Why do we pay through the nose, rather than any other part of the anatomy?
As a rule of thumb, the Viking punishment for someone who refused to pay tax was to slit their nose from lip to eyebrow. Hence the notion of a punitive price when we pay through the nose. And I’m not pulling your leg.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• Because it’s better than losing an arm and a leg.
Sunil Bajaria, Bromley, UK
• Obviously, as it is the only part that can smell something fishy.
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
• Plastic surgeons are to blame.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• It’s the most polite of the orifices.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Because the savings effected by avoiding excessive payments are not to be sneezed at.
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Because getting fleeced usually stinks.
Charlie Bamforth, Davis, California, US
• In France, I’m afraid we’re a bit more blunt. When we have bought something that we’ve paid too much for we describe it as having cost us la peau des fesses, or the skin of our arses.
Nicholas Albrecht, Paris, France
And we all fall down
What stands to reason?
A lecturer in philosophy.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia
• Nothing much. Emotion topples it every time.
Elizabeth Keating, Orcemont, France
• “It” does – whatever “it” is.
Michael Olin, Holt, UK
• Logic.
Edward Black, Church Point, NSW, Australia
• What appears to be reasonable to the rare individual possessing common sense.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Whatever point it is I’m trying to argue, especially if I’m a bit short on evidence.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
Song that should not be sung
Which war gave us the best songs?
For sheer artistry, the second world war, as the era of 1940s swing, played on millions of “seventy-eights” (78 rpm vinyl records), carried us through.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• The American civil war for When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Hoorah, that he is getting out of hell to return to his loved ones.
Not a soul should ever have to sing this song if the world embraced Give Peace a Chance, but that song would imply that we would have no more war.
We can but hope, and vote.
Doreen Forney, Pownal, Vermont, US
• Vietnam: the anti-war, anti-draft chant Hell No, I Won’t Go first popularised in New York City in 1967.
Mike Kelly, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
It’s my way or the highway
Should others see your point of view?
Of course they should; then I would not have to disagree with them and life would be perfect.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• As long as they get my point, I don’t care about their view.
André Carrel, Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
• Of course, don’t you?
Diane Doles, Seattle, Washington, US
Any answers?
What does being a grown-up mean? And when is a good time to be one?
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
Why do most people stand still on escalators?
Mary Norton, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
