Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 AK>  and wind it on my whisker.
 AH>  |"winding" would make a better parallelism here.

 AH>  Like a man twirling his handlebar moustache? Cute....

 AK>  It is a Russian idiom. Long ago, when a person heard
 AK>  an interesting piece of information he would wind his
 AK>  whisker around his finger contemplating it. 


           Hmm... yes, I suppose one could do that with a beard as well.  In my
 experience a moustache isn't usually long enough to wind around anything
unless it's the century-old style I alluded to.  If so I'd make "whisker"
plural, BTW.

           What I had in mind was more like using one's fingertips to shape the
 ends of the moustache.  Both men & women, however, sometimes curl a few
strands of head hair around an index finger while they're thinking....  :-)



 AK>  Why does it help to memorize or think?
 AK>  I suspect it is in the same way as nape scratching
 AK>  helps. ;-)


           Or stroking one's chin or smoking a pipe?  In a lot of cases it does
 seem to... or at least it indicates a person is considering the matter, but
may need more time to think before deciding how to respond.

           Maybe the repetitive &/or ritualistic nature of such physical action
 calms the mind & is conducive to the state of relaxed attention in which
people learn best.  I understand walking tends to have similar effects....  :-)



 AK>  Do you know that some people created Fidonet clients
 AK>  for mobile phones and tablet computers.


           No, I didn't.  Glad to hear it....  :-)



 AK>  IMHO the Fidonet style text messaging makes chats more
 AK>  intelligent.


           The Fidonet style is definitely more user-friendly AFAIC than any of
 its rivals.  Although I have a cell phone I reserve it for family matters
which require my immediate attention, and as you already know I do email only
on rare occasions when I want to communicate privately with users from
Russia....  :-))



 AK>  I wonder when will they invent an e-book where I will
 AK>  be able to make remarks using a digital stylus pen? 


           I called this enquiry to the attention of the computer techie across
 the room, and I see he's answered already.... ;-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)