Subscribe » Issue #39, May-Jun 2012 Mag Cover
Idealog—in the ideas business

Win! How to get a sofa around a corner!

If ever there was a guide to life, this book is probably the closest thing to it.

Ever wondered how to make the perfect cup of tea, take the perfect photo, swim faster, wrap presents, make your cakes rise, win at pool/cards/board games? 

Then How to Get a Sofa Around a Corner (and 30 other everyday examples of the appliance of science) is for you.

Mark Frary is a science and technology writer with degrees in astronomy and physics, but thankfully, he can write. Applying science to your everyday life to do things faster, better and cheaper? We'll take it. HTGASAAC is plenty digestible, packed with  photos, diagrams and subheadings for the time-pressed (after all, there's no time to waste when a red wine stain is seeping into your carpet).

We have two copies of the book, worth $24.99 each, to give away. Just tell us what practical riddle most perplexes you, be it the best way to peel a banana or execute a parallel park. Competition closes November 30.


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Comments

I can never work out how to put a duvet cover on the duvet without climbing inside – my arms are just too short!

I would love to know how to remember that I'm supposed to remember something.

I've used the 'tell a friend to remind me' strategy, but this relies on their being organised, which assumption is often fallacious :)

Rebecca - how to get around that :)

Take your duvet cover and turn it inside out. Now, put your hands inside and the ruffle the cover along your arms until you're able to grasp the top corners (from the inside) of the cover.

Next, grab the top two corners of your duvet, while you're still grasping the cover corners, and shake - the cover will turn the right way out, and in the process will roll down over the duvet. Simply shake, and close the cover (buttons/press studs etc) at the bottom :)

Why is it that the last 10% of the toothpaste seems to last for months, but the first 90% is gone in 2 weeks?

Why is it that the last 10% of the toothpaste seems to last for months, but the first 90% is gone in 2 weeks?

How to get the snails off the weed quickly when I'm clearing out my pond.

How to get ground coffee from the packet into the espresso handle without spilling any over the kitchen work-top? Now that would be a fine tip !

Folding a fitted sheet nicely.

Why do we pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground???

Something that i've never been able to understand is why toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

It always irks me when people say they “slept like a baby”. Where on earth did this expression come from?? After all babies wake up about every two hours!!

Why is it that we hang on to seemingly useless items for years and then as soon as we have a clean out and get rid of them, we end up needing them……it has to be one of the most frustrating things ever!

Why are grapefruit called grapefruit?! They don't look or taste like grapes…and don't get me started on pineapples!

Where do the socks go?


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