!"#$$%&''()* ĨĂĐƚƐ Θ ĮŐƵƌĞƐ ĂďŽƵƚ ^ǁŝƚnjĞƌůĂŶĚ ŝĐĐŽŶ ĞǁĞƐ !"#$$%&''()* ĨĂĐƚƐ Θ ĮŐƵƌĞƐ ĂďŽƵƚ ^ǁŝƚnjĞƌůĂŶĚ ŝĐĐŽŶ ĞǁĞƐ © 2012 Bergli Books, Basel © cover and illustrations Mischa Kammermann, Basel Bergli Books Tel.: +41 61 373 27 77 CH-4001 Basel e-mail:
[email protected] Switzerland www.bergli.ch All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from Bergli Books, CH-4001 Basel, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-905252-47-7 digital edition ISBN 978-3-905252-24-8 print edition For Georgie, Thomas Rhian and Olivia &ŽƌĞǁŽƌĚ Look up miscellany in a dictionary and you’ll see that it is a group, collection or mixture of different items, ingredients or things. As a noun it’s far less used than the adjective derived from it – miscellaneous – which is probably why the British and Americans can’t agree on how to pronounce it: I say mis-sel-la- nee, stressing the ‘sel’; they say mis-sa-lay-nee, stressing the ‘lay’. Collection is probably easier. This Swiss miscellany is a collection of curious and quirky, statistical and historical, intriguing and interesting facts about Switzerland. It is a subjective look at a unique country and its people, but not an utterly comprehensive one. You can discover how much yoghurt an average Swiss person eats each year but QRW ZKLFK ÁDYRXUV RU ZKR ZDV HOHFWHG SUHVLGHQW WKH PRVW WLPHV but not who voted for him, and even the most successful pop songs but not why anyone bought them.