I wouldn’t call Left Hand of Darkness a beautiful fantasy, but closer to hard science fiction; but then, most “fantasy” makes me cringe. It’s definitely worth reading, though.

At least when we wind our yarn around our cylinders, they have some width.

My favourite movie, ever, but I never got around to reading the book.

E.F. Benson’s Make Way For Lucia novels — between the wars, upper middle class English people, untroubled by money worries, children, passions, or moral scruples indulge in machinations the KGB would reject as underhanded.

How little they know about the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat of knitting...

True. That yarn with zero width is getting me nowhere.

And yet if you tried to give that kind of answer — written in the correct mathematical language, of course — for this type of test, I’m afraid you’d be among the 96%.

Why isn’t the alleged string simply called a one-dimensional line, then? We are addressing teenage “top math students” with this problem, not six-year-olds.

And this is why I only got so far in algebra, and took up knitting.

I can understand how the solution, for the purpose of the problem, would be exactly 20 cm. But in our world, it would actually be a bit more, because of the width of the twine.

If you’re in the mood for a story about a deep-thinking swallow, and a good cry, here’s Stephen Fry reading Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince”.

Somewhat off topic, but I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Vancouverites for participating in the 2014 study for the city on food waste. Yes, you weighed every banana peel, and every used coffee filter from every person in your household, and filled out a diary.

Not sure about the authorship (publisher dumbing it down for a popular audience), but there was way, WAY too much foreshadowing imposed on the narrative to count as "shocking". Matthew 16: 21-28 alone. Spoiler alert!

When you think of it, it's not that far from what goes in "naturally".

I can only approve of keeping things in proportion. But maybe, with these, they were praying for a male baby?

Yes! As a sadly near-sighted person, even I can see enough to root around in stores and homes for glasses.

The issue here is not receding chin, but encroaching neck.

Hope it wasn't sushi day. ;)