind of taxi driver will not believe

that I don't like sport another kind of person that I meet who often might be listening to this show right now often that kind of person you are a geek

I'm not but not as stereotypical I like Ben Folds I don't like Doctor Who you're a geek for the musical theatre and things like that yes

but not yeah like you say not a traditional geek what about you Helen what do people assume about you that is untrue? People assume that I hate children just because I don't want to be a parent. And so some of my friends have been like, I'm pregnant, sorry.

I'm like, don't be sorry. That's nice. I like babies. I'll probably like your baby. Yeah. Unless they grow up to be a prick. But I don't think they would because I like you and you'll be the major influence on their life. Why do you think they think that because i think they've mutated my

voluntary lack of children yes into antipathy towards you must be the grand high witch yeah exactly i'm like a roald dahl character in their lives now like stay away from helen because she's got the child scissors with her if if you're naughty. Yeah. Martin, what do people misconceive about you? I mean, we've had listeners say that they imagine me as being bold. Yes. Yeah, bold with an A, not bold as in bold. Tentative, if anything.

I think probably people think I like science a bit more than I do. I mean, I do. I did a degree. What? If you're telling me that you don't like science that much, then you really have misdirected your entire life. I'm saying I don't fucking love science. I've only got one PhD in it. I quite like it, but, you know, so...

It's five out of ten. There's a lot of science that I find a bit boring. That's a bit like us saying we don't really like answering questions. Yeah. Because that's sort of true as well. Like, you know, we don't receive every question that comes into our inbox and think, oh, goody, this is so exciting, learning about this. But generally, we like doing this show.

You generally like science. It's not a misconception yeah science is alright I mean podcasting is ok too everyone always seems to be very grateful that I have work and I think I think I should be the person who is most grateful for that

I've got a question email your question to answer me this podcast atMail.com AnswerMeThisPodcast at GoogleMail.com AnswerMeThisPodcast at GoogleMail.com AnswerMeThisPodcast at GoogleMail.com Time for a question.

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 retrospectives 10 minutes each weekday wherever you get your podcasts from ryan from melbourne who says my grandfather recently celebrated his 80th birthday an event which involved a multiplicity of my relatives of british dependency

it's a curious phrase, isn't it? Spending time at our house and requesting endless cups of tea. It's my kind of birthday party. While immediately baffled by how much tea Australians can drink, the question that troubles me more is, Helen, answer me this, what did you Brits drink before you found India? Tea. In fact, Brits introduced tea to India.

No. Yes. Wow. Yes. Really Brits introduced tea to India. No. Yes. Wow. Yes. Really? I didn't know that. Yes. Now you're going to tell me that a coal-producing nation introduced coal to Newcastle.

They just went and dug up Newcastle, put some coal in there, put it back on top. Chinese tea was introduced to India by the British in attempts to break the Chinese monopoly on tea. I was wily a bastard. So, but let's be clear on this. For those that do just think of packets of tea as something you buy in the supermarket. It's a very precious substance a while ago.

It is based on a leaf that the British did plant in India. It is a leaf, yes. A relative of the camellia. So you're saying that, because India is still a big tea producing nation, you're saying that's all because of the British Well it's like, tomatoes are a very big deal in Italy now, but that had to be brought over from South America, didn't it? No, really? I just assumed that was native

as well to Italy Think of what we think of as Indian cuisine and take out chillies because that's not the South American plant Potatoes are no Irish food, the potatoes are a relatively new import Yeah, but everyone knows the potatoes are new I think of the tomato as being integral to Italian cuisine Potatoes are not Irish food. The potatoes are a relatively new import. Yeah, but everyone knows the potatoes are new. I think of the tomato as being integral to Italian cuisine.

Yeah, you do. But it's not. Britain really started going for tea around the mid-1600s. It got to Europe thanks to Portuguese and Dutch traders first in the 1560s-ish. And was that ever green tea or was that always... It was green tea first and then black tea became more popular. I think because black tea tasted better when they put milk and sugar in and I wonder because sugar was expensive

it was like a sign of wealth and class to take your tea with sugar. So it's like the people who have Wagyu beef burgers with lobster on. It's a waste. It's not enough just to have the tea. It's like, I'm going to fucking put sugar in this as well yep because i'm rich i'm gonna use a piece of beef that actually is not well served as a burger yeah but whatever uh but then tea became

