Answer Me This! - AMT412: Widow’s Peaks, Mixtapes and Garlic

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

AMT412’s questioneers want to know why Innocent smoothies wear little woolly hats, how to increase someone’s spice tolerance, whether someone making you a mixtape is definitely a sign of romantic interest, and what to do about similarly-named strangers using your email address. For more information about this episode, visit answermethispodcast.com/episode412 Got questions for us to answer, or feedback about an episode? Send them in writing or as a voice note to [e-mail], or you can call 0208 123 5877 like the old days. AMT413 will be in your podfeed 24 December 2025, and halfway through the month you’ll get an episode of our new feature Answer Us Back in your podfeed, full of your own contributions to AMT questions recent and ancient. Become a patron at patreon.com/answermethis to help with the continuing existence of AMT. All tiers get an ad-free version of the episode, plus bonus material each month, and our live video question-answering session Petty Problems which is next happening 18 January 2026; but spend a bit more and you get access to an RSS feed with ALL the AMT stuff EVER, including our entire back catalogue, our six themed albums, the retro AMTs, and every Bit of Crapp from the AMT App.  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. Thanks to Naked Wines for sponsoring AMT, and for providing bottles straight from world-class winemakers, cutting out the middleman, delivered to your door. Head to nakedwines.co.uk/answer to get a £30 voucher on your first 6 pack, including free delivery.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will there be a wicked part three about the munchkins in college? Hasolid, Husser be this. Why was Goldilocks so fond of tepid porridge? Has to be this, heaven and lonely, absolutely this. Huge news, huge news, and not the kind of huge news that makes you think, oh, what are the government done now? Outlaw libraries. No, good news. Indeed, yeah, we have a new product. And this is our big launch. A product?

A product. You make it sound like we've got a new mopped. Oh, Ollie. You've worked so hard on this. Big it up. You've staking you ages. We have two new products. Oh, for fuck's sake.

Two mop heads. Got bigger. Which are here as a result of me having spent quite a few hours uploading our entire back catalogue to Patreon. Entire? You know what that includes? Or do you? If you're the answer me this enthusiast

slash completest, you may be thinking, it's all very well having lots of episodes of answer me this available for free on my podcast feed. That's fine. But what I'd really like is everything Helen Oly Martin have ever recorded all in one place. And I'd like that to go back all the way to 2007. And I'd like it to include all of the retro episodes that they used to release where they do an intro at the beginning, dismissing their former selves as idiots. Yes, the parade of remorse, aka what from our past, aged like a fine. shit. I'd like it to include all the formerly called bits of crap on the app bonus bits. Yes, we used to have an app, you know, back when single purpose apps were a thing. And every time

people got a little bit of bonus material. And I'd like it to include all six albums that answer me this has ever put out behind a paywall. I'd like all those things to be on a special feed. But, Helen, I'd like them in Apple Podcasts because that's where I listen to podcasts or pocketcast or downcast or overcast and others I'd like it there along with the new episodes and I'd like them all ad free and I'd like them in chronological order please well you niche listener

your wish is our what's the word I'm looking for it's our new Patreon offering is what your wish is it's what Olly Mann has spent months pulling together because there is so much stuff yeah but we've all put the work in Helen you were you were there for the 19 years before and very involved in creating the files that I was not uploading.

Sure, but I have not had to deal with this circus of pain. But well worth it, what do we say to people who are like, well, I already bought all the old episodes and albums and even the app before. I guess what you were purchasing is a convenience of listening to them in a system that is equipped for the modern day, unlike the ones that Olly Man had to build from scratch because this podcast predates convenience. And also, you're funding the show. It's because of your support that aren't to me this conclusion.

Continue into 2026. Yes, exactly. Yes, we are carrying on into 2026. And that is a result of all of you guys supporting us at Patreon. So thank you. And if you can afford to join the most basic tier, which still gets you our live video streams and our bonus bits. And you can listen ad free on the Patreon app.

It gets you all of that. Please do. That's the questionnaire tier. But if you fancy the things that I've described, you can either join our new middle tier. which is called Four Star Hotel. Shout out Carla Davitt on Patreon, who suggested the name. Four Star Hotel. That gets you basically everything apart from the first five years of the show. But if you join SoundBag, which is our top tier, that gets you absolutely everything all the way back to episode one, all on Apple Podcasts.

And some of the other podcast places. And, by the way, gift subscriptions are a thing. Yes. Patreon.com slash answer me this slash gift. So for someone who used to listen to this, show back in season 1, 2007 to 2021, and didn't know the Ansomew this came back for season two this year. What a gift to make them shit themselves with joy. Patreon.com slash Answer Me This. Fill your ears with everything we've ever done. Dear Helen and Ollie, answer me this from Tim in Exeter. What do I do with the little knitted hats that you get on top of Innocent smoothies? I just bought a meal deal, a few minutes

ago. And it has one of those little knitted hats on it. I've got no use for it. And I've got about 10 of them now, sitting on top of the chest of drawers. They're quite nice. So it feels bad to just chuck them away. But I didn't really want them. Can I afford them off on a charity shop or something? Thank you. For those who've not encountered a smoothie wearing a little hat, the brand innocent smoothies, which is widespread in Britain, sells bottles of smoothie that are wearing miniature hats. I'd say they're about, what, four centimetres tall, hand-knitted hats. I mean, I'd like to agree with you. I've never seen one IRL. Really? And I drink innocent smoothies. I buy them, but obviously the meal deals I'm doing,

not the knitted ones. You have to choose between an extraneous hat or crisps. I mean, I've very much digested the company line on this now, because I've learned about it through Innocent Zone website. But it's quite nice, isn't it? The hats are knitted by volunteers. return for which, Innocent give 30 pence per bottle to age UK. They've raised 3.6 million pounds since they started. But if you don't want the knit, you can return it via free post. Okay. So there's no need for it to go wasted. Free post, big knit. What I wonder about when a company is like, if you buy something with this, we will donate a percentage. It's like, well, okay, if you're going to do that, do it anyway. Yes. You could do it for a bottle that doesn't

have a knitted hat and then you wouldn't have someone worrying about what to do with a thing they don't, I mean, no one needs. Yeah. I used to agonise about this when I worked at IT, and I was partly responsible for the content around the This Morning Charity Calendar. I used to think, like, yes, it's true that a pound of every sale of this calendar goes to whatever charity they're supporting. But the way they make it look on telly is like, that's the thing to do for the charity this Christmas is by this calendar. And it's like, no, it's a calendar with pictures of Alison Hammond in it.

