Answer Me This! - AMT405: Trophy kissing, Biscoff, and the meaning of pretzels

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

It's one of those fantasy questions that gets batted around when "Who would you want at your fantasy dinner party?" has been wrung dry: what would you spend the money on if you won the lottery? Except one questioneer has actually done it, and now they need to figure out what to spend the money on in a way that doesn't tip anyone off that they won the lottery.  Plus, questioneers want to know: what do pretzels mean, when did sports winners start kissing trophies, who had the incredible idea to make biscuits into spread, what do you do with your late spouse's underpants, and how to do you stop being given gifts of toe socks. For more information about this episode, visit answermethispodcast.com/episode405. Got questions for us to answer? Send them in writing or as a voice note to [e-mail]. Next episode will be in your podfeed 29 May 2025. AMT patrons will be getting bonus material before that, as well as an ad-free version of the episode, and the glow of satisfaction of bringing this podcast back to life; so to become a patron, go to patreon.com/answermethis. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace, the all in one platform for creating and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/answer, have a play around during the two-week free trial, and when you're ready to launch, get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code ANSWER. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spring is here, and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. See app for details.

What about breakfast at Tiffany's? Did you both kind of like it? To spy on my toys, do I need a toy spy kit? So, Helen, now we find ourselves officially rebooted and back in people's ears on the regular. I'm sure you would agree it seems only appropriate to celebrate. But how? Burn all that bunting you've ordered. Oh, what a waste questionnaire rob may have the solution he says i am a professional balloon artist i love that that

has an e on the end not artist artist and i would love to create a balloon art piece for you helen answer me this what would you like oh my god rob thank you he says i can turn you into balloons if you would like i already look like i'm made of balloons i did this for the girls once at my favorite murder podcast a few years back oh sloppy seconds are we rob let me know what you fancy having you would be welcome to use it as much as you like if indeed you do like it you might hate it we won't hate it rob we've seen the photos we've been looking at rob's instagram maggie rob one astonishing truly magnificent balloon artistry although when rob says you'd be welcome to use it as much as you like i wonder how long these things last before they go wrinkled and shriveled do you think he means images of them rather than the balloons i

assume the balloons deflate after a few days yeah because they're so beautiful like he's got one of the lady and the tramp and there's a little plate of pasta bolognese on the tablecloth and it's like a lit photo. Surely that doesn't get then sent to someone's house. And even if it did, I've got a dog and two cats. That ain't gonna last. And two kids. It'll be gone pop in a day. On Rob's Instagram,

there's Nosferatu looming over a human. Edouard Monk's The Scream. The Scream is very cute. The Scream's really cute. There's Chat Noir, the famous French poster. There's Van Gogh's Starry Night,

which is stunning. Beautiful use of coloured balloons. Do you think anyone ever says to him, yeah, but can we just have a giraffe, mate? Like, kid wants a giraffe. I think he would render

a very realistic giraffe as well if he were to do a giraffe. Because Rob has such a knack for recreating paintings, maybe I'd gravitate towards that. The Van Goghs are great, but maybe to offer Rob a different challenge.

I was thinking Chagall, because you have these vivid colours, some interesting shapes, maybe the promenade where there's a man holding the hand of a woman who's floating in the air. So you could take advantage of the floatiness of a balloon. So perhaps that. I would say whatever it is,

because the pictures that I've seen mostly are looking straight out at camera adorably. I would want it to have a face. Yeah. I don't want a landscape. I'm sure he's very good, but I like the cutesiness of a thing looking at you. His Paddington is extraordinary.

Really tender eyes, that Paddington. Yeah, he's nailed it, hasn't he? In a way that actually, I know everyone loves Paddington the movies now and it's sacrilegious to say otherwise. But you remember the first time you saw Paddington in CGI and you were like, oh, no, they got that wrong. His is cute, isn't it?

It's like, oh yeah, I'd love that bear if I found him in a station, implausibly. I don't know if this is a side hustle. And if it is, how does it work? Like, do you do like corporate dues? What's the big money earning for a balloon artiste are you hoping for a new career ollie pivot to balloon uh crafts aren't my thing helen as you might recall no anything with my hands not a fan really woodwork knitting any of it except for jazz hands no even that choreography no flipping the bird impulsive

flipping the bird fine but if it's... Stroking a cat behind the ears? Oh, yeah. I'm not saying don't use my hands, Helen. I'm just saying if the hobby is, you know, majority hands-based, it's probably not for me. I can't imagine in retirement I'll be potting. That's all. Okay.

Hi, Helen and Ollie and Martin. This is Tom in Ohio. In the Huey Lewis and the News song, Do You Believe in Love? The backup singers sing the actual chorus with the lines, Do you believe in love? I'll let Anali answer me this. Do I need to sing that part of the song if I perform it in karaoke?

Because it's very difficult to sing and I don't think I can pull it off. I'll be honest, Tom, you don't sound stage ready right now. But you're right that this is an unusual song in the respect that the chorus is done by the backing singers. And I think for that reason, whatever karaoke track you find of this particular song would probably have the backing already done for you. Oh, maybe.

And the backing would include the chorus in this case because you get harmonies, don't you, in a normal karaoke song? Hmm. I mean, this feels almost conversational between Huey lewis and the huey lewis choristers yes they're called the news the clue is in the name no they were originally called huey lewis and the huey lewis choristers and everyone knows that fun fact they were originally called clover and played on the first elvis costello record that actually is a fun fact unlike almost always when you say fun fact.

What you could do is stick the mic out at the audience to indicate that they should shout the chorus. They won't know the bloody song, though. It's so obscure. If you're going to do Huey Lewis, I sort of admire not choosing the obvious songs, but at the same time, karaoke is about the bangers, isn't it? Do the power of love,

maybe a stretch, it's hip to be square. Don't do the one nobody remembers about walking down a one-way street. It's not great. I mean, what even is that? And it goes on for ages. Yeah. You don't do karaoke, do you, Helen? No, I don't.

