Me versus noses and faces

Cut off your nose to spite your face

Regular readers will be aware that I quite literally tackle these cliches for the benefit of mankind's knowledge but after the sword incident I am not going to cut my own nose off. 

But I won't let that stop me investigating this phrase for you dear reader(s), oh no. Let me introduce you to Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). Brahe, if you can't be bothered to click the Wikipedia link, was a 16th century Danish nobleman, astronomer and alchemist. 

'What's that got to with a nose?' I hear you cry, well I'll tell you. Brahe had it cut off in a duel in 1566.

Did he let this get him down? No. He had metal prosthetic ones made for him. They may have been silver, gold or copper (or brass) but let's retrace those steps a minute. He had a metal nose. Probably stuck on with glue. That would have broken the ice at parties. It's thought that he might have worn different noses for different occasions. How cool is that? 

Brahe went on to discover a supernova, map the heavens better than anyone before him, is awarded The Order of the Elephant, had eight children, became the imperial astronomer to the Holy Roman Emperor, owned possibly 1% of the entire wealth of Denmark and had an elk that died after falling downstairs when drunk.

Doesn't sound like his face was spited at all by the whole nose cutting-off incident.

Conclusion One: Look after your nose. You only get one - you don't want to lose it.

Conclusion Two: But if you are an in unfortunate nose off situation you might want to consider a metal one.

Conclusion Three: Try to keep your elk on the ground floor if you think it's had one too many.