You know, the pound to charity is just a nice bonus, but it's not, like, if you want to give money to the charity, give you £10 to the charity instead, you know. Charity singles as well. such an infinitesanally small amount of money. What are wees? I suppose it is marketing foremost, both for the product and for the charity. This hat idea was the brainchild of a marketer called Adam Rostom.

It came up with it in 2003. He saw a picture of someone wearing a woolly hat and thought, wouldn't it be cool if the smoothie bottles were wearing woolly hats to keep them warm? I would also keep the cooling, I suppose. You know, it's not going to rise to room temperature quite as quickly if it's partly insulated.

So anyway, the sensible answer, as I say, is if you don't want your hat, you can return it free post big knit, and the hat will find its way back to be repurposed in another smoothie. But for some silly ideas, I was thinking maybe line them and use them as a shot glass. That wouldn't work at all. How would you line them with? A glass. Maybe fill them with sand and use them for target practice. Again, the sand will leach out of a knitted fabric, Olly. Where is your mind? or sit it on the bell end of your knob and be a little willy warmer. I was dreading that this question would make one of you come up with the idea of putting a hat on a penis. I've seen people online putting them on their car gear sticks so that in winter their hands aren't cold.

I've got a much more sensible idea than any of those things. Is it egg cosies? Oh, that's a good idea. That's not bad, actually. What about converting a pair of fingernailess gloves to a pair of fingery gloves? Oh, that's quite good. I've actually got a pair of gloves where the things. thumbhole has come off. I haven't replaced it because that's, of course, my texting thumb.

It's actually quite useful. In fact, if anything, if they were marketed differently, I'd buy these gloves now in their ruin state. They'd be much more useful than when they were new. But, you know, if it weren't the texting thumb, if it was any of the other digits, then that's quite a nice idea, yes. And then you've got like little finger puppets because some of the hats are in the shapes of animals, fruit, unicorns. There's a postbox. That'd be cute. According to the Innocent website, quote, they've been modelled by all sorts of action figures, not to mention animals great and small, from gerbils and guinea pigs to lizards and African snails. Okay, do we know if a snail enjoys wearing headgear? I think you could

make them into a little garland as a Christmas decoration and then fob it off onto someone else that likes that kind of thing. Yeah. Another solution would be for Tim to buy a different brand of smoothie that doesn't land him with a hat. That's true, yeah. I think that's probably not what they intended, but yes, that's right, just by the one without the hat. Yeah, and then make a donation to age UK. Some of the hats are fruit-themed, but not necessarily the fruit that's in the bottle, and I find that quite distracting. Oh, I see. Like a bottle of apple juice that had an obogeen hat on it. Put me off the apple juice. And when the apple juice had a unicorn hat on it, did that disturb even more that it didn't taste of unicorn meat? Yeah, yeah, totally. Unicorn meat's my

favorite, especially at Christmas time. So tender. Here's a question from Matt in Solihull, who says, as I'm dragged around the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market for the umpteenth year in a row I have noticed that the stalls are all identical year after year they have the same decorations locations, merch and food year after year all of their signs are written in the same font as each other

with the first letter of the shop name painted red I begin to wonder he says after umpteen years of no wandering Yeah. Helen, answer me this. What is the deal with the Frankfurt market in Birmingham? Is it even tied to Frankfurt at all? Frankfurt and Birmingham are twin towns, a concept we explain. In Answer Me, there's 170, available if you sign up for Patreon.com slash answer me this. Which tier? Sandbag to get that. Same bag tier. Max tier. Mark's tier. Yeah.

Marty tier. Birmingham is quite promiscuous with the Twin towns. It's got so many. Who dare you? All San in South Korea, Johannesburg, Milan, Chicago. Leipzig. It's not even the only German town that Birmingham is twinned with Frankfurt. So I thought well, why Frankfurt's market, not Leipzig? I think it's because Leipzig's market is a mere

infant dating back to 1458 compared to Frankfurt's 1393. That's when their Christmas world began. And also Leipzig is a later twin. Frankfurt got twinned with Birmingham, 1966, Leipzig, not till 1992. I wonder if there was a war connection then. You know, that's still only 20 years after the Second World war, isn't it? I wonder if maybe like Frankfurt and Birmingham experienced equivalent levels of

bobbing and deprivation during the war? Hey, we bombed each other. Why can't we be friends? Fair, lads. Now let's have a market exchange. We all like hot dogs and candles. Let's put our differences to one side. I was reading a little bit about the history of these Christmas markets because in the last, I'd say 15, 20 years, German-styled themed markets have become super popular. I mean, around Britain, right? Yeah. But they were. also kind of a trend in Germany as well of sort of nationalism. When the Nazis were in, they said that in those markets, all the items for sale should reflect national pride. And they should all be rooted in German Christmas tradition. And then after the war, they kind of carried

on with that and just sort of like tried to shrug off the fact that it'd been part of Nazi image building. That's sort of interesting. But I must say, Matt, I know you're bored in a Christmas market, it would hold no interest to me at all as a punter. I would not care in the least, whether it was a German style market or a Frankfurt style market, whether it was sponsored by Frankfurt tourism. Or Leipzig. Or indeed. Or whether it was coordinated with partners in Frankfurt. I mean, the net result is the same. Like, you get it. It's a German Christmas market. Like, what does it matter? From the punter's point of view, does it really make any difference? There's nothing more authentic about this, is there? I mean, I guess that's what he's getting at.

