The first emperor
THE FIRST EMPEROR OF CHINA was Qin Shi Huang, who lived in the third century BC. He started constuction of the Great Wall of China, and commissioned 7,000 terracotta warriors to guard his tomb. Not all the ‘warriors’ were soldiers: the army included terracotta acrobats, terracotta musicians and terracotta tax collectors. Qin Shi Huang was […]
Anchovy spaghetti
IN THE SUMMER of 1979, as young students, we took the train to Italy. It was late in the evening when we were approaching Milan station from France, and we discussed how the banks would be closed when we got there and we had no Lire, so we’d have to sleep on the station benches […]
Lasting fame
HERE’S A PAINTING of a wealthy 17th century Dutchman. Pompous, well-fed, confident: a man wealthy enough to have his name remembered down the generations. He even paid for an ornate gilt frame. Except no one knows who he is. But everyone knows the name of the artist. It was Rembrandt, who painted this portrait in […]
Which university?
IT’S A VERY HARD DECISION. There are so many factors to weigh up when choosing which university to attend: the course details, the location, the job prospects. It’s a decision that rightly requires serious consideration. The university you attend will determine, to a large extent, many of the friends you’ll have for the rest of […]
It’s all right, innit
THE USE OF THE AFFIRMATIVE ‘innit’ is decried by linguists who see it as a barbaric example of ill-educated spoken English. And it’s true that it’s more often used by non-native speakers. But that’s because English is so complicated. Having to learn the difference between isn’t it, aren’t we, hasn’t she, didn’t they, shouldn’t you. […]
Uncommon words
JUST A SMALL SELECTION of the many thousands of words that have, through no fault of their own, dropped out of everyday use. Glabella The space between your eyebrows. Petrichor The way it smells after it has rained. Aglet The plastic or metallic coating at the end of your shoelaces. Warble The rumbling of a […]
How big is a beer glass?
OR, MORE PERTINENTLY: which is taller, the height of this beer glass or the circumference at the top? Here’s a beer glass. It’s pretty tall, and not very wide. So which is the greater dimension? The answer is surprising. This glass has a height of 150mm, and a diameter of 90mm. So that means the […]
Bonjour, monsieur
GO INTO ANY FRENCH SHOP and the person behind the sales desk will look up, smile and say ‘Bonjour, Monsieur’ (or ‘Bonsoir, Madame’, or occasionally ‘Bon après midi, Mademoiselle’). It’s a polite way of welcoming you into their store. English, sadly, has no real equivalent of these words. ‘Hello’ is too chatty, ‘Good morning’ too […]
Will we run out of tunes?
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WRITING SONGS for almost as long as there have been people, and writing them down for over half a millennium. So will there ever be a limit to the number of tunes songwriters can come up with, before they start repeating themselves? Let’s write a simple four-note tune together. Our first note […]
Civilisation too civilised
WHEN SID MEIER launched his popular computer game series Civilization in 1991, historical world leaders were assigned an aggression value. When a society achieved a democratic government, this value dropped by one. Gandhi is the only leader whose aggression value is set to zero. But in the game, when India achieves democratic status, Gandhi’s aggression […]
Desktop or laptop?
IT’S A DIFFICULT CHOICE, when you’re contemplating buying a new computer, and it really comes down to how portable you need it to be. It’s a trade-off: the more portable it is, the less you can do with it. If you mainly need it for browsing websites and writing emails, then you should get the […]
Which computer shall I buy?
