This was one of the questions in our pub quiz last night. It was approximately the only one we knew the answer to.

The quizmaster said about one question ('what are canopus and caloosahatchee?') that this referred to a news story we would all have heard about. But it turned out I hadn't even heard the story. It made me realise that I've been reading books lately and not reading newspapers. I think I'm just keeping up to speed with the top two or three stories every day. On the radio today, this story entered the top three and I heard about it for the first time. I'm not complaining, though. The books have been good.

The answer, btw, is that they're the proper names of the toxic ships George Bush is sending in advance of his own visit next week. And not, as we guessed, the proper names of Jake and Dinos Chapman's two plastic shagging people (well he did say it was topical and 'coming to a head' next week).

B-)