a trend in britain when in 1662 princess catherine of braganza of portugal married charles ii and it's like kate middleton makes boring dresses and hats into trends she made everyone into tea and then it became super popular in the 18th century because the east india company got into importing it so there was more tea in britain and then they were like fuck the chinese controlling the tea we're going to plant it in india that we've been abusing um but before brits got tea they drank mainly booze because the water was not safe to drink yeah now we've covered that uh in reference to other questions in the past this notion that beer was kind of the staple drink beer mead gin i remember in david copperfield he's drinking gin with hot water in it yeah kids

eh well it was only about 40 years ago in the uk that medical advice was issued telling you not to feed your baby brandy it was such a commonplace thing to do that, you know, people were like, ah, a little bit of alcohol won't harm him. Nanny state! The fermentation made things safer than just drinking water, although they used to heat up water as well, apparently by plunging a hot poker into it. Right, right, right. But

what I find astonishing, really, is that you're saying, before there was tea, the kind of national soft drink, the pastime, the thing that you'd have not when you wanted to get kind of national soft drink, the pastime, the thing that you'd have not when you wanted to get pissed or not when you wanted to ease pain, you just wanted to share a fluid with someone who you were not intimate with. Right.

That that choice of fluid would be alcohol. Why are you surprised by that? That is like common in cultures all around the world. Yeah, but I'm surprised the answer isn't apple juice or nettle tea or something that isn't alcoholic. Because even then, surely there were people who just didn't want booze. What did you have if you didn't want booze 300 years ago? Thirsted to death. No, what did you have?

Milk. You must have had something. Thin soup and gruel. Well, it's time now to hear a little bit of vintage Answer Me This for today's intermission. And Natasha in Australia has emailed in to tell us what she's been up to while listening to our classic episodes. She says, I'm currently living in Canberra. I've quickly run out of ways to entertain myself. And as the weather has been cold, I decided to knit myself a scarf whilst listening to some of your old episodes.

I've just listened to episodes 48 to 66, back to back. Back to back? Blimey, what a binge. She says the podcast only got better over the years, but even your early episodes are addictive and a whole world of fun. Well, good. That's good that you've had entertainment for your ears. And she's finished the scarf. And you've finished the scarf. And anyone else who needs scarfful entertainment,

go and get our retro episodes. Yeah, our first 200 episodes are available to buy. At AnswerMeThisStore.com. Yes, and also on iTunes and Amazon, but we make more money if you buy them from us. And today's intermission is from back in early 2008, episode 45. Robert from Dumfriesha is back. He says, Helen, answer me this. It's another classic.

Does anybody know whether Ant and Dec ever tossed each other off? Uh-oh. And if not, what do we reckon? Oh, dear, Robert. I suppose they know. It's their little secret. There were two people, well, possibly one person. I've been in a lift with Ant and Dec.

I've been in a lift with one of Ant or Dec. I think Ant, which is the one with the shiny forehead. Ant. Right, yeah. He had very good skin. Yeah. He might have been wearing makeup. They weren't tossing each other off when I was in a lift with one of Aunt Odette, I think Ant. Which is the one with the shiny forehead? Ant. Right, yeah. He had very good skin. Yeah. He might have been wearing makeup. They weren't tossing each other off when I was in a lift with them,

but I suppose just me being there would be a block to that fantasy. Usually is. Here's a question from another pairing called Helen and Ollie. Helen and Ollie from Hampshire, who say, We are getting married soon, and we're going on honeymoon to Orlando. Honeymoon at Disney World, good choice. Pop over to NASA, why not? Ollie, answer me this.

What are the best ways of A, getting an upgrade on our flight, short of turning up in wedding dresses and suits? B, getting free shit at the theme parks? Okay, those are two very different things. Very good questions though. We got a slight upgrade on our honeymoon flight. Yeah, it is actually literally just a case of saying we're on honeymoon yeah we asked at the luggage check-in and they said once you've gone through the security ask at the customer service desk and they were like premium economy fine had you

checked in online before can't remember because i sometimes wonder whether that's what scuppers a lot of people if they check in online they've chosen their seat sometimes they paid for it then that's administratively difficult i think we hadn't yeah in case so don't don't check in online, they've chosen their seat Sometimes they've paid for it, then that's administratively difficult I think we hadn't, in case So don't check in online Of course that does potentially mean that you're in the back row next to the toilets If you don't get an upgrade On the way back though, full plane So we couldn't get an upgrade, but they did allow us to take on an extra bag without paying