I’VE BEEN USING COMPUTERS for a long time – I bought my first Sinclair Spectrum in 1979 – so people think I know a lot about computers. I don’t. But I do know quite a lot about using them. When people ask me which computer they should buy, I always ask the same question: ‘What […]
Perfect? Zoom out
YOU MIGHT THINK you’ve framed the perfect shot. But before you press the button, zoom out just a little – or take a couple of steps back. You can always crop into the shot later, but you can’t crop out.* *Actually, now you can, if you have a subscription to Photoshop. And don’t mind a […]
Moving house
NEXT TIME YOU MOVE, here are two tips that should make the next few years a little easier. First, if you’re planning to change the locks – because you never know who might have an extra set of keys – then change them all to use the same key for all the external doors. Then […]
Make it happen
SOME YEARS AGO I gave a lecture on image editing to a class of film studies students at what was then called the Polytechnic of Central London. At the end of the talk they asked how I’d got started in my career as a freelance illustrator, so I gave them a brief biographical sketch. ‘Of […]
Film the everyday
ONCE OR TWICE A YEAR my mother would set up the projector, erect the rolling screen, draw the curtains and painstakingly load up one of the Super 8 cine movies she’d filmed during the previous year or two. It was a laborious, fiddly business. Looking back at those movies it appears my childhood was passed […]
Amazon reviews
AMAZON IS GREAT. You can read reviews of products by hundreds of people just like you who have road-tested it and who are only too happy to share their experiences. Except… …when they haven’t tried it yet and give it five stars …when they haven’t tried it yet but knock off a star anyway …when […]
The Trolley Problem
DEVISED BY PHILIPPA FOOT in 1967, the Trolley Problem is a thought experiment in moral philosophy. A runaway trolley car is heading towards a group of five people; if you pull a lever, you can change its course so it moves onto a different section of track where it kills only one person. Do you […]
Let them fail
ON A HOLIDAY a few years ago I met a couple of PE teachers from Nottingham. They told me about the fully-equipped gym in their school, fitted with ropes and wall bars. None of which the children were allowed to use, because they might fall off. It’s a problem that faces most schools today. My […]
Favourite quotes
OK, SO THESE AREN’T FACTS. But I didn’t know where else to put them. These quotations all mean something profound to me, and I hope they can mean something to you too. Be yourself; everyone else is taken.Oscar Wilde We are here on Earth to help others. What on earth the others are here for […]
Translating fiction
A FRIEND OF A FRIEND, the first friend told me, was doing her doctorate and the subject of her thesis was the difficulty of translating the Harry Potter novels into different languages. Which sounds absurd, until you think about it. The name ‘Harry Potter’ might be understandable in French, and German, and Cantonese, but would […]
Not too bad
SOME YEARS AGO, when my son was in residential care, I’d pick him up on a Friday evening and ask how the week had gone. ‘Not too bad,’ was the usual reply. How bad, exactly? Bad but not catastrophic? Within the tolerable range of badness? As bad as could be expected? It turned out ‘not […]
The least I could do
‘THANK YOU for cleaning the kitchen.’‘It’s the least I could do.’ Why is it that I find this phrase so abhorrent? Is it the implication that the person doing the favour would rather have done nothing at all, but when it came down to it they chose the simplest, least time-consuming option? The one that […]
Reading on Kindle
I LOVE READING BOOKS on my Kindle. I like the convenience of having hundreds of books on hand, of being able to make searchable notes, and of being able to download new titles immediately. Above all, I love the fact that I can continue reading a book on my phone, because the Kindle app knows […]
Let me double check
CERTAINLY, IF YOU MUST. But perhaps you could check first, and then double check only if you really need to do so? It’s part of a proliferation of extraneous words that serve no purpose other than to make sentences longer. Why should we pre-book when previously we’d just book? These extra words are particularly popular […]
Soft surfaces
A TREASURE CHEST on a beach. What could be simpler to put together? Except this treasure chest doesn’t look like it’s on the sand. Because that’s not how sand behaves. Much better if the sand rises up around the sides, so it looks as if the chest has sunk into it. It makes all the […]
Merge your montages
