A puzzle from the 18th century — punctuate this sentence so that it makes sense:
King Charles the First walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off.
Author: Greg Ross
I’ve Told You Twice
Play with work blend, keep warmish feet,
Away drive trouble, slowly eat;
Air pure breathe, and early rise;
Beware excess, take exercise.
Exercise take, excess beware;
Rise early and breathe pure air;
Eat slowly; trouble drive away;
Feet warmish keep, blend work with play.
— “W.E.R.,” in Truth, Jan. 13, 1881
Minimalism
There are several simple little drawing tricks which the nurse may use to arouse the interest of her patient as she uses puzzles and catches. The oldest of these is by Hogarth and represents a soldier and his dog going through a doorway. As is seen by the diagram, it consists of three straight lines and one curved one.
— William Rush Dunton, Occupation Therapy, 1915
In the 1950s, humorist Roger Price invented “Droodles,” simple enigmatic drawings explained by their captions. Frank Zappa used one on the cover of a 1982 album:
It’s called Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.
Turnabout
In March 1939, students at McGill University dictated this sentence to a dozen faculty members:
Outside a cemetery sat a harassed cobbler and an embarrassed oculist, picknicking on a desiccated apple, and gazing at the symmetry of a lady’s ankle with unparalleled ecstasy.
The participants included three English professors, the head of the journalism department, and a proofreading instructor.
Only Esther Korstad, instructor of typewriting and shorthand, spelled everything correctly. The average participant misspelled 4.25 words.
String Theory
In the classic Indian rope trick, a rope rises into the sky, its end lost to view. A boy disappears up the rope, and when he fails to return the angry magician climbs up after him. Body parts fall to the ground, the magician descends and places the parts in a basket, and the boy reappears uninjured.
This is all thought to be a legend, but in 1979 mathematician J.L.G. Pinhey of The Perse Boys’ School worked out that levitating a rope is possible, at least in principle. If the top of the fakir’s rope is 1.5 × 108 meters above Earth’s surface, it will simply stand erect, its position sustained by the motion of the planet.
“Since the rope between its ends is in tension the configuration is stable, and the faqir and his boy-victim can climb it in safety. However, in order to drop the bits to earth, the pair must not climb even a quarter of the way to the top.”
(J.L.G. Pinhey, “63.12 The Indian Rope Trick,” Mathematical Gazette 63:424 [June 1979], 110-111.)
Review
Examination questions from the final Classical Honours School at Oxford University, 1899 — “to have passed through it was the hallmark of a superbly educated man, and its graduates went on to rule the nation and, in that heyday of British imperialism, half the world too”:
- Sketch the history of the Syracusan democracy between the fall of Thrasybulus in 466 B.C. and the accession of Dionysius I in 406 B.C.
- Is it a fact that thought begins not with the term but with the judgement?
- Describe the circumstances which led to the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
- What were the leading characteristics of fourth-century tyranny?
- To what extent does history confirm Machiavelli’s views on mercenary armies?
- In what respects has Aristotle’s advance in psychology enabled him to improve on the moral theories of Plato?
- What account can be given of our perception of distance?
- What is the ground of the obligation to veracity?
- Trace the history of the principle of betterment in the English system of local taxation.
- Describe the relations of Rome with Numidia at different periods of history.
“The general assumption was that a man who had mastered this range of thought and theory could master anything.”
From Jan Morris, The Oxford Book of Oxford, 1978.
Tip
“We went back to England together. When we arrived at the customs shed, Syrie said: ‘Always choose the oldest customs official. No chance of promotion.'” — Somerset Maugham, quoting his wife
Misc
- In the King James Bible, Ezra 7:21 lacks only the letter J, and 1 Chronicles 12:40 lacks only Q.
- In 2016 Pharmacy Times judged talimogene laherparepvec the hardest drug name to pronounce.
- 34 × 72 × 875 = 3472875 (B.J. van der Zwaag)
- The Estonian word kuulilennuteetunneliluuk (“bullet tunnel hatch”) is a palindrome.
- “No one ever forgets where he buried the hatchet.” — Kin Hubbard
Finger Math
From Wikimedia user Cmglee, two digital arithmetic techniques:
Above: To multiply a positive single-digit integer by 9, hold up your hands palm up, imagine the fingers numbered consecutively 1 to 10, and fold down the finger corresponding to the number to be multiplied (here, 8). The product is the two-digit number represented by the remaining two groups of fingers — here there are seven fingers to the left of the folded finger and 2 to the right, so 9 × 8 = 72.
Below: To multiply two integers between 6 and 10, imagine each hand’s fingers numbered from 6 (pinky) to 10 (thumb), as shown. Fold down the two fingers corresponding to the factors, as well as all fingers between these two (in this example we’ll calculate 6 × 7, so fold down finger 7 on the left hand, finger 6 on the right, and the finger that lies between them, the left pinky). Count the remaining upraised fingers on the left hand (3), multiply that by the remaining upraised fingers on the right hand (4), and add 10 times the number of folded fingers (30). 3 × 4 + 30 = 42.
“Nott Shott”
A duel was lately fought in Texas by Alexander Shott and John S. Nott. Nott was shot, and Shott was not. In this case it is better to be Shott than Nott.
There was a rumor that Nott was not shot, and Shott avers that he shot Nott, which proves either that the shot Shott shot at Nott was not shot, or that Nott was shot notwithstanding.
Circumstantial evidence is not always good. It may be made to appear on trial that the shot Shott shot shot Nott, or, as accidents with fire-arms are frequent, it may be possible that the shot Shott shot shot Shott himself, when the whole affair would resolve itself into its original elements, and Shott would be shot, and Nott would not. We think, however, that the shot Shott shot shot not Shott, but Nott; anyway, it is hard to tell who was shot.
— Guy Steeley, The Modern Elocutionist or Popular Speaker, 1900