【明報專訊】What the heck is an aglet? Look down at your feet, and if you're wearing sneakers, let your gaze follow the winding path of your likely battered shoelaces all the way to the end and at last, land on the piece of plastic or metal sheath perking up ever so slightly. It is what keeps your shoelaces from unravelling, though its history is a bit tangled. The word has a variant aiglet, borrowed from French aiguillette, diminutive of also French aguille meaning needle (it goes further back but I digress). Most have credited its invention to Harvey Kennedy in the 1790s, but the details are foggy. The ornament was the subject of The Question's many conspiracies in Justice League Unlimited and most notably, in a Phineas and Ferb Disney episode (why I'm not proud of how I knew this fact). This is surprisingly a lot of information about such an imperceptible part of living, and I could go on. It's one of those things that you can't quite 'unnotice' once you know about it. As the lyrics of the bordering-on-annoying-but-unforgettable song ''A-G-L-E-T'' go, don't forget it! ̷̷ Text: Staff Reporter ̷