Toe the line 1813 publication had used the term "toe the mark" which had the same meaning as "toe the line's" modern usage, where the author wrote "He began to think it was high time to toe the mark." An 1828 publication also used "toe the plank" with a similar meaning. Over the years the term has been attributed to sports, including toeing the starting line in track events and toeing a center line in boxing, where boxers were instructed to line up on either side of to start a match. However, the earlier boxing term was "toeing the scratch", referring to a
Variations on the name "Abegg" Variations on the name "Abegg" The Variations on the name "Abegg" in F major is a piece (theme with variations) for piano by Robert Schumann, composed between 1829 and 1830 and published as his Opus 1. The name is believed to refer to Schumann's fictitious friend, Meta Abegg, whose surname Schumann used through a musical cryptogram as the motivic basis for the piece. The name Meta is considered to be an anagram of the word "tema" ("Latin"). Another suggestion is Pauline von Abegg. Apparently, when he was twenty years old, Schumann met her and dedicated this work to her, as