This will be a briefish post (briefish, I think I just invented a new word!) as I have been ill for most of the weekend and have absolutely done for the quiz on Thursday. In fact I was so ill this morning (headache and nausea) that I couldn't look at my computer screen for too long and after being physically ill I thought thought it prudent to go back to bed for a couple of hours. When I finally got up I had to answer something like 50 emails, not counting the now obligatory message from The Bank of Africa in Burkina Faso offering me a share of several $ dollars if I help them move a sizeable sum. (Stupid w*nkers) reported and marked as spam.. for the 7th time. Anyway, I digress. Yes! Emails! Thanks to John from VCJD, I have received your suggestions but haven't had time to look at them yet, I am hoping to tomorrow but I really need to spend now and midnight on the quiz.

Three for Fun (Friday's answers)

'No man is an island, entire of itself.' lines of the sixteenth-/seventeenth-century poet John Donne.

The term or word that describes the final unwinding of a complex storyline or the unravelling of the plot in drama is Denoument.

'Lilliburlero' is the signature tune of the BBC's World Service.

Today's questions (answers on Friday)

1. There are ten ways of dismissing a batsman in cricketincluding bowled out, run out, caught, stumped, LBW. Name one of the rarer five?

2. What is the name of the Flemish artist who was appointed Principal Painter to their majesties in 1632 at the court of Charles I?

3. The Threepenny Opera and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogonny were musical collaborations between the composer Kurt Weill and which celebrated German playwright?

Joke of the Day.

A teacher notices that a little boy at the back of the class is squirming around, scratching his crotch and not paying attention. She goes back to find out what's up. He's quite embarrassed and whispers that he has just recently been circumcised and he's quite itchy. The teacher tells him to go down to the principal's office, to phone his mum, and ask her what he should do about it. He does this and returns to the class, sits down in his seat and suddenly, there's a general commotion at the back of the room. Back down she goes, only to find him sitting at his desk with his penis hanging out. "I thought I told you to call your mom" she says. "I did" he says. "She told me that if I could stick it out till noon, she'd come and pick me up from school."