Well, it was originally a project of the town twinning where they were like, okay, Birmingham and Frankfurt are going to do various joint initiatives and this one happens to have stuck for many years. It's been going since 2001. It was much smaller then. But you're right that often these markets are quite disappointing if you actually want to buy things at them. They're not that exciting. The point that he makes about the same stallholders year after year, I get that because there are so many events like I live in a village. and so I like to go and support my local village events. But when you go two years running, you get immediately get that feeling

because it's exactly, it's deja vu, it's Groundhog Day, isn't it? Like, it's not a big enough market to have changed. The things that work come back again. So my summer fate in the village where I live, I can tell you now, like, that's where the woman who sells the hanging planters is going to be. That's where they got the candy floss stall. That's where it's splat the rat. This is the band that's coming on at 3 o'clock,

and these are the five covers they're going to play. Would it be a reasonable assumption that in the culture where this event exists, people are not going to it for a radically different event each year? They want the reassurance of the thing that happens every year. Well, I suppose that's Christmas in many ways, isn't it? The ring of familiarity. It stops time for a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

On the other hand, for Matt, it's just annual parade of boredom and pointlessness. And that's his tradition. It provides an opportunity to sell stuff that they can't sell the rest of the year because it's stuff that's associated with Christmas roasted chestnuts Panatoni I mean I don't mind Panetoni but it's not great is it you wouldn't but you wouldn't it's just not a thing

like someone said it is a thing I mean you're going to get a lot of angry emails from Italians if you say Panetoni's not a thing but if it wasn't being geared up as a Christmas thing in a decorative tin if someone at any other time of the year was like if you got 20 quid I can sell you a thing you can make into a summer pudding you'd be like

I'm all right I feel like most of the Christmasy things are like German like Christmas market, Christmas trees, all of this stuff. So much of it is Germany. How has Germany become the Christmas country? I think that was probably because of Victorians and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Is how, yeah, exactly, yeah.

Well, for sure, but like Christmas markets are much more, feel like a more recent transplant. It's because they've got little wooden cute huts, Martin. Could have been the Luxembourgian Christmas market, but Luxembourg doesn't have the marketing budget of Germany. Also, Germany's got the fonts. I don't think Henry Winkler's from Germany. You know, you think of October Fest.

You think of Yeagermeister Often It's the font you want at Christmas, isn't it? Oh, I see the got Gauthie The Gothi thing Yeah, the Bavarian thing They've just got the fonts I suppose I don't want it at Christmas

But I want it less the rest of the year Exactly Your point stands by default Like hard cake, like savoury Like all the shit people buy in these places Exactly right That's what I'm saying It's tolerable in that circumstance

A monstrous sight on the shells behind me, Ollie Is a Christmas pudding That Martin and I made with his family a couple of weeks ago. It's just sitting there, putressing until Christmas. It's developing flavour. What's the opposite of porn? Because that's what that is for me. Something that makes me feel... Bonacillers. Yes, absolutely repellent. Yeah, no, I know it's hanging over your shoulder.

The whole way through this recording, I'm going to be distracted and slightly sick. Can you smell it? You're so right. Even though there is basically a kink for everything, Christmas pudding is the opposite of porn. Well done. We finally found it. So, right. And you can listen to Ollie complaining about Christmas pudding in our back, I don't know. That is a deep cut, early days. Notorious Christmas pudding hater.

Well, here's another question with a German connection from Cirque, near, formerly in Seattle. Who says, when I was in high school, I had a huge crush on a German exchange student and before she moved back at the end of the year, she said, come with me to Birmingham. There's an amazing Christmas market there. Feels just like home.

Before she moved back at the end of the year, she gave me a mixed CD. I assumed that she gave it to me just as a friend but two decades later it suddenly occurred to me to ask answer me this did she mean it as more than just a friend well we've got that exchange student with us right now and finally she came back

the only songs I can remember says Sirk were leaving on a jet plane Fields of Gold Hotel California and Pete Seeger singing Diger Duncan Sindhre Well, those aren't sexy songs. I mean, that might be a sexy one in Pete Seeger's repertoire, perhaps, and at least it wasn't if I had a hammer.

But it's not love on top by Beyonce, isn't it? So I'm not sure that she was crushing on you, but I think it's true to say that we can't be sure that she wasn't. Not because you haven't supplied enough information, although you haven't, but just generally because the medium of mixtapes, often if you are making a tape for someone, I'm going to use the word tape even though this was a CD, because that's what it is.

I think the genre really demands the term mixtape, yeah. The genre, yes. If you're making a mixtape for someone, they are the object of your attention, at least, aren't they? You're trying to remind them of you, at least, aren't you? She never could have dreamt, probably 20 years later, you'd still remember it. But that's sort of the idea. I'm going to leave this lingering thing with you because you're special,

and I want you to think of me. So even if it's subliminal, even if it's kind of latent, I think often there's an element. of unrequited love in a mixtape donation. That's my feeling. Yeah, I'm trying to think now of mixtapes I've been given, and I think most of them were by an ex in the 90s. But then Martin used to do an annual exchange with his friends of mixes,

which I thought was actually a very sweet idea of just what their favourite songs were that year. And that wasn't romantic, I assume, Martin, or was that a happy byproduct? It wasn't just the warm up to a massive circle check. As I've got older, I've listened to music. Not enough to be like hearing my top 12 songs. or 15 songs of the year.

Now it's like I could probably rustle up a couple. Just the way that I listen to music has changed so much. I guess when you're younger, you're just discovering things for the first time. And you're like, who's this Bob Dylan guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's, I think, explains the presence of Fields of Gold and Hotel California on this particular mix. Yeah, I try to look out if there's a hidden message. There's travel themes there, right?

Like, leaving a jet plane Hotel California. She was literally about to jet off back to Germany, I presume. So that's, yeah. Also, often in adolescence, like, if it was the first mixtape you'd made for someone, you'd just put on your favorite hits, right? It wouldn't necessarily be a message, whereas if you'd done a few for them, maybe you'd be like,

okay, I want this one to make them feel these things. Yes. I've heard one before with a very clear signal. Really? I was on a holiday with my mum once in Cyprus, just the two of us, when I was about 16 and she was a hot 45. Your mum is forever hot.

I'm sorry to objectify her because she has many other qualities, but she is very hot. And like the classic Shirley Valentine-style Greek waiter had a crush on her. No wonder. left her a mixtape at our hotel reception desk. It opened with Jatem by Sikrinsborg and Jane Bergen.

Well, you know, he had a deadline of her holiday being finite. He had a shot to shoot. Did it work out for him? Well, she did see him again. We went back to the restaurant and she said, thank you for the tape. Can I have some Satsiki? Yeah.

