Neither here nor there (juxtapositions)...

It's amazing with what frequency we come to believe that something originating in one place is really an "invention" of another place, and instructive to see how often there's a degree of truth in that, though it's ultimately another story altogether.

Take for instance the necktie, often cited as typically British, and worn across the world, it is thought to have been an invention of the Croatian military in the time of Napoleon, who brought it back to France, where it became fashionable.

Or, Belgian chocolate: chocolate, as such, originates in Aztec Mexico. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was the first European to taste it, spiced with hot peppers and to him revolting, but took it back to Spain where Catalán monks added sugar, also discovered overseas, making the sort of sweet chocolate now teased into refinement in other places.

There's the question of who invented the Lindsor Tort: is it a Scottish invention, or strictly Viennese as is widely believed? Italian silk? Silk was brought to Italy from China by Marco Polo, along the famed Silk Road that linked the far east with western Europe.

France is famed for its croissants, but there's the problem of a story about Hungarians baking croissant-shaped rolls ('kifli') to commemorate the Turkish siege of Buda (1686); similar stories exist about celebrating Polish victory over the Turks at the battle of Vienna (1683), where Viennese bakers allegedly heard Turkish tunneling in the middle of the night and warned the Polish forces.