Donald in a trade war
QUESTION When the New York store, Macy’s, stopped selling Donald Trump’s range of menswear in 2015, did it affect the share price? MACY’S started selling Donald Trump’s menswear line — midrange suits, dress shirts, ties, cufflinks and watches — in 2004 and the president-to-be, who then hosted The Apprentice even appeared in Macy’s commercials.
But in June 2015, when announcing his candidacy, he declared: ‘When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best . . . They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.’
Macy’s received a petition with more than 700,000 signatures calling for Trump’s merchandise to be dropped. The store, trying to court more Hispanic customers, bowed to the pressure, denounced his ‘disparaging characterisations’: ‘We have decided to discontinue our business relationship.’
In true Trump style, he retaliated with a tweet calling for a boycott of Macy’s: ‘Those who believe in tight border security, stopping illegal immigration & SMART trade deals w/other countries should boycott @Macys.’
Shares in Macy’s fell by a whopping 46.8% during the second half of 2015. A warm winter and competition were blamed, but compared to other stores, the drop in shares was extreme.
Trump loved it, tweeting: ‘I hope the boycott of @Macys continues forever. So many people are cutting up their cards. Macy’s stores suck and they are bad for USA.’ He also claimed credit tweeting: ‘@Macys was one of the worst performing stocks on the S&P [Standard & Poor’s 500, the US stock market index] last year, plunging 46%. Very disloyal company. Another win for Trump!’
Asked on CNN, if he regretted the ban, Macy’s then chief executive Terry Lundgren, a former golfing buddy of Trump, said: ‘No.’ He also claimed Macy’s couldn’t carry on selling Trump’s merchandise after he had entered politics.
Peter Davison, Liverpool. QUESTION What was the first electronic musical instrument? IN THE 18th century, inventors adapted various acoustic instruments to exploit the novelty of electricity. Contrary to popular belief, Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity in the 1750s. For a century before this, many aspects of electricity were known to scientists, such as positive and negative currents, and the classification of materials as conductors or insulators.
In 1753, Czech theologian Vaclav Prokop Divis constructed the Denis d’or, a keyboard of 700 strings, electrified temporarily to enhance sonic qualities.
This was followed by the clavecin electrique of Frenchman JeanBaptiste de Laborde in 1761, a keyboard with plectra (picks) activated electrically.
In 1876, American electrical engineer Elisha Gray created the musical telegraph, which used steel reeds oscillated by electromagnets and transmitted over a telephone line.
He built a simple loudspeaker into later models, a diaphragm vibrating in a magnetic field, which was the first true synthesiser — a keyboard that generates and modifies sounds electronically and can imitate other musical instruments.
In 1893, Thaddeus Cahill, an inventor from Washington DC, discovered that when a generator sent electric current down a phone line, it created a tone in the earpiece.
Different frequencies of current created different tones.
He realised he could send music over phone lines. In 1897, he received a patent for the telharmonium, an instrument resembling a power plant. It was 60ft long and weighed 200 tons.
Its principles live on in the Hammond organ — an electric organ, first manufactured in 1935, which uses sliding drawbars to produce a variety of sounds.
The first electronic instrument to enjoy lasting success was the Ondes-Martenot.
Invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot, it produced eerie wavering notes by using a keyboard to vary the frequency of oscillation in vacuum tubes.
It was still being manufactured as late as 1988.
Mr C Alleyne, Pembroke. QUESTION Is the logo for Lyle’s Golden Syrup a dead lion swarming with flies? If so, why? THE picture found on the kitchen staple Lyle’s Golden Syrup is indeed of a dead lion, but the insects swarming around the carcass are in fact supposed to be bees.
The famous golden syrup has become so commonplace in kitchens around the world that many people don’t look closely enough at the familiar label to see the lion is dead, and those who do may just assume he is lying down for a sleep.
It was Abram Lyle himself – the Scottish businessman who founded Abram Lyle & Sons in London in the early 1880s – who came up with the rather bizarre logo for what would become his most long-lasting product.
Lyle was a deeply religious man and, for the packaging of Golden Syrup, was inspired by Book 14 of The Bible’s Book of Judges, in which Samson – with his immense strength – kills a lion with his bare hands. He later finds the carcass and discovers that bees have nested in it and formed a honeycomb inside.
Samson, a judge, came up with a riddle at a feast he holds, telling those gathered he will reward them with 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes if they can come up with the answer within seven days.
Being the Old Testament, of course, this all leads to betrayal, bloodshed and immense grief for most of those involved.
The riddle was as follows: ‘Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet’, hence the message: ‘Out Of The Strong Came Forth Sweetness’ chosen by Lyle. Aideen Ryan, Cork city.
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