Refilled this pit or on the house. Anyway, that was a little bit on the nose. But I do think that the subtext very often nonetheless is, like, I'm going to paint a vision of what our weekends will be like when we're together. Do you want to mean? We'll wake up on a Sunday morning. The sun will be streaming in through the window. After hours of extraordinary sex, we'll wake up with a platter of croissants and we will listen

to John Denver on vinyl. She's creating an image, you know what I mean, of like, this is what our lives could be like. I suppose it's also like really expressing to someone, here's a bit more about me, but not in the form of autobiography. It's more like atmospheric. Yeah, which I was always uncomfortable with actually Like even doing the platonic ones of the style That Martin was talking about

Because I quite like some quite dark songs But I'm not a dark person Like at all I'm generally quite positive Like a beat person But I like listening to songs about dark things And I don't want people to think Oh that's what's inside his brain Because it genuinely isn't

It just amuses me Well then would you write liner notes For this mixtape that is theoretical Ignore this bit about suicide It's just for fun It's just because I like the beat I don't really listen to lyrics Although in your case that's not true I don't think

Well it's a mode for me Like sometimes I have Re-listen to something on like the 20th or 30th time And thought oh that's what that's about And sometimes I really don't listen to the lyrics And sometimes I really do it kind of depends Yeah I get that What happens if you know

Someone makes you a mixtape with romantic intentions And you don't like it Does that kill your interest in them Well I think it's a good advance notice I suppose Don't turn down that fork in the road It's a mistake Yeah, there's a lot of Jordan Pearson

Set to beats on this mistake If you've got a question Then email your question to want to be this podcast at Googlemail.com to be this podcast at Googlemail.com. To want to be this podcast at Googlemail.com. To want to be this podcast at Googlemail.com. A lengthy question from Angela, who says, I've been married for 20 years now, and this is a blow-by-blow account.

Not really. All went well for the first two and a half years. The third year, cooked me a breakfast with an over-cooked egg. That really started to us on a downward slope. Angela says, when I got my Gmail account with what was going to be my married name, I had to be invited by an existing Gmail user. That's how long I've had this email address. Well, you're speaking to people who have got an email address that ends with at Googlemail.com, so we've been around almost as long.

Well, I think that was a blip after this point where you had to have an invitation. I think that was an early 2000s thing and ours was mid-2000s where Brits couldn't get Gmail temporarily. Correct. Anyway, you know, let's keep that for some exclusive content. I was boring on about the history of Gmail. Angela says, however, because my married name is so common, for years, strangers with similar, or in some cases the same name, have used my email. They sign me up for a lot of junk mail, which is frustrating.

They have also signed me up for stuff that provides me with their personal information. Uh-oh. They've used my email for their bank. They use my email to register for appointments, some of which seem important. I have at least once notified the sender that it was the wrong email. They have used my email to sign up for online cloud storage and I was able to click through all their photos. Oh, that's bad. They have used my email to sign up.

up for job boards. Too bad they're in New Orleans and Florida and I'm in Dallas. They use my email for returns. Not sure how they are returning when they don't have the return slip because it's in Angela's email obviously. But this gets me their actual physical address. She's getting a bit crazy on the power of this, I feel. Well, I think she doesn't want this power. It's been thrust upon her. She says this doesn't even include all the websites, gambling sites and other junk that I just have to get rid of. Which brings me to my question. Should I Just take to the dark web and be a full-time scammer. I've got loads of information on people. I have never done anything with this information, but I have occasionally considered sending them

an actual letter without my own return address, asking them to cease and desist. It is more than one person. So even getting one to stop wouldn't stop all of it. Annoying as it is, it seems creepy to contact them. But I can only assume that they think no one has this email or they wouldn't be including so much personal information. Ollie, answer me this. Would you send a letter in a situation like this to at least let them know how much data they are unknowingly sharing.

No. Okay. The best thing to do, says Angela, would be for me to get a new email. Correct. But I don't want some random name 4-582 at blah, blah, blah. I've tried other email services,

Proton mail, for example, but Gmail is just so ubiquitous it makes it difficult to switch. I do think that is the straightforward solution here. There are other email providers, get one of those. Angela says I could go back to using my pre-mail marriage name because that name was beautifully unusual and I miss it a bit. So I might be able to get a Gmail with it. Why don't you get a Gmail with a double barrel? Because that is much less likely to

be mistaken for anyone else's name. Angela Mountbatten Windsor. There you go. Yes, you should get a new email address. Yes. There are lots of ways to combine your name with other words. Although that said, I made a mistake when I set up the email address for my mum. Because her name at email provider.com wasn't available. And so I thought a neat way around that would be to put the word email in front of her name. What era was this? That's very retro. What era was this? 15 years ago. Right. Okay, fine. So her email address was email, Karen Mann at web service. And of course, now it's just been a nightmare. Like every time she's on the phone trying to give her email address, she has to say that's email with the word email as part of the email address.

often people in foreign call centres and it doesn't work. So that's tedious and even like web scraping forms think that it's not really an email address because it starts with the word email. So I'm probably not the person to ask. I once decided when I was about 20

there was a brief period I went through where I think it's because there was another Oliver Man who wrote for the Guardian and I got a piece in the Guardian and I had to have a name that wasn't Oliver Man. So I was like, can I have my middle initial? And they said yes, my middle initial is L

which reminded me of Samuel L. Jackson, so I was like, well, that's cool. So I'll be Oliver L. Mann. And so I thought, well, I better have an email address that matches that because I've never used my middle initial for anything. So I actually had my full name. I was Oliver Louis Mann. And I was quite proud of like, I was like, yeah, I can go with that. Nice.

But I got it at Netscape.netcape.net. And then it shut down like six months later. And I was like, I'm just going with Ollie. Forget this. Gambled and lost. Yeah. But in general, I would say to you, Angela, you should stop being so conscientious.

Like the people who are putting your email address down either sloppily by accident or punitively on purpose are being much less thoughtful about all of this than you. Just delete them all on site like I do with PR emails. It's quite liberating. Like you see it's not for you. Don't read them. Like click and delete and feel good.

Give yourself an endorphin release as you delete them. Yeah, but then what if it's something important? Like my name is uncommon and particularly this spelling of Zaltzman. There are many spellings of it. But even so, I got some emails for someone. I don't think they were even a Helen. It was like some other fairly common name. Zaltzman, maybe with an S instead of a Z. And they were like legal summons because they'd be named in a lawsuit in New York, like a medical scene. And I wrote back to the lawyers being like, you should be more careful. From my interaction with solicitors, that doesn't surprise me. Maybe they're like, we get paid

$300 per email, so it behooves me to send some bad ones. But I, but I, you had to write back because, you know, for the person not receiving that, it's quite consequential. I think it is the ordinary experience now in the English-speaking world that you get like, I don't know, if I was to put a number on it, I'd say probably 20 a year like this anyway, whoever you are. I get, like, yeah, receipts for hotels that I haven't booked, travel insurance policies that aren't me, auditions or interviews for jobs. Oh, you should go. Yeah. They are always weirdly. They are always.

in Florida. She's right about that. I don't know why. There seems a lot of people in Florida are applying for things. Is it just spam farms then in Florida? Maybe. But anyway, when I get those, and I think, well, that could be important to the person who sent them. I do actually tend to reply and say, wrong Oliver, I'm afraid, exclamation mark. But then after a while, it is a faf, isn't it? I'm not completely opposed to her sending a letter if that would help her let off some steam. Or embrace being an Angela common name and meet the other Angela common names.