I'm strictly performance in performance context, not in social context. Hmm. I mean, there is a stage often for karaoke. So that kind of is a performance context. I don't want to perform for my friends or a bar full of strangers absolutely not hard lines yeah i mean i don't do it habitually because we've discussed before i hate the idea of audience participation generally like at the panto i just am absolutely mortified that they're even going to come near me even

though all i'm expected to do is pick up a suite we have that in common all three of us yeah despite doing an audience interactive show we cannot bear it ourselves although in the case karaoke because you're usually smashed when you do it i'm a different person at the point that i'm considering going up on stage to do karaoke so it's not i'm not in my right mind basically so i have done it twice i did abba once i can't remember the song in my heart it would have been The Winner Takes It All but again not in my right mind so it would have been Dancing Queen

and then with my girlfriend now wife this didn't put her off marrying me we did once duet Hungry Eyes from Dirty Dancing at a karaoke party that's amazing doing a duet's fun like would you consider that more or a group song

I mean if we're talking about Huey Lewis karaoke and duets, it would be irresponsible for me not to talk about the film Duets. Oh, right. About karaoke competitions, and it stars Huey Lewis as Gwyneth Paltrow's long-lost dad. He's a karaoke hustler, and they go off and do karaoke competitions together. Right.

Despite which, there's not that many duets in the film, and it should be camp fun, it's weirdly depressing okay it was also the last film directed by Gwyneth Paltrow's father and the character she's playing is really weird in that she is both like quite sexualized and very little girlish so it feels like she's in a big style body swap I'm not overly familiar with Huey Lewis's acting career I wasn't aware that was a thing Paul Giamatti's in this film by the way yeah Paul Giamatti and Andre Braugher they do the best duet body swap. I'm not overly familiar with Huey Lewis's acting career. I wasn't aware that was a thing. Paul Giamatti's in this film, by the way. Paul Giamatti and Andre Braugher,

they do the best duet of the piece. Yeah, really good. But Huey Lewis, everyone's like, God, look at him. He's so amazing hustling this karaoke. And I'm like, he's fine. He's not really better than a karaoke singer you'd see drunk at an office party, though. Do you remember what his karaoke songs are?

Well, he and Gwyneth Paltrow do the song cruising yes cruising of course together because the film couldn't afford the rights to songs that people have heard I mean that doesn't happen at karaoke I mean what happens at karaoke is people do Bohemian Rhapsody Copacabana that's what happens at karaoke no one does obscure B-song Copacabana is in it and that's the best moment of the film and it's just a cameo. Well, then that's authentic, I would say. That was my dad's karaoke song. My dad had the experience

of only doing karaoke on holiday, never having heard the word karaoke before, never having been aware of it as a meme. He was on holiday in about 1995 in St. Lucia and they had karaoke and he was drunk and he did it and he was just spontaneously sensational.

I was there. He was captivating. He said, it's now or never uh delilah i know that that's all cancelled now but he was very good at it and copacabana that then became his staple thing whenever we went on holiday never did it at home whenever we went on holiday stand up delilah copacabana now or never until we went to turkey where we were in this really raucous bar and he he was like, oh, it's karaoke. I'll get up and do karaoke. And a few bars into It's Now or Never,

this completely pissed up woman from Manchester got on the stage and ripped his shirt open. Wow. And he did not know how to respond because he'd never experienced karaoke in that kind of Magic Mike type environment. His karaoke had induced this animalistic passion in this spectator. Yeah, it was special.

Was his shirt ruined? Did all the buttons ping off? Yes, it was ruined. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like he'd been at a Jewish funeral. Which is exactly the image I was thinking of. How is karaoke like a Jewish funeral? Finally, we found the connection.

Here's a question from Steffi on Narrowboat River Phantom. Don't know what that means. I assume that's a narrowboat that Steffi's on and it's called River Phantom? The boat's called River Phantom.

Unless it's a what three words location to tell us where Steffi's writing from. It's just her flat. She's just in Clapham. Locating Steffi directly to the

kitchen cabinet. Steffi says, I've just been watching the Calcutta Cup rugby match. Don't know what that means either. And the winning captain kissed the trophy. Yes. Ollie, answer me this.

What was the first known trophy to be kissed? Also, are there any trophies that are never kissed for superstitious reasons? Yes, there are some trophies that aren't touched at all, never mind something as intimate as kissing, until they are won. But that's a very common superstition is don't touch the trophy don't jinx it right so there's a lot of that going on across like a whole variety of sports so that's very hard to trace the history of that but the history of trophy kissing i mean obviously it varies sport by sport as to who first did it in any particular given sport but many feel that the first person to have kissed a trophy asterisk i'll get onto that later with qualifications is ted lindsey of the detroit red wings who kissed the stanley cup when he posed

for a photo in april 1954 you can watch it on youtube from that do i deduce that the detroit red wings are a hockey team correct well done look canada's finally thank you finally got you um now what happened interestingly is the following year, their head coach, Jimmy Skinner, did it as well. And for some reason, it seemed to catch on when Jimmy Skinner did it. I don't know why. Maybe because he was the suit, you know, and he was getting carried away with the emotion.

When Jimmy Skinner did it, it was mentioned in all the newspapers and even like 50 years later in his obituaries that this was his innovation, kissing the trophy, because every year after Jimmy Skinner didner did it they all kiss the trophy though as i say the players did do it the year before i've seen the video evidence the erasure maybe it's because uh you know once that's just a one-off right two times that's the start of a trend i think maybe or maybe he used tongues ted lindsey did it again after jimmy skinner did it because he was there next to him he was still the captain.

So it could be that people misremembered it as like Ted having done it once Jimmy did it, but actually Ted did it first. Regardless, the point is, and this is the sort of common sense bit, I guess, but it's worth spelling out. Kissing trophies is clearly something that came along with the photographic era, isn't it?

