This week’s Thinking Thursday post asked you to make sense of
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 race
12112
Well it’s all down to how you read it. How about:
Eleven was a racehorse,
Twelve was one too.
Eleven won one race,
Twelve won one too.
Hat-tip Marcus du Sautoy who provided this in his book Finding Moonshine.
Hot on the heels of our first Thinking Thursday post, here’s the second puzzle in this irregular series.
Make sense of the following:
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 race
12112
As before there’s no prize for correct answers other than the fun of taking part, but I would love it if you put your answer in the comments.
As before, I’ll post the answer on Sunday evening.
The claim that carrots can help your vision would seem to have some pretty solid scientific grounding. Retinal is essential for vision, and the beta-carotene in carrots offers a compound from which our body can produce the retinal our eyes require. However, eating carrots will only improve your eyesight if you are vitamin A deficient.
It turns out that the idea that carrots can improve your eyesight has its roots in a bit of British propaganda from World War II. After successfully using a new radar system to locate and shoot down German bombers, the British forces came up with the entirely false campaign stating that their pilots were eating carrots to improve their night vision in order to hide the existence of the radar system from the Germans. This campaign of disinformation was so successful that it took root and persists today.
From Can carrots help you see in the dark?
This week another photograph from the archives. And this is a very old one, dating as it does from April 2001 when the Anthony Powell Society held its first ever conference in the Farrar Theatre at Eton College. This piano was resting quietly in the theatre foyer.
So in our first Thinking Thursday post I asked the question:
And the answer, as you will all have worked out, is something quite common and which most of us will have in our homes: a 4-character digital clock.
For the benefit of this who still don’t get it, here’s the logic.
0123 hrs is in the middle of the night
1234 hrs is lunchtime
2345 hrs is bedtime
And because we have a 24 hour clock 3456 hrs cannot exist — unless of course your clock is broken (and broken clocks don’t count).
Watch out for the next Thinking Thursday puzzle.
We’ve not had a collection of the weird and wonderful from our local auction house recently. Their last sale was on the whole quite dull, although with a small number of oddities. But their upcoming sale provides a good selection of the eccentric.
As always it is not just the strange things which people sell (and presumably buy) but also the wonderful collections of things which auctioneers seem to think go together to make a lot — and the way they describe them. And as with so many things the sting is often in the tail.
Anyway here is a selection from the last sale, and the upcoming one.
(Oh, and if you wonder about the spelling, punctuation and grammar, this is exactly as copied from the online catalogue!)
A British soldier’s helmet, c.1976, and the 1939-45 and Italy Stars, also the Defence Medal and 39-45 Medal
A late Victorian silver piecrust waiter, London 1899
A humorous corkscrew comprising a pair of Victorian stockinged legs, ‘Compliments B&L Salloon’, a naked lady bottle opener, and an embossed brass vesta case commemorating the Louisiana Purchase, 1904
Nine old oil cans to include Shell
Eleven Limoges “Bouquet Medicis plates decorated with flowers, a large Russian figure of a Giraffe, a Spanish figurine of a gent, spelter figurine of a horse, a small quantity of brassware to include vases, kettles, candlesticks, trivets etc., a Doulton Bunnykins plate, a 1970’s Donald Duck toy with jointed limbs and a Seiko Quartz Westminster Wittingham drop dial wall clock
A table lamp styled as a horses head with shade
A 1930’s glass dressing table set on tray, two glass jelly moulds, fruit bowls, trays etc., ruby glass vase, a quantity of decorative jugs to include Brixham pottery, floral decorated etc., a Rhapsody Ellgreave vase, a T&G Booth pot, a brass Ferndale Coal miners lamp, a horn handled corkscrew, small quantity of flatware and a wooden card case etc.
A Carltonware Rouge Royale sauce boat on stand, a large Carltonware vase and cover and another smaller decorated with oriental scenes, two wooden biblical figurines, plus a further African carved figurine etc.
A Tobias and the Angel tapestry cat door stop and further Tobias and the Angel Christmas heart cloth decorations, along with cloth fishes, slippers etc., a pretty dog embroidered blanket, a collection of brooches to include butterflies, dragonflies, floral etc., a Jay Strongwater pewter poodle, a Ticher pewter poodle, a ceramic toadstool plus another in fabric, a green brass candlestick with green shade embellished with brooches and two further decorative lamp shades, a wicker basket and a sewing box etc.
An old guitar, a quantity of wicker dolls chairs and baskets, a large oriental wall fan, metal fire surround, a vintage wooden bird cage and a metal vintage dolls crib and a pine trunk
An antique brass fireman’s helmet
A 1918 Beck mark IX trench periscope
An old iron single furrow plough.
A large oil of fishermen harvesting shellfish with horse and cart …
Not sure that a net wouldn’t be an easier way to catch shellfish!
A finely carved ivory group of 7 monkeys
An old penguin teething ring …
You probably knew, but I didn’t, that penguins needed teething rings.
A charming late Victorian small liqueur decanter in the form of a duck, in glass with silver head … Birmingham 1895
Three antique wooden planes and one antique spokeshave plus a 9 piece collection of glass animals including birds and foxes.
A collection of approximately 23 decorative masks to include African wooden carved, wooden oriental, oriental brass, Chinese, etc …
Two stuffed pheasants, one male one female.
A figural eight piece jazz band set plus drums and piano.
A box of 19th century hand tools including drills, saws, planes, an originally boxed Rentokil woodworm treater plus a 19th century folding rule, a Poole pottery part tea service, quantity of flatware, a leather cased Ensign Ranger ii camera, a Mauchlin ware letter opener, small quantity of mother of pearl handled cutlery, a cased set of silver plated teaspoons
An old AA badge and a CBM similar, Victorian photograph album, two Parker pen desk inkstands, one boxed, two Indian cloth dolls, an old toasting fork, a brass engraved box, a leather cuff box containing six silver half crowns, a boxed set of Dorwin dart flights and a Sparklets Corkmaster.
A vintage elephant foot waste paper basket
A 19th century ten-step wrought iron spiral staircase, made by Haywood Brothers Union Street London
A very large and impressive carved stone Celtic cross on base
A 19th century Olympia typewriter with skeleton keys
“Skeleton keys”? I think they might mean “shift keys”
An old canvass covered cabin trunk containing two saws, an old petrol can and two rugs, bearing labels Singapore etc.
Five vintage fruit boxes including one by C.Stuchbury Northwood, others carrying South African grapes and New Zealand Apples
A stereo integrated turntable ampli tuner, a set Luca Russo sunglasses, a portable typewriter, three Guinness advertising figures one being Jimmy Hill and a cased set of old butterflies
An old metal art nouveau desk lamp, pewter hip flask, a quantity of brass ornaments and metal wares, a large pair of metal tailors scissors, decorative metal boxes and old office items plus three vintage fire extinguishers, and a box of old polishes
A selection of unopened jars of vegetables and fruit in oil
Wally nails it again …
This is the first of what I hope will be an irregular series: Thinking Thursday. My idea is to post puzzles, riddles and so on for amusement, but which will hopefully make you think a bit too. Answers will be provided on the following Sunday, so you’ll have a couple of days to mull over the questions.
OK, so lets have the first puzzle …
Glasses maketh man and woman …
