When is a cake a cake, and when can it be considered a biscuit?
It’s a cake until lighting candles on it would be considered taking the biscuit.
Sunil Bajaria, Bromley, UK
• I learnt at my mother’s knee that a cake always rises while cooking. A biscuit just stays flat.
Gillian Shenfield, Sydney, Australia
• A true cake is luscious – like the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (also known as the Black Forest gâteau). The basic biscuit is plain and flat, unadorned by cream, cherries and alcohol.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• When, because of a slip of the tongue, it’s given as a prize for skill or absurdity, as in “That takes the biscuit.”
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• Firmness is a good indicator. When a cake goes stale it becomes harder, but when a biscuit goes stale it becomes softer.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• When you can have your cake and eat it.
Lorna Kaino, Fremantle, Western Australia
• It changes about halfway over the Atlantic.
John Benseman, Auckland, New Zealand
• Only the baker knows.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
Oh, what a lovely war!
Which war gave us the best songs?
• An impossible question, since the answer turns on language and family background: one song that went international during a war was Lili Marlene, so an answer is possible if the search is for the best song.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• One of the most poignant, to Australian ears, is And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, written by Eric Bogle in 1971, during Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war. It refers to the first world war, but is about the futility of all wars.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• As a child of the 60s, I have to say the Vietnam war ... what could be better than the repertoire of the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez?
Avril Taylor, Dundas, Ontario, Canada
• No war is worth singing about.
Nicholas Albrecht, Paris, France
• The French Revolution, which gave us Les Misérables.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, Australia
• Joan Littlewood’s Oh, What a Lovely War! was the essence of highlighting first world war songs. Pithy, gross, pathetic. I was privileged to have sung in the 1971 Toulouse University production. When This Lousy War is Over: an ageless song, unfortunately.
E Slack, L’Isle Jourdain, France
• We’re spoiled for choice, aren’t we? And as Tom Lehrer said in his song So Long, Mom: “If any songs are going to come out of World War Three, we’d better start writing them now.”
Donna Samoyloff, Toronto, Canada
• The best songs were given to us by songwriters in peacetime.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
Close your eyes and think of Donald Trump
How is one supposed to imagine the unimaginable?
It can only be done aboard a flight of fancy!
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
• In the dark.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Look at the upcoming US election. Who could have imagined that?
Kate Henderson, Kingwood, Texas, US
Any answers?
Is life just a question of what you can get away with?
Edward Black, Pauanui, New Zealand
What sentence would you use to comfort a person in acute pain?
Sylvie Morrissette, Los Angeles, California, US
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
