Which of your vices would be hardest to relinquish?
If we mean the seven deadly sins, ageing has taught me to relinquish all of them.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• My waistline suggests gluttony – in reality the product of sloth ...
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Indecision.
Doug Bicket, Kinburn, Ontario, Canada
• My grip.
Adrian Cooper, Queens Park, NSW, Australia
• Let me sit down and have a drink to think about that.
John Benseman, Auckland, New Zealand
• The one I bought 60 years ago at my grandfather’s hardware shop in Taunton, Somerset.
Ted Webber, Buderim, Queensland, Australia
• Since I am a terrible singer, I have already given up on song, so it’s now a toss-up between wine and women.
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Czech Slivovice plum brandy.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Oscar Wilde said he could resist anything except temptation.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Acquisitiveness: it’s a modern vice. Either in the gross overconsumption of “stuff” or overeating, leading to obesity.
David Catchlove, Newport, NSW, Australia
• It would be a toss-up between being right about everything and always telling the truth.
Nigel Grinter, Chicago, Illinois, US
• Vices, moi?
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
Money vs making merry
What happened to merrymaking?
It went the way of maypole dancing and apple bobbing. All simple and non-technological pleasures best fuelled by alcohol!
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• It went the same way as bear baiting, jousting and cow-pat throwing.
Jim Dewar, Gosford, NSW, Australia
• It degenerated into drunken and offensive behaviour, or maybe it was always so.
Greg McCarry, Sydney, Australia
• Money-making.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, Australia
That’s an excellent likeness
Where are you when you are beside yourself?
If you are famous (or notorious) you may be at Madame Tussaud’s in London, posing beside your wax model.
John Ryder, Kyoto, Japan
• In good company.
David Price, Macmasters Beach, NSW, Australia
• On the passenger seat.
Amy Gibson, London, UK
• On a psychiatrist’s couch with your alter ego.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Raise that number back up!
At what point do you know you are middle-aged?
My university students, when asked at what age middle-age started, gave 30 – but over the years they raised that number, thinking me too close. But I knew I was middle-aged the year they dropped the lower limit firmly back to 30.
Joan M Walker, Hackett’s Cove, Nova Scotia
• At the very moment you ask yourself that question.
John Morralee, Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Any answers?
What is your personal highlight of the Christmas season?
Dean Takac, Stuttgart, Germany
What is your most arduous chore?
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
