Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Competition No 3919

Set by El Basilio, 20 February

You were asked to send in an extract from a new book on a mundane subject as "compelling" as the "history of the shipping container" saluted by Thomas Jones in the London Review of Books.

Report by Ms de Meaner

So what's wrong with reading the instructions? Eh? When we ask for "an extract", we don't mean "a review". And when we ask for a compelling extract, that isn't the green light for you to write the most turgid prose you can. Still, on the upside, there were more new names in the postbag, and I was pleased to see returning some of the new people I welcomed the other week. Welcome this week to: Martin Yarnit, John Rogers, John Riddell, Carol Finning and Melvyn Ellis. The winners get £20 each, with Mr Bibby also getting the Tesco vouchers.

The designers of the paper clip were convinced they had created something practical and symbolic, elegant and emblematic. The shape is of three Us, two facing each other, holding a third in their embrace. This simple but highly practical object is making a potent statement of communication: "I am linking you with you with another you drawn into the dialogue", showing that it is assembling written thoughts and expressions and joining them in a sheaf of shared creativity.

In the late 20th century, plastic coating was discovered, and the paper clip made a new and even more powerful statement. Tory party press releases would be linked with a crisp, deep blue clip. New Labour opted for a subtle pink, whose message was: "The communication is important - and so are my credentials." Green said: "These papers are eco-friendly."

Then came the totally plastic paper clip. It was shaped like an inverted V, aggressive, accusing; demanding that its attachments be read and obeyed . . .

Stephen Bibby

Contrary to public opinion, the wing or thumb nut is not of recent antiquity. Like its bastard cousin the flange, the wing nut is an item that symbolises the purest relationship between doer and done. Its design is based on the necessity for there to be a physical interaction between maker

and made, and for this to be physiologically

and psychologically easy. The manipulator takes his turn, as Gosling remarks, with a kindly force, and without the intervention of any other tool. We know from the accounts of Montezuma that the Aztecs disdained any mechanical object which interrupted the stream of energy passing through the fingers and thumbs, and, in some of the drawings made by the priests of Quetzalcoatl, we can see a prototype

of the wing nut in use in the construction of

their temples. The "nut-with-the-power-of-fire" (the most likely translation) had a sacred tradition; those who built the holier edifices were often buried with wing nuts between their teeth. Their design was influenced by the condor's talons.

Bill Greenwell

The Ledbury Shove Ha'penny League was shaken to its foundations in 1841 by two incidents. First, a casual dismissal of the sport ("ridiculous") by Charles Dickens in a late number of The Old Curiosity Shop preoccupied the league committee in drafting a letter of protest. This left no time to consider the question of Joseph Grawn, a local who refused to use French chalk on the board, preferring paraffin. A number of players complained to the committee, demanding a ruling, while still others interpreted its inaction as a green light to experiment with other materials including brick dust. When the committee finally asserted the supremacy of chalk, Grawn and his faction broke away, forming their own league "based upon the principles of scientific exploration rather than sporting dogma". The next nine chapters chronicle the decades of internecine strife that ensued, and students might wish to reflect on whether the excision of the offending

passage from all future editions of Dickens's

novel was achieved at too high a price.

Adrian Fry

No 3922 Set by Terry Goodhill

Create an ad for a university to give it greater market appeal to potential "customers": "3 (units?) for 2, possible free upgrades" or other "special offers".

Max 150 words by 23 March. E-mail: comp@newstatesman.co.uk

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