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)