Oh, are you Dave Gorman? Yeah. I mean, I get it, and I've got a pretty uncommon name. As far as I only there's two Martin Austwicks in the UK, one of whom I'm in correspondence with, and one of whom I'm not. And not related to, definitely. Possibly distantly, but I've actually been having a conversation about that very thing. But certainly not closely. We're not like cousins or whatever. There's Martin Nostwick lives in the south of England, who I talk with, and there's Martin Nostwick lives in the north of England, who I've never spoken with. But a couple of years. ago I received an email from the NHS about a pre-operative screening and I was just like

what is happening here like this is clearly not spam yeah has he just put his address in wrong I guess I've got the most common one because I've got like you can probably guess what my email address is email martin Austwick at netscape.net yeah yeah but you would have thought people must know their own email addresses right you're lingering on the least interesting part of this story the more interesting part of this story is when you said that you're or having a continuous conversation with another Martin Orsie. It's very sweet because sometimes the other Martin Austric will be like, oh, well done us.

Because it's a Martin Austric triumph. It's adorable. Yeah, yeah. He comments on my Instagrams. Although his, like, display name is not as obviously Martin Austrook as my display name is. Right. But yeah, he's an interesting dude. Like, he's into wrestling.

He used to, I don't know if he still does. He practices, like, medieval European martial arts. He used to have his own forge and make swords in his basements. You're basically the same guy. It's like me if I was like unfettered by self-consciousness and I was just like, yeah, I'm going to make swords and like wrestled it. Have you ever mooted the idea of an Orswit meeter? Oh, please. I mean, it's a little less practical now that I'm in Canada, but we did have a conversation because it turns out he plays a little bit of guitar and I suggested we form a band called the Martin Austwicks, which would be pretty much.

That's a great press story, isn't it? How did you meet? I'm trying to build a website to bring talk. is too radlet but when I open it up on my smartphone or tablet something goes wrong and it just looks a bit shit unlike Hartfordshire itself well try building that website using Squarespace on desktop and devices it will look simply ace as well designed as Hartfordshire with all that lovely green space County of Opportunity and Stevenage thank you very much to Squarespace for sponsoring answer me this. And for helping you design beautiful websites and run businesses, because one of the

things they've started doing now is including invoicing with their packages. And that includes in the Squarespace mobile app as well, by the way. So, if you are running your sort of showbiz part of your business, you know, the website through Squarespace, you can now run the business end of your business as well, right from the same dashboard. What if the invoice bit is the showbiz bit? For some people, that might be what floats their boat. Oh, don't get me wrong. I mean, I'm very glad that I have a creative job, but equally when like that one day and 30

comes along where it's like, I'm going to be doing my tax return and invoicing today. I quite look forward to that. I get my calculator out. You know, for me, that's a holiday. Do you still have that big pink calculator that you got at the Chinese supermarket in Perley when we went there for lunch once? No, sadly. I've got

this one. Look, it's within reach. I just reached for it so you can see on the webcam. This is a Cassio Scientific calculator solar powered which i think i got for uh well i dropped maths in the sixth form so it takes you back to at least 1996 wow still going strong my thought was well it's not a difficult to write your own invoices and then i remembered that there's a company that i have done probably 20 jobs for this year and haven't sent them a single invoice yet because i'm like oh so some of us do need the the gentle help of squarespace to take some chores off our hands head to squarespace.com

slash answer for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, you can save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain when you use our code. Answer. Hi, Helen, Ollie and Martin the Salman. This is Anna calling from Southeast London with a dilemma. I am a chili fiend. I love chili. I eat it with basically every meal from breakfast to dinner. I have a famous chili sauce recipe that is. I have a famous chili sauce recipe that is handed down from my mum. I'm Asian. I love to cook with chili. And my husband is a white British man who can't take it. You know, even if he gamely eats it, he will pay. Helen and Ollie, answer me this. Is there any way to train somebody's body to become more able to take spice? Or am I doomed to cooking curries when he's away?

like some sort of weird fetish and is he doomed when I take him to Malaysia to meet my family to just order the blandest thing on the menu please help help oh yay I love that these kids have made it so far with this standing in their way

there must be a lot of love there so okay yes you can train your body to tolerate greater intensity of chilies because that is effectively what your family have done through their Malaysian culture. There is not great evidence out there for genetic tolerance of chili. It is more likely cultural exposure. Chili's aren't supposed to be eaten by humans because chilies want to be spread by birds in their feces. Oh yeah, and birds don't feel the heat of capsicin, do they?

Correct. So most animals can't bear it. Rodents don't eat chilies because it makes them like shit for a week. Whereas birds eat them whole, can't detect the heat from the chilies and then spray the seeds around through their poop and more chilies are born. And in humans, the reason we say it's hot, that spicy food is hot, is because your body is literally giving you the same reaction as when you put your hand on a hot stove. That's the signal in your head that you get when you eat cap satin if you're not used to it. And so all of that is nothing to do with being white and nothing to do with where you're from in the world apart from what you've been brought up with. Yeah, and I would say that some white culture has really embraced that part of not being a bird.

Exactly. So, yes, if you are interested in building up your tolerance, then you can. And the way to do it is slowly, slowly. Maybe add Tabasco to food and then build up tolerance. I would encourage him to like it and not to think that he won't like it, and he's only eating it as an act of love to you and an act of hatred onto his bowels in the near future. So I would start with chili content that is not necessarily very hot, but is very flavoursome. Because some chilies just taste of mouthburn.

Others are like really fruity, really delicious, different complex flavours. So start with those. Like Martin the other day, we bought a jar of this local chili crisp by a company called Holy Duck. And Martin doesn't tend to tolerate like hot spice that well. But he loves this stuff. It's delicious. It's great. Laogan mar mushroom oil, I'd recommend that because that's like very savory.

and it's got like a nice texture, it's got peanuts in, but it's not like hot hot yet. So that's where I'd begin. The other thing as well that's worth bearing your mind, because it's fat soluble, you're better off keeping yoghurt and milk to hand if it's all a bit much for you rather than water. It's a classic technique.