That's romance That's some more But otherwise I think I got an accidental upgrade once Again to premium economy nothing fancy and i don't know what motivated that well my mum does this all the time and she says it never fails but she is a woman traveling by herself and she's a very special woman uh well she looks glamorous she does she turns up making effort she has a magnetic personality that i'd imagine flight

staff could not resist well what she's there's no polite way of saying this so I know it's not a politically correct term but it's what it is no she's a fag hack that's what it is she turns up at the airport she finds quite a camp check-in assistant and she does her thing where she's wearing like a diamante hat and they say oh I like your hat and she goes oh it's from this place and oh I like your ring and she basically flirts with the gay check-in assistant and then what if there isn't one because Come on, Ellen. British Airways, there's always one. 19 times out of 20, I'm checked in by a woman. This works for her.

Okay. She goes, she flirts with the gay guy. But this is the important thing. She's already paid for premium economy. So what works for her is woman travelling by herself, good rapport with the check-in guy, in a suit. A suit in a Diamante hat. Yeah.

Strong look. Basically, yeah. It's like Lady Gaga's mum's just turned up at the airport wow right and yet she gave birth to you what a waste point is she always gets an upgrade but she gets an upgrade from premium economy to business okay so if she had an economy ticket then like you should have only probably got an upgrade to premium economy and is it worth putting all that effort in just for that depends doesn't it how much you value that upgrade you know you're basically getting a bit more leg room and uh a glass of champagne that's about it isn't it really premium economy will you get metal cutlery well there you go worth every penny yeah um to answer the second question getting free shit at the theme parks yes

uh i would say you're in luck here um because you're visiting the united states of america and they're very courteous well they just they love this kind of thing and they love the english accent they do if you contact them in advance i think it's crucial to contact everywhere in advance no point hoping they'll upgrade you and then thanking them afterwards write to them if if not directly via email or phone actually put on twitter you know can't wait to visit at radisson resort orlando whatever it is you know can't wait to visit at radisson resort orlando whatever it is you know on our honeymoon on our hashtag honeymoon oh very good they will they just will because they're good at pr like they understand the customer services part

thing it doesn't really cost them anymore to chuck in a few extra ice creams or give you a slightly better room or a glass of champagne they just definitely will so just tell them way in advance of you getting there and it'll be fine. How many people pull the honeymoon stunt when they want freebies when they're not married or on honeymoon or whatever? And is there anything to stop you getting away with it time and time and time again? Exactly the same proportion as the amount of people who go around looking at real estate when they're not really an interested buyer and know. But I think that's fine because I think it's built into the offer.

They know that most people with a conscience don't do that. And to be honest, what are you getting by saying you're on honeymoon? Yeah, you're getting a room upgrade, but you've got to dent your own conscience to do that. I feel bad even when, if I register at a store, my girlfriend's date of birth rather than mine. Because I think, oh, if they send out a birthday present on the birthday, it'd be better for her than me. I feel guilty that I've given them my fake birthday. And you never felt bad defrauding cinemas by buying pensioner tickets? Because they were ripping us off, Helen.

Oh, you're very inconsistent. Very inconsistent guy. Here's a question from a lady who has chosen to remain anonymous who says, I have just returned from my honeymoon. My husband and I visited a relatively undeveloped tropical archipelago. No Disney World for us. Unsurprisingly, we both suffered bouts of loose stools. I'm a little surprised. I didn't know that that was

a prerequisite of being on an archipelago. I think that's the undeveloped tropical bit of the archipelago. But we dealt with it in differing ways. At the first sign of trouble, I popped an Imodium. And although I didn't feel fantastic, I wasn't shitting through the eye of a needle every ten minutes. So eloquent.

My husband flatly refused to take one. Opposites attract. And what started as a minor stomach upset for him turned into quite serious dehydration. Wow. Only heightened by his insistence that he wanted to quote, clear out whatever had ailed him. Unaware that what he really needed

was salt. Helen, answer me this. Would it have been wrong of me to trick him into taking Imodium or sneak one into him some other way? Probably would have just shot out of me, didn't he? I didn't, but I really wish I had, as I feel like his stubbornness deprived me of the nice dinners, days out

and romantic memories you should come home from your honeymoon with. Just preparing you for a lifetime of marriage. My main memories are of sitting inside various hotel rooms, absolutely starving as he didn't want to go out and get some food, listening to him pebble-dashing the toilet bowl. I know this will happen again at some point in the future,

so I could do with some ideas of how to counter it in advance. This is a very appropriate question for her to have asked you, I feel, as a couple in particular. Oh, great. Martin has notorious bowel difficulties and I imagine it affected your honeymoon.