DRAMATIC IMAGES CAN RESULT from simply combining two images. Here, the lift entrances in this 1930s building have been replaced with a view of a desert beyond. The horizon is in the correct place – so why does it fail to convince? It’s the straight line between the two locations. Far better to let them […]
People and cars
PLACING PEOPLE IN A CAR is a straightforward job for any photomontage artist, provided you can get your head around the tricky cutout of the windscreen wipers. And there’s the happy couple, front and centre. Except this isn’t how cars are designed. It’s a common mistake to put the people much too close to the […]
Glaze your windows
CREATING A VIEW through a window is simply a matter of deleting the original glass and adding an interior behind the windows. I’ve added a person as well for extra interest. But why does the left image, above, look fake? It’s because there’s no glass in the windows. It’s easily fixed. Take a photograph of […]
Foreground action
PLACING A PERSON in a scene doesn’t mean the person will look like they belong there. There’s always going to be the person in the foreground, with the landscape or room behind them. But there is a simple trick. In the first image above, a man has been placed in this forest scene. But he […]
Perspective clouds
IT’S EASY ENOUGH to replace a dull sky with something more interesting. But there’s one thing that most photomontage artists get wrong: they place the clouds too low in the sky, as the above image shows. Real clouds diminish in size in perspective, so those close to the horizon appear much smaller than those directly […]
Opening doors
IT’S EASY ENOUGH to open a door in Photoshop. But making it look like a real door is a little more tricky. Here’s the closed door. Select it with the Lasso or Pen tools, copy it to a new layer, then duplicate it. Use Free Transform to distort the duplicated layer to open the door, […]
Play, stop, play
ONE OF THE ODDEST THINGS about learning to play a particular piece of music is that a good deal of the learning takes place when you’re not actually practising. I’ve often found that if there’s an especially tricky bit of fingering in a piano piece I’m learning, I can practise and practise and still not […]
Happy New Year
NEW YEAR’S DAY is exactly seven days after Christmas Day, so it’s always on the same day of the week. But in the year 2000 New Year’s Day was on a different day to Christmas Day. Why? See the answer You might think it’s something special about the year 2000. But it happens every year. […]
Form and function
TWO BICYCLES: the first is from 1888, the second a top-of-the-range racing bike from 2025. Nearly 140 years separate them, but the designs are almost identical. Bicycles went through many iterations, from scoot-along hobby cycles to ungainly penny farthings. But once this format was arrived at, it stuck. Two wheels around two feet in diameter, […]
The wrath of God
GOD LOVES CHILDREN. Everyone knows that. Except when they’re naughty. This is from the New International Version, 2 Kings verses 23-24: From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out […]
More Bible horror
MOSES. GREAT GUY. Led the children of Israel out of the hands of the Egyptian despots and found the Promised Land. What a hero! But he had a dark side. This is from the King James Version, Numbers chapter 31, verses 13 to 18: And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of […]
The murderous Bible
THE BIBLE is a book of love, forgiveness and understanding, right? Well, the New Testament might be, but Bible 1.0 is a different matter entirely. Here are some of the more lethal instructions: Kill adulterers Leviticus 20:10 Kill all witches Exodus 22:18 Kill blasphemers Leviticus 24:14 Kill fortune-tellers Leviticus 20:27 Kill anyone who sins Ezekiel […]
Lorem Ipsum
WHEN DESIGNERS are creating magazines, newspapers or even websites, we use dummy text instead of real text. The reason? We don’t want our clients to get hung up on the meaning of the words, so we give them cod Latin to represent the text that will eventually replace it. It’s called Lorem Ipsum, because that’s how […]
Say it with script
MULTINATIONAL SUPERMARKETS aren’t known for their humanity. So how do you make these commercial behemoths more touchy-feely? With a handwriting font, of course. Nothing says the human touch more than script. See! They really do care!
The Descent of Man
MOST CAPITAL LETTERS sit firmly on the baseline. That’s why it’s called a baseline. But letters with curved bottoms – O, S, U, C, G – drop slightly below the baseline. That’s because they would look too small if they sat on the baseline, as typographers discovered centuries ago. The vast concrete sign that forms […]
Glock
A poorly-designed logo for a local locksmith? No. It’s the official logo of one of the world’s most famous sidearms. Glock.
