Is it common sense to use a golf umbrella in an urban situation, or should they be restricted to the tees and greens?

To boil the same volume of water, which is more energy efficient: a 3000 Watt kettle or a 2000 Watt kettle? I’m sure in a perfect experiment they should be identical in power consumption, but we do not live in such circumstances.

Is it common sense to start rumours that may have no basis in fact ? Surely this is not common sense, and it would be better to get facts right first. This would maintain credibility and cost the world less honk.

I heard a rumour that the glamourous BBC newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky is 6′ 2″ tall. Is this true?

Why has someone put a label onto the charger cable I have just bought that says nothing more than “this label must be removed before use”?  The label would appear to serve no purpose.  Have I missed something?

My life is a never ending battle with hydration. Drink tea, must drink water. Drink alcohol, must drink water. Don’t drink anything, must drink water. Eat food, must drink water. Drink water, urinate copiously.

Is there a scientific method whereby I can calculate the precise quantity of water I require, given my body mass and other food and liquid intakes, to reduce my number of visits to the toilet yet maintain optimal hydration?

Having recently inherited some very fine port (or so I am told) and put it all into racks, I notice that one of the very fine bottles has a leak.  Should I drink it, re-cork it or re-bottle it?

On the side of my bottle of almond oil used for diluting aromatherapy oils it states that two drops of the aromatherapy oil should be diluted in a reasonable amount of almond oil.  May I please be informed as to what reasonable is?

Today is the Glorious 12th, the start of the Red Grouse shooting season. There is an enormous volume of guff in the media today about whether we should or shouldn’t be shooting grouse and the benefits or otherwise of grouse moor management.

Balls to all that! There is a bigger issue on the Scottish hills that is largely ignored, that of sheep. These less glamorous beasts don’t receive any high profile media attention yet ruin our landscape by grazing heather moorland so that it becomes grassland, and preventing any natural reforestation.

I want to rid our hills of sheep and let the natural habitat of moorland and forest return, but to do so would mean unemployment for a whole community of hill sheep farmers. I worry that this might have negative social and economic implications for fragile rural communities.

Can you advise of a method by which we can remove sheep from our hills, allowing our landscape to flourish, yet prevent rural depopulation and negative economic growth.

I came to Edinburgh to see shows, and lots of ‘em. Now I’m here, I’m told the shows I’ve selected are sold out. Later on, in the bar, I hear from other like-minded hedonists, that they secured tickets for my preffered show and there was plenty room at the back! What is going on?