Because imagine a sporting contest, gentlemanly type pursuit in victorian times kissing was not something you did in public ever still less silverware well there's certain religious things that you kiss though right like people would kiss a crucifix or like um yes the torah in in a synagogue yes that's true but i suppose almost for that reason sacrilegious then isn't it like it's almost a reason again another reason not to do it in more sombre times. I think when you think about the reality of what a bank of photographers at a sporting match does, is you've got a bunch of guys shouting at you,

kiss the trophy, kiss the trophy. That's the money shot they want. It's like a wedding photographer, isn't it? That's the shot they want. They know if they get the kiss, then that's something they can submit to their newspapers and i think once this happened that's what made it not go away is that you had photographers there and that it was just a thing they could ask for of people who often have let's be honest very little charisma and personality do you know what i mean like the exciting thing about them is they've just won a sporting match but how

do you visualize that it's something you can get them to do that's kind of fun isn't it i assume the trophies are cleaned before they're presented as well just so that they're shiny but maybe that also gets rid of the uh the mouth germs of previous kisses yeah i hope so because like i've looked at some pretty romantic ones rafa nadal was nibbling the ear of the french open cup michael Jordan, I saw, cradling the Larry O'Brien trophy very romantically. Yeah, ring, guys. Also, what's weird is, I mean, I'd never really thought about this because I'm not a sports fan,

but when you watch close-ups of a sportsman, I'm saying sportsman, could be a woman as well, but the ones I saw were all men kissing a trophy, they are seeing themselves reflected in the silverware. Oh, right. That's who they're truly kissing. Yeah, so I saw Ronaldo kissing a trophy. Like Narcissus falling in love with his reflection. Yeah, but what he sees is his own lips and face. Oh, right. That's who that trophy kissing. Yeah. So I saw Ronaldo kissing a trophy. Like a narcissist falling in love with his reflection.

Yeah, but what he sees is his own lips and face coming in, right? It's weird. A bit distorted because the trophy's being curved. It's like making love to a funhouse mirror. I mean, in a way, I'm pleased that it exists because a lot of sport can be just so aggressively masculine in culture as well as performance of the sport. And kissing adds an element of tenderness.

Yes, it does. Yeah, I agree. But we have another sporting question from Jess. This is very difficult for us. And she says, Helen, answer me this. Why don't pole vaulters poles ever snap? They do. What are they made of?

And how have they evolved to allow the pole vaulters to launch themselves vertically the way they do now they started out as solid wood i believe ashwood and then they became aluminium tubes the lighter they are the easier they are to run with and so people can approach with more speed and therefore seem to get more height modern poles however they're also hollow and they're usually made of fiberglass or sometimes carbon fiber. And then after they're made, they are tested in a flex machine and they're given a rating according to how stiff or bendy they are. That machine also gives them a little bend in them so that the pole vaulters, they can feel it when

they're vaulting where their weight will be distributed according to the bend. You need to get a pole that is suitable for your weight, because if it is too light, it will bend too much. Even if you're like 170 pounds and the pole is for someone who weighs 160 pounds, then it can break. People also have their preferences as to like bendiness versus stiffness, pole length, how that interacts with their height. But they're often having to compete using borrowed poles that aren't really well suited to their own preferences in materials and their own physical dimensions at all, because

it is so difficult to transport pole vault poles to different contests. Most airlines won't take them at all because they'll probably have like 10 poles in a bag. It's six meters long. It might weigh like 40, 50 kilos. Yeah. And they often get broken in transit. On the rare occasions they can put them in to a plane at all. Also, they might vault over the minicab queue and that's not fair. And then some of the airlines that do take them will only take like two pole vaulters poles on a flight. So if there's a competition in a particular place, they have to be very well organised about who's on what flight. And most athletes don't have to deal with this.

It's still a problem for like hammer throwers to take their hammers on flights, but not to the extent this is. Yeah, well, also, I can imagine a bit less diversity in hammers, like a bit like guitars. You know, like when you see a musician and they say, oh, my guitar got lost by the airline, but thanks to Gibson for lending me one. And you're thinking, yeah, well, because it's a guitar. Like, I mean, I know people romanticise them. Oh, are you really going to say that in front of Martin?

Because he can go on for days about the difference between guitars, Ollie. If you've got a make and model preference, you know, and I imagine hammers are like that, but I imagine poles very much aren't. Like, it must be hard to get the exact pole you need here's the difference between a pole vaulter having to use a pole that wouldn't be their choice versus a guitarist having to borrow a guitar the guitarist is probably not gonna risk a career-ending injury from playing someone else's guitar correct and it's probably not gonna break the guitar in two that's unless uh jimmy hendrix or kurt cobain yeah that'd be so rude to smash up someone's guitar

at the end of your show and and they were like i was hoping for that back can you imagine if jimmy hendrix was like can i borrow your guitar and you'd be like well you're one of the best guitarists who ever lived so are you gonna set fire to it are you gonna smash it if well then you could sell the smashed up bits as like relics of jimmy hendrix smashing up your guitar be worth more than whole but i think anyone listening to this who is a pole vaulter a well done because you do a sport that is impressive to watch yeah you do one of the sports i enjoy watching yeah me too if all sports involved playing at 20 foot in the air i'd be in it and b i i reckon you welcome the fact that we're talking about the sport itself rather than that bloke who's cock-knocked the bar off

at the Paris Olympics last year, because that's all I've heard about pole vaulting for like a year now. We covered how people learned to pole vault on the show years ago. And I think even then there had been a recent penis-based athletics decision. It was like, no, it was his leg that knocked it. I mean, at the Olympics, it was the guy's cock. I mean, we've all seen the clip.

It's definitely his cock. Let Paul Valters have penises. Just accept it. Yes, I agree. I agree. If you've got a question, email it in. To Martin the sound man,

Holly and Helen. Answer me this podcast at googlemail.com Answer me this podcast at googlemail.com Yeah 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. Time for a succinct and to the point culinary question from Lisa in Berlin.

The tastiest kind. Helen, answer me this. Does the shape of a pretzel have a meaning? Oh yeah, does it ever ollie how many times on answer me this have we had things where they're attributed to the passion of the christ oh the peacock feathers represent the passion of the christ mr peanut represents the passion of the christ get fucking ready for pretzels right okay wow i hadn't imagined any kind of biblical allusion in this. Well, there is so much pretzel lore, mythology, nonsense. I'm going to give you some of the many options I found for the pretzel shape,

and you can rate them from one to five pretzels as you wish. Happy to do that. I'm glad you've gamified it. I'm in. But at the same time, do you have a preferred one yourself? Well, my hypothesis before delving into the pretzel shaped abyss was that baking it in this shape rather than like a big blob means that you get even baking rather than a raw bit of dough in the middle.

That sounds plausible to me. And then by folding it like that, it's a bit more easy to wrangle than a long stick, which you might break. Also, you can store pretzels on a stick to keep them out the way you worked up and to cool them after they come out the oven. That is something that I have yet to install in my office, a pretzel pole.

