The Top Ender Magazine October November 2020 Edition

continued from page 20 | Bored this Holiday?
Next? Ribs – they’re very obvious, and they help you
breathe. What’s that pair of sloping bones at the top of your
chest that don’t quite meet in the middle? They’re the clavicles
or collar bones. Break one of these and your arm won’t work.
And the notch in between them? The jugular notch of the
manubrium bone, that sits at the top of your sternum (that
holds all your ribs together).
At the top of your back, and triangular, is the shoulder
blade or scapula. The Romans used the term, but they took it
from the Ancient Greek skaptein ‘to dig’, in other words a shovel.
You probably can’t feel the bones in your neck – too many
muscles and tendons to keep everything in place and upright,
although you might feel the nobble at the base of the back of
your neck – one of your vertebrae.
Up a bit further, just in front of your ear, you’ll feel
the angle of the mandible, then past your earlobe that fits into
a small dent, you’ll find rounded lump or mastoid bone. It’s full
of air cells to protect your ear, and the bones beneath (they
think …). Finally, there’s your skull made up of several bones,
to protect your brains. For a final quick check, you’ll feel your
cheek bone – the zygomatic bone, the nose bone to which
the squashy bits of your nose is attached, and the ridge your
eyebrows sit on – the supraorbital margin (in other words, the
upper edge of your eye socket).
And that’s it – anyone want to become a doctor, orthopaedic
surgeon or an osteopath?
» Phalanx – Latin for battalion of soldiers
» Calcaneus from calx – Latin for heel
» Fibula – Latin for clasp/pin
» Tibia – Latin for pipe/flute (of bone)
» Patella – Latin for dish/plate
» Pelvis – Latin for basin
» Clavicle – Latin for tendril, because of its curve
» Scapula – actual Roman word for shoulder blade, meaning
little shovel.
» Ulna – Greek for elbow
» Olecranon – Greek for head of elbow
» Mandible – from Latin to chew
» Zygomatic – from Greek meaning yoke (for oxen).
8. Around the house
Bath the dog, groom the cat, tip out the hamsters, guinea
pigs or mice, or clean the fish tank.
9. Get out the sprinkler
Pool closed? Hot and bothered? Get out the sprinkler, turn
it on low, and lie in your swimmers/togs/bathers in the cool.
Just don’t forget to put sunscreen on.
10. Bread echidnas
(or hedgehogs)
Many years ago, as a student in pursuit of a hot loaf of bread
in the wee small hours, I watched a Scottish baker make a batch
of hedgehog bread rolls for a children’s party. They looked
wonderful. I’m going to assume that you have the bread dough
ready, and that it’s ready to be formed into rolls and proved.
Being Australian, we’ll make echidnas!
Break your dough into balls about the size of a golf ball or a
bit bigger. Shape them into a pear shape. With the sharper end
towards you make two deep dents with your index and middle
fingers to form the nose and eye sockets. Press a currant in
each. Turn it around and with a pair of scissors (blade facing
the nose and the handles near the rounded end), snip some
prickles. Brush on a bit of milk, sprinkle on a few oats. Leave
20 minutes or until doubled in size, then bake in a hot oven.
Enjoy with butter and jam.
7. Art and perspective
Lie on the floor of your house, observe the tiles apparently
sloping upwards to the ‘horizon’ formed by a door or cupboard.
This is the basis of one-point perspective. Draw the tiles and
the doors, and research Dutch interiors by artists like Vermeer.
Two-point perspective is great for buildings and needs two
vanishing points. For this you need to sit in your garden in the
shade, diagonally out from the corner of your house so the two
vanishing points are beyond the back right and back left corners
of your house. Their ‘construction lines’ will meet in the middle
at the corner where you are sitting.
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