It's Bismuth Time

Let’s hear it for element number 83 on the periodic table, BISMUTH!

It may sound more like a Cornish fishing village, but this brittle pinkish metal actually lends its name to a famous product – Pepto-Bismol, soother of sore tums the world over. It has been used as a medical ingredient for curing indigestion for over a century.

It’s the bismuth! (business)

Only De Small Fish, Mon

Rastafarians are only allowed to eat fish of twelve inches long or shorter.

Fast Food

Ever eaten something fast? Of course you have. Perhaps you found yourself cramming a prawn and mayonnaise sandwich into your maw, as you hurried to a court appearance. Or maybe you were forced to hastily swallow a mouthful of broccoli when you thought of something witty to say during a family dinner.

But did you know that, by eating so fast, you were engaging in an act of TACHYPHAGIA? That is the posh word for eating fast.

Mongolistan

George W Bush was the first ever incumbent US president to visit Mongolia.

Bringing Cess-y Back

For a long time, the fact pond has been little more than a muddy puddle.

BUT HERE COMES A THUNDERSTORM.

Picture, if you will, a common train track. You've got the tracks themselves; those marvellous wooden sleepers in between the tracks; and of course, the loveable rogue that is the ballast or gravel, snugly filling the gaps and spilling onto the ballast shoulder, either side.

But that bit just beyond the ballast shoulder - the bare earth section where workers stand when a train rattles past - what's that called?

It's called a CESS. That's right. A cess. "Stand on the cess, Cyril, here comes the train." That's what a railwayman might say to his pal, as the 10:07 to Totteridge and Whetstone hoves into view.

I have enjoyed a number of romantic liaisons with total strangers in train toilets, after imparting this fact to them. Try it!