Read the signs
ORIGINALLY, THE NO ENTRY sign on British roads had the words NO ENTRY written in bold capitals across a white panel in the middle of the red warning circle. Clear, easy to read, hard to ignore. But any sign with writing on it demands to be read. And that meant drivers taking their eyes off […]
Three legs good
AS ANY RESTAURANT or café owner knows, four-legged tables have a tendency to wobble. That’s why you’ll see so many folded menus and beer mats propping them up. Four legs are inherently unstable, as even the slightest unevenness in the floor will prevent all four from touching the ground at the same time. Three legs […]
His Master’s Voice
THE EMBLEM OF HMV is this dog – his name is Nipper – who was painted posthumously by his owner, Francis Barraud, in 1898. He called his painting His Master’s Voice and it was adopted as the trademark of The Gramophone Company in 1899. (Barraud had previously offered the painting to the Edison-Bell Company, who […]
Carry on kerning
‘KERNING’ IS THE PROCESS of removing space between printed letters to produce more attractive type. It began with metal type in the 15th Century, when corners were shaved off to allow pairs of letters to sit close together. In the following example, each letter is set within its own block, as it would be if […]
Decus et Tutamen
IT’S THE LEGEND that appears around the edge of the British pound coin. Previously, high-value coins, especially those made of silver or other precious metals, were simply ‘milled’ – inscribed with vertical lines which would immediately show if the edges of the coin had been shaved off. Decus et Tutamen means, in Latin, ‘an ornament […]
A duty of care
AN UNFORTUNATE SITING for a lamp post, covering up the name of the company. It could happen to anyone. Except that this poster only appeared in one place, the poster hoarding nearest to the Studios. Would it have been beyond the capability of the designer to check the site first?
Handrail
A notice on a German airport bus. Designed by someone who has never seen a hand. Or a handrail.
Union Jack design
STRICTLY SPEAKING it’s the Union Flag. The Jack is only properly applied when it’s flown on a ship. It’s one of the more complex flags, and it’s notoriously hard to draw. Here’s how it came about. 1 The St George’s Cross is the flag of England. 2 The Saltire is the flag of Scotland. 3 Put […]
Hijacked by science
SCIENTISTS HAVE A WAY of taking everyday words and redefining them for their own purposes. And then they expect the rest of us to fall meekly into line. But we were using these words long before the scientists hijacked them. Sodium Sodium is a soft, buttery grey material that explodes when you put it in […]
What’s a colour?
A CHILD RECENTLY asked me what my favourite colour was. I replied “black”. She rolled her eyes, and gave me that look children reserve for particularly stupid adults. “Black isn’t a colour,” she declared. So what is it, then? If I go to Homebase and ask for a tin of paint, and the operator asks […]
Never do this
HONESTLY. YOU’D THINK characters in movies had never seen a movie before. Here are my suggestions for ways to avoid coming to a premature sticky end. Never go down into a cellar. Especially if the power is off. If it’s your last job as a cop before you retire, don’t tell anyone. Or you’d be […]
The recurring device
IS THIS THE MOST IMPORTANT device in the universe? It appears it is. Built by John Zabrucky in the 1970s, its official name is Modern Props #195-290-1. But it’s better known as The Most Important Device in the Universe. Like the prop newspaper, it has appeared in dozens of science fiction films and TV shows, […]
The recurring newspaper
FILM PROPS are frequently reused, as it’s a lot easier to pick an existing prop than to go to the trouble of making a new one. This is especially the case with newspapers, often glimpsed only briefly in a shot. This prop newspaper, created by the Earl Hays Press, has been featured in over ten […]
Keeping it simple
I’M ALL IN FAVOUR of keeping websites simple, where appropriate. The Arngren site is a case in point. But there’s simple, and there’s… simple. Ironically, this site is owned by Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. You’d have thought he’d have gone to the expense of hiring a web designer. Source: […]
Back to school
THIS IS THE GENUINE, real website of Yale School of Art. Seriously. This is part of Yale University, and it confers Master of Fine Arts degrees in subjects including, among others, graphic design. Great to know you’re going to be taught by people who really understand design. Source: Yale School of Art
Too much information
GOT A LOT of products to sell? Lucky you. You could separate them out into categories, which would make it easy for your site visitors to find exactly what they’re looking for. Or you could just stick everything on your home page. Your choice. Source: arngren.net
Concurrent sports
MOST SPORTS ARE PLAYED against opponents, except for things like pole vaulting and gymnastics. Football pitches eleven people against eleven other people. Table tennis pitches one person against one other person. Then there are sports that are played at the same time as an opponent. Sports like darts and golf. When you play darts or […]
Cow
Wrapper for Milka chocolate. Is it my imagination, or is that cow flirting with me?
