Interview the person below you.

[lewist]

Latest post of the previous page:

I don't often watch sport on television because the commentators are so dreadful; I would like to go to The Dell to see Kingussie play but that would be a first as I haven't ever been to a shinty match before. I ski and dinghy sail, both of which I enjoy, but I haven't done either recently due to circumstances. I am going up the hill soon to buy a season ticket for Cairngorm so I can ski when I like this winter.


Which sport on telly would you go to the most lengths to avoid and why?

[jaywhat]

As a Sassenach, I have to say that curling makes my toes curl.




Same question - Which sport on telly would you go to the most lengths to avoid and why?

[lewist]

Cricket. I know some people love it but I find it incredibly tedious.


The Mormons collect the names of dead people and posthumously baptise them into their church. What harm do you see in this, if any?

[jaywhat]

Well it does make me embarrassed to call myself a human being.



I had 2 mormons outside my door in the pouring rain and they asked to come in and I said I preferred to see them getting wet (this is true).
What would you have said or done?

[Zoe]

I like your answer and hope I would have said something similar. But as I have a spyhole in my front door, I probably would have used it, seen the weirdos in their sharp suits and not opened the door in the first place.



What's the longest you've spent in hospital as a patient?

[Alan C.]

Two weeks in Newcastle City General in 1972, against advice from the doctors I signed myself out on my 21st birthday, the same day Roberto (on which I had a bet) won the Epsom Derby


How old were you when you finished your formal education?

(I was 15 and three weeks, my younger brother was still only 14, but his 15th birthday fell during the summer holidays.)

[Thomas]

I was 15 when I left school but I resumed my education some 25 years later when I studied for an OU degree.



Do you have a favourite perfume?

[thundril]

Geranium. Not exactly a perfume, more a smell. Essential oil, that is.


Did you ever meet anyone really famous?

[lewist]

I once met the late Lord Younger at a presentation dinner and we once gave Nicholas Crane a bed for the night. Maybe they are not famous enough.

Did you ever meet anyone more famous than that?

[Maria Mac]

Does serving them in a shop count? I worked in Harrods for two xmas holiday periods in the 70s and had loads of famous customers. The most memorable were John Cleese and Paul McCartney.

If that doesn't count then I can say I properly met Melina Mercouri when she was still a huge film star in Greece (star of 'Never on a Sunday' and she also sang the title song) and before she became a government minister and tried to get the Elgin Marbles back. She went to school with my mother. I also met Mark Lester, who played Oliver in the big musical, when he was at the height of his fame because his family lived next door to a branch of my family. He was a snotty little git.


When was the last time your toes touched the salty water of an ocean?

[Bryn]

In July in Greece.



Have you ever been on the TV or radio?

[Alan C.]

I haven't, but Mary (my lovely wife) was a contestant in "miss border TV" in 1970.
Her dad entered her without asking.

The large hadron collider was switched on this morning (between 8.00 & 9.00 am British time) Are you surprised we have not been sucked into a black hole? Or are you reserving judgement for Wednesday? when the real fun starts

[jaywhat]

Neither!
Would not understand it if it was in words of half a syllable and would not know whether to laugh or cry when I did hear the result - if there was a result. Mind you, I have no objection to them doing it.


Can you explain for the man on the Ossett Omnibus what is going on?

[Lifelinking]

No (but Wiki can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_of_ ... n_Collider)








Who is this bloke on the Ossett Omnibus then? (come to think of it - what is an Ossett Omnibus ?) Can I ask two quesions? Does that make it three? Oh hell...

[LilacHamster]

Omnibus is the ablative case of the word for "all" or "everyone" in Latin (or is it dative?), it literally means "for all" anyway, so it became shortened to 'Bus which is actually the word as we know it now, but it's just the ablative case ending for lots of Latin words.

I could have looked it up on Wiki or Googled it to explain better but was too lazy. I did Latin at school, boring, boring, so I remembered this, and I think Ossett is in Yorkshire somewhere. I will guess West Yorkshire but might be South Yorkshire.
I suppose jaywhat is the man on the Ossett Omnibus.


To the next person who would like to answer, please answer one of the last few questions that you did not answer yourself and which takes your fancy as I can't think of anything new to ask as I have absolutely nil imagination.

[Nick]

LilacHampster! I can't let an opportunity like this go by! Not only someone who knows about buses, but a Latin scholar too!

This will be right up your street!

MOTOR BUS

by: A.D. Godley

HAT is this that roareth thus?
Can it be a Motor Bus?
Yes, the smell and hideous hum
Indicat Motorem Bum!
Implet in the Corn and High
Terror me Motoris Bi:
Bo Motori clamitabo
Ne Motore caedar a Bo--
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live:
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
Thus I sang; and still and still anigh
Came in hordes Motores Bi,
Et complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
How shall wretches live like us
Cincti Bis Motoribus?
Domine, defende nos
Contra hos Motores Bos!

*Beams*

Now then, let's find a question to answer....

Famous people. I have met a variety of politicians in various places, had lunch with the South African Rugby team and various other sports personalities. Perhaps more amusingly, I knew two soap actors, one a neighbour and the other through my work, and it was months before I knew that either of them were actors at all. It was only when people came up to me and whispered isn't that so-and-so that I wondered how the hell they knew them, never having met them before! I think they quite liked me because it was an opportunity to be treated as if I didn't know are care about their TV persona, (which I didn't)

I also once bought a book off Sir Ranulph Fiennes as he was leaving a conference I attending. (He was the speaker, and very good he was too.) The funny part is that he got lost in the London hotel and couldn't find the way out and asked if I knew, to which I replied "I thought you were the famous explorer?" Undaunted, (as he would be, being ex-SAS) he went straight out through a fire exit. I was expecting all hell to break loose, but nothing happened, no alarms, nothing. I'm not sure if I was relieved or disappointed.


Would you be brave enough to do a parachute jump?

[Alan C.]

Only if the engines had fallen off the plane.

Would you be brave enough to climb an active volcano, and have a look in?

[jaywhat]

Just as an aside, in reply to LH, I just picked Ossett because it is not too far away from Huddersfield and is in place of the 'man on the Clapham Ominbus' which refers to any common or garden 'person in the street', like me - and of course both words begin with the same letter which makes me happy.

[kbell]

Would you be brave enough to climb an active volcano, and have a look in?

Only if I were drunk and there was a volcano handy. In fact, when I'm drunk that's exactly the sort of stupid thing I would do. Good jobs there is a dearth of volcanoes in Scotland.



Have you ever had an allergic reaction to anything?

[MedMae]

Beetroot. Bowels inflamed, not pretty and don't be after me for the toilet in the morning.

Need I say more?

[jaywhat]

No thanks!


What would you like to do right now, this very minute?