
51 - The Waggle Dance, The Gherkin Headstone & a Trippy Bicycle Ride
From What The Factual? / Facts The Way I Like It! by Gill Smith & Pete Moor
November 28, 2025 · 39 min · Season 3 · Episode 51
About this episode
Gill and Pete explore various historical facts including etymology, protests, and the discovery of LSD.
51 - The Waggle Dance, The Gherkin Headstone & a Trippy Bicycle Ride It's yet another Friday so Gill and Pete are back with more facts from around the world and all walks of life. This week, Gill takes us down etymology lane again and tells us where the phrase "tea caddy" comes from and why. She also shares the story of how a seemingly innocuous grave in the city of London became a Roman tomb with the Gherkin as a headstone. Finally she tells us the wonderful tale of how and why binge drinking is actually a noble British tradition. Although we are not condoning it... it's just in our history so maybe its fine? Pete has the story of the 1984 Dunnes Stores Strikers in which a group of Dublin shop workers took a stand and helped inspire the world to stand up to apartheid in South Africa. He also has the mind bending story of how LSD was accidentally discovered and developed and finally he tells us how Honeybees can pass on incredibly accurate GPS information through the medium of dance. We should also add that Amazon Alexa failed to help Pete find out that Domus (the latin) means house or residence, not "ruler"! Right, we are off to responsibly enjoy some alcohol and…
People in this episode
Hosts: Gill Smith, Pete Moor
Topics covered
- etymology
- history
- binge drinking
- protests
- LSD discovery
- honeybee communication
Keywords
- Waggle Dance
- Gherkin Headstone
- binge drinking
- Dunnes Stores Strikers
- LSD
- honeybees
- etymology
- tea caddy
Mentioned in this episode
Products: LSD
Books & works: tea caddy, Gherkin
Places: London, South Africa, Dublin, Britain
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