Yeah. My experience as a sensitive bowel haver is that there were certain kind of food stuffs that are more upsetting to my body. When it's like, the capsaicin is like carried in a sauce. it's like a vector for the spice basically this isn't scientific this is just based on personal bowel experience of like it's less

irritating personal bowel experience BBE yeah so actually a curry maybe isn't the way to go but like for example like jerk chicken that's super spicy but it's just kind of on the outside so you don't actually get the quantity of spice even though the

quality of that spice is quite intense and burning so like I can usually jerk chicken without too much upset but like a spicy curry that's a lot lot of spices and it's well dissolved but he's he's not going to get a choice ultimately he's going to malaysia and he's eating what they're eating right yeah yeah but there's a range of dishes in malaysia it's not all currants i don't remember things being super hot in malaysia uh and we're different people martin and i they are spicy lads but also i mean i don't know

what kind of family anna comes from but some families love for a new member to have something to be humiliated yeah yeah yeah they can be mean to them about what a gift you're giving them Yeah, like that episode of The Crown when Princess Diana gets introduced to Belmoral and they're all just laughing at her. Yes, you really want Anna's marriage to be like that. Aspirational stuff. Well, here's an ingredient we can all agree on garlic. Yes.

In this question from Max, he says, garlic is the backbone of so many tasty dishes from around the world. Every cuisine seems to love it. But where did it actually come from? We've got wild garlic growing in the countryside here in the UK, but that's leafy and green, not like. the bulb of stuff in the shops. Helen answered me this, when and where did humans first start cooking with garlic and how did it become the global superstar ingredient it is today? I think

documented in use in China, which is probably where it originated and in central and southwest Asia, from I think five to seven thousand years ago. That's when people were already using it in food and in medicine and as a preservative. Which doesn't massively surprise me because it does smell nice. You know, like some things that end up in cooking, you're like, how the hell did someone have the idea, cut that off, heat it up, like let it cool down again, chop it up, stick it in a thing. Let it ferment in a cupboard for three months, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Whereas garlic, hold it up your nose, you're like, hmm, that would be an interesting thing to add to my food, so I can see why that would happen quickly. Yeah, and then in ancient Egypt, it was, it was like found in the tomb of Tutankarmoon. So it was the kind of thing that they would put in a tomb because it was important. Ancient Greek Olympians would eat it, gladiators and ancient Rome would eat it. It was often prescribed for physical elements like insect bites and animal bites and gastrointestinal complaints and pulmonary ailments. But then if you are concentrating on it in northern Europe, Max,

I think it arrived there in medieval times via sort of Italian trade routes because the Romans had had it. And King Henry IV of France was baptized in a mixture of water and garlic to protect him from evil spirits and health issues. Oh, if I was going to be baptized I would like to be baptized in a boiling rat of garlic and then given a stuffed crust That's a selling point for the baptismal religions

Yeah The smell of raw garlic under my fingernails I know this is sometimes Oh, I love it I love it I love it garlic on my hand Yeah Like it's one of the things

I think they sell gadgets to stop your fingers smelling of it when you're chopping garlic But it's like the thing that I really like About preparing a meal I'm like yes I'm cooking I think although garlic was very popular and in many ways lauded, there were also people who were like,

oh, no, it's uncivilized because garlic makes you feel too many feelings or, oh, it's not aristocratic. And I recently was reading Dracula for work. And in that, you know, their abilities to defend against vampires are much worse than they need be because they could just put garlic and garlic flowers

all over the place. Yes. All of them are like, oh, no, I'm so, oh, yuck, oh, oh. And so someone gets vamped. Yeah, you know what I'd much rather do? Run a steak through the heart of an undead centuries-old vampire. Yeah, that seems easier. Us, like, going and tracking him to a port and sitting around for a week,

waiting for his coffins to turn up on a ship. Sticking some garlic on my windowsill, like some pampas grass. Yeah, just get the steaks in. Yeah, it's so ludicrous. And I think maybe it became far more popular in the 20th century because things like Italian food became, like, globally such a big deal. And French food is, like, so lauded. in 20th century cuisine, and that is garlic forward as well.

I've never added wild garlic to my cooking, though, by the way. He mentions wild garlic. Well, wild garlic, you really don't want to cook it, or you don't want to cook it for very long because it, like, sort of breaks down really quickly. We can make, like, a lovely pesto of it. I'm smiling because you said Pesto, and Toby, my five-year-old, he thinks that the Sabrina Carpenter song, Espresso is about Pesto.

That's the most middle-class thing I think I've ever had. Although espresso is pretty middle-class to begin with it. Yeah. That's that me, Pesto. It's not me. It's Pesto. I think that's the version he sings. It's a thought-provoking reinterpretation of the meaning of that song, which I guess does contain

concepts that would be maybe a little out of reach his five-year-old experience. Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. Please send us an email. We love to keep in touch. If you send us an email, we'll like you very much. It's our service podcast at Googlemail.com. That's our service podcast at Googlemail.com.

So please send us an email, or we won't know you're there. And if we like your email, we'll read it out on air. A question of hair now from Chandler, who says Helen, answer me this. Why is it called a widow's peak when your hair comes to a small point in the middle of your forehead? What's so unmarriageable about that? Well, it's not unmarriageable, because to be a widow, you have to have had a spouse. Correct. Maybe you'll be a bit disappointed Chandler. There's nothing really sinister about it. It's just when your hairline goes down like a little point in the middle of the forehead, it's reminiscent of how 18th, 19th century, widows would wear these hoods or caps that had a little point down the middle. Oh, so female widows.

Yeah, widowers are men. Yeah. So actually, but it's widowers who have widows peaks, isn't it? I've never really thought about this before. Generally speaking, women don't have it. No, they do. It's pretty much equal across genders. 15 to 30% of people have one. But it's not a thing that I've ever heard applied to them before. Maybe they do have them. Marilyn Monroe was a famous widow's peak have her, as is Courtney Kardashian and Mickey Mouse. I'm just saying. Mickey Mouse, yeah, that's a good.

That is a textbook one. But I'm just saying I've only ever heard it with men talking about it. Because it's men that tend to be more concerns because it suggests they're losing their hair, the shape of their hair. The beginning of balding, yeah. Yes. But it's just interesting that it's actually, it's a female widow that would have worn, I'm guessing widowers wouldn't have worn those special hats to tell everyone there were widowers.

