Paul Henman at henman.ca

Kerri emailed me something amusing yesterday:

One of the British national daily newspapers asked readers “What does it mean to be British?”

Some of the emails are hilarious but this is one from a chap in Switzerland: “Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV.”

The newspaper was The Telegraph and they posed the question back in July last year – there are two pages of replies (here and here) which contain some gems, so I thought this week’s Friday Factoids should be on “all things British”.

• England is part of Great Britain, which is part of the United Kingdom – need clarification? (Even Microsoft Encarta gets it wrong!)
• The history of Britain goes back a long way – the Romans invaded Britain in 55BC, the Vikings invaded in the 9th–11th centuries, and it was the turn of the Anglo-Saxons in the 11th–13th centuries.
• Great Britain came in to being in 1707, with the Act of Union that joined England and Scotland; Northern Ireland joined to form the United Kingdom in 1801.
• Britain has a population of about 60 million (about twice that of Canada) with a growth rate of 0.3%; it ranks 20th in the world in terms of population size.
• The population density of Britain is ~588 people per square mile (230 people per km2) – that’s more than twice as densely populated as France (100 people per sq.km) and nine times as densely populated as the USA (27 people per sq.km)!
• Dependent areas include Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena and Ascension, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands (phew!)
• Highest mountain: Ben Nevis in Scotland, at 1,343m.
• Longest river: River Severn, 354 km (220 miles) long; it rises in Wales and flows to the Bristol Channel. (The Thames is 215 miles long.)
• Largest lake: Lough Neagh 396sq.km (153 sq miles) in Northern Ireland.
• Deepest Lake: Loch Morar in the Highlands of Scotland, 310 m (1,017 ft) deep.
• Highest waterfall: Eas a’Chual Aluinn, from Glas Bheinn, also in the Highlands of Scotland, with a drop of 200 m (660 ft).
• Total land area: 242,514 sq km (93,638 sq mi) … which is slightly smaller than the US state of Oregon, or just under half the size of France!
• The coastline length around mainland Great Britain is 11,072.76 miles.
• Funny place names (c/o Ordnance Survey):
  

  From Cold Christmas (Hertfordshire) and Christmas Cross (Shropshire) to Holly Green (Worcestershire) and Ivy Tree (Cumbria), there are places scattered across the country where it feels like Christmas all year round – even if only in name.

  As it approaches midnight on Christmas Eve, don’t forget to hang up your Stocking (Herefordshire) and leave out a Carrot (Angus) for Rudolph. You can pucker up at Mistletoe Oak in Herefordshire, dream of a white Christmas in Snow Falls (North Yorkshire), or make your way to Wiseman’s Bridge (Pembrokeshire) by the light of a Star (Somerset) – although you may like to use a good map instead.

  For those not worried about their waistline, there’s always Turkey Island (Hampshire) with a side helping of Cranberry (Staffordshire) and Sproutes (West Sussex), followed by Pudding Hill (Windsor). Wash it all down with a couple of Brandys (Cornwall) or Baileys (Essex) and use your Nut Crackers (Devon) to break open your Brazils (Essex) or The Walnuts (Milton Keynes).

  There are sackfuls of festive places from Cornwall right up to the Scottish islands. You can visit Bethlehem (Carmarthenshire) without even getting near an aeroplane, or practise your Yuletide songs in Carrol (Highland).

• One that amuses me is Grimsby; named by the Vikings, it means “ugly town”!

• There are about 60,000 pubs in Britain – that’s one for every 1,000 people.
• In Medieval times there was one alehouse for every 50 people. (Happier times!)
• 26 pubs close every month in Britain. (Sad but true.)
• The most common pub name in Britain is The Crown.
• In the Middle Ages, when most people were illiterate, pub signs included pictures, e.g. The Pig and Whistle. The whistle is believed to be a corruption of wassail, meaning good health. The pig was either from an old word for pail or maybe a peg which was used to mark how much was being consumed from a barrel.
• The (English) pub with the shortest name is Q in Stalybridge.
• Reputedly the smallest pub in England is the Nutshell in Bury St. Edmunds (4.6m x 1.95m).
• The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), introduced in 1914, restricted opening hours to help the war effort, along with restricting binoculars and invisible ink! The drinking restrictions were lifted, allowing longer opening hours, in 2005.