Apart from that time I ate a bison and it gave me diarrhoea. But that was... Where was that? That was in Montana. Okay, so are your views, Helen, of Montana tainted by the bison diarrhoea? No, but other things in Montana

probably physically were tainted by the diarrhoea. But that was bad karma. I'd seen a bison in Yellowstone and the next day I'd eaten a bison and I feel like it was the way of... Not a whole one! Not a whole one, but a bison steak. The gods of bison telling me that... Divine retribution on your eyes.

I shouldn't eat a bison that I just looked at and thought fanned to be beautiful. That's the most religious thing I've ever heard you say. It was my most religious experience. It was a spiritual moment. Shaking my guts out in a Native American casino in Montana. What an image. It was a dark day on a honeymoon i imagine maybe what you needed to do was barter with him you say take this one and if it doesn't work for you tomorrow you can shit as much as you want but let's just try this

because look at me i'm fine i'm surprised that he wasn't motivated to respect your wishes because it probably, I imagine, affected how much sex he had. That's quite a strong bartering technique. Yeah, but if they'd flown to a tropical archipelago, they were probably too jet-lagged to do it anyway. Well, exactly. So, you know, if you've got minimised opportunity anyway, I just think the chances of you then being in the toilet all the time, you just think, no, this is my honeymoon. Yeah. I'm curious what his motivations were.

I guess once you've got the chronic diarrhoea, you're not feeling very sexy. Most people aren't. Yeah. Some people might be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could have gone out for the meals on your own and left your husband pebble dashing by himself,

but I suppose that also leaves a kind of bleak honeymoon memory. But in a way, it's a funnier anecdote to have slightly weird, bleak honeymoon memories. If you're just like, oh, everything was amazing, the resort was beautiful, they made our towels into swans. Well, this is it. I feel, actually, just from her first sentence,

my husband and I visited a relatively undeveloped tropical archipelago. She wanted that kind of anecdote from the honeymoon. Otherwise, she would have gone to St Lucia. She would have gone to a sandals couples resort. Exactly. She'd have been playing games in the evening with balloons between your legs and having pina coladas. Otherwise she would have gone to St Lucia. She would have gone to a sandals couples resort. Exactly. She'd have been playing games in the evening with balloons between your legs and having pina coladas. Stools would have been perfect

the whole time. Very firm. What a catchphrase for sandals to put on their advertising campaign. Perfect bowel movements guaranteed. Five star hotel It had an omelette station A multitude of pools But thirty quid for parking

WTF Four Star Hotel There's ethernet, not wifi like it's 1998 But there was a swim up bar In the rooftop pool Three Star Hotel But there was a swim-up bar in the rooftop pool. Three Star Hotel. A bit more down to earth.

They did still have a pool, but it was full of kids. Two Star Hotel. A lot more down to earth. They also had a pool, but it was full of dogs one star hotel there's a body in the pool answer me this holiday all the fun of traveling with none of the stinky toilets or frightening food out now at answer me this podcast.com slash albums time for a question from esme from manchester who says helen answer me this where did the trend of streaking at sporting events originate the streaking at sporting events trend came out of the streaking trend right which seems to have been quite big across university campuses particularly in the usa in the 60s and early 70s was that political

protest thing i think it was a bit of youth quake thing yeah people were like hey we're young we're gonna act like we're young and we're gonna misbehave yeah well that was the whole hair thing wasn't it yeah but sunshine in let's not go to vietnam let's have sex that's the whole musical for you there in one sentence but there is an unconfirmed but somewhat documented earlier college streak from 1780 in Harvard. And the person who did it was the 15-year-old son of America's second president, John Adams. So that's probably why they hushed it up. It was a bunch of 15-year-old boys and they were drunk. Yeah.

That's how these things happen. We should define streaking, though, rather than just being naked in a place like it's pranky yeah or it's for a dare or it's protest but it's not just like having a naked stroll like there's running yeah you have to lick it whilst naked and actually i think you do need to be naked that's another definition that i put on it i've seen sometimes on the internet underpants someone will say yeah or not even or just they will someone who invades the pitch and runs across the pitch write an article about why i streaked but you didn't stream you're wearing your clothes at least have the decency to get your balls out the first confirmed streaker and i guess we don't know if they weren't caught this was 5th of july 1799 in l London. It's a very proud home pride.