Only a matter of time. Maybe it's the product I never knew I needed. You could use it for pole vault and pretzels. Okay, so what do you rate that on one to five pretzels? Yeah, no, that sounds plausible. I'd give that a five, straight up. Yeah. All right.

Okay, here we go. Okay. The pretzel shape, the three holes of a pretzel represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I mean, no, obviously not, no. I mean, I presume they are, are they German in origin? Oh, well, probably from southern Germany. However, get your pretzel scale ready.

An oft-repeated story is that in the year 610, an Italian monk invented pretzels to give to children as a treat for saying their prayers, even though there's already a treat for saying your prayers, which is escape from eternal damnation and the shape was representing their arms crossed in prayer yeah i mean okay how many pretzels no okay so right the monk i do believe the year i do not believe the crossed arms illusion i do not believe so in total three three pretzels for that all right it's got elements of plausibility, I would say.

The pretzel was a symbol of good luck. Okay. And was used at weddings. Yes. Like how people would get a bride and groom to pull a wishbone. I don't know if they actually pull the pretzel like a wishbone. I believe that, because it's like two... Interlocking.

Two couples intertwined. Yeah, like arms intertwined or hands intertwined. I think that's pretty plausible. I don't know which if if which came first it's facile though isn't it like at a time when people took weddings seriously you know the exchange of rings the first kiss virgins on your wedding day pretzel feels undermining in the gospel according to pretzel in 1614 in switzerland royal couples used a pretzel in their wedding ceremonies to seal the bond of matrimony. And this custom may have been the origin of the phrase tying the knot. Portrait.

Okay, yeah, that is portrait. God, the internet is just full of like, where has our media intelligence gone? Where is the truth hygiene? We can think back a few minutes to your practical rational explanation for how the pretzel came to be in terms of bakery. I've forgotten all practicality

and rationality. In terms of baking shapes. But of course then if that was 600 years ago say more realistically than a thousand years ago it could have then

been applied to lots of things symbolically. Right? So both of these things could be true. It's not the origin of the pretzel

that people gave it to each other at weddings, but I can imagine that in the pretzel heavy region, it was a treat you had at celebration because they're nice. I think what is true is that the pretzel is closely affiliated with religious festivals in, I think still in various areas of Germany and Austria at Christmas and Easter. So like there's extra big Palm Sunday pretzels and stuff. But it's because pretzels

were Lent compatible because they're only made of flour, water and salt. So they didn't contain fat or eggs. And there may have also been pretzel hunts for children like Easter egg hunts now. But something I do call bullshit about

is all the internet pretzel historians saying in the 16th century, people used to decorate Christmas trees with them, because I don't know that Christmas tree decorating was a thing yet. Right. I think that was another couple of hundred years later. Okay. Have we scraped the barrel of pretzel origin? Oh, no. No, there's more. Okay.

In 12th century Germany, bakers came up with the pretzel shape to be the emblem of their guild. And it became their coat of arms from the year 1111. But again, not mutually exclusive, that, is it? That's completely plausible, but not the origin of the meaning. No, but it is true because you can still see that on signs around Europe. There's also a town in Germany called Nürtenhardenburg, where the town seal or the know the city crest is two lions holding a pretzel between them on the fourth sunday in lent in luxembourg boys give girls they

like pretzels or things in the shape of pretzels to symbolize how much they like her and in return if the girl likes him back she gives him a handjob an. So I guess he has to wait a couple of weeks to get a response. This costume is reversed during leap years. Sidebar, how do you feel about the modern meme for taking pretzel to mean purely the shape and not the ingredients, a la Auntie Anne's? How do you feel about that? Excuse me? So Auntie Anne's is this chain chain of they call them pretzels

but they're actually like sugary cinnamon buns are donuts in the shape of pretzels but they call them pretzels they're sugary pretzels is that a pretzel or not uh well i think pretzel dough is actually a critical component to the pretzel because you get pretzel buns which are not in the shape of uh the twisty shape that oh you do i love a pretzel bun oh oh look at him go genuine physical reaction there you know how a few months ago i was saying how the cuckoo clock triggers my german holiday yeah you saying pretzel bun just then just brought me so much happiness because i'd never had one before i went to germany last summer and then having discovered it i had one every day and it's just got the perfect combination of like salt and springiness that i require in a roll oh and as soon as you mentioned it yeah oh so good you're right so

they had what makes that pretzel is the dough not the shape you could say that the components of the ultimate pretzel are the shape and the dough yes but both those things can be used in other things that still belong to the pretzel family. If you had a Venn diagram in the shape of a pretzel, a lot of things could be in it. But I would say that there are those cookies in the shape of a pretzel that aren't pretzels. Yeah. I mean, I was scandalized the first time I saw it. I was like, that has nothing in common with a pretzel apart from the shape. It's like rolling a chocolate button into an oval and calling it an olive. Like that's not a pretzel. But, you know, having then enjoyed it, I'm like, okay okay it's a churro but i quite like the shape so what would you call it if not

this you know okay well that was interesting i had no idea that there would be so many options here's another question of food from daniel from brighton who says i discovered biscoff spread which has become so addictive at first i was eating it pure out of the jar. Nothing wrong with that. Eating Biscoff straight out of the jar is perfectly reasonable. Then I found I can make Biscoff brownies, cookies, flapjacks and cheesecakes with it. Ollie, answer me this. Can you tell me how it all started?

Why did someone think that turning a biscuit into a spread was a good idea? Why are there not more biscuits a spread? I'd love a custard cream spread or bourbon biscuit spread or jammy dodger spread and more. I think, Daniel, that that last observation is like idiot savant level seeing into the future there. Do you remember years ago we kind of effectively predicted book delivery, which is now an unremarkable fact of modern life? People can't remember a time without. Yeah.

