The last ever Notes & Queries: an awesome and ultimate selection of some of the most bewildering questions: the last word in arcane popular wisdom.
Pushing back the frontiers of knowledge, providing the ultimate answers to the ultimate questions, breaking new boundaries, we bring you The Last Ever Notes & Queries (until we do another one). Baffling questions from the mysterious collective consciousness, eccentric, obscure and arcane: Who was Gordon Bennett? Does scratching your head really help? Why is water wet? Is it true that if you throw a pea off the Eiffel Tower it can kill someone below? Are slugs edible? What’s it all about? Has anyone on The Antique’s Roadshow ever obtained the market value quoted by the experts for their exhibits? Is a severed head briefly aware of its fate after the blade has dropped? Is it true that the nutritional value of a cornflake box is greater than its contents? As the nation braces itself for the new millennium, as we reassess our past and anticipate the future, this book provides answers to timeless issues and attempts to explain the inexplicable.
Joseph Harker is Managing Editor of the Features department at the Guardian and has been the Notes & Queries editor for the last five years.