Yes. And it was a man who took a wager for 10 guineas to run from Cheapside to Cornhill. He was caught and he was put in prison. Well, that's the thing. You still can, of course, get put in prison for streaking, can't you? I don't think people are very often, but they're detained and they get a criminal record, I think. Britain's first sports streaker was the Australian Michael O'Brien. And in 1974, he ran naked into the middle of England versus France rugby at Twickenham.

And that was for a £10 dare. He was a stockbroker, so did he really need the £10? Oh, and then there was an iconic photo because a policeman covered his genitals with his helmet. And there's this kind of christ-like picture of the streaker with his arms yeah yeah it's a famous picture and then the helmet and the helmet was auctioned off for charity in the year 2000 how naked would you get for money about as naked as i am now so just to cover that my head my head and my forearms are visible but i mean okay uh if um oh i don't know think of a plausible but ridiculous situation.

Well, like Comic Relief or something. Yes, exactly. Ask us to do a photo shoot for comedy podcasters and they want us in swimsuits. No one wants to see that. Would you wear a swimsuit? The reason I'm asking is actually I wouldn't, I don't think I'd want to be photographed topless. No. It's odd because there's loads of holiday photos of me topless.

But the idea that it's going into the public domain now with the internet and stuff, I just wouldn't want to put a picture of me out there i that was the case here's an idea if that ever happened and god forbid suicide pact no we i think the only way we would consider it would be if it was some kind of charity fundraiser thing yeah i think the way to deal with it would be to raise funds for the charity getting people to give so that we don't take our clothes off okay what's it worth not having to see that? It's worth a lot. Good, well I'm glad we've discussed it.

Got a plan. Hi, it's Izzy from London. My question is, which came first, the slush puppy or the hush puppy? The hush puppy, by some margin, came first. I'm not surprised. Hush puppy shoes founded 1958. Slush puppy is not until 1972. Okay.

And in case you were curious, the official term for what a slush puppy is, is an iced crystal drink. Or a non-post granita. Well, it just looks like mashed up urinal cake in a glass, doesn't it, basically. Never going to drink one again now. Well, I never have. What? No, no, no. I never have basically since going pubic was the end of that sentence. Well, now you have frappuccinos.

I guess. Which are kind of the same Yeah but all the things that attracted me as a child to slush puppies are the things that turn me off now. The lurid colours, the indistinct flavours. The fact that after you've been drinking it for a very short time it tastes of nothing because all the flavour gets sucked up really quickly. The origin story of slush puppies

and why they're called that is rather dull It's basically this guy called Will Radcliffe from Cincinnati who was an entrepreneur, spotted an ice slushie machine and thought, ah, let's market that at children and then came up with the name with his kids one day on his porch. The origin story of the name of Hush Puppies is better.

Okay, so hold on. Slush Puppies is a derivative idea and slushies already existed. Yes, although they weren't marketed quite at children in quite that way with the character and everything else. Whereas Hush Puppies, not that appealing to children. No. The comfortable shoes.

Yes. Well, the origin of Hush Puppies is rather more interesting. Curiously, both stories, Hush and Slush, involve Chicago. Ooh. It's a very ush kind of place. Chicago-ish, they call it. Will Radcliffe had spotted this slushy machine that he ripped off in 1970 at a Chicago trade show. Yeah.

And in the Hush Puppy story, it was the National Shoe Fair in Chicago in 1958. Yeah, pretty exciting event. Shame we weren't alive to witness that one. It was at the National Shoe in chicago that the hush puppy was introduced as the world's first casual shoe what now that seems like a brazen claim considering you know people had invented sandals and slippers yeah exactly um but the origin of the name is more interesting than than with slush partly because it was coined by the brand's first sales manager, James Gaylord Muir.

James Gaylord Muir was having dinner one day and was talking about the traditional southern food of the district. The hush puppy? The hush puppy. So you know, I didn't know about this. Explain what a hush puppy is as a foodstuff. Is it kind of like a non-sweet donut? Exactly.

