Did General Douglas MacArthur identify himself with King Arthur? – The Saturday Briefing

Q: Having read of the exploits of US General Douglas MacArthur in two world wars, I am left wondering whether he ever identified himself with the other brave warrior King Arthur of Avalon (mythical or not). In his emotional broadcast to the Philippines in the Second World War, MacArthur referred to, “the Holy Grail of righteous victory”.

Perhaps I am delving into the realms of fantasy but this suggests a connection with the King Arthur legend and I note the general’s father was General Arthur MacArthur and his grandson was an Arthur too.

Marjorie Guest – Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia

A: I do not know of any direct reference to the king by the general but there is strong evidence to suggest he did identify with, or at least was inspired by, King Arthur.

According to ancient Scottish legend the Campbell clan and the MacArthurs descend from a Scottish son of King Arthur of the Round Table named Smervie Mor.

The earliest known reference to the MacArthurs by that name dates back only to the 13th century. General MacArthur himself was the grandson of an immigrant to the US from Strathclyde.

Q: Before the main film at the Odeon Cinema there is a male voiceover telling the audience to switch off their phones, stop talking and sit back and enjoy the main feature. Does this voice belong to a well known actor? He sounds very cheery and is a great start to the event.

Margaret from Lancashire by email

A: The voice is that of the English actor/director Chris Overton. His short sign-language film The Silent Child won an Academy Award this year for Live Action Short Film.

Q: Many packets of ready meals sold for home heating or cooking instruct the user to ensure the food is “piping hot”. How hot is “piping hot” and what is the origin of the expression?

Eric Harcourt, by email

A: “Piping hot” is an extremely old expression dating back at least to Chaucer in the late 14th century. It refers to the whistling sound made by steam passing through pipes, or compressed air passing through organ pipes. So I suppose the answer to the “how hot” part of your question is the temperature of boiling water.

Q: In your answer last week to a question about the “strings” of a banana you referred to it as a fruit when in actual fact it is a herb according to host Stephen Fry in a recent QI episode I saw. Who is correct?

John Palmer, Stockport, Cheshire

A: According to Oxford Dictionaries we are both right: the banana plant (often incorrectly called a “banana tree”) is technically a herb, they say, and go on to add: “A banana (the yellow thing you peel and eat) is undoubtedly a fruit (containing the seeds of the plant)”. The answer is further complicated by the fact that bananas sold commercially are sterile, with the seeds reduced to the tiny specks you can see inside it. Wild bananas have fairly large seeds.

Q: I have recently heard the expression “by and large” several times. Can you tell me the meaning and origin of this phrase?

G Glover, Bradford, West Yorkshire

A: It means “generally speaking” or “all things considered” and it has a nautical origin around the 17th century. The word “large” was used to indicate that the wind was blowing from a direction behind the ship; “by” meant that the ship was sailing into the wind. So “by and large” basically means “in fair weather or foul”. By the early 18th century the phrase had entered common usage as a way of saying “on the whole”.

Q: Is it true than when a horse is close to a jump it has a blind spot in front of it so that it is virtually jumping blind?

Norman Parr, by email

A: Because a horse’s eyes are on the sides of its head it has a blind spot in front of its nose, roughly triangular in shape and extending to a point about four feet in front of it. But a horse’s stride is more than twice that so when it reaches its take-off point for making a jump, it has perfect vision of the fence. Because of the speed at which it is moving the physical adjustments for clearing the fence will be made before it moves into its blind spot.

Q: Did David Livingstone go to China before his heroic exploits in Africa? I’m sure I read somewhere that he had but conditions were so bad there they decided to send him and his wife to Africa instead? My friend says he never went to China. Can you help?

Ada Lawson, Grantown-on-Spey, Scottish Highlands

A: I’m afraid your friend is right – but you’re very close. Livingstone had intended to go to China as a missionary but the First Opium War broke out in 1839 and the London Missionary Society suggested that he go to the West Indies instead. But while finishing his medical studies he met a missionary working in South Africa and was inspired to join his work there.

Q: My youngest son David recently married Emma. At one of their early meetings Emma asked David what his parents’ names were. He said Ann and Tony and she was gobsmacked, as her parents are Ann and Tony too. Can you tell me what the odds of this happening are?

Tony Eathorne, Eastbourne, East Sussex

A: Well Tony, the first thing I have to ask is whether you’re a real Tony or is it short for Anthony? And are both the mothers Anns, or is one an Anne? Around the 1970s, when I estimate you were all born, around one in 75 boys were called Tony or Anthony, while one in 275 girls were Anne or Ann. So the chances of a boy, who is the son of Ann and Tony, marrying a girl whose parents have the same names is about one in 75×275 which is about 1 in 20,000, while if we’re strict about the exact names Ann and Tony, it’s about 1 in 3 million. So David can justifiably call her a girl in a million.

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