It seems to be an occupational hazard of teaching maths that you become slightly potty.  Who could teach trig without being eccentric, or logs without the occasional twitch, or ruffle.  Few remember John Napier, but everybody is grateful for the Texas Instruments programmable calculator (cooler than the Hewlett-Packard, which indicated your dad was probably an accountant), with the vinyl case you could loop through your belt and look like a NASA engineer. But the maths teacher I'm thinking of could give any quirky person a run for his money.  Henry Wise Wood\s Mr. Turley was obvious as an odd duck. It was 1977, and Mr Turley wore a full length fur to class.  His wife, he told us, was a real estate agent, and, in Calgary in a boom time, realtors made good money.  But his wardrobe was not limited to opulence.  He wore a different three piece suit every day--the colours were always pastel--and the fabrics were more than likely fake.  He drove a Caddy...

In the 70s--need I say more--Prime Minister PET (Pierre Elliott Trudeau) did a number of things to cajole and harangue Canadians.  There were wage and price controls, there was Fuddle Duddle, there was the Fuddle Buck, that wasn't worth a buck (there being 25 per cent discount, more or less, against the American dollar--in the long history stretchy dollar, 15 cents either way makes no difference). The Fuddle Buck was, however, worth 100 cents True Dough, and it certainly stretched better than fabulous Fortrel, or any of a number of 70s miracle fibers and fabrics. How could you forget the Dacron bathroom ensemble, to match your famous four appliance colours: avocado green, burnt almond, coppertone brown, and poppy red. Washer/dryer, fridge, stove--missing anything?  Oh, yes, the dish squasher! And, in the small appliance category, the bun warmer, the crock pot, and the electric knife. Then he brought in the metric system, which made "A quarter" (of a pound) of ...