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Happy New Year

6 Jan 2009

A very happy 2009 to all readers!

It's been a little while since the last post, due to some fairly heavy-duty family events over the last week or so. But now everybody is safely home and normal service can be resumed here on bdkr.com.

Reverting then to the famous pea-dropping in Milan Cathedral, the story as usually reported (that KB dropped a pea on every twentieth step of the stair to the cathedral roof, and then, by way of checking, picked them all up on the way down) is obvious nonsense. It would be a truly back-breaking chore, never mind the Health and Safety risks involved (what if somebody stepped on a pea and slipped?). The version where KB drops small coins on the way up and collects them on the way down seems even less likely. Obviously we all like to think of the 1840's as much more honest times, but I still doubt coins would be allowed to rest in peace for very long on a public stair...

No, I think German Wikipedia's take on the story is much more likely: that KB had a supply of peas in his waistcoat pocket, which he transferred one by one to his trouser pocket for each twenty steps climbed. (However, here the coins seem even more likely - when did you last find yourself with a supply of peas in your pocket?)

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