“Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Really?
The concept of cleanliness as a virtue has become an obsession in some western societies, resulting in poor immune systems as children are over-protected from germs instead of being sent to play in the backyard. As kids, we came home with grubby hands and knees, needing to be dumped in the bath tub before bed time. We ate fruit straight from the tree, picked up and brushed off a dropped cookie, and my mother’s counter-mantra was “You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die.” And I’ve reached my eighties.
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Yes, really. And both are next to impossible.
Donna Samoyloff, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Not in my experience, because the saints I have met have always been willing to get their hands dirty.
Neil Johnson, Birmingham, UK
• I asked the Burmese cat about this, and Rupa is of the opinion that she is next to godliness, whereas the elderly hound can only approach dogliness.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, New South Wales, Australia
• Not if you are an atheist.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Crucial brain difference
What is the difference between a nerd and a geek?
My children tell me you should wait until a nerd is 35 years old before thinking of marrying them, but you should never marry a geek. Or maybe it was the other way round.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• The geek shall not inherit the earth.
Mike Buky, Rocky Cape, Tasmania, Australia
• An orak.
Stuart Powell, St Albans, UK
• A geek is a nerd who gets things done. Good on ya Jeremy!
Patrick Speed, Bayswater, Western Australia
‘Hurry slowly,’ he said
What quotation would you have liked to have made up, and why?
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.” (Donald Rumsfeld). Why? By the time your opponent has worked this out you have already won the argument.
Dennis Roddy, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
• The oxymoron festina lente (“hurry slowly”) was one of Augustus’s favourites; in the early Renaissance it was regarded as having a quasi-mystical power, a sort of mantra. If you have a frantic job, try repeating it several times.
R M Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
• “‘Take my camel, dear,’ said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.” What an alluring invitation to enter the pages of a novel, in this case The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay.
Gerald Garnett, Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada
• Cogito ergo sum (“I think therefore I am”). It adds up for me.
Terence Webb, Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada
Touching base
Isn’t it time we met some of the regular N&Q contributors in the Good to Meet You feature?
We are sorry not to have met Stuart Williams when he was in Halifax. We too think it would be interesting to meet the people behind the names, and should be delighted if any other N&Q contributors passing through would care to get in touch and meet us for coffee or a drink. We are both in the phone book, and look forward to hearing from you.
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• I wouldn’t submit my biography to the sort of journal that would publish it.
John Grinter,
Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia
Any answers?
Politics excluded, what is the most dishonest occupation?
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Is there such a thing as fun for the whole family?
John Sang, Solothurn, Switzerland
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
