Vitamin Q - a temple of trivia and lists

SIMILAR PROBLEMS

Madness on a scale of 1 to 17:

1 mad as a fish
2 mad as they come
3 mad as hops
4 mad as a hatter
5 mad as a March hare
6 mad as a pink balloon
7 mad as snow
8 mad as fudge
9 mad as the Dickens
10 mad as wet hen
11 mad as honey
12 mad as Napoleon
13 mad as cheese
14 mad as skipload of squirrels
15 mad as a brush
16 mad as a magpie
17 mad as a box of frogs

Note, this is 'mad' as in lunatic, not as in the American (mad as a hornet) or Australian (mad as a cut snake) sense of anger. See also crazy as hell / a loon / a fox / a soup sandwich / a jaybird.

Source: various

ONE-OFF BEASTS

The only mammal which can truly fly is the bat - other 'flying' mammals merely propel themselves by gliding downwards.

The only mammals which are blind are Indian river dolphins which live in such muddy water that their capacity for sight has undeveloped.

The only mammal which sleeps underwater is the sitatunga, an antelope which lives in marshland and sleeps for safety in shallow pools with just its nose sticking out for air.

Source: various

WALK-ON HOUSEKEEPER

7 films in which Zsa Zsa Gabor played herself:

1 Jack Of Diamonds
2 Smart Alex
3 Nightmare on Elm Street Part III
4 Naked Gun Two and a Half
5 Pepe
6 The Beverley Hillbillies
7 A Very Brady Sequel

CRIME SCENES

The 9 rooms on a Cluedo! board:

1 Hall
2 Kitchen
3 Lounge
4 Ballroom
5 Conservatory
6 Billiard Room
7 Study
8 Library
9 Dining Room

SUPER TO MEET YOU

The real names of 34 comic superheroes:

1 The Incredible Hulk - Bruce Banner
2 Black Canary - Dinah Lance
3 Daredevil - Matt Murdock
4 The Human Torch - Johnny Storm
5 Superman - Kal-El / Clark Kent
6 Robin / Nightwing - Dick Grayson
7 Robin (mark II) - Tim Drake
8 Green Lantern - Hal Jordan
9 Green Arrow - Oliver Queen
10 Batgirl / Oracle - Barbara Gordon
11 She-Hulk - Jennifer Walters
12 Son of Satan - Daimon Hellstrom
13 Mary Marvel - Mary Batson
14 The Atom - Ray Palmer
15 Captain Marvel - Billy Batson
16 Spidergirl - May Parker
17 The Ragman - Rory Reagan
18 The Invisible Woman - Susan Storm-Richards
19 Captain America - Steve Rogers
20 Supergirl - Kara-El / Linda Danvers / Linda Lee
21 Gambit - Remy LeBeau
22 Isis - Andrea Thomas
23 Powergirl - Karen Starr
24 Mr Fantastic - Reed Richards
25 Spiderman - Peter Parker
26 Captain Action - Clive Arno
27 Batman - Bruce Wayne
28 Spectre - Jim Corrigan
29 Firestorm - Ronnie Raymond
30 Phantom Lady - Delilah Taylor
31 Flash - Barry Allen
32 Swamp Thing - Dr Alec Holland
33 The Thing - Ben Grimm
34 Cyclops - Scott Summers

Ambiguity re Batman and Superman character names is due to multi-media versions, plot changes and 'birth' names versus 'pseudonyms' etc.

Source: various

KINGDOM COME

20 curious place names from my home county, Fife in Scotland:

1 Freuchie
2 Blebocraigs
3 Donniebristle
4 Culross *
5 Strathmiglo
6 Arncroach"
7 Balmerino
8 Lumphinnans
9 Dunino
10 Monimail
11 Wormit
12 Kilconquhar **
13 Auchtermuchty
14 Dunbog
15 Pittenweem
16 Pitkevy
17 Star
18 Moonzie
19 Pettycur
20 Lundin Links

* pronounced 'COO-riss'
** pronounced 'KNUH-cher'
"Is this Arncroach's first ever mention on the WWW? Tomorrow the world!

Welcome to VitaminQ

Just to remind you: this site belongs to Roddy Lumsden, a puzzle writer and poet from Scotland now living in Bristol in England. It's a place where I post lists, curiosities and fragments which please me as a lover of trivia, lists, reference. They tend to reflect my interests which include pop, nature, words, Scotland, food, folklore and literature. I post a few items most weeks, so do bookmark and return.

If you wish to reprint any lists, please include the source, or credit both me and this site if it is an original list. You can offer ideas, lists, corrections and book deals via the email address. I strive to come up with original presentation of material here, but sometimes I adapt and adopt from other sources, on and off line. If you feel I have purloined, let me know and I will make amends.

If you've surfed in from Google, you may find that what you want is in the archive, not on this page, but I hope you have fun searching! Now read on, and don't forget there's crisps and crumbs of hopeless knowledge aplenty in the archive - just click on the dates up on the left...

SYRUP OF FIGS

Five related phrases:

1 Easy peasy lemon squeezy
2 Yum yum pig's bum
3 Super dooper Gary Cooper
4 Oompah oompah stick it up your jumper
5 Liar liar pants on fire

Oh, don't ask why.

JUVENILIA

The poems which made me a superstar of primary school poetry:

1 The lark was singing in the trees...
2 The fishing boat sailed out to sea...
3 Hello Pink Worm!
4 Elephants Never Forget

Note: you can see that, like Auden, my earliest work favoured the untitled approach.

WISHING WELL

What seven junior school children wished for given three wishes:

1 for the homeless to have homes and jobs
2 for all the drugs and violence to stop
3 to visit Hawaii

1 a jet ski
2 an orange Quad
3 a dog named Texas

1 that nobody throws garbage in the street
2 two bunny rabbits
3 beautiful flowers in my garden

1 a 1998 Corvette
2 to make the world be cool
3 to visit Michael Jordan's home

1 a 204 story house with a hot tub 4 stories long
2 an interview with my ex-best friend John Paxon
3 to visit Hollywood

1 a pet dino
2 to find more dinos for everybody
3 to visit Dinotopia

1 a lowered, red with gray stripes down the side, extended cab, step side, step under the door Ford 150
2 no sickness or allergies in the world
3 any Ford assembly plant

Source: the Three Wishes Project

THREE LEGS GOOD

Manx for Beginners Lesson 9

Here are the vocabulary words to learn from this week's story:

jyst soo - jam dish
aane voiddee - cod liver
keanagh - cottony
faagail gyn vree - to stultify
fadeyrag padjerey - praying mantis
aachummeyder - rhinoplasty
radlin - balustrade
wagaantagh keiy - wharf rat
putage ghoo - black pudding
quing-raa - zeugma
daa-cheintssaght - bisexuality
aggle straiddey - agoraphobia

Source: Manx dictionary at ceantar.org

SUPERSTARS OF REFERENCE

My favourite popular reference books:

1 Chambers Dictionary - still the best single volume everyday dictionary which always seems interesting as well as smart.
2 DARE (Dictionary of American Regional English) (Belknap / Harvard) - huge, ongoing five or six volume project (they are currently up to O) covering slang and regional names for things such as food, games, creatures and plants and so on.
3 Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain (Readers Digest) - fascinating, all time classic subject-wide encyclopedia, written over 25 years ago by Britain's top folklorists, many of whom are now dead.
4 Catchphrases (E Partridge, Routledge) - one of Partridge's masterworks, brought up to date and sanded at the edges by Paul Beale. All you need to know about where cliches and odd phrases came from.
5 The Book of Lists (vols 1,2,3 and 90s version, Wallace, Wallace, Wallechinsky, Corgi / Aurum) - highly influential on this site, of course, and probably indirectly responsible for Trivial Pursuit and the trivia and quiz boom. Nice mix of subjective and objective lists, and seriousness and froth. I like the 90s one best.
6 The Poet's Manual and Rhyming Dictionary (Stillman, Thames and Hudson) - slightly dated, but all the better for it, containing info on poetic forms, with a decent, fairly comprehensive rhyme section
7 The Book of Numbers (W Hartston, Metro) - brilliantly cross-researched reference book on the (in)significance of individual numbers eg 156 is the number of fairy tales by HC Andersen and consecutive weeks Lendl was world tennis number one.
8 Penguin TV Companion (J Evans, Penguin) - thorough survey of TV (UK bias) with all the necessary trimmings.
9 The Mammoth Book of Tasteless Lists (K Shaw,Robinson) - Book of Lists style collection, more of connected facts and anecdotes than lists per se. Very well done, despite bargain book style title and availability.
10 Crossword Lists (A Stibbs, Bloomsbury) - best of its kind, simply and neatly done, with good selection of long, but not over-fussy lists.

Source: shelves next to me (as you might imagine, I have quite a few to choose from). A nod of the paratactical bunnet too to Brewer, Larousse, Opie and recent pop-ref kings Gyles Brandreth (yes, that one), Ben 'Hot' Schott and Nigel Rees.

FRUITS OF THE FOREST

112 types of berry:

lathberry / johnnyberry / winterberry / boysenberry / milkberry / wolfberry / hogberry / indigoberry / salmonberry / juniper berry / partridgeberry / snowberry / redberry / serendipity berry / waxberry / maleberry / dewberry / loganberry / bearberry / elderberry / guavaberry / stretchberry / peaberry / blaeberry / shadberry / Juneberry / cowberry / fenberry / wineberry / bayberry / crowberry / cheakyberry / foxberry / inkberry / silverberry / crakeberry / cloudberry / barberry / baneberry / hindberry / maidenberry / serviceberry / mangroveberry / teaberry / scaldberry / soapberry / sugarberry / fireberry / gooseberry / youngberry / thimbleberry / orangeberry / twinberry / bigberry / mulberry / raspberry / marlberry / hackberry / bunchberry / Rhineberry / turkey berry / roughfruit berry / punchberry / farkleberry / naseberry / goldenberry / buffaloberry / pokeberry / huckleberry / blackberry / gallberry / velvetberry / beautyberry / capberry / chokeberry / wheatberry / cockroach berry / Christmasberry / blueberry / canker berry / salalberry / limeberry / roebuckberry / seaberry / raccoonberry / globeberry / coralberry / Andesberry / tayberry / locustberry / cranberry / dewberry / cakalaka berry / quinsyberry / flameberry / bilberry / whortleberry / deerberry / pigeonberry / pearlberry / squashberry / nannyberry / catberry / checkerberry / Worcesterberry / curlewberry / houndsberry

Inevitably, some of these are names for the same fruits.

Source: various

SIMPLE MINDS

20 people inappropriately described as being a 'genius':

1 Shaun Ryder
2 Steven Seagal
3 Sam Raimi
4 Mike Tyson
5 Oprah Winfrey
6 Richard Ashcroft
7 Kenneth Branagh
8 Leonard Cohen
9 Tiger Woods
10 Mel Brooks
11 David Bellamy
12 Billy Corgan
13 Michael Jackson
14 Chris Moyles
15 James Kelman
16 Rowan Atkinson
17 Terry Pratchett
18 Peter Kay
19 Hugh Grant
20 Jim Henson

Don't get me wrong now - some of these people are fine, but genius, baby, that's Einstein territory.

Source: google.com

SUPPER'S READY

Two food lists:

12 common examples of pica (unsuitable food cravings during pregnancy):

1 ice cubes
2 large amounts of sweet or bitter fruit
3 cigarette ends and ash
4 coal
5 washing powder
6 peanut butter
7 pickles
8 clay or soil
9 strong cheese
10 gallons of ice cream
11 buckets of olives
12 wood eg toothpicks or pencils

Pica differs from normal food cravings in that the feelings generally derive from mineral deficiencies during pregnancy.

Source: various

12 to-my-mind disgusting foodstuffs:

1 artichoke hearts in oil
2 taramasalata
3 'cook-in' sauces
4 green pesto
5 brussels sprouts
6 vinaigrette
7 kidney
8 calamares
9 aspic
10 cottage cheese
11 tripe
12 fish roe

(This was probably Tim Wells' supper last night.)

Source: bitter experience

SQUARE DEAL

A list of rules for Square Dancing from circa 1875:

1 Admittance 50 cents, refreshments included.
2 The music is to consist of a fiddle, a pip or tabor, a hurdy gurdy. No chorus is to be sung until after dancing is over.
3 No lady to dance in black stockings – nor must she have her elbows bare.
4 Every lady to come with a clean handkerchief with her name marked.
5 To prevent spitting, no gentleman to chew tobacco or smoke.
6 No gentleman to dance in a great coat unless his under one torn.
7 No lady to dress her hair in tallow candle, nor must she have a bunch of hair sticking up, top of her head.
8 Leather small clothes except newly washed are forbidden, as they might soil the ladies gowns - and to prevent the tearing of the planking, no gentleman to dance in nailed shoes or boots.
9 No whispering to be allowed - if anyone shall be found Io make insidious remarks about anyone's dancing, he or she shall be put out of the room.
10 No scissors or gimlets are to be brought either by ladies or gentlemen unless their pockets are whole.
11 No gentleman to appear with a cravet that has been worn more than a week or a fortnight.
12 Long beards are forbidden, as they would be very disagreeable, if a gentleman should happen to put his cheek beside a lady's.
13 Those ladies who have not white stockings and black morocco shoes will not be admitted under any pretense whatever. Two old ladies will be provided to examine all who enter.
14 No lady must appear with a veil on even if it be turned aside, as the gentlemen will not have an opportunity of looking at their faces distinct.
15 No gentleman must squeeze his partner's hand, nor look earnestly upon her; and furthermore he must not pick up her handkerchief, provided it were to fall. The first denotes he loves her, the second he wishes to kiss her, and the last that she makes a sigh for both.
16 For distinction sake, the master of ceremonies is to wear a red coat, buff small clothes, black stockings, green shoes, and a furtout. The work of command is, tumble up ladies.

Source: 4n8ers.org (the site seems unclear of the proper date)

LOAD OF PONY

My favourite 25 My Little Pony names:

1 Seawinkle
2 Trickles
3 Backstroke
4 Baby Gusty
5 Crumpet
6 Quackers
7 Skippity Doo
8 Slugger
9 Spunky Camel
10 Bonnie Bonnets
11 Tossles
12 Barnacle
13 Graffiti
14 Puddles
15 Bunkie
16 Shovels
17 Baby Countdown
18 Shaggy
19 Dangles
20 Squirmy
21 Whirky
22 Pretty Beat
23 Bubblefish
24 Love Petal
25 Lucky, the Stallion

Source: various

SPIN NO MORE

25 unlikely numbers on the list of 'lyrically questionable' (ie temporarily banned) songs made by radio station giant Clear Channel following terrorist attacks in the USA:

1 Bangles, "Walk Like an Egyptian"
2 Nena, "99 Red Balloons"
3 The Beatles, "Obla Di, Obla Da"
4 Jimi Hendrix, "Hey Joe"
5 Jackson Browne, "Doctor My Eyes"
6 U2, "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
7 Queen, "Killer Queen"
8 Pink Floyd, "Mother"
9 John Parr, "St. Elmo's Fire"
10 Steam, "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey"
11 Drifters, "On Broadway"
12 Peter & Gordon, "I Go To Pieces"
13 Zombies, "She's Not There"
14 Elton John, "Rocket Man"
15 Louis Armstrong, "What A Wonderful World"
16 Peter Paul & Mary, "Blowin' in the Wind"
17 Rolling Stones, "Ruby Tuesday"
18 Three Degrees, "When Will I See You Again"
19 Martha & The Vandellas, "Dancing in the Street"
20 Hollies, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"
21 Don Mclean, "American Pie"
22 Buddy Holly & The Crickets, "That'll Be the Day"
23 Bobby Darin, "Mack the Knife"
24 Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Travelin' Band"
25 Chi-Lites, "Have You Seen Her"

Source: 000580.samff.com/ shows the full list

CHICKEN AND EGGS

Life in Vietnam and Russia

Gishinchanan gets up in the morning at 6 o clock and sits in the war of Vietnam he lives in Gronashulam he has very little food.

In Russia nieliana hates goolash and chicken and eggs and her mother Lady Saspirellanose she likes nothing only her dolly Mariana she hates Dooglas her brother aswell

Source: My Room 10 school jotter (circa May 1975 when I was 8)

DOCTOR WHO?

Some MDs (Mispronounced Doctors):

1 Dr Livingstone (well-meaning but hopeless Scotch missionary) - rhymes with bun, not bone*
2 Dr Seuss (whimsical US writer) - rhymes with voice not juice
3 Dr Jekyll (fictional dabbler in dodgy potions) - rhymes with treacle, not heckle

*Livingstone, who did both good and bad, unlike most similarly bothersome, racist missionaries, converted just one man, who soon reverted. DL is said to have died kneeling over his bed. Apparently, this was due, not to a bout of late night prayers, but to a dose of piles so chronic that he could only sleep with his backside in the air.

Source: RcL

SHORT CUTS

39 bands who shortened their name:

1 Santana Blues Band > Santana
2 Arabacus Pulp > Pulp
3 Balaam and the Angel > Balaam
4 Chicago Transit Authority > Chicago
5 The Silver Beatles > The Beatles
6 Tripsichord Music Box > Tripsichord
7 Wah Heat! > Wah!
8 Ambrose Slade > Slade
9 X Mal Deutschland > X Mal
10 Generation X > Gen X
11 The Fatback Band > Fatback
12 The Easy Cure > The Cure
13 Hawkwind Zoo > Hawkwind
14 Southern Death Cult > The Cult ^
15 Tyrannosaurus Rex > T.Rex
16 The Leyton Buzzards > The Buzzards
17 The Nipple Erectors > The Nips*
18 The Moody Blues Five > The Moody Blues
19 The Guildford Stranglers > The Stranglers
20 Silmarillion > Marillion
21 The Staple Singers > The Staples
22 Pogue Mahone > The Pogues *
23 Clan of Xymox > Xymox
24 Kajagoogoo > Kaja
25 Spirits Rebellious > Spirit
26 The Count Bishops > The Bishops
27 The Cranberry Saw Us > The Cranberries
28 The Merseybeats > The Merseys
29 The Glitter Band - The G Band
30 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band > The Dirt Band
31 J Geils Band > Geils
32 The Heavy Metal Kids > The Kids
33 Mott the Hoople > Mott
34 The Special AKA > The Specials
35 The Jazz Crusaders > The Crusaders
36 Dalek I Love You > Dalek I
37 The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band > The Bonzo Dog Band
38 Sweetshop > The Sweet
39 The Troglodytes > The Troggs

There are many reasons to change a name - the original was too long or silly or pretentious (note the large number of glam and goth bands on the list). Some bands changed due to the too-rude-for-radio factor of the original name (* mostly bands featuring Shane McGowan). Some even changed twice (^ SDC becoming DC becoming The Cult). Other name changes (see Kaja, Mott) seem to be due to a last gasp attempt at staying on the pop map, or perhaps a legally caused adaptation of a debated name. Here are six further types of name-shortening which I ignored when making the list:

1 Name changes where the band essentially, aesthetically became a new band eg The Small Faces to The Faces
2 Changes due, perhaps, to the band not exactly being the band it was eg The Rollers, The Tops, later versions of The Bay City Rollers / The Four Tops
3 Official adoption of comon abbreviations eg OMD, NKOTB
4 Shortenings used for legal reasons in other countries eg Yazoo, Comsat Angels (Yaz, CSAs in the USA)
5 'XY and the Zs' becoming just 'The Zs' or, say, Patti Labelle and the Bluebells changing to Labelle
6 Shortenings caused by personnel changes eg The Jacksons, S Club (The Jackson 5, S Club 7)

Source: various; by RcL (originally Roderick Chalmers Lumsden)

R.I.P. LIST

?????:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Source: I was lounging and watching Bill Oddie Goes Wild last night when I had a fantastic idea for a short list. Oh dearie, I said to myself, what if I don't keep having ideas as good and as typically VitQ as that? And then I completely forgot the idea. The above list-skellington will hopefully serve to remind myself to write ideas down when they come and to stop acting like a hippo with a head full of minestrone.

THE BRYSON EFFECT

The Bryson Effect is a sociological phenomonon concerning personal discomfort felt through the realisation that something once believed or admired is actually sham. Lapsed Catholics know The Bryson Effect. Those who read books by Carlos Castaneda and thought there really might be a Mexican wizard who thought a hippie student made the perfect apprentice know it too. But the real con kings are travel writers and, as we all recall just where we were when (fill in tragic but secretly thrilling event of your choice) happened, everyone has encountered, or will do, that moment in a book when Bill Bryson lumbers beardily into our own home town or territory, invents random facts to suit his scattergun humour, ventures no further than 200 yards from the hotel, conjures up stereotypical characters-he-has-endured when he was in fact reading the 'funnies' in the Herald Tribune while grazing on the local pastry speciality and sweet tea, and suddenly we realise that from "I come from Des Moines. Somebody has to." onwards, his traveloguing has been one long giggle-shafted shyster-yarn. Shame, since he was once a nib of note and was an excellent pop linguistics writer. Get back to Iowa now Billy-o! We've nabbed you!

ROLL UP!

The text on a nearby 'milestone' explaining the Electric Brae experience:

The 'Electric Brae', known locally as Croy Brae. This runs the quarter mile from the bend overlooking Croy railway viaduct in the west (286 feet Above Ordnance Datum) to the wooded Craigencroy Glen (303 feet above A.O.D.) to the east. Whilst there is this slope of 1 in 86 upwards from the bend at the Glen, the configuration of the land on either side of the road provides an optical illusion making it look as if the slope is going the other way. Therefore, a stationary car on the road with the brakes off will appear to move slowly uphill. The term 'Electric Brae' dates from a time when it was incorrectly thought to be a phenomenon caused by electric or magnetic attraction within the Brae.

The Electric Brae is on the A719 in Ayrshire, Scotland. I recall experiencing the strange sensation as a child during a family holiday.

MOVING IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

The Bristol Stool Form Scale:

Type 1 - separate hard lumps like nuts
Type 2 - sausage-like but lumpy
Type 3 - like a sausage but with cracks in the surface
Type 4 - like a sausage or snake, smooth or soft
Type 5 - soft blobs with clear-cut edges
Type 6 - fluffy pieces with ragged edges
Type 7 - watery, no solid pieces

Developed in the '90s at Bristol Royal Infirmary to aid diagnosis in patients with bowel problems.

Source: BMA

DOWN, FLIP-FLOP WEAZEL MULL OF KINTYRE, DOWN!

12 rumly-monickered best in show winners at Crufts Dog Show:

1 Tracey Witch of Ware (1948/50)
2 Tzigane Aggri of Hashend (1955)
3 Treetops Golden Falcon (1956)
4 Silbury Soames of Madavale (1964)
5 Oakington Puckshill Amber Sunblush (1966)
6 Hendrawen's Nibelung of Charavigne (1969)
7 Abraxas Audacity (1972)
8 Brookewire Brandy of Layven (1975)
9 Ginger Christmas Carol (1986)
10 Olac Moonpilot (1990)
11 Ozmilia Mystification (1997)
12 Torums Scarf Michael (2000)

Source: various

ELFIN CREED

The five varieties of the fairy family in Cornwall:

1 The Small People
2 The Spriggans
3 Piskies, or Pigseys
4 The Buccas, Bockles or Knockers
5 The Browneys

Source: Popular Romances of the West of England (Hunt 1881)

FOLLYAGE

42 unusual plant names:

1 paddy river box
2 townhall clock
3 showy tidytips
4 old-fashioned baby's breath
5 our lady's bedstraw
6 grim-the-collier
7 hairy puccoon
8 kiss-her-in-the-buttery
9 ramping fumitory
10 divorce vine
11 naked boys
12 pony bee balm
13 cuckoo's meat
14 becky leaves
15 American wake robin
16 sauce alone
17 cuddle me
18 American beautyberry
19 woolly Dutchman's pipe
20 three-faces-under-a-hood
21 silverlace dusty miller
22 burry verrain
23 godfathers and godmothers
24 bastard toadflax
25 hooker's onion
26 water pumpy
27 beaver poison
28 smooth darling pea
29 sweet herb of Paraguay
30 Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon
31 Armenian yard-long cucumber
32 false goat's beard
33 viper's bugloss
34 Adam's flannel
35 bachelor's buttons
36 wolf's peach
37 miltwaste
38 thorough-wax
39 cock-drunk
40 pellitory of the wall
41 cudbear
42 hare's ear treacle mustard

Source: various

CHOICE MULTIPLES

Two twin lists:

15 famous people with a lesser known twin:

1 Kiefer Sutherland
2 Kim Deal
3 Jerry Hall
4 St Benedict
5 Jim Thorpe
6 Alanis Morissette
7 Karen Black
8 Kofi Annan
9 Montgomery Clift
10 Jackson Pollock
11 Mario Andretti
12 Curtis Strange
13 Aaron Carter
14 Joseph Fiennes
15 Isabella Rosselini

8 famous men who had a twin who was stillborn or died at birth:

1 Elvis Presley
2 Thornton Wilder
3 Ed Sullivan
4 Jay Kay
5 Andy Garcia
6 Justin Timberlake
7 Liberace
8 Jim Broadbent

Source: various

Welcome to VitaminQ

Just to remind you again: this blog site belongs to Roddy Lumsden, a puzzle writer and poet from Scotland now living in Bristol in England. It's a place where I post lists, curiosities and fragments which please me as a lover of trivia, lists, reference. They are bound to reflect some of my interests which include pop, nature, words, Scotland, food, folklore and literature. I'll post a few items most weeks, so do bookmark and return. If you wish to reprint any of these lists, please include the source, or credit both me and this site if it is an original list. Now read on, and don't forget there's tons of stuff in the archive - just click on the dates to the left...

If you want to contact Vitamin Q with ideas for lists, corrections, opinions, republishing permission, to offer me a book deal or just to offer fulsome praise for time well wasted, then you now can do so at rclatvitaminq@yahoo.co.uk

A GUID WAUK SPILET

Suggested Scots names for the 18 holes of the world's nastiest golf course:

1 The Brustit Byke (the burst wasp's nest)
2 Clootie's Cla (the devil's claw)
3 The Scunner (the disgusting or irritating thing)
4 The Besom's Snood (the bitch's ribbon)
5 Ill-willie (malicious)
6 Waefu'-Woodie (the hanging noose)
7 The Yad's Baggie (the old mare's belly)
8 Waesucks (alas)
9 Stanepilkers' Weird (stonepickers' doom)
10 The Oxter (the armpit)
11 The Hingin' Kail-Runt (the filthy cabbage stalk)
12 The Skelper's Mools (the bad golfer's grave dust)
13 Wanchancie (treacherous)
14 The Paidle (the wild goose chase)
15 The Libbet Tyke (the neutered dog)
16 The Daftie's Fecket (the idiot's vest)
17 The Midden Stank (the dungheap drain)
18 Vogie Vennel (rain alley)

Source: by RcL