Regrets

My first regret was that we spent a great deal of time looking for a pencil. My second was that Pliny the Elder turned out to be a dab hand at drawing a Norfolk Island Pine.

You probably googled up a photograph of one after you read my blog, I said accusingly.

No, he said. I know how to draw every type of tree.

Well! I said. How extremely boastful. Why are you always trying to get the better of me?

I am not trying, he said.

I was quite annoyed and determined to beat him at something. Then I remembered my party trick. I bet you can't prove Pythagoras's Theorem off the top of your head using that pencil, I snapped.

Pliny looked taken aback. Why? he said. Can you?

I can, I said, ( hoping it was true). But let's see what you can do.

Pliny drew a right angled triangle with his pencil. Then he extended a square out from the hypotenuse. He thought for a while, then he labelled the shorter sides of the triangle a and b and the hypotenuse c. Next he labelled the other 3 sides of the square c as well. He was doing it very slowly. I knew he was playing for time. He's stuck, I thought. Hoorah!

Come on, I said, can't you remember what comes next? (I was playing a dangerous game because I couldn't remember what came next either.)

O Fortuna! said Pliny suddenly, with a jerk of the hand. I've broken the pencil.