Bare cheek: WHAT WAS THAT?

Can’t remember the name of a book, song or film? Mike Hunter is the man with the answers

Dear Mike,
This may be a bit of a long shot, but I’m trying to recall the name of a ‘super hero’ whose comic book adventures I enjoyed as a child. Basically, this character is from a planet many light-years away, which is destroyed. Just before this happens the infant hero’s parents send him off in a space capsule, which eventually lands on earth, where he is adopted by a childless midwestern couple. Differences between our sun and his own give him powers, such as flight, super strength, heat vision, super speed and so on, and as he grows up he becomes the earth’s champion and the embodiment of American values, such as truth, justice etc.

He wears a brightly-coloured leotard and a cape, and is obviously the spiritual descendant of such figures as Gilgamesh, Samson and Hercules. In order to protect his family and friends he adopts a ‘secret identity’, that of a clumsy, mild-mannered reporter.

Any ideas? A friends said Batman, but it’s definitely not him. Neither is it Spiderman, Captain America, the Hulk, Wonder Woman (obviously), or Iron Man. Please help!
Jeremy Siegel, Hove

Dear Jeremy,
Up, up and away! I have solved your conundrum, and ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ I was too. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it is, quite clearly and self-evidently, Plug from The Bash Street Kids.

Please keep those letters flooding in folks.

Mike XXX

Edward De Bonehead’s

LATERAL THINKING PUZZLES

NO. 43: THE TOASTER
A man returns a defective toaster to the shop where it was bought. Though the man has no receipt, he is immediately given a replacement as well as £20 cash, and a £5 ‘money off’ voucher to spend in store. Five minutes later another man enters the shop with another defective toaster. Although this man does have a receipt, he is refused a replacement. Not only that, but he is bodily thrown out of the shop, and the manager kicks him down the street. Why?

SOLUTION TO LAST WEEK’S PROBLEM
Carmody knows Galloway is lying because Galloway is an African Grey Parrot, and consequently could never have been CEO of a merchant bank. Or anything else for that matter.

First try lyrics

A fascinating insight into the creative process, as we examine
the original drafts of those famous songs that didn’t get it quite right the first time:

TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM
– Phil Spector, 1958
“To know, know him is to love,
love him….”

I YI YI YI YI YI
– Carmen Miranda, 1941
“I like you very much/I think you’re grand…”

RUN RABBIT RUN
– Noel Gay and Ralph Butler, 1939
“Run rabbit!
Here comes the farmer with his gun….”

HEY JUDE
– Lennon-McCartney, 1968
“Na – hey Jude.”

BARBARA-ANN – Fred Fassett, 1961, covered by The Beach Boys in 1965
“Bar-bara-Ann.”

In & Out

In
• East Midlands
• Blackpool International
• Liverpool John Lennon
• Glasgow Prestwick
• Norwich International

Out
• Durham Tees Valley
• George Best Belfast City
• London Oxford
• Robin Hood
• North Ronaldsay