Guy King wrote:
The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:
Someone wrote, but the attributions were munged:
Like little caltrops.

New word on me and my dictionary. Google manages it, though. Been at the
Reader's Digest again?

You've never met caltrops? Where were you during the miners' strike?

They've been around for much longer than that. Biggles used
them (it might have been James Bond if I've misremembered).
They were probably used a thousand years ago.