Do Penguins Have Knees? by David Feldman Page A

badges:
     
         There seems to be no fixed protocol on five- and six-pointed badges. In America, the five-point star has been preeminent from the beginning. It is the star in the flag, in the insignia of an army general, and on the Medal of Honor. It was obviously the logical choice for the first sheriffs’ badges.
     When other shapes began to be used for badges, it seemed right that circles, shields, and six-pointed stars would be used for lesser legal representatives than the top lawman.
     This didn’t hold true indefinitely. Our library has a 1913 supply catalog which offers five-point stars engraved “City Marshal” or “Chief of Police” and six-point stars engraved, “City Marshal,” “Sheriff,” “Constable,” “Detective,” etc.
     
    Historian Charley Eckhardt has even developed a theory to explain why the five-point might have been inflated to six points: It was simply too hard to make a five-pointed star.
     
         The five- and six-pointed star “tradition” seems to be purely a twentieth-century one. I’ve seen hundreds of badges from the nineteenth century, and they ranged from the traditional policeman’s shield to a nine-pointed sunburst. Five- and six-pointed stars predominated, but in no particular order—there was no definite plurality of five points in one group and six points in another. I have noticed, however, that the majority of the locally made star-shaped badges produced outside of Texas were six-pointed. There may be a reason for that.
     When you cut a circle, if you take six chords equal to the radius of the circle and join them around the diameter, you will find that the chords form a perfect hexagon. If you join alternate points of the hexagon, you get two superimposed equilateral triangles—a six-pointed star. In order to lay out a pentagon within a circle—the basic figure for cutting a five-pointed star—you have to divide the circle into 72-degree arcs. This requires a device to measure angles from the center—or a very fine eye and a lot of trial and error. Since many badges, including many deputy sheriff and marshal badges, were locally made, it would have been much easier for the blacksmith or gunsmith turned badgemaker for a day to make a six-pointed star.
     
    Who says that the shortage of protractors in the Old West didn’t have a major influence on American history?
     
    Submitted by Eugene S. Mitchell of Wayne, New Jersey. Thanks also to Christopher Valeri of East Northport, New York .
     
     

     
     
    When You Wear a Girdle, Where Does the Fat Go?
     
    Depends upon the girdle. And depends upon the woman wearing the girdle.
    Ray Tricarico, of Playtex Apparel, told Imponderables that most girdles have panels on the front to help contour the stomach. Many provide figure “guidance” for the hips and derriere as well.
    “But where does the fat go?” we pleaded. If we cinch a belt too tight, the belly and love handles plop over the belt. If we poke ourselves in the ribs, extra flesh surrounds our fingers. And when Victorian ladies wore corsets, their nineteen-inch waists were achieved only by inflating the hips and midriff with displaced flesh. Mesmerized by our analogies, Tricarico suggested we contact Robert K. Niddrie, vice-president of merchandising at Playtex’s technical research and development group. We soon discovered that we had a lot to learn about girdles.
    First of all, “girdles” may be the technical name for these undergarments, but the trade prefers the term “shapewear.” Why? Because girdles conjure up an old-fashioned image of undergarments that were confining and uncomfortable. Old girdles had no give in them, so, like too-tight belts, they used to send flesh creeping out from under the elastic bands (usually under the bottom or above the waist).
    The purpose of modern shapewear isn’t so much to press in the flesh as to distribute it evenly and change the contour of the body. And girdles come in so