Can golf be an intellectual pursuit?
Yes, if women play it. Men aren’t very good at putting their brains before their balls.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• If you are young and learning to count.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Precisely because it is such a mindless pastime, the long stretches of inactivity golf requires provide the creative-minded with time to ponder serious issues, even while they keep up appearances socially.
John Geffroy, Las Vegas, New Mexico, US
• Definitely, as long as the player can drive and keep the head down when using an iron.
John Garner, Pohara, New Zealand
• No. I was on a right-to-left sloping lie (OK, in the trees) and on the shot my meniscus went snap. Two years later I have a titanium knee. What’s more physical?
E Slack, L’Isle Jourdain, France
• Only if you have to play your ball out of one of the foxholes at St Andrews.
RM Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
• Books such as Zen Golf, Golf and Philosophy and Golf’s Three Noble Truths suggest there is more to the game than simply pressing attention on the ball with an iron or clubbing it into submission.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• It would have to go a fair way to be on a par with Sartre.
Roger Morrell, Perth, Western Australia
He was ruined in a shell game
Why did Humpty Dumpty have a great fall?
He slipped on the wall coping while taking a selfie.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Because he was so headstrong.
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
• Try balancing an egg on a wall.
Jenefer Warwick James, Paddington, NSW, Australia
• Because he had experienced a tremendously successful summer, he decided to relax and enjoy the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Jim Dewar, Gosford, NSW, Australia
• The origins of the Humpty Dumpty rhyme are apparently lost in time, but it may refer to a heavy cannon, employed by the Royalists to defend Colchester during the English civil war (1642-49). The gun was shot off the city wall and destroyed by the Roundheads’ artillery.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• Because the king’s men distracted him when he attempted a Foot-Behind-the-Head pose.
Pauline Harris, Lydney, UK
• He was egged on.
Keith Sayers, Charnwood, ACT, Australia
• Probably because he sat on a high wall. He should have chosen a spot where he could have kept his feet firmly planted on the ground! But how boring to take no risks in life.
Avril Taylor, Dundas, Ontario, Canada
• He lost his money in a shell game.
John Ralston, Mountain View, California, US
• Maybe he just happened to be a fall guy; at any rate, I’m sure he was caught with egg on his face.
Tijne Schols, The Hague, The Netherlands
• To be an example to all of us, especially if we’re very round and unbalanced.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Any answers?
Where I can find “the real world” that everyone refers to?
John Benseman, Auckland, New Zealand
What is your pet term for old age?
RM Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
