Writings of Note

When a city is as littered with intriguing curiosities as this one, you need a framework to make sense of it all. What better framework than the Underground system? We'll take a stroll along a stretch of Tube line, learning about the secrets and oddities we pass along the way.

Walks

Strolls through time

Quizzes

For the curious

Blog

Musings & trifles

Magic

Team-building through tricks

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Writings of Note

Strolls through time

For the curious

Musings & trifles

Team-building through tricks

Blog

The order of the cards you've just shuffled ...

By: Mark Mason

... has almost certainly never been seen before

You know that old claim that every time you shuffle a deck of cards, you're probably creating an order that has never been seen before? I decided to hang some numbers on it ...

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The Beauty of an Ace of Spades

By: Mark Mason

From Daniel Radcliffe to Motorhead

My current favourite ace of spades, I think, is the Monarch. The pack as a whole is pretty gorgeous: you hesitate to use the phrase ‘simple, beautiful, classic' (because that's how Spinal Tap's manager described the cover of ‘Smell the Glove'), but they're certainly the words that spring to mind. Oh, and ‘elegant' as well, to add another cliché.

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A map on the cards

By: Mark Mason

New York in 52 pieces

Maps, New York and cards - three of my favourite things. So a map of New York made from cards? Couldn't resist it.

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Fighting on the beaches

By: Mark Mason

Some D-Day curiosities

Did you know that the half-finished manuscript of one of the 20th century's most famous novels was carried around the battlefield during D-Day?

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World Cup squads and the Birthday Paradox

By: Mark Mason

How football can illustrate maths

England's squad for the 2018 World Cup is being announced today. 23 players will make the trip to Russia - and coincidentally 23 is also the number at which the chance of two people sharing a birthday reaches 50 per cent. In fact it's a shade over: 50.73 per cent. Yes, you read that right - with just 23 people gathered together, it's more likely than not that two of them will have the same birthday.

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Lennon and McCartney - the 60th anniversary

By: Mark Mason

A brace of Beatles

It's 60 years since John Lennon and Paul McCartney met each other. On July 6th 1957, at St Peter's church fete in Liverpool, the 15 year-old McCartney watched the 16 year-old Lennon play with his band The Quarrymen. He soon joined the group himself, and nothing was ever the same again. Here are eight facts about the pair's relationship:

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Horsing Around

By: Mark Mason

An Edwardian letter to Father Christmas

Tis the season to be merrily writing to Santa, the one time of year children are guaranteed to employ their best handwriting. Even though Mail Obsession features general British trivia (postcodes are just the device for splitting the country up), I still included a few gems of postal history - like this Edwardian boy's letter to the man in red ...

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Whistling at the Burlington Arcade

By: Mark Mason

Paul McCartney gets a companion

A schoolboy has become only the second person in the world who's allowed to whistle in the Burlington Arcade. Chatting the other day to one of the beadles (the Piccadilly shopping arcade's beautifully-uniformed security force), I learned that Paul McCartney - until now the only person allowed to break the ban - has been joined by a young chap from East London.

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Content

London Bus

A London double decker bus can lean further from the vertical without falling over than a human can. What a great way of learning about centres of gravity. The reason a Routemaster can lean so far is that there's a great long strip of pig-iron welded to its base, keeping you top-deckers safe as you go round corners. If you want reassuring photographic evidence, click here