Fooling God
MY GRANDFATHER was buried in Jewish cemetery. Walking to the grave I noticed a wire, suspended on poles, along the side of the path. I turned to the rabbi and asked him what it was for. He explained that when they built the cemetery they made the paths only four feet wide. It says in […]
Barging in
I HAVE LITTLE RESPECT for power. And when I can see a way to help someone out, I tend to barge in regardless. Here are two examples. The first was at a Christmas party for the Daily Telegraph, where I got talking to a freelancer who had some ideas she wanted to pitch to the […]
Just say yes
A FEW YEARS AGO I was giving a talk to a group of students about the business of being a freelance illustrator. After the talk one student came up to ask my advice: he’d been offered a job editing films, he said, but he didn’t know how to use the software. Should he take the […]
Latest news
MUCH OF MY WORKING LIFE these days is spent designing web pages for people. They very often tell me they want a News page, so the latest news can be featured on the front page. It’s an admirable idea, and it’s certainly true that regular updates to the front page of your website will encourage […]
I know what I hate
WHEN I WAS AT SCHOOL I used to visit the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain, taking second place to its populist upstart sibling). I loved the paintings, particularly the modern art. But there was one painting, hanging over the staircase, which I hated. I found it ugly, bewildering, offensive. I disliked it so much that […]
The missing pilcrow
WHY DOES EVERY paragraph (after the first) in a printed book, magazine or newspaper, start with an indented space? It’s all because of pilcrows. Roman scribes used to divide their sentences with a C symbol (meaning a chapter break), adding two vertical lines to denote a new paragraph. In time these became joined together, the […]
Lying numbers
WHENEVER I SAY a number it comes out as two more than the number I’m thinking of; so when I want to say ‘three’ it comes out as ‘four’. What would I say if I were asked to say ‘five’? See the answer “Whenever I say a number it comes out as two more than […]
A bottle of wine
A BOTTLE OF WINE cost £10. The wine cost £9 more than the bottle. How much did the bottle cost? See the answer The bottle costs 50p, and the wine cost £9.50. The bottle costs 50p, and the wine cost £9.50.
New door
REARRANGE the letters in the words New Door to make one word. See the answer ‘One word’. ‘One word’.
Three rooms
YOU’RE CONDEMNED to death. (Sorry.) You can choose between three rooms which might enable you to escape: one contains a firing squad, one is full of land mines, the third is fully of huge lions that haven’t eaten in a year. Which room do you choose? See the answer The third. If the lions haven’t […]
Safety helmets
IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR soldiers were initially issued with cloth caps. After a while they were all given tin helmets. After the helmets were issued, the field hospitals reported a significant increase in the number of casualties presenting with head injuries. Why? See the answer Because before the helmets were issued, soldiers shot in […]
Walking the dog
A MAN TAKES HIS DOG for a walk in the park. He walks around a circular pond, which takes him exactly an hour. (It’s a very big pond.) He has a stick which he throws for the dog, which the dog retrieves and brings back to him without breaking its run (it’s a very well-trained […]
Hardware issues
A MAN GOES INTO a hardware store to buy some items for his house. ‘How much is one?’ he asks, and is told ‘£3.’ ‘How much for twelve?’ ‘£6,’ says the assistant. ‘And how much for a hundred and twenty?’ ‘£9,’ comes the reply. There are no bulk discounts involved. What is he buying? See […]
The camel race
TWO PRINCES are desperate to marry the Sultan’s daughter. The Sultan invites them to attend him in a tent in the desert. He explains that the contest will be decided by a race: whichever prince’s camel reaches the palace last shall marry his daughter. After just a moment’s thought, the princes rush out and race to […]
Which switch?
