Every time my husband Bjorn meets someone new, the person usually says they feel like they have met him before. Men and women actually come up to us in pubs or when we are out shopping asking, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” Numerous folk say, “Oh you remind me of someone I know” but can never seem to absolutely pinpoint who that person is.
He has been likened to Patrick Swayze, Jeff Bridges, Benny from Abba, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Steve Martin – all of whom I personally think look totally different from each other and nothing like him.
Answer me this: how can one person look like so many different people to so many different people? And does he look like anyone you know?
Maybe he just has ‘one of those faces’? Perhaps its planes are arranged in a particular way that chimes with some sort of universal face-recognition. Or possibly his photo was used without his knowledge in a widespread public health advertising campaign, like this.
Readers, below is Bjorn’s face. Go to the comments to name the person of whom he reminds you. Personally I’m seeing the Jeff Bridges resemblance but not the other ones, although maybe the hat is overly influencing my judgement.
NO DON’T TELL US. Tell nobody. Find that impulse that lurks deep within yourself to vocalise your opinions upon a matter so boring, so mundane, so underwhelming an indicator of anything interesting about your character; find it, then destroy it.
Then listen to Answer Me This! Episode 248:
Today we ponder upon:
Flu Camp
pregnancy disguises
Stevenage slush puppies (not a euphemism)
Ming Dynasty toilet paper
Joseph Gayetty
posh Pot Noodles
domestic rubbish vs. commercial rubbish
London, UK vs. London, Ontario
figure skating vs. Dancing On Ice
Tiny Toronto
and Sergey Brin hiding in the bushes.
Plus: Olly’s lukewarm about Google Glass, but looking forward to the installation of his Google Womb; Helen believes the empire waist to be an offence to waists (and empires); and Martin the Sound Man doesn’t like the principles of Ayn Rand, he just looks like he does.
This week’s Bit of Crap on the App (available for iDevices and Android) is a question from Poppy wondering why Skittles’ latest ad campaign is targeting the people-who-eat-bodily-growths market. Cheer up, Poppy; at least they’re not suggesting you wipe your bottom with Skittles then tell them about it.
Tell us your QUESTIONS, though: email them to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com or leave voicemails on the Question Line by calling 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis. Then treat yourself to a free Audible audiobook as a reward. OK, you can have one anyway, for being so well-behaved (and because we receive a bit of lovely money for each of you who has one; let’s not be coy about it).
What a surprise the publishers of our book decided not to use this picture! Granted, their usual style of authorial portrait is usually a little more contemplative, a tad more restrained. But they probably thought that to print an image of such timeless, exquisite beauty on the cover of our book would be unfair on all the other books.
Yes. That must have been the reasoning.
To find out why we have unleashed this aesthetics gamechanger, listen to Answer Me This! Episode 247:
Today we discuss:
forked tongues
Liv Tyler’s tits
holiday snaps
smoking vs. self-pleasuring
Pot Noodles vs. aquariums Armageddon vs. Les Miserables
menageries vs. mono-nageries corgis’ Christmas Lion Tower
Bruce Willis in a space suit
and
bedroom antics.
Plus: Olly reveals how the Queen helped Kate and Willsher dogs to mate; Helen’s holiday photo albums all look like this; and Martin the Sound Man ejaculates through his tear ducts, apparently.
As an extension of the final questioneer’s bath masturbation query, this week’s Bit of Crap on the App (available for iDevices and Android) considers what else you can do in a bath, if said bath is in Las Vegas. Clue: cleanliness is unlikely to be the most immediate concern.
Our immediate concern is, of course, gathering your QUESTIONS: email them to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com or leave voicemails on the Question Line by calling 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis.
We knew we could count on you to send us sweary Thorntons products, you bunch of chocolate-loving pottymouths! This has to be one of the best slews of feedback we have ever had. It also contains Swear Words so the rest of the post is after the jump. (more…)
Unofficial AMT paparazzo Mat wired us this rare sighting:
Spotted in, of all places, Wall Street, New York, US of your actual A, while I was helping fifteen Performing Arts students traipse around the city on a college trip. I’m all about the boots, myself.
Sadly the boots are off-brand, but if you want a similar bag for yourself, click here. They’re very sturdy, waterproof, and so bright and noticeable that you may well find yourself having your privacy invaded while you take a tour of the financial centres of the world.
Josh has designed the packaging above, but lacks a product to go in it. He asks:
If there was a real Answer Me This! game, what would you do in it?
Probably just sit on our arses, like in real life. Not exciting enough? Erm, how about extra points for using the least amount of physical movement to make a cup of tea, go to the toilet, find the TV remote then return to the sofa?
Alright then, readers, it’s over to you: go to the comments and describe the ideal AMT game, and we’ll have a word with our friends at Square Enix to see if they can produce it in time for Christmas.
One of the problems which arose in interviewing our Special Guests for AMT200 is that those people were witness to our most hideous, embarrassing, shameful years. Worse, they have visual evidence.
In AMT183, my brother tried to translate the businesspeak term ‘verticals’ into a recognisable concept, yet my argot-lite brain refused to compute. Thankfully I now have pictoral aids from Chris from Cardiff, Australia:
Based on my rudimentary knowledge of business jargon (from Year 12 Business Studies), my understanding of “verticals” is thus:
A “vertical” is, much like Martin and Olly suggested, a broad term for the different “genres” of businesses in the marketplace. I think one of the easiest ways to explain vertical and horizontal businesses is using a graphical analogy for wheat.
In the diagram, the vertical lines represent some of the different commercial functions of wheat. Each dot on the line represents a different point in the process between the raw material and the finished product. The processing business (marked with the red line) is able to sell its services horizontally to the different lines of use, thus expanding its market potential. The processing needed for wheat to become suitable for bread (pre-milling) is marginally different to the processing for wheat to be suitable for use in a distillery, so the business can expand over multiple markets.
Much of the time, a big business in the main markets will buy out the businesses or facilities which perform the different tasks on the vertical axis, this is called vertical integration.
So, in short, “verticals” are the general markets which a business can sell its services to.
Thanks, Chris. I will try to work the term into a sentence today.
Hey! Remember that guy in AMT181 who called in having stapled his testicles to a copy of the Keith and the Girl book and claimed he had video evidence?
He has provided us with the video evidence.
Before you watch it, let us remind you that it is a video of a man stapling his testicles to a book, so prepare yourselves for the sight of a man stapling his testicles to a book. Click through to view the rest of this post if that is something you actually wish to see, but think carefully about your decision beforehand, because once seen, it cannot be unseen. (more…)
and claimed he had video evidence?
