Until today, I had not known that one of the meanings of abacus is ‘A board or tray strewn with sand in which numbers, letters, diagrams, etc., can be traced and erased’ (OED). A quick detour via the toy shop (recognisable by the large blue Smurf with a very grubby beard chained up outside) yielded no results (I was thinking etch-a-sketch or similar), so I plumped for this sand-filled ashtray, in which fag-butts are easily erased.
Day #78 of a 365 project, where the daily pic is informed by theĀ OED word of the day.