The Mile High Tea Club – Or is it Possible to get a Good Cuppa whilst In-Flight?
May22

The Mile High Tea Club – Or is it Possible to get a Good Cuppa whilst In-Flight?

At guernseydonkey.com we take our tea very seriously to wit our advice on “Making the Perfect Cup of Tea”. So, to the next tea conundrum : Is it possible to get a decent cup of tea while on an aeroplane ?

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What Does it Mean to be “double-jointed” ?
May15

What Does it Mean to be “double-jointed” ?

Should you discover that you have the ability to bend the upper half of your thumb until it makes a right-angle you might feel rather chuffed with yourself as you can then describe yourself as “double jointed” – surely that means you have two joints where most people have one ? NO, unfortunately not!

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Why do we shake hands as a greeting?
Mar30

Why do we shake hands as a greeting?

The reason we shake hands has nothing to do with warmth or kindness and everything to do with mistrust. Just as we clink glasses so that if our companion has poisoned our drink he’ll get to drink some of his own poison (by virtue of contents slopping between glasses), we shake hands to check for concealed weapons.

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Prune Time in the Bath – Why Do Our Fingers Wrinkle in the Water ?
Mar06

Prune Time in the Bath – Why Do Our Fingers Wrinkle in the Water ?

Having a bath has uses aside from getting clean and reading a good book: it gives you an excuse to observe a bodily quirk that it would appear has been with us since Homo sapiens left the trees.

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Why Can’t You Train Cats & How Do Cats Purr
Feb23

Why Can’t You Train Cats & How Do Cats Purr

The internet was clearly invented with the sole purpose of allowing the earth’s population to watch cute cat movies. So, in this article we add to that great body of information, we like to call “internet fluff”, with some rather erudite answers to some of those perplexing questions about our feline friends.

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Why Does a Thumbs-Up Gesture Mean “okay”?
Feb20

Why Does a Thumbs-Up Gesture Mean “okay”?

Why does a thumbs-up gesture mean “okay”? : Any Roman gladiator movie worth its salt always includes the obligatory Colosseum combat scene where the fate of a beaten warrior is given by the thumbs-down signal – or the thumbs-up if he wants him to live. But is this really the origin of this signal ?

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Is it True that Opera Singers Really Can Shatter Wine Glasses by Singing ?
Jan09

Is it True that Opera Singers Really Can Shatter Wine Glasses by Singing ?

The renowned soprano Dame Nellie Melba is reputed to have performed this trick and in 1971 the audio-tape maker Memorex based a very successful advertising campaign around Ella Fitzgerald shattering glass both when singing live and when recorded on its tape cassettes (a claim the company still stands by today).

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Why Is the Sea Blue?
Nov14

Why Is the Sea Blue?

Why Is the Sea Blue?

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Why Does Ice Float?
Oct13

Why Does Ice Float?

Water is one of the strangest chemicals in the universe, and many of its strangest features turn out to be essential for life as we know it, particularly the almost unique property of water related to freezing. So why does it float when it becomes a solid?

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Why Do We Get Pins & Needles?
Aug22

Why Do We Get Pins & Needles?

Whether you are sitting still for hours, perhaps with your legs crossed, or wake up sleeping on your arm the “wrong way,” you have no doubt experienced pins and needles – sometimes referred to as your leg “falling asleep”. Though this pain soon alleviates itself – what is happening in your body to cause such an irritating sensation?

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Why Do Teapots Dribble ?
Feb03

Why Do Teapots Dribble ?

For the British, the taking of tea is part of our cultural heritage so you can understand why the dribbling teapot would be of particular concern.

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Where Do Houseflies Go During the Winter?
Nov11

Where Do Houseflies Go During the Winter?

Where Do Houseflies Go During the Winter?

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Do we know who the Mona Lisa was ?
Aug30

Do we know who the Mona Lisa was ?

Commissioned around 1503, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous portrait in the world. But who was the Mona Lisa?

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Why do we have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot?
May10

Why do we have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot?

We seem to have the exactly the right number to do the job – but why 5 fingers and five toes on each appendage – Why not 6 or 10 on each ? In this article we look at what is believed to be the reason it is “just so”.

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Pontifications – answers to the fluff of everyday life
Aug18

Pontifications – answers to the fluff of everyday life

Some answers to the fluff of everyday life :
> Was the London Bobbie named after a real Bobby ?
> Was there ever any cocaine in Coca-Cola ?
> Why do we clink glasses when we say cheers ?
> Why do we say an outlaw is beyond the pale ?
> Why do we say that someone who is fired gets the sack ?

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