They would just be off getting a new wife. Exactly. And I think the reason that the widow's peak was popular for a bit to put on a depiction of a vampire and also the Joker in the comic books is because it is suggestive of death, just through association. You know what was disappointing actually was the information available about this because most of the sites are hair clinics describing them and then telling you what you can do about them if you don't like having one. And then papers about genetics because it is a genetic

thing like being able to roll your tongue. But really not that much about the culture of Widow's Peak, which I was disappointed by. One of the things that I've seen on those blogs where it is kind of for men offering them hair transplants. I mean, I know that it's trying to get them to say, yes, I'll come to Harley Street and give you five grand. But one of the options it suggests is if you don't want to do that, if you don't want to pay us money to sort out your hairline, why don't you trim your hair back to match the hair line behind it? That's so much worse than a widow's peak, isn't it? If you're worried that the widow's peak makes it look like you're accentuating your

hairline receding, receding your hairline so far that it looks like your hair is a wig falling backwards off your head doesn't feel like the right option to deal with that. Hey, it's a trend that could come back. Christian Slater's always going to be cool. Yeah, and Leonardo DiCaprio has a widow's peak. Yeah, Leonardo Caprio, I'm not sure, is cool. He seemed like someone who knows he is uncool and is not comfortable with that.

I think it's more that he was so cool when he was 17 that once you've been that cool, you can't be cool after that. Yeah, but then Christian Slater was cool when he was 17 and then came back around in middle age to cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Christian Slater, I think, is almost cool because he's been around so long and you've forgotten about him, whereas DiCaprio's remained A-list.

Christian Slater wouldn't be weird if he turned up in a sitcom on BBC 1. Do you what I mean? DiCaprio's not going to be doing that. Well, it depends how many Victoria's secret models have been used as bait to get him on there. Here's a question from Lettie, who says, I am a femme dom and have spent a while really getting into the BDSM lifestyle. Obviously, I understand that many kinks are long-standing things, dating back centuries. However, if sex work is the oldest industry, then Ollie answer me this.

When do you think dominatrices started making an appearance on the scene? And how do you think this originated? So FEMDOM is female dominatrix in this context, right? Yeah. I'm just speaking as a sort of vanilla to the BDSM world on behalf. I assume there were some vanilla listeners as well. The thing is, you were asking a question there about the history of the world and sexuality and things weren't recorded for many centuries in written form.

So, you know, you can't really speak for how dominatrixes may have originated all over the world. Right. There's not a properly sourced compendium of international dominatrices of history. Right. But yet. I think I can say where in Britain certainly was the peak, which may have led to it becoming more of a service that people visiting sex workers were asking for. And that is the publication of Fanny Hill in 1748. Have you ever read Fanny Hill? I haven't. We have talked about it on the show before, I believe, in the respect of where the term Fanny came from. Yeah. This comes from some sort of Latin translation that sort of suggested a mound, and therefore it was a way of saying I've written a book that's got lady parts in it. And John Cleland, who wrote it, memoirs of a woman of pleasure is what it's actually called. He wrote it in debtor's prison. So we know that this environment of punishment played a part in the novel that he wrote. And that sparked a strong demand for discipline services. And that was met. by women who offered role play scenarios with equipment. And we know that because that sort of thing was documented.

You know, you'll have heard about the Molly Houses, what you would now call the gay community of London of that era. You had a dominatrix community as well operating under the euphemism, Displace House. Displace House. The clients were known as Cullies, and the term flogging was developed. Was flogging not around before for like punishing children?

Yes, it was. And that actually speaks then to the, other thread that comes into this, right? And again, you know, a lot of fetishes and kinks have their roots in childhood, again, particularly in Britain where you have people who are punished at school spanked by birch rods and stuff. There was another trend for birching and another book called Fashionable Lectures by Henry Thomas Buckle in 1782, which is a collection of kinky stories about being spanked with birch rods. The collection opens with the following. Quote, philosophers who've studied nature and all our holy fathers swear are rods the best invigorator, a rod applied upon the rear.

That's the mission statement for the stories. They're all basically stories for men who were spanked at school and now have an interest in this, which they could talk about a little bit more openly after the Marquis de Sard and all that sort of erotic references floating around. And the other reason that it's documented from that kind of era is because a lot of sex workers were actresses, and vice versa, which is why for a long time the profession of being a female actor was not as respected as it might be, because gentlemen could literally go backstage and sometimes, I'm sure, not consensually, involve themselves with the actors who had just been on stage. And so they're famous. Like, we know that there are certain actresses

who were involved in what you now might call Dominatrix's work. And so their document, like, you know, there are portraits of them in the National Portrait Gallery. But all of this does go back much, much further than that. There's a fresco in the ruins of Pompeii. which shows a whipstress. We didn't get shown that on our school trip to Pompeii. Exactly. Even though they kept talking about penises the whole time. It's in a private house.

It was obviously someone sort of fetish to see a woman with a whip, a woman in control. And she's whipping another woman as well. So I think the kink is there to see, but nonetheless it's a sort of quasi-religious painting because she's wearing wings. And she's some sort of godly figure. I also think as well,

a lot of it is tied in with the history of the mistress, not the sex worker. This is typically what consenting adults did, but not in their marriages. And so, of course, that wasn't documented because it's an affair. Marriages weren't necessarily for pleasure, but for, you know, land strategy bearing the right kind of air and then you get your pleasure elsewhere. Indeed, yeah.

Is that where you married me for land strategy? Yeah, it's just like a real life game of Catan or marriage. Actually, Alex Fox, who people may know from my other podcast, The Modern Man, she has made a whole series on this called Kink, which you can find on audible kink with an exclamation mark like a Lionel Bart musical and she recommended that I look at the Bishop's Gate Institute's UK Fetish Archive

which is this sort of directory of kink which goes from the early 1900s onwards leather, rubber, fetish material and I found this guy who was an actor he only died about 30 years ago I think who seemed to really fetishise Harry Houdini Oh interesting because he was into that sort of bondage Tied up, shackled to things, left underwater.

Chains, straight jackets. Yeah, sort of masculine heroism, but in the hands of a glamorous assistant thing. He had a whole underground scene based around Houdiniism. Wow. And it makes you think, well, how many people liked Houdini in the first place? Because that was going on. I never really thought about that.

