HOW LONG IS A PIECE OF STRING?

That depends--what are you going to use it for?

String has been around for centuries--as thin rope, animal hide strips, twisted from reeds and grasses. No matter what they called it, it was, essentially, string.

Just consider the uses for string:

--to hold beads or pearls together in a necklace
--to tie up packages (you used to be able to do that to mail them)
--to tie around your finger to remind yourself of something (this was a big feature in It's a Wonderful Life--Uncle Billy often wore a string reminder)
--to make a chain of lanterns for a garden party
--to hold two mittens together (the chain of yarn went around the kid's neck; ideally the two mittens remained a pair)
--to make sound in stringed instruments: harps, violins/violas/cellos/basses; also pianos, harpsichords, autoharps, zither, dulcimer et al.
--kids used two tin cans and a string to make a "telephone"
--puppets, though strictly speaking, the ones with strings are marionnettes
--to let kites and balloons float up, up, up (don't forget helium for the balloons)

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Then there are many the references to string in the world; here are a few:

--string along (go along with; agree)
--stringing you along (fooling you)
--world on a string (everything's absolutely fantastic!)

There's also:

--string cheese
--string beans
--shoestring potatoes
--string bikinis

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To get back to our opening question--How long is a piece of string?--think of it as a somewhat subtle reminder that a silly question deserves a silly answer.

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My all-time favorite string story was told by Great-Aunt Mary Hofer (on my kids' dad's side of the family); it goes like this:

An elderly lady died and left a house full of belongings. She was frugal, having lived through the Great Depression and known what it was to do without, so she saved a great number of things. Naturally the family had to go through these collections and decide what was to be kept and what could be discarded.

The prime find was a small box labeled, "String Too Short to Save."

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Have a great week!