No Such Thing As A Winter Fax Machine is the 290th episode of No Such Thing As A Fish, the 30th episode of the sixth year, and the 41st episode of 2019. It features regular presenters James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, and Anna Ptaszynski, and guest QI Elf Alex Bell. It was recorded at the QI Offices in Covent Garden, London.
Description[]
Alex, James, Anna and Andrew discuss Tolstoy's hat-wearing habits, nuclear-powered icebreakers (literal, not conversational) and how to hack a fax from the moon.
Facts[]
- In Japan you can buy left-handed chopsticks. (Harkin)
- The fax machine is older than the telephone. (Bell)
- A boatload of researchers are about to deliberately get themselves stuck in the Arctic ice for a year. (Ptaszynski)
- Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest writers of all time, frequently wore two hats in case his head got cold. (Murray)
Trivia[]
- Regular host Dan Schreiber is absent.
- In his absence Alex Bell hosts, making his thirty-ninth appearance.
- This is the first time someone other than Schreiber, Ptaszynski or Murray has hosted, and the first time a non-regular has hosted. (James Harkin has never hosted.)
- Cariad Lloyd helped put Harkin in touch with someone knowledgeable about chopsticks.
- Murray being left-handed was previously mentioned in Episode 102: No Such Thing As A Water Mortar.
- Harkin debunks the Wade Davis story about making a knife out of frozen poo, which was discussed in Episode 112: No Such Thing As A Lego Aircraft Carrier.
- Murray compares Tolstoy recording all his failures in his diary to the fact about Isaac Newton doing a similar thing, which was first mentioned in Episode 91: No Such Thing As Apocalypse 1988.
- Murray points out that Tolstoy translated his own version of the Bible, similar to Thomas Jefferson re-ordering the Bible which was a headline fact in Episode 288: No Such Thing As An Elephant In The Airport.