But, like, that's what I mean. It's sort of there, but not necessarily in plain sight, you know? Comforting in a way. There's always someone to be hot for something. Exactly. that brings us to the end of the show if you have questions for us then you can send them in the form of voice or writing

all of the contact details are on our website Answer me thispodcast.com And you may have noticed that the previous episode in your pod feed was a new feature Answer Us Back where we address some of the feedback that you have sent us about episodes old and news so if you have stories to add

or ways in which answer me this advice transformed or ruined your life then please send that to us and we're looking forward to the next one because we've got some fascinating feedback about last month's question about the sperm donor Oh yes, I'm looking for one to talk about that

Yeah, and as we may have mentioned in the show Go to patreon.com slash answer me this to enjoy Ollieman's magnum opus No, come on, it's Helen and Ollie's magnum opus It's everything we've done since 2007 It doesn't matter that I did the admin Okay, well the admin was a magnum opus that I never would have got around to doing

and therefore I respect you for doing it. But yes, it is a magnificent opus. Patreon.com slash Answer Me This. Every tier gets the opportunity as well to watch Petty Problems, our live streaming video series. Lovely, fun time. And so if you missed joining in live last time, it's not too late to catch up with that,

as well as the first two episodes, each of them an hour long. And in the most recent one, we discuss microwaving, warm plates and the relative strength of circles and triangles. Yeah, you know, stuff that does not hurt you emotionally to think about, one hopes. Can't hurt.

Indeed. Right. What else is going on in the Answer Me, this related universe, Helen? Oh, yeah. Well, I was recently a guest on a new podcast by Arnie Neacamp, who makes Hello from The Magic Tavern, which I know there are some fans of in our audience. He's making a podcast about Christmas music. It's called No Skip Christmas.

And I got to tell him about the vast difference between the British and American Christmas canon of pop music. And Americans have all been surprised when I tell them how different to like glam rock inflected. The history of it is pretty interesting. I sent him some videos of some of the classic Top of the Pop's performances where you think, why are they punishing people for having a Christmas number one with this abject humiliation? So that is fun. That is no skip Christmas. And also, if you're feeling festive, last year, Martin and I put on a performance over four days where I read the entirety of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and Martin did live music and it was a real hoot. That is available at YouTube.com slash a losing this show.

Ooh, that does sound fun. It is really fun. That book is a banger. We're going to do one this year? I think we should. I want to do the signalman. All right, I'll do the signalman. I've not read it, but it's short, which is important. There's no The Muppet Signalman, unfortunately, so I wouldn't know it. That is the problem. Yeah. The only literature worth a bean is that which the Muppets have adapted. Muppet Christmas Carol is a very good adaptation of the book

as well as a good film in its own right. It is the best adaptation of a Christmas carol and the best Muppet film and one of the best Christmas films and I will hear nothing else said. In terms of my work, check out all my podcasts at olyman.com, but I do feel actually I should for a third month running Plug the Modern Man, my monthly magazine show in particular, because a couple of Ansmey this listeners

have been kind enough to get in touch recently and say that because I've been talking about it in this show, they've tried it out finally and they love it. Better late than never. One of them was like, you really should have talked about it more. I'm like, seriously,

fucking ten years I've been telling you. Did they fall asleep before the end? Anyway, the modern MAA double N, wherever you get your podcast, and in the current episode of The Modern Man, which is called Did I Kill the British sitcom, I interview a man called Jimmy Donnie Cosgrove, who was the co-writer of Warren on BBC One.

Now, Warren was a big, shiny, family, broad sitcom that was double-billed with this time with Alan Partridge in 2019 and was absolutely massacred by the critics. It was like picked apart on Twitter. He got death threats. Oh, that's silly. I've watched it on Amazon Prime. And it's quite a good, nice family sitcom.

And yet it completely divided the nation. Weird. So I'm speaking to him about that. How did it feel to be on the receiving end of a lot of hatred for just trying to make people laugh in what was, in fact, his debut show. He'd never had anything that he'd written, go to TV, This was his big break, and he hasn't written anything since. Oh, no. How brutal.

So, yes, it was a brutal experience for him, but he opens up to me. And if you're interested in comedy and writing, which I know lots of you are, do check out that episode. Modern Man with 2Ns.co.com. And hopefully getting featured on the modern man will help heal some of those wounds. It will have made it all worthwhile, sure. Being told by the Telegraph that you were the final mail in the coffin of British comedy. Martin, what have you been up to? I've mostly been working on a live show

I'm doing at the Vancouver Planetarium on the 2nd of December but you have to be in Vancouver and it's sold out so tough tips I've seen some good Instagram videos promoting that yeah yeah

you should follow Martin on Instagram because Martin's pivot to video is the only pivot to video from any media organisation that I tolerate there you go all right well that's a good recommendation yeah what are you on Insta

Mart's? I'm at Martin Austwick and sometimes you'll see the other Martin Orstwick commenting. And sometimes the other Martin Oswick will join it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stick around for that. Top draw content. I make it, are we going the new episode

for my experimental podcast, Neutrino Watch? My co-conspirated Jeff has just made an episode called The Best of the Manosphere, which is he takes episodes of Manosphere podcasts, which you can probably guess what they are, and just takes the gaps between words

and stitches them together into soundscapes. So I've made a remix of that episode based on Georgi, Ligetti's poem symphonic for 100 metronomes. God, so mainstream, Martin. And Ligetti fans out there. Did Peter K do it first? It's way too complicated to explain.

But if you go to neutrino.com, you can't find it. Well, if you want to do any of those things you can, if otherwise you just want to send us a question, you know what to do. You can find our old stuff at Answer Me This Store.com if you don't want to find it through Patreon. We do have an album all about Christmas as well, which is a very fascinating topic because it's such a weird occasion.

So if you want any festive facts for this time of year, you're not going to listen to it in like April, are you? So now's the time, really. Now's the time. AnswerMe this store.com or free included with those middle and higher Patreon tiers. Yeah, I don't know you can say it's free when you have to pay. It's bundled in. Bundled in.

Otherwise, we will be back on the last Thursday. Well, the last Thursday of December is actually Christmas Day. So fuck that. We're not coming back on the last Thursday. But the show will be out on Christmas Eve, the last Wednesday of the year, ready for you to engage with whenever you wish over the holiday season thereafter. That's right. And halfway through the month, there will be an episode of Answer Us Back in your pod feed. What fun. Bye!