INSIDE A ROOM is a light bulb. Outside are three switches in the off position. There is no way to see into the room without opening the door. How do you work out which switch turns on the light? You can fiddle with the switches as much as you like, but you’re only allowed to […]
Three children
JOHN’S MOTHER has three children. The oldest is called April, the middle child is called May. What’s the youngest called? See the answer Most people say June, but of course the answer is John. John’s mother, right? Most people say June, but of course the answer is John. John’s mother, right?
The speed of light
IT’S FAST. REALLY FAST. But you know that already: it’s 186,000 miles a second. But don’t take my word for it; you can work it out for yourself. All you need is a microwave oven and a plate of grated cheese. Spread the cheese evenly on the plate, and take the turntable out of the […]
Over the moon
WHY DO WE ALWAYS see the same face of the moon? It’s unusual in that its rotational speed is identical to its orbital speed, which it always presents the same side towards us. It both turns around its axis and around the Earth once every 27.32166 days. Here are the phases of the moon, with […]
Bicycle riding made easy
HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU SEEN out-of-condition dads puffing around the park, pushing their small kids along on their bicycles in an exhausting attempt to teach them to ride? There is an easier way. The problem is that riding a bike requires two separate skills: being able to balance, and being able to turn the pedals […]
How to start a fire
YOU’RE ON A CAMPING TRIP (that’s you, not me, I hate camping) and you want to cook up some baked beans (why is it always beans?). So you reach for your matches, or your lighter, and you realise you’ve left them both at home. There’s a simple solution. Gather some dry twigs, place them in […]
What is science?
OR, TO PUT IT another way: what isn’t science? Why do we call physics and chemistry sciences, but not astrology or crystal healing? That’s the question that interested the philosopher Karl Popper. His conclusion was that it’s all a question of proof. It’s not a question of proving that a theory is true, which Popper […]
The eyes have it
ONE AREA WHERE CREATIONISTS think they can beat evolution hands down is when it comes to eyes. Look, they say, at this miracle of design. It’s impossible for an organ as complex as an eye to suddenly spring into being out of nowhere. And, of course, they’re right. Because that’s not how it happened. Richard […]
Advertising work
THERE’S NOTHING ADVERTISING AGENCIES like more than spending their clients’ money. (Actually, that’s not quite true. The one thing they like more is spending a weekend with a naked woman, especially if the client is paying for it and the photo shoot is in the Bahamas.) They’ll happily blow thousands on irrelevant details, and clients […]
I solemnly swear
PICTURE THE SCENE: you’re driving along in your car and you accidentally bump into the car in front. The door opens and out steps a German, or a Frenchman, or an Italian. He waves his fist and lets out a tirade of furious oaths – all in German, or French, or Italian. Unless you’re fluent […]
Wait and see
IN THE 1770s, Benjamin Franklin went to Paris to witness the flight of an early hot-air balloon. ‘What good is it?’ someone asked him. To which Franklin replied: ‘What good is a newborn baby?’ Any new technology in its early stages may appear pointless. New inventions have to be given time to grow in order […]
Fingerless actors
WHAT LINKS all these actors and musicians? It’s rather surprising. They all have a finger missing. Gary Burghoff (Radar in MASH) James Doohan (Scotty in Star Trek) Jerry Garcia Darryl Hannah Rahm Emmanuel Boris Yeltsin Christian Bale Alex Comfort Buster Keaton Harold Lloyd Jesse James Telly Savalas Lee Van Cleef Matthew Perry Django Reinhardt
Sugar free? Not
SUGAR-FREE TIC TACS contain the nutritional information that they contain 0 grams of sugar per serving. As you might expect. Except that’s not the full story. In fact, Tic Tacs are almost entirely made of sugar. 94.5%, to be precise. In America, the FDA rules that any product that contains less than half a gram […]
