Received Ideas 12

More that didn't get into the book.

GARGOYLES Have downspouts. All the rest are “grotesques”.

GENDER PAY GAP There's no such thing.

GHOSTS Invisible below the knee because the floor has been moved since the 15th century/the road has risen since Roman times.

GOATS Can only see in blue and green.

GOLDEN AGE MYSTERY WRITERS All struggled to break free from the conventions of the puzzle genre and write proper novels.

GOTHIC FAN VAULTING The pinnacle of human achievement.

HISTORY In the past, everybody was posh. Women wore long skirts and were terribly proper.

IQ TESTS Only test the ability to pass IQ tests.

JAMES DEAN’S PORSCHE Is hanging on a wall as a piece of art. Is in Japan. Was buried in a swamp. (Latest is “hidden inside a wall in Bellingham, WA”.)

JOHN DORY From jaune d’or or yellow gold. (Wouldn’t that mean “golden yellow”?)

LIP BALM, MOISTURISER Once you start using them, you can’t stop.

LONDON Its 8.4 million trees means it qualifies as a “forest”.

MAKEUP Once you start using it, you have to go on. (True in the days of white lead makeup – it scarred the skin, so you applied more to cover the scars.)

MARIJUANA Outlawed because the cotton industry wanted to remove hemp as a competitor.

MEN Can’t fight their sexual urges. Women should not tempt them. (Thought this one had died out circa 1970, but it was still going in 2013.)

MOLES To get rid of these pests, plant toy windmills on their hills.

MONA LISA “She had high cholesterol, goitre and a squint.” (Art expert on BBC Breakfast.) The squint – that’s why the eyes follow you around the room. The expert also says Leonardo employed musicians and jesters to try to make her smile (according to Vasari). Some say she's a disguised portrait of one of Leonardo’s male lovers.

MOSQUITOES Eating garlic keeps them away.

MOTORWAYS, RAILWAYS Designed for tanks. And new university buildings were all designed to be bomb-proof. (Both sound likely.)

MURANO To preserve trade secrets, the island’s famous glassblowers were executed if they tried to leave.

MUSIC Makes one see pictures in the mind. But everyone sees something different.

NEWSPAPERS None of what they print is what I call news.

NOMADS Rootless illiterates with no history.

More here, and links to the rest.