I feel that the every biscuit is a spread utopia you've just conjured up is an inevitability and you heard it here first so well done you're right i would also buy the jammy dodger spread did someone invent it by just loading their cup of tea with way too much biscoff and it was just this gunge coffee oh and yes let me get to how the biscuit spread was invented in a second because the biscuit itself has a long and illustrious history and the kind of too long don't read i suppose is it's a bit like when we talked about jagermeister it's a family business it has a kind of european authenticity to it and in the last 20 years they've seized new opportunities to internationalize

which means being quite clever about how they extend that brand but to give you the non-businessy answer the biscuit itself is a caramelized biscuit which was invented in inverted commas in 1932 i say invented because it is a version of speculars which is a spiced festive treat popular across the netherlands and belgium no one knows who invented it been around for centuries right but the lotus people called their speculoos and it was a slight variation on the formula a la coca-cola no one knows the recipe it's our secret family thing but i mean it's caramelized biscuit so they could like trademark speculoos whereas speculas was already a generic term. Yeah, and the IP was always really important. I mean, if you think about the way Lotus is written on it and the way it's got that quite

pretty pattern around the outside, all of that was quite novel for 1932. And whilst popular in Belgium, where it is still made in a place called Lembeck, like I say, for nearly a century, which is kind of extraordinary, but there were two important stops along the way before you get to Biscoff Spread. Stop number one was in the 1950s where they invented individual packaging for pairs of what we now call biscoff biscuits because before then obviously you buy a pack of the things and then the ones at the bottom aren't fresh anymore they created a more sophisticated feeling product they were trying to have this association of coffee and the biscuit the twin biscuit share one with your partner have this association of coffee and the biscuit, the twin biscuit, share one with your partner, have it with the coffee.

It's an adult contemporary snack. You know, it's for people who can practice moderation and don't eat a whole packet of biscuits. All of that was very novel in the 1950s. And then the second thing they did, which was super clever, was when they started marketing it to America. And that's when you got the change of the name to something that the American consumer would associate with biscuit plus coffee,

Biscoff. Oh, it's a portmanteau, is it? It's a portmanteau. Oh, shit. Is they started marketing it via airlines. Yeah. Because Americans obviously had a well-established coffee culture, but this idea of the European laid-back espresso thing was novel,

but Americans like a cookie. so you give them the individually wrapped biscoff and it became so popular that like people started flying delta specifically to try the delta cookie as it became known how silly there was a long association between biscoff and delta even to the extent that um you could get frequent flyer miles if you bought a packet of the biscuits and stuff like that so that was their marketing campaign into america so it's it's been a popular biscuit for nearly a century right but uh-huh daniel from brighton is correct to notice the massive phenomenon of kind of gen z tiktok biscoff related products which started with the spread and to answer the question how did it start becoming a spread,

I was really heartwarmed by this story. The invention of the spreadable Biscoff came from someone who had nothing to do with the family, was just from the region, and appeared on a Flemish reality TV programme called De Bedenkers, The Inventors. Fun. It was just a show where we bring your invention in and the panel of judges will choose their favorite invention she was on this show in 2007 and the

biscoff people saw her invention which had indeed come from her loving biscoff biscuits having grown up dunking them in coffee noticing that the spreadable biscoff made a tasty alternative to nutella she pitched it to the guy who's like the third generation of Biscoff biscuit makers. He was like, yes, that is a good idea, Els Shepherds. We will make your idea and we'll introduce a crunchy variety and we'll give you the credit for it. And it's all quite wholesome and nice.

Like they created this product. Everyone loves it. It's dairy free. It's vegan. And it's just caught light in a way that you actually couldn't really predict. Snoop Dogg carries it around in his handbag, that sort of shit. I wonder if she got paid for her recipe sufficiently, or whether they were like, here's 20 euros, well done dear. And then they have this massive success.

Yes, I would say sufficiently, the answer to that has to be no, because you couldn't have predicted what would have happened. But to be fair to Lotus, they couldn't have predicted how massive it would be so whatever they paid her then wouldn't be enough but the point is they obviously paid her something because they're quite open that she invented it there's no contention about who invented it or they've taken my recipe so i guess she put her recipe online years before that so maybe she just didn't think that there would be any reason to be proprietary about it well also like even though as i said the caramelized biscuit is in itself very similar to other similar treats that have been around for a long time,

her recipe does involve their branded biscuit. So, I mean, who else is she going to sell it to, really? I don't know. There's lots of biscuits that kind of taste of biscuit. Ooh. I understand your argument. Well, it's because I don't care for it. I'm just totally indifferent to it. I love it. Everyone else loves it's because I don't care for it. I'm just totally indifferent to it.

I love it. Everyone else loves it. I appreciate I'm alone in this. Where's the pretzel butter, huh? The pretzel spread. Spreadable pretzel. Spread it on a pretzel bun. Double pretzel taste.

Where? You heard it here first. Come on, Elves, get in the kitchen. I'm trying to build a website to bring tourists to Radlet But when I open it up on my smartphone or tablet Something goes wrong and it just looks a bit shit Unlike Hertfordshire itself Well try building that website using Squarespace

On desktop and devices it will look simply ace As well designed as Hertfordshire, with all that lovely green space. County of Opportunity and Stevenage. Thank you very much to Squarespace for sponsoring Answer Me This. And for making your website dreams a reality. That's what Meatloaf was singing about. That's my website design dreams come true. Keep on believing. that's when you go

to squarespace there's always lots of magic there's always something templating yeah the thing i would like to focus on is their domain supply oh yeah because i mean this is such a beautiful thing this is like going outside and and hearing bird. The simple joy of having the same supplier being the company that provides you with the domain name that you want and attaching it to the website that you're building on the same platform is transformational.

If you've ever tried building a website anywhere else where you buy your domain from one place and then build the website somewhere else, just syncing those things together and having to read the help guides and all of that stuff, choose your domain from one place and then build the website somewhere else. Just syncing those things together and like having to read the help guides and all of that stuff. Choose your domain, attach it to the template you've built. So easy, so good. Yeah, and I can confirm because most of the domains I own I bought before my business interactions with Squarespace and the site that I have to use to get those domains to do anything. It's like a website that was last updated in 2002.

Yes. It's funny, isn't it? Because domains are a less important thing than they used to be. Do you remember there was that period where everyone was like, buy your children's names now before they get snapped up by some unscrupulous gangster? You know, because of search engines and social media, it's less important than it used to be. And yet. I don't know. I think now it's time to get your own domains again because of in-shitification, search results being a lot more full of bullshit get your own reliable online home so trot over to squarespace.com slash answer use the two-week free trial to set up your own thing and when you're ready to launch use offer code answer to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Cool. Nice. So cool. Huge if true. Now, Helen, we have covered many unwanted gift dilemmas on this show. Oh, yeah. But never this particular product that we're about to discuss. Is it worth suggesting that people just stop giving gifts?

