Piet Hein (Denmark)

Piet Hein (December 16, 1905 - April 18, 1996) was a scientist, mathematician, inventor, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym "Kumbel" meaning "tombstone". His short poems, gruks (or grooks), first started to appear in the daily newspaper "Politiken" shortly after the Nazi Occupation in April 1940 under the signature Kumbel Kumbell.

Work

He is known to a wider public for his thousands of short, aphoristic poems called Grooks (Gruk in Danish) and creations like the game of Hex, Tangloids, Morra, Tower, Polytaire, TacTix, Nimbi, Qrazy Qube, Pyramystery and the Soma cube. He advocated the use of the super ellipse curve in city planning, furniture making and other realms. He also invented a perpetual calendar called the Astro Calendar and marketed housewares based on the Superellipse and Super-Egg.

Related Topics:
Aphoristic - Poems - Grook - Game of Hex - Tangloids - Morra - Tower - Polytaire - TacTix - Nimbi - Qrazy Qube - Pyramystery - Soma cube - Super ellipse - City planning - Furniture - Calendar - Houseware - Superellipse - Super-Egg

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A couple of examples Grooks from Grooks, first published in 1966:

Related Topics:
Grook - 1966

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:Mankind

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:

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:Men, said the Devil,

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:are good to their brothers:

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:they don't want to mend

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:their own ways, but each other's.

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: Double Doors

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: Double doors are justified

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: because they're comfortably wide;

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: therefore, you only half undo 'em;

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: therefore, nothing can get through 'em.

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