Whatever you think of the internet, it’s an incredible source of information.
Where that information comes from and its accuracy, is up for discussion. But not here.
With limitless information available to us by pressing a button, it’s remarkable and refreshing that at least one national newspaper publishes a daily “Notes And Queries” page.
It’s a brilliantly simple format.
Every day they print two or three queries sent in by readers, as well as helpful information that knowledgeable readers have sent in to answer previous queries.
Apart from the usual questions about sporting achievements and statistics and ‘How many actors have played Dracula on screen?’, there are plenty of bizarre examples that make you wonder why anyone would genuinely want to know the answers.
Such as, “Who was the first person to look at their reflection in a mirror?” and “What is the furthest distance a Wellington boot full of custard has been thrown by an individual?”
Some months ago, a reader of one such newspaper asked, “Who wrote the poem that starts ‘I was born when she kissed me’?
Knowing very little about poetry, I might have taken a wild guess at Wordsworth or Alfred Lord Tennyson.
But around two weeks later another reader clarified that it wasn’t a poem, but a quotation* from the 1950 film “In A Lonely Place” starring Humphrey Bogart, which at that time I had never heard of.
I’ve now seen it and it’s fantastic, although very dark, not to say bleak. And the central character is hard to empathise with.
I’m not selling it, am I?
Humphrey Bogart plays a troubled Hollywood screenwriter suspected of murder. His new lover, played by the wonderful Gloria Grahame, believes he’s innocent, but is frightened by his violent outburst.
And there’s a whammo of a twist in the final minutes.
If you haven’t seen it, try and track it down,  but don’t expect too many laughs.
*The full quotation is…“I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived for a few weeks while she loved me”. Man, if that’s not poetry, I don’t know what is!