What is the difference between a nerd and a geek?
To describe a person, there’s not a lot of difference – they’re synonyms. But where I live, to take a geek at something is also slang for looking at it.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• A geek is a nerd with superior computing skills.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• Roughly speaking, around $50m a year. Bill Gates is a geek: the IT world is full of nerds.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• A yob.
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
• Three letters about which a nerd would give a detailed dissertation and a geek would look up on the net.Gillian Shenfield, Sydney, Australia
The path to redemption
“Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Really?
It can’t be true. I worship my trusty motorcycle Rocinante, and she is lucky to see one cleaning a year.
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
• It depends on your filthy mind. The devil is in the details.
Jennifer Rathbone, Toronto, Canada
• After a shower I feel great, even redeemed, but godly only when I read Walt Whitman.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• That saying just doesn’t wash.
Jim Dewar, Gosford, NSW, Australia
Is that coffee I hear?
What does the crack of dawn sound like?
I think the crack of dawn probably refers to a crack of light. That which signals the retreat of night and grows to reveal another day. If your senses are attuned to the frequency, it should be a sound of hope.
Keith Bushnell, Kangaroo Island, South Australia
• For those on a farm, with young children or with jobs requiring early morning calls to far-flung places: time to put on the second pot of coffee.
Nate Morris, Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
• The break of day, of course.
John Dawson, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
• A kookaburra laugh.
Peter Burton, Severnlea, Queensland, Australia
• Birdsong, as trees come alive with voices greeting the sun, which comes through a crack in the sky.
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Points to ponder
If you could be credited/remembered for a famous quote, what would it be and why?
Panta rhei, because it sums up all there is to know or to say.
Tijne Schols, The Hague, The Netherlands
• “When you find yourself in the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect”. Without it I would be a world-class sucker, the kind you see on the television so often interviewed on the spot.
Michael Goldeen, Carson City, Nevada, US
• On consciousness: “I think I am, therefore I must be” (akin to Descartes’ quote: “I think, therefore I am”), and I did make it up!
Stuart Williams, Kampala, Uganda
Any answers?
Would the witches’ prophecies have come true without Macbeth’s acts? Annie March, West Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Does God have a complaints line?
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
