Aoqua

Sounds weird, but every adult Mandy I've ever met has been a porker (and I don't mean size 14).

Is that just a coincidence?

[FYI that's a UK TV prog.]

If I had an embarrassing illness (and I never have had, obviously) I would sneak off to the docs, hoping no-one saw me. I wouldn't go on TV and show my family, friends and colleagues my diseased genitalia (or whatever).

There was a woman on last night and she said she had piles, but when the doc looked it was genital warts on her arsehole. In other words she'd caught them off some bloke 'parking the car round the back', so to speak.

Nice. I bet her mum's proud.

In some countries a foiled terrorist attack followed by a set of Muslim faces in court would lead to a certain conviction, whatever the evidence.

But the 'liquid explosives' verdicts show that the accused were convicted (or acquitted, in one case) only of crimes there was evidence for.

Does this show Britain is essentially not anti-Muslim and is fair-minded?

The Olympics looks for the best people in the world at given sports. Drugs are disallowed.

But the Paralympics is arbitrary. Just how disabled do you have to be to be in it? If I was blind I would struggle in the archery. But what if I only have one leg? Does that genuinely disadvantage me in archery?

Maybe the disability has to impact the sport, so the sport has to involve legs for a one-legged person to participate. If so, how serious a disablement does it have to be? Amputation? Disfigurement? Club foot?

I have quite stubby toes. Does that count? And I'm a bit crap at running. Surely I must be eligible?

By all means let disabled people have sports contests, but don't ask me to care about them.

How we laughed when Bart called the French "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys". Well, I did, anyway.

But the Dutch, Belgians and Poles also surrendered. The Swiss declared themselves neutral and the Danish actually supplied the Nazis with food in return for not being occupied.

So why do the French get it in the neck so badly?

I'm 40 and although I have a reasonably young-looking face I'm quite grey. Should I dye my hair, or d'you think I should just go for the 'distinguished' look?

OK, you don't know me, but what do you think about middle-aged blokes dyeing their hair?

I would have thought that something that fundamental would have varied across the world.

Maybe God DID create the world in seven days after all!

I think my dog's got kennel cough. My wife's taken it to the vet now.

Is it serious?

OK, less beer, diet and general exercise. But specifically I want to know whether there are any exercises that are particularly effective at reducing mid-torso fat.

...if you only have their name but no link?

I want to spend about £50.

Non-UK people can give ideas based on €60 or $70.

A bloke who works with my wife has been getting over-familiar with her recently. He has been rubbing her shoulders and making comments etc to flirt with her and deliberately give the impression there's something going on. She's had a word with his boss to try and put a stop to it as of course rumour in the office is now that there's something going on. I trust my wife to deal with it at work, but I occasionally socialize with her colleagues, so how should I react to him next time we're in the same room?

BTW he's an arrogant b'stard so me yelling at him would probably make him pleased. What other approach should I take?

My granny always used to warm the pot then add freshly boiled water to the tea bags in the pot. Then she used to put a woolly cover on the pot and leave for five minutes. She swore blind that to do it any other way would ruin the tea,

I put a bag in a mug and add water. Tastes fine to me.

I got a digibox recently and the picture is fine, but every half an hour or so there is a second or two gap in the sound. Is that normal? Or does it suggest my digibox is faulty? The picture is not ever affected at all.

I live in a city, so I'd expect a good reception.

BTW I live in the UK.

If you don't know Pat's work, look at some of his YouTube stuff. I love it, but the question is, is he right or is he a bigot?

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=pat...

OK, everyone has their own taste, but why are Guinness, Carling etc so widely drunk when they're such bland drinks?

I'm serious here. If you drink any of these regularly, why do you do it? Do you genuinely think it's the best beer around, or is it cos its cheaper, or what?

En Aout je vais aller a France avec ma famille. Comme vous pouvez voir, je parle seulement un peu de Francais. Combien de personnes Francaises parlent Anglais? Seulement les jeunes? Tout le monde?

My wife has various names for shades of colours, for example purple (violet, plum, lilac, mauve etc) and light brown (khaki, fawn, wheat, bisque, tan, sand).

Do women actually recognize and remember names for all these colours or do they just use whatever name seems to fit?

For example, if I had a sample of mauve and a sample of lilac would most women identify them correctly?

On his telly program about Darwin last night Richard Dawkins had a class of school kids, some of whom didn't believe in Evolution, and he was trying to convince them it is true.

But did you see their faces? It's not really a fair match, is it? 14yo kids against an Oxford professor.

I'm not sure I'd have been pleased if my kids had been put in a room to be lectured on Christianity by Rowan Williams.

...ever?