Just blanket ban on gift giving. Save people a lot of pain. Monique has been in touch and she says, Every couple of years, my mum gifts me toe socks. There's no set ritual, but it's usually a multi-pack or a few pairs. In general, I like receiving socks as gifts, but I detest toe socks, i.e. the kind that have a separate compartment for each toe.

Are you visualising this now? Yeah, like gloves, but for socks. Like what Freddy Krueger would have on his feet. I have tried to raise this gently with her, but she seems undeterred. Since I never wear them, they don't get worn out like the rest of my socks, and they are slowly taking over my sock drawer.

Helen, answer me this. What should I do with the toe socks my mum keeps giving me? When you say, I've raised this gently with her, was that in such a way that it felt gentle to you, but was undetectable to her? If so, might you have to try to be more direct and say something like mum it's really lovely of you to get me gifts and while i do love to receive socks i have tried to wear this kind of sock and i don't get on with it and i don't want you to waste money on these and after that if she still

knows that you're not using these socks and yet still insists on giving them to you i don't think you're obliged to keep them you're certainly not obliged to give these draw room. Draws are for the socks you wear. Yes. If you want a more aggressive response, next time she gives you the toe socks, you hand over a big gift wrap box of all the toe socks she's ever given you

in pristine condition. Oh no, that's aggressive. Yeah, I said that's the aggressive response. Yeah, but that's overly aggressive. I'm just giving you options, Blake. Yeah, come on, but you went from zero to war like somewhere in between yeah give them back to her i'm feeling frisky what else have you got ollie you can make them into fingerless gloves oh yeah you could make them into cute little puppets yeah to give to a play school or children's hospital ward you could

wear them for yoga and pilates which is apparently what they're designed for because i was wondering what the hell do people buy these horrible things for and that's apparently the thing does kind of make sense because i do do the david lloyd proprietorial equivalent of yoga and pilates which is called spirit but it's basically the same it's not called lloyd lattes or something no that's what they say in the coffee shop and when you're doing a downward dog there is the thing of like naked feet are a bit sweaty and socked feet are a bit slippery so i can see that having the tripod like grip of the five toes would be helpful and maybe help resolve that issue but a lot of people will be doing that on a yoga mat which isn't slippery yeah but sometimes you hang off the back of the yoga mat like some of the moves

involve you stretching too far so you know i can sort of see it point being i think you only need one pair of toe socks who wears toe socks every day i bet even the people who invented toe socks don't wear toe socks every day well monique's mom's giving monique multi-packs per year exactly i wonder if there's been an increase in toe socks on sale because there has been a recent trend for shoes with like a separate big toe. They're called tabi, the style. Like a cloven hoof. There's something obscene about seeing the outline of people's toes, isn't it? It's just very vivid, isn't it? It's like having a special pouch in the front of your trousers for each bollock.

Do you know what I mean? It might be comfortable, but it breaks with centuries of tailoring. You should try marketing those. The double cups. Yeah. I mean, just, it would be a weird thing to see if a man walked down the street wearing those, just like, yeah, just wearing my ball trousers well i suppose cod pieces were

like that i suppose they were uh but it's like uncalled for unprompted it seems like a vivid thing to the outline of someone's toes don't know why i just feel like that i just can't tolerate the feeling of things between my toes including flip-flops i agree with you it's making me shudder thinking of all those between toes bits of fabric that are now in Monique's possession. I know what my mother-in-law would do with them, and she would tie them around trees. She's absolutely obsessed with taking old socks and tying them around trees to help them grow.

To help the socks grow or the trees? The trees. So they don't blow down in the wind. Like something to strap it to, like, you know when you first plant a young tree, you have a vertical, like, stick that goes in next to it. You use the sock to connect it. Right, because it's soft and it's not going to bend or indent the trunk.

I guess. And also maybe aesthetically it looks a bit more like a natural material than a bit of plastic or whatever you'd use instead. You still need a long sock. An ankle sock's not going to work. That may be the case, yes. That would account for why she asked me for my socks. Maybe men's socks are the best because they're longer. But it's now got to the stage, I mean, she's so obsessed with asking me for my old socks that I don't throw my old socks away, the odd ones. I keep them for when Anne asks me to tie a tree up.

Every month, one of my socks gets used for that purpose. The Ollyman foot forest is growing lush and strong. Hi, Helen and Ollie. This is Vera from Portland, Oregon. I am glad you're back. I have a very niche question to ask. My husband died a couple years ago, and I found homes for all of his clothing. I donated a bunch to thrift stores.

Some of it I now wear. Some of it I've repurposed into a quilt. And by a set of weird coincidences, I'm left with one pair of underwear left, which can't go to the place the rest of his underwear went because that would be weird at this point. And I can't wear it. So Helen Ollie, answer me this. What do I do with my dead husband's remaining one pair of underwear? Do I turn it into a pillow? Do I make a shrine to it? Do I throw it away? Do I throw a party?

I don't know. Thanks. Really sorry about your loss, Vera, for a start. Yes, sorry to hear about your husband. Yeah, sorry, Vera. Although I think, given most men's attitude to old underwear, it's safe to say he probably wouldn't really care himself so this is very much your concern if you see what i mean you don't need to worry about respect to

the dead i think you could make them into a shrine or frame them that would be quirky i think framing them would be very very funny it would be very funny yeah but i i suppose the question for you is what do these underpants mean to you whereby you can't recycle them or use them as like stuffing for a pillow or whatever or is it that it's an intimate garment and you you don't want to fully lose contact with such an intimate thing i dare say they possibly mean nothing at all oh yeah could just be fabric that because the elastane content you can't recycle you get to the last one of anything yeah when you've had a bereavement like when my dad died there were loads of like racing cups because he raced vintage cars and those were easy to sort through in a way because it's like

okay i know which ones i want to keep i want to keep the ones where he came first or it was a significant race or a pretty piece of silverware or they look cool and you want to kiss the trophy yeah so that's fine you've got that down to like what a dozen and then they were like okay there's now 70 others where he came third i don't remember the race and it's not a particularly pretty piece of silverware what the hell do i do with these things 70 yeah i mean well done stanley uh so what do you do and the answer was like give them to all his friends anyone who knew him when they come to the house they get used all over my house as stationary holders like to keep pens in cool my son's got one on his bedside table and so you're quite liberal with them because they're sort of meaningless but they're quite sweet and nostalgic

