Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
Make Your Own Classic Doctor Who Scarf
By bohus
With the re-imagined Doctor Who ready to return for a fourth season next month, I can't help but think of one of the series' enduring hallmarks; the Doctor's ludicrously long scarf. The scarf became a symbol not only of Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play the role, but also an icon of the quirky series.
The Doctor once commented that the scarf had been made by Madame Nostradamus, "a witty little knitter". In reality, costume designer James Acheson (three time Oscar winning costume designer since his days on Who) gave a large load of wool to a lady called Begonia Pope to knit the scarf. Thinking that she had to use it all up, the finished scarf ended up a 20 foot long behemoth.
The BBC used to distribute the "official" pattern (via ditto!) to fan clubs and folks wanting to recreate the long, long scarf. Fans today can visit doctorwhoscarf.com to download patterns for any of the several variations of the scarf that appeared during the series' run. Yes, this is more proof that absolutely everything is documented somewhere on the internet.
I have a Who scarf that I hoodwinked my mother into making for me. Mind you, she's positively a knitting machine and somehow knit the mammoth project in an evening. I still wear it today, not only as a badge of my love of the classic BBC show, but as a really effective shield against the cruel cold of March in Chicago. I remember wearing it on a high school winter field trip, and despite being very unpopular I had two girls wrapped up with me in all that surplus scarf-dom. It's good to be the Doctor...
