FC 162, a guest post by Vidya Rajarao was much acclaimed. If any of you have Namibia on your bucket list and need some helpful pointers you may write to Vidya at rajaraovidya@gmail.com.
Lakshmi Raman reminisced: “I learnt from Travels through Namibia that even desert landscapes can be utterly beautiful (I googled some while reading it). And that this Welwitschia plant is the botanical equivalent of the mythical phoenix - it recreates itself from its own destruction!!”
Uma Shashikant did a guest post on her Icelandic sojourn and if you missed reading it please use this link. 🔗https://mrprasanna.substack.com/p/filter-coffee-152. Uma applauded Vidya’s post and said: “Very inspiring. Takes a different kind of adventurous traveller to do such trips. The travelogue encourages others like me to think about it. Thank you, Vidya.”
💭 The Penny Dropped
This British phrase is used when someone has finally understood or realised something. It can conveniently be used when someone gets a joke after an insufferable pause. The person would initially give a quizzical look and when he gets the joke (sometimes with the help of a hint) he lets out a nervous guffaw. You can then be sure that the penny dropped.
This link: 🔗meaning and origin of ‘the penny dropped’ | word histories has a very detailed account of the origin of the phrase ‘the penny dropped’. It was quite a fascinating read. The most convincing origin of this phrase can be found in the penny in the slot gas system at Bolton, introduced by the gas company Bolton in 1890. Gas consumers who could not afford to have running gas opted to put a penny in the slot to get 25 cubic feet of gas. The moment the penny dropped, the gas would flow.
I was quite amazed to know that the penny-in-the-slot was widely used in various ways, as early as the 1890s. There were machines dispensing postcards, stamped envelopes, insurance cover for 24 hours against accidental death and also automatic photographic machines, all at the drop of a penny!
The phrase played out in a children’s quiz in The Derbyshire Times, in November 1932. A picture of a giraffe with zebra stripes was posted, and the kids were asked to point out what was wrong with it. After a long, close look, the penny dropped and the kids were able to give the right answer.
Automatic vending machines were in vogue in the early 1900s and there is an anecdote of a boy inserting tin pennies and stealing chocolates. Apparently, the machine had been kept outside and each time a customer inserted a penny the owner standing behind his cash counter could hear the penny drop. When he realised items were missing he kept a lookout and caught the boy with his tin pennies.
Today, the penny slot machines are very much in use — no longer operable with a penny but with other varying denomination coins. In casinos in the USA, for example, you use a quarter to play with the one-armed-bandit, the slot machine.
Back home, in India, we had weighing machines (I think they are still around) usually at railway and bus stations. I remember inserting one anna coin to get a card that gave you weight and also on the back of it you would find a what’s in store for you, like fortune cookies of those days. Imagine getting one such card which showed your weight, an unflattering number, and on the back, it said ‘You will meet someone who will take the weight off your chest’. You can only think of a dietician.
I am sure you guys have seen many stand-up comedians perform on stage or on screen.
I find it frustrating when the guy speaks very fast in English or Hindi and delivers a punch line which is lost on me. I turn to my wife with a ‘what-did-he-say’ expression on my face. When she explains, the penny drops. On the flip side, this happens to me when I tell jokes to some people.
Like an uncle of mine after I told him a joke, asked me with seriousness ‘Then what happened?’. A case of a penny failing to drop.
Puzzles and quizzes are an area where the penny drops after a while. For example, the Mensa puzzles involve lateral thinking. When one contemplates and comes up with an answer that’s when the penny drops.
It is not as if penny-dropping is always jestful. It can drop when there’s a realisation that one has been conned or duped into doing something. One realises the consequence of misplaced trust or having been gullible enough to be fooled into doing something. By the time the penny drops you may have lost many pounds. Nothing to do with ‘pennywise, pound foolish’ though.
It is interesting that when you realise you have been pennywise and pound foolish, the penny has in fact dropped bringing you that realisation. Pennywise has nothing to do with Penny Wisdom, the title of an Oscar-winning short film made in 1937. I recommend you see the 10-minute film here: 🔗Penny Wisdom 1937 Oscar winner.
All of us are familiar with the expression ‘In for a penny, In for a pound’. It actually means ‘to complete a task despite the cost, effort and time involved’. But then, you were not aware that it would cost that proverbial pound when you started off. You realise when you are perhaps halfway into it. That realisation is what penny-dropping is about. So, the penny drops, you realise it will cost a pound and yet you persist.
I had written a post on ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’. The import of this phrase is, to end the suspense. If you missed reading FC 102, please use this link: 🔗https://mrprasanna.substack.com/p/filter-coffee-102. The shoe dropping to end the suspense is somewhat synonymous, under certain circumstances, with the penny dropping to end the suspense of a different kind, namely, the person understanding or realising something told to him.
Mr R Gopalakrishnan, former Director of Tata Sons and an erudite scholar with a great sense of humour has written a book When The Penny Drops with a tag line ‘learning what is not taught’. You can access this book using this link: 🔗When the Penny Drops - Penguin Random House India. Peppered with life stories and anecdotes, the book has a bunch of takeaways.
Did you know that there is a game called ‘penny drop’? I was unaware until now. You can check it out on Amazon.
As always, I am ending in a lighter vein. No, it is not a joke, but an anecdote associated with weighing machines on the railway platform. Here it is:
The weighing machines of those days spewed out a card similar to the platform ticket. A guy travelling from Bangalore to Mysore checked his weight in Bangalore and put that card in his pocket. On arrival in Mysore, at the exit, he handed over the weight card instead of his ticket and walked some distance when he heard from behind: “Hello Mister 80 KG, come back here and give me the train ticket”. The fellow sheepishly complied but not before some of the fellow passengers had a hearty laugh.
Dear readers, penny for your thoughts about this post. Please send in your comments, they are worth a pound each, to me.
Until next week, do take good care of yourself and be safe.
Ciao.
The new popular Indian take on "Penny drop" is "Tube light" . It takes a while to come on.
On a confessional note, for me the penny dropped on something this morning - how challenging it can be to come up with topics to interest readers. Hats off to you Prasanna. You are so creative!