So it's made of corn flour. It's a deep fried southern snack they were known as hush puppies because you actually gave a large portion of the food to the dogs oh really it's just an accompaniment to the meal you'd have a few but then you'd throw the rest on the floor for the dogs and it would hush the puppies away yeah from eating the tasty stuff like the chicken well it's odd that they're not called hush dogs because there are more dogs than puppies in this world that's a good point apparently the person who'd explain this is where the origin story i think sounds a bit suspicious like it's become a bit too

immortalized yes apparently the southerner who was explaining to james gaylord muir about the origins of the uh southern food stuff said we give this out to quiet our barking dogs the connection that he then made Was that barking dogs Is slang for feet Sore feet Oh I got barking dogs Why is that It sounds a bit like they may have made this up afterwards But then he apparently thought What do you do to soothe your barking feet

I think it's more likely that the first Casual shoes were made of cornmeal And deep fried If you don't even know I think it's more likely that the first casual shoes were made of cornmeal and deep fried. We're on rodcasts, but we don't do fish. Because on this podcast, you answer me this. Here's a question from Andy from Leeds who says, Since I was a teenager, our society has required that I have a signature. Damn society. A notion of which I was not in any way prepared for.

Really? As a child, I was always thinking about having a signature when I was older. It way prepared for. Really? As a child I was always thinking about having a signature when I was older. It looked so exciting didn't it? I think it's because I just assumed I'd be a celebrity so I had to get an autograph ready. And it's lucky that you prepared because it's all paid off. Absolutely yeah I was thinking podcaster Z list. I think I practiced it as well but I think it's because I was trying to reconcile myself to my name which I didn't like all that much when I was a child your signature is beautiful two zeds and you make a feature of them which is good yeah well not as much my dad can got an extra zed yeah he's i mean he he's got his cool interlocking zeds andy says

i ended up just scribbling my name in a messy scrawl assuming this was standard practice having only seen my parents signatures and a handful of sporting autographs however as i get to the age of adulthood where my signature is required on a regular basis, really? With checkbooks no longer really being in play. I was going to say, decreasingly so is it required. Chip and pin has really ruined the signature. This necessary scribble that I'm compelled to repeat

now fills me with feelings of disdain and regret. You've got a rubbish signature! Oh, I hate myself. Is it like that, Andy? I think it is, yeah. Is that your interior monologue? You've just reiterated the thoughts that have been torturing him privately I feel like I should have

been given fair warning an opportunity to practice and finally hone it before it became perpetual yeah that's what school maths classes are for that's what I like the whole way through

my GCSE maths class which is probably why I got a B not an A Ollie man Ollie man I spent practicing my autograph no Oliver actually sorry

is it still Oliver? on my checkbooks and stuff yes because that is my name but my star autograph is Ollie which I didn't have to ever sign until we got our book published and then when we were signing books for the first time I had to think god I've got to sign Ollie that's weird mine reduced down to just HZ

because 13 letters gets exhausting that's repetitious doesn't it but I did a different thing with the Y then because with the Y, you can go all the way down to the bottom of the page, which I can't do with Oliver. No, that's true. The R goes nowhere.

No, nothing hanging under the line. So I prefer signing Ollie now. But at the time I practised Oliver and I did, I mean, seriously, when I was 14, 15, I was imagining it behind me on the chat show, a bit like Alan Partridge's signature I think that should and could still happen

I think that's ridiculous Most chat show hosts don't have a backdrop of their own signature I think Russell Harty did Yeah but that's a long time ago Now they all have backdrops of a New York City skyline Yes But now, I can't remember the last time I had to sign something The bank has a series of security questions now

It uses chip and pin No one has ever looked at my signature on my passport and compared it to another signature I had to sign something. The bank has a series of security questions now. It uses chip and pin. No one has ever looked at my signature on my passport and compared it to another signature. Yeah, it's a shame in a way. Sort of. But of course it is better in a more important way. You can hire people to redesign your signature for you. Can you really?

Oh my God, what a job. What a literally invented and ridiculous job. Yeah, but well done them for having the moxie to tout that as a trade. I wonder what kind of advice they give you do you think they sort of like a designer actually write out for you a new one or do they just say yeah you could do with a bit more curve here or this is making you look a bit severe or maybe if you arrange the letters this way it will look like a logo and then the rest follows i mean they could they could advise andy because he's like i've made these improvements but they could be like look you're on the right track but it's not fully

formed yet for instance i remember having to hone my handwriting over years at school they were very insistent on this and I wonder whether now because you're typing probably from quite a young age at school whether there is that emphasis on having beautiful handwriting I think there probably is but again you went to a posh school didn't you useless skill yeah but it's part of what your parents paying for isn't it yeah but it's no good to me now yeah no one cares what my handwriting's like well i was just about to say whereas the latin that's really useful but actually you do use the latin yeah i once got chaffed up on the basis of my signature i was counter signing um a check for somebody at a college bar i was like oh you've got beautiful handwriting really and that was the start of

something was it was it actually the start of something yeah Was it actually the start of something? Yeah. Was it? Yeah. For like a year and a half. Wow. Yeah. Anyway, Andy says, I have recently been playing around with my signature and have come up with a much smoother, neater, and more importantly, cooler signature. Okay.

