November 24, 2004
Pascal famously remarked in Pensee 162 'Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered.' Clearly J.Caesar and Mark Antony must have been happy with Cleo's nose - however, ancient coins and images (other than the standardised Egyptian ones) show her as the hefty blonde Macedonian she presumably was, with a nose more impressive than lovely. Tycho Brahe had no nose, or rather, he had a prosthetic metal one. That did not stop him becoming the archetype of what astronomers look like, even as far away as China, though in most images his nose is discreetly normalised. Brass noses, of course, have a formidable academic record of their own, and an Oxford College to prove it. Maybe you don't need a perfect nose to be a success - just a remarkable one?
--G. K. Chesterton, "The Song of Quoodle"