Miscellany
THE SALARY OF the Garter King of Arms is £49.07, unchanged since 1830. King George V gave the first royal Christmas speech in 1932. It was written by Rudyard Kipling. British royals are buried in lead-lined coffins. Queen Elizabeth’s coffin weighed a quarter of a ton. Lego makes more tyres than any other company in […]
Small is beautiful
TECHNOLOGISTS ARE CONSTANTLY seeking to make silicon chips smaller and smaller. But it’s not just so your iPhone will fit more snugly in your pocket; it’s all about speed. Electrons travel at the speed of light, which is to say, as fast as it’s possible for anything in our universe to travel. The smaller the […]
Pause for breath
THERE ARE FOUR main ways of inserting a pause in written text: a full stop, a comma, a colon, and a semicolon. They all behave in different ways. The most common pause is the full stop, which separates sentences. Shorts sentences are good. They convey urgency. Drama. Action. A comma is where you would naturally […]
Chilly up north
WHY ARE COUNTRIES in the northern hemisphere colder than those nearer the equator? It can’t be because they’re further from the sun, as they aren’t that much further away. It’s all due to the amount of atmosphere between the sun’s rays and us. Near the equator, the sun is at right angles to the Earth’s […]
What makes a scientist?
SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE BEEN AROUND, in one form or another, since mankind first ventured out of their caves. But the word scientist is a relatively recent invention, dating back to the 19th century. To 1834, to be precise. The word was coined to describe Mary Somerville, who worked in many fields – including mathematics, physics […]
Word origins
WHAT DO YOU CALL the small knife medieval monks used to sharpen their quill pens? A penknife. The French term for a hospital that can move from place to place is hôpital ambulant, from which we get the word ambulance. A large piece of wood which is too wet to burn is stored at the […]
Mushroom lore
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE between button mushrooms, the larger chestnut mushrooms and the much bigger portobello mushrooms? Nothing. They’re all the same mushroom, at different stages of their growth.
Port and starboard
BEFORE SHIPS WERE EQUIPPED with properly functioning rudders, they were steered with a giant oar suspended over the stern. It was too big to be brought on deck, so when ships were in harbour it was stored by lashing it to the right side of the vessel. When mooring, the ship would position itself so […]
Flying buttresses
WHEN MY SON JOE was young we passed a particularly ornate church, and I pointed out the flying buttresses on the outside. Naturally, being of a curious nature, he asked what they were for. So I showed him. We both stood up and I got him to raise his arms and grasp my hands above […]
The rubber band trick
AN IMPRESSIVE trick that makes a rubber band appear to jump off your hand all of its own accord. Loop the band over your index and middle fingers, then fold all your fingers down so that the band goes across your topmost knuckles. When you open your hand, the rubber band will jump away as […]
How to tie up a boat
AT SOME POINT you’ll find yourself in charge of a boat. It may be a rowing boat on a river, or something larger like a cruiser on the Norfolk Broads. There you are, sailing merrily along, and you see an enticing stretch of bank where you want to pull up. But how do you stop […]
The ring climbing trick
TAKE A WEDDING RING and a rubber band. Cut the rubber band and place the ring on it. Put the ring on the rubber band and hold it between your fingers so that one end is held in your upper hand, with the lower hand holding it about half way along. The trailing end should […]
Easy chopsticks
YOU MAY BE PROFICIENT at picking up pieces of sweet and sour pork (Hong Kong style, naturally) at your local Chinese restaurant, but the chances are your children will find chopsticks hard to handle. Here’s an easy way to make chopsticks child-friendly. First, roll up a piece of paper about 2cm wide into a tight […]