QANTAS    An Australian airline. The initials stand for Queensland Aeroplane Not Transporting Abo Sods.

Qatar    Arabian country whose inhabitants all have runny noses and sore throats.

Quango     A body with a head but no balls.

Quantum Theory    The theory based on the existence of quanta of energy. It originated with the ideas of Max Planck and Albert Einstein. Planck argued that electromagnetic energy is quantized, i.e. it can be gained or lost only in discrete quanta or packets called photons, which enabled him to explain the spectral distribution of the radiation emitted by a black body at any given temperature. Einstein said you got it from Woolworth's.

Queen Mother, The    A remarkable old lady who died in the year 2002 just a few days short of her 102nd hip replacement.

Queens     A residential and industrial borough of New York City, USA. Ironically most of the queens in New York live in Manhattan.

Queue Gardens    Kew Gardens on a Bank Holiday.

Quirinal    One of the seven hills of Rome, but if it looks anything like it sounds, is probably not as nice as the other six.