* Perhaps it says all you need to know about America that these are not the only competitors for the title World’s Most Impressive Ball of Twine. There is also the world’s largest ball of nylon twine, currently housed in Branson, Missouri, and the world’s heaviest ball of twine, which is in Wisconsin.

* In the end, as with so much effort in the world, I was not able to do this by myself and succeeded only by collaborating with others. A group of kind and wildly talented internet sleuths called Tuataria worked together to track down Reinhard Pabst, the German journalist and scholar whose research established the boys’ identities and backgrounds.