Did we catch you out? Aw, shucks, you knew it all?

Did you stay awake for all this news in May?

1. What world record was broken by teenager Carter Wilkerson, and what did he receive as a result? Most retweets on Twitter. He receives free chicken nuggets for a year from Wendy's, and (un)dying internet fame.
2. Where could a US reporter hear: a cat meowing, classical music, a jazz rendition of 'America the Beautiful', and a woman exclaiming, 'This is unbelievable!'? On a conference call with Budget Secretary Mick Mulvaney. Someone needs to read the user manual and learn about the 'mute' button.
3. Who is Brigitte Trogneux, and why is she unusual and famous? She's the wife of Emmanuel Macron, and she's 25 years older than the new French president. (She was his high school teacher.)
4. Why were 50,000 people evacuated in Hannover, Germany? Unexploded World War II bombs. Wars leave scars.
5. Why was the news from Dinaledi Cave in South Africa so startling? It introduced a surprisingly recent form of early human: Homo naledi. The new age estimate is 236,000 and 335,000 years old – and they may have used tools and buried their dead. Welcome to the family tree, guys.
6. Who dropped in on MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on 8 May, and what did the geeks give him? King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. The conceited nerds gave the king lots of books – by and about them, of course.
7. Edinburgh police chased and caught a speeder in a Jaguar who was driving 115 mph. Who did he work for, and what was his excuse for driving so fast? He was (we assume 'was') employed by BMW. He said he was emotionally upset after being at the cemetery to visit the grave of a close friend – who died in a motorcycle accident.
8. In Australia, a paramedic realised he was having a heart attack. What did he do? Drove himself to hospital in his own ambulance.
9. The headline said, '7000 Bodies Buried Beneath Mississippi University'. Why were there so many bodies beneath the campus of the University of Mississippi? There used to be a mental hospital on the site.
10. Also in Australia, the head of Qantas was speaking to about 500 people. What unforeseen event interrupted his speech? A pie-in-the-face incident.

Let this be a lesson to you: pay attention, because it all goes by so fast.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

29.05.17 Front Page

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