So Ollie, answer me this, please. Are we stuck with the same signature for life? No, you can change your signature whenever you like. There's no legal requirement even to have a signature. You can just have a splodge. Is that right? Yeah. They just need you to make a mark.

Yeah, but you do need to make the same mark. Well, you don't need to. No, you don't. But you're going to get yourself in all kinds of trouble if you keep changing it. But I think also most people will... It'll look like the same person has written their own name. Unless you radically change everything about your handwriting. Bits of it will look identifiably yours.

You're saying there's no legal requirement. If you're signing something very serious that's a legal document, for example, deeds to a home for which you've paid hundreds of thousands of pounds, I think you would be unwise to draw Bart Simpson on that and then have on your passport a completely different signature. Because there is a chance that that document could end up in court and that could be debated. So although there's not a requirement, it's common sense to do a little bit of conforming, isn't it? What would be sensible would be to transition on a non-essential document and then you've got a paper trail. Yes, you can show the evolution, I suppose, stylistically. Yes, although it is actually one of the reasons you're allowed to change your passport is you can say I've changed my signature.

That's an expensive thing to do. I think with your bank you just can make sure that they've got a copy of both of your signatures. But people change their signatures all the time. Like when people change their names their signature's going to change. And like my dad's handwriting's changed with Parkinson's. That's one of the first symptoms actually that your handwriting alters. So his signature's going to be different.

They can't be like, no, can you do it again like the old days, can they? I had to change my signature. I used to work on a fruit farm. I had to sign off cards which said how much fruit people had collected. I was like the overseer. It wasn't a very fun job. I used to write out my full name, which was too long,

and it just turned into Mouse at some point. Mousewick. Just Mousek. So that's my signature name. It's much, much shorter, but when you're doing that like 50 times a day, you don't want to, as Helen says, write 13 characters, whatever it is. My mum's signature is her just writing her name in her handwriting. That's harder to forge than the ones that are more abstract. Is it?

Yeah. But it's also weird, isn't it? Like to not have at any point in your life thought, I'm going to give myself a snazzy signature. Presumably you don't. I mean, you have now signed autographs. Presumably you don't. You said you didn't,

but you wouldn't sign autographs with your actual signature because someone might take that away and buy a house no I do if anyone's got a copy of the Answer Me This book that I've signed

that's basically my signature you can rip me off for that I think I think I think it would take more than my signature for someone to be able to buy a house as me

since that's something even I have not achieved well that brings us to the end of this episode of Answer Me This well done for coming all this way with us it's an endurance test but it's also um quietly dignified what i was gonna say do you

think so i've never thought of the words quiet or dignified in the context of answer me this but okay you know we've all been on a journey that's what i was searching for okay but send us your questions listeners in order to create further journeys for us all to go on uh via email phone and skype and our contact details are on our website. AnswerMeThisPodcast.com Remember, whilst you are on our website, that you can also follow the links there to buy our classic episodes and our apps and our albums.

By the way, as you mentioned the apps, I'm very sorry to anyone who the previous episode noticed there was not the bonus bit of crap, especially for you app owners. I was on holiday and i forgot yeah but i don't normally there are like 200 on there there are yeah this is good opportunity even though we technically failed you it's a good opportunity to remind you every single episode on the app there's a bonus bit of content which was stuff that was too good

to uh leave on the cutting room floor and too good to go in the show um so yes uh you can buy the app from answer me this store.com for apple and android and windows correct yeah uh remember as well when you're on our website to take out our audible offer choose from hundreds of thousands of books but we get money if you do yeah answer me this podcast.com slash audible on our website as well you can follow us on twitter and facebook and keep on asking keep on asking those questions never stop being curious people so curious you're such precious little curious creatures bye you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook and keep on asking keep on asking those questions never stop being inquisitive stay curious people so curious

we're such precious little curious creatures bye