A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Bonjour mon amis! Welcome to Volume 141 of Dovi’s Digest.
Like many families in the 90s, mine would get the newspaper every day. I’d get home from school and immediately pick it up and start reading. If the sight of an eight year old reading an old school broadsheet strikes you as odd, it’s because it is. Thing is, I’d read the paper only if there were good comic strips. There were other things I was interested in of course (like the sports page and Stoep Talk which will ring a rather nostalgic bell for those who received The Star in Johannesburg), but the comics were my main go to. I even remember where the comics were. Hagar the Horrible bottom of page three, Madam and Eve on page 12, and the rest in the entertainment section.
I used to think they were the height of art and humour, with Garfield being the acme of them all. That was until a friend introduced to me to The Far Side. For those who’re not familiar with it, it is a one panel strip that is endearingly absurd, with no recurring characters. I was instantly hooked, and continue to be to this day. The complete collection takes pride of place on my coffee table, among the other more pretentious stuff.
There is something eminently shareable about the surreal world of The Far Side. It only takes a few seconds to read, but there’s beauty in that. It draws an obvious parallel to what these days makes the internet go round, memes. A chunk of my close friendships these days aren’t built on personal connections, but rather, funny pictures and videos we found on the internet. This week’s headline article is predicated on this premise, that an important part of internet culture owes much thanks to Gary Larson and his odd mind. Enjoy!
The Dovi’s Digest Facebook and Twitter pages are chock full of facts, articles, quotes, and even the occasional meme! Check them out here:
This week’s added extra is a video on how high you’d be able to jump on different planets, from the sun to Pluto.
Do you enjoy the Digest? Would you like it to get better? Then please consider sharing it, as the more articles I’m sent, the better it is. It only takes a few seconds, and all you need to do is click here 👇. Thank you!
There were correct answers to last week’s brainteaser. Well done to Chaim Ehrlich, Josh Hazan, Ryan Subotzky, Ariel Subotzky, and Myer Brom. In addition, well done to Chaim Ehrlich and Myer Brom for getting the answer to the brainteaser in DD139. The answers and this week’s puzzle are below.
You may not enjoy laughing and oddly drawn animals, but not to worry, there’s a lot more content. Learn why America has never joined the rest of the world on the metric system, see how animals perceive our world, learn some weird words, why modern palaeontology (and a lot of the dinosaurs you’d recognise) were borne out of a bitter feud. what caused the Brontë sisters’ deaths, and the beautiful and heartrending story of love and resilience after a tragic accident left a high school footballer paralysed, which I’m not ashamed to admit left me with tears running down my cheeks.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming.
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
With ‘The Far Side,’ Gary Larson Pioneered The Art Of The Meme
There couldn’t be a ‘Is This a Pigeon?’ without a ‘Beware of Doug’.
The Battle Of The Standards: Why The US And UK Can’t Stop Fighting The Metric System
Metric units have conquered the globe, but in the US and the UK, their presence has become part of a culture war between ‘traditional’ and ‘progressive’ values.
The Human Sensory Experience Is Limited. Journey Into The World That Animals Know.
In an immense world, ed Young explores the realm of animal perception.
Flapdoodler, Roorback, Yulehole: Why Forgotten Words Need Rescuing From Obscurity
As a child, the gift of a dictionary sparked my love of rare words – which snowballed like a hogamadog.
The Bitter Dinosaur Feud At The Heart Of Palaeontology
As two warring bone hunters sought to destroy each other, they laid the foundations for our knowledge of dinosaurs.
Apparently The Brontës All Died So Early Because They Spent Their Lives Drinking Graveyard Water
Possibly water from the local privies, too.
Still Life
Thirty-five years ago Dallas—and the country—was gripped by the tragic story of John McClamrock, a high school football player paralyzed during a violent tackle. But after the newspapers moved on, another story was quietly unfolding, one of courage, perseverance, and a mother’s fierce love.
Quote of the Week:
“Age doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.” – Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel
Facts of the Week:
Perissology is the unnecessary use of rather more words than are necessary to get the meaning of the words across to the majority of people in a meaningful manner or way.
A philodox is someone who loves their own opinion.
To perendinate is to put something off till the day after the day after tomorrow.
Parorexia is the desire to eat strange food.
Britain’s leading apple researcher is severely allergic to apples.
The US once had over 14,000 varieties of apples Today there are only 90.
The original Bramley apple tree has a fan club in Japan.
iTunes customers have to agree not to use Apple products to create nuclear weapons.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Last Week’s Brainteaser and Answer:
This one is a groaner, but still enjoyable to solve. See if you can determine what is represented by the following:
HANY
HAEY
HAEY
HADY
HALY
HAEY
Answer: Needle in a haystack
Two Weeks Ago Brainteaser and Answer:
For each of the five tasks below, you must divide a square into four parts that have the same shape, but whose sizes are determined by the following statements:
i) All four shapes are the same size.
ii) Only three are the same size.
iii) Two are the same size, and the other two are also the same size (but a different size from the first two).
iv) Two are the same size, and the other two are different sizes.
v) No two parts are the same size.
Here’s a solution for the first one. The square is divided into four triangles that are the same shape, and the same size.
For clarification: within each solution, the four parts must have the same shape. It is only their sizes that may change. However, each solution may involve a different shape. One solution fits perfectly along the lines of a 12 x 12 square, one on a 10x10 square, and one involves triangles.
Answer:
There are others, but these are the ones I came up with.
ii) and iii)
The left fits on a 12 x 12 grid, since you need to divide one side by 4 and the other by 3. The right on a 10 x 10 grid, since you need to divide one side by 5 and the other by 2. (Apologies for the low tech sketches.)
iv) and v)