Photograph: Natalie Pecht/Getty Images/VisitBritain
Who decided women should wear skirts when most of us clearly prefer to wear the pants?
The wearing of skirts or pants (trousers) is clearly cultural: in many cultures, both males and females wear skirts while increasingly in western cultures both men and women wear pants.
The bigger question is: why does the word “pants” refer to outer garments in some parts of the world, but to undergarments in others?
Avril Taylor, Dundas, Ontario, Canada
• The Victorians went apoplectic at the flash of a zaftig ankle.
RM Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
• In your phrasing you are quite specific in referring not to “pants” but to “the pants”. This suggests to me that you’re not concerned with an issue of dress but are rather alluding to the senior role in a relationship.
Once you clarified this issue, I’ll be happy to provide you a proper answer.
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Not the Scots.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• It wasn’t really a choice as such. Long skirts were essential for women before the provision of sanitation. They provided a handy portable toilet tent. Many women in developing countries still do not have access to loos.
Mary M Scott, Huntly, UK
No choice but to choose
When is choice not a luxury?
When it’s between a rock and a hard place.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• Ask Hobson.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• Ask Sophie.
Neil Johnson, Birmingham, UK
• When you and an express train are approaching a level crossing.
Adrian Cooper, Queens Park, NSW, Australia
• When deciding whether to clean the neglected house or the filthy car.
Gillian Shenfield, Sydney, Australia
• When, according to marketers, it actually prevents you from accomplishing a mundane task, like choosing which bread to eat. It can make supermarket shopping a chore. Yes, a first-world problem.
Bryan Smith, Sweaburg, Ontario, Canada
• When it has to be made.
Edward P Wolfers, Austinmer, NSW, Australia
• When you don’t have any choice.
John Ralston, Mountain View, California, US
Therapeutic washing
What is the most superannuated device that you still use?
I love to open my grandparents’ old music box and watch the cogs whir and drums and cymbals beat. Out of it comes the sound of summer holidays and treasured memories.
Richard Druitt, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
• A 1950s mangle, Acme brand, made in Glasgow, just like my Mum