Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
FEEDBACK was not aware that any other language had a synonym for the Yiddish tchotchke, "a trinket of no discernible function" (13 December 2014). So we are pleasantly surprised by the number of suggestions.
Before the ink was dry a colleague observed that "only the other day I found myself uttering the sentence 'Little girls' party bags just get filled with pink plastic tat'." But we first heard "tat" in an entirely different context, referring to rather unofficial street parties: "if the cops seize our tat, we're stuffed – can we sort backup?" To the utterers, items of "tat" were essential. A discussion on attitudes to needs and possessions, and the effects of parenthood on these, ensued.
A website asked John Gibson "What is your lucky number?" as a security question. It then ...
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