you don't want to give them to a charity shop they've got his name on but then you get to the last one and it's that thing of you've given them all away now and then there's one left it's like when there's one left when there used to be loads that's then a decision isn't it because when you get rid of it future generations have no memory at all that he ever wore pants is that isn't it like future generations would have this one pair of pants to see an example of the pants yeah i guess the pants are less representative of an action in his life than the trophies would be there's a diner near to where we live that has a lot of sports trophies as decor so i suppose there's the option to find a place that would like some decor or my

brother's house because he'll put any old ornamental shit in there yeah that sounds support whatever it is on ebay and andy's optimal will buy it and house it forever i know that there's a market for people who want secondhand underwear on ebay and i don't think vera that's the market you want to sell your dead husband's pants to. I mean, I like the pillow idea, but what about using the pants to make like a little toy of his favourite animal? So it's something cute. The fabric is probably soft because pants and it won't look like pants,

but it will still be something that reminds you of him and it's just nice to have around. Something we do actually, when my son's clothes don't fit him anymore, is we dress up a giant teddy bear that he has in them. And that wouldn't work generally for full-size men's clothes but actually with underwear you could probably put it on a big teddy bear yeah you can cut the crotch out and make the pants into a crop top for the bear in fact maybe Vera you could wear that oh sure that's definitely what she wanted

wasn't it like a crotchless solution to this problem Ollie do you have to buy bigger and bigger bears as your son grows so that there's always a bear that can fit the old clothes? Definitely. He's not actually that tall for a nine-year-old, so we haven't had to come up with that yet. But you're absolutely right. That is going to be the problem when he suddenly gets a growth spurt, isn't it?

I'll have to get like a secondhand waxwork from Madame Tussauds. Terrifying. Helen and Ollie, answer me this. I don't want you to dance or kiss, but reveal your theories and take off your muzzle. Ponder my query and solve this puzzle. It's swell, good golly, you crazy kids. Oh, Helen and Ollie answer me this

Here's a question from Sandra who says I just won $442,000 Australian dollars on the lotto. Now, when we got this email, Helen thought it was spam because that's how the email genuinely starts.

Sorry, Sandra. But it's not. Sandra's a real person who has just won the lottery. So congratulations, Sandra. That's about £214,000 or $277,000 American dollars. Sandra says, this is more money than I could ever imagine having in my life also i don't want to tell too many people i have won this money the first extravagant expense i've

made since winning was signing up to the answer me this patreon that's what they always say on the national lottery shows isn't it what are you going to do with it i'm going to support answer me this that's lovely of you sandra sandra says i I'm going to support. Answer me this. That's lovely of you, Sandra. Sandra says, I've always wanted to pay you guys for the entertainment you've provided me, but couldn't justify it in my budget. That is really nice. That is really nice.

And I would point out that you're more than welcome to contribute more than $5 per month, should you so wish. The option is there. Answer me this, Ollie. If you won money and wanted to use it so that people wouldn't know your finances have changed, what would you buy or spend it on?

I mean, there's loads of boring things you could do, like pay off debts and put it in savings accounts and other people will be none the wiser. Yeah, do you know, I mean, I love this because I hate usually in real life, I mean, I know we kind of do them on this show, but the general kind of like, would you rather type question or the who would be at your ideal dinner party question. In real life life i hate those

questions because i'm just like well it's not going to happen so i don't want to spend my brain thinking about it like i just can't be asked to answer that don't make me use my imagination yes i charge for that i'm a freelancer and what would you do if you won the lottery is totally in that like i don't play the lottery so i won't win the lottery so fuck off is what i usually think yeah but i've never had it so focused before that the question is, what would happen if you won this humbling but relatable amount of money?

I mean, that's a great amount of money that you've won, 200 grand. That's like for everyone, that's money that would make a real difference. For some people, it would be life-changing. For some people, they'd pay off the mortgage. Yeah. But it's not going to be the rest of your life.

You'll always be thinking about that money. It is a very interesting sum because it is not life-changing in that it would totally transform basically how you behaved in every context and the kind of people that you're associated with or that you would never need to work again. And in most parts of Australia, you couldn't buy a house outright, be a nice deposit for one. But in Australia or Vancouver, where we live, that would make the difference uh renting and being able to put down a deposit on a exactly and still having a substantial mortgage on it so it's nice to fantasize about that isn't it yeah so so yes the boring stuff that you're alluding to i mean that is that is that's what i actually do is i'd pay off my mortgage and no one would be any the wiser because what was anyone's business what your mortgage is yeah i mean you could do something like pay someone to come and fix everything in your house that is annoying you forever like every

loose doorknob every malfunctioning light switch but also what's nice again what's nice about that kind of money it's like you know when people win a smaller amount of money like 20 grand and then they go on the holiday of a lifetime and you think well good but then that's over and then then what this is enough money that you could do the holiday of a lifetime every holiday like every holiday you ever take could be 10 grand and you could meet it out for the rest of your life and that would be pretty great disney every year oh the dream i think what what this can buy you is less friction in your life and some nicer experiences because you're able to pay your way out of having less nice experiences and what i mean by that is things like when i have sufficient money to cover all my other needs

it means i can get a cab to or from an airport if i have a lot of luggage rather than struggling on buses and trains with multiple changes and it takes an hour and a half longer so it can kind of buy you out of certain types of discomfort and annoyance and other people don't need to know about that you can leave a party in an uber and not care that it's going to cost 80 pounds that would be nice wouldn't it you could say yes to every party invite and then just leave because you wouldn't be worried about how you get home so you could travel in whichever class you find nice enough but not such that it makes you feel like a traitor to everything you hold dear or you could buy yourself more time off for doing more of the things you want to do like i don't know study or garden or learn piano or some other like or time-consuming hobby that

means you would be away more but you still have a job i just like the idea of using it to meet out a small luxury across the rest of your life yeah rather than i mean obviously obviously if you need the deposit for a property if you don't already own a property or if you need to pay off your mortgage, if you do own a property, then yeah, or your student debts or, you know, yeah, sure. Maybe if there's like a local artist that you like, or a local furniture maker or something, you're like, you know what, I'm going to get myself the table I've always dreamed of. Yes.

You know, things that aren't status simply that mean something to you. The stereotype is that you go and buy things that are status symbols. So a flash car, a McMansion. But if you're getting things that mean something to you and are just nicer than what you would have thought you would pay for hitherto, then I think your friends probably won't notice that much. I think it's flashiness that people notice. The fun thing I would get is a custom guitar,

which probably would cost me four or five thousand dollars. But I could be like, oh, it cost a thousand dollars and people wouldn't know the difference. Well, that was the thing. So my dad sold vintage Bentleys. People didn't know the difference between any vintage car from one or other. The thing about vintage cars is you'd get that kind of person who'd won the lottery or been self-made and didn't want people to think they'd changed. But actually, you know, some vintage cars are worth £50,000 and some of them are worth a million pounds.

And if you don't know what you're looking at, you don't know the difference. Use that information asymmetry. I mean, a thing that I would definitely buy, and you would laugh at me for doing, is I would buy... A lock of meatloaf's hair. I would buy the whole range of Yeti products. I absolutely love them. They're such good quality and they're so expensive i didn't know there were

more than like two kinds of cup right so you've just seen the sippy cup right with the straw and the coffee cup with the lid that even though you drop it it goes back on through magnets oh i thought we were talking about the microphones no no no yeah blue yeti no no no yeti's like the sort of outdoorsy brand they started by making sensible things for people who go hiking like bags that don't break and cups that keep liquid hot or cold for 12 hours at a time for people who are serious about outdoorsy stuff and then like a lot of sports brands they've kind of evolved into being a lifestyle thing for people like me who just need it because they like it and they think it's good quality and it's fun i like the coffee maker that looks quite cool okay so that's next on my list so every year i get a different yeti product i treat myself because they're all like 50 quid plus right so

i've got the sippy cup i've got the coffee cup last year for my birthday my wife got me the ice shaker for cocktails which again completely unnecessary you know i love a dirty martini but it's just so good because with a normal cocktail shaker your hands get cold with the yeti one it has the insulated outside like a thermos flask so you can it's supposedly for camping so you could shake a cocktail and then take it with you 12 hours later and still have a cocktail but i use it every time i make a cocktail i've just bought for my trip to disney world the ice cooler backpack so the one for next year will be the coffee cup yes it's like a single coffee cup thing that sits

on the top like a drip coffee thing again made of that thermal material is there like yeti day on the oily man calendar 14th of october i go and buy myself my annual yeti product well we're coming up to my birthday my birthday's may the 12th so it's yes it's always it's always spring it's always a spring because they're summer products like if i'm going to use it i can use it for going hiking hiking i mean walking around my Hertfordshire village well they're all year round products because they can keep your soup warm but it's weird isn't it because i've i've changed like if you'd have asked me that question 10 years ago i'd have said the apple vision pro or whatever the equivalent of that was 10 years ago you know the an oculus rift and uh now i just i just want

a nice cup i just want to be able to have my coffee everywhere. You know, if I had this kind of win money, the thing that I would want to get myself is a long arm sewing machine. I was just about to ask that. I was about to say, is that a conspicuous purchase that people would be like? Well, they take up a whole room. So I'd also need to get a room to keep it in because we live in a three room flat and none of them is sufficiently out of commission that it could just house a massive sewing machine how much do they cost

i think it's like 15 to 20 grand bloody hell wow yeah anyway uh what would you buy if you'd just won 442 000 australian dollars on a australian Australian lottery let us know we'd love to hear your suggestions you can also send us your questions of course for the next edition of Answer Me This please do and our contact details

are on our website answermethispodcast.com and if our earlier chats about sport have enticed you to listen to us talk even more about sport then we have special albums about those topics plus other ones

you can buy those at answermethist store.com along with our first 200 episodes yeah if you've wondered where our first 200 episodes are that's where they are answer me this store.com and they come with a health warning yes but our other work is available elsewhere online uh ollie man where do you keep yours uh you can check out everything I do at ollymann.com although something that I just want to mention is that I occasionally do radio as well like present radio shows and there's one coming up on the 25th of May I'm going to be presenting the show on Times Radio at 10pm which is all very nice tune in if you're interested in news and politics the reason I'm mentioning it though is because that slot is covering Daryl Morris.

And I just wanted to shout out Daryl Morris because behind the scenes, it is partly due to Daryl Morris having contacted me. I don't know him. I've only spoken to him about work matters and only twice on the phone. But he wrote to me to say back in September, October time, oh, I'm doing up my house at the moment.

I'm listening to Old Zantz be this, and I just want you to know it holds up and it's good and you should think about coming back. Me forwarding that email to Helen last autumn was one of the reasons that we ended up having a conversation about coming back at all. And very suggestible. It is partly due to you, Daryl.

So, Daryl, thank you. And Helen, what is going on in zalt's verse well the illusionist my entertainment podcast about language is about to come back after a break with a season about four letter words including some of your strong swear favorites they'll be back by ninth of may and just about to do some boring behind the scenes pod shit so if you don't see it appear in your feed after ninth of may search for it and resubscribe because boring pod shit so if you don't see it appear in your feed after 9th of May search for it and resubscribe

because boring pod shit will have kicked you off nothing to fear though the show is coming back I've got swears to talk about that sounds

great also Martin and I are about to do some shows in Montreal and Toronto Toronto is on the 1st of June

and Montreal is on the 9th of June 2025 so hurry up and get your tickets. It's a very amusing show. You'll have a great time. Oh yes. And I'll have a better time if you're there than if you're not. Oh yeah. Ticket links are at

theillusionist.org slash events. And Martin, you have music available for people to listen to with delight. Loads, yeah. I haven't put out an album recently. I'm working on one though. I record and write under the name Pale Bird, and there is a lot of music. If you search for Pale Bird on your music platform of choice. And if you go to patreon.com slash answer me this, you can patronise the show to help keep us going.

Yes, go there and you get an ad-free version of this show, which you can stream every month, and you get bonus bits every month as well, but mainly you support us. If you can afford to send us five dollars a month thanks yeah if you're like sandra and you want to use your newfound uh luca to support the entertainments then um that's a place you can put your money we'll look after it for you and we'll be back on the last thursday of may which is czech's calendar the 29th very good