I did February Factoids last week, so this week it’s March’s turn.

• It’s Mothering Sunday (Mothers’ Day) in the UK on March 26th.
• March 26th also marks the start of Summer Time in the UK; North America’s clocks go forward the following Sunday (April 2nd).
• At long last, the 2006 Formula 1 season kicks off – the Grand Prix of Bahrain is on March 12th, which means the first practise session shoud be televised on the 10th. [See also Wikipedia's summary of teams & drivers, the rules and calendar.]
• March 20th is also the vernal equinox (the start of spring) so I hope we get one last dumping of snow before winter’s over.
• It’ll be the fifth anniversary of me moving to Canada on March 11th.
• I remember seeing the news coverage of Airey Neave’s car after the Irish terrorists murdered him in the House of Commons car park – 30 March 1979, so I was almost 13. There’s more on the BBC’s “On This Day” site.

With February almost over, I thought I’d provide some February factoids:

• As well as being Black History Month, February is Marfan Syndrome Awareness Month and National Children’s Dental Health Month in the USA.
• Also listed (but not explained) are Responsible Pet Owner Month (so it’s OK to be irresponsible the rest of the year?), Sleep Safety Month (are there a lot of sleep-related injuries?) and Canned Food Month (buy it or eat it?).
• Apparently the 2nd Monday in February is “Clean Out Your Computer Day”.
• Did you know Feb 1st is National Baked Alaska Day and the 4th is National Stuffed Mushroom Day? Be sure to add it to your diary for next year!
• I can’t believe we hadn’t heard of Drink Too Much Wine Day (Feb 18th) before!
• The “Flying Scotsman” (steam locomotive) made its first run from London to Edinburgh on 24 February 1923.
• Elizabeth II became Queen of the United Kingdom, of Canada, of Australia, of New Zealand, of Ceylon, of Pakistan and of South Africa on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. (Not her coronation, as some websites claim – that was 2 June 1953.)
• Fidel Castro took the reigns in Cuba on 16 February 1959.

It occurred to me that I’ve not done any local factoids, so here are some about Toronto. Given it’s suddenly turned quite cold in the past couple of days, I’ll start with a couple weather-related entries:

• The warmest it’s been (in Toronto, at this time of year) is +12.5°C in 1994; the coldest is -28.3°C in 1944. (Note: The current weather forecast for Toronto includes a Extreme Cold Weather Alert.)
• We still have some way to go to compete with Snag, Yukon, which holds the record for the lowest recorded temperature in Canada: on February 3, 1947, it dropped to -63°C!
• Lester B. Pearson International Airport (LBPIA) is located 27 km (16 miles) north-west of downtown Toronto, and has been Toronto’s main international airport since 1939 when it was first known as Malton Airport.
• Situated on the northern shore of Lake Ontario (the most eastern lake of the Great Lakes system), Toronto is one of the southernmost cities in Canada (latitude 43°N [the same as northern California and the French Rivera] longitude 79°W).
• Toronto is Canada’s largest city; it’s also the fifth largest city in North America (after Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) and 65th in the world.
• The population of Canada is approximately 32.5 million; Toronto’s is 2.5 million, and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is 4.7 million. (Ottawa is only about 1 million.)
• Toronto was created on March 6, 1834, when the settlement of York was renamed Toronto, the Mohawk word for “meeting place”.
• Dominating the city skyline is the CN Tower, the world’s tallest free-standing structure, standing at 553.33m (1815’5”).
• Yonge Street, the world’s longest street, starts at the foot of Toronto and runs directly through it. The 1,896km roadway ends at Rainy River, a Northern Ontario mining community.
• Despite recent reports of gun violence, Toronto still enjoys a lower crime rate than most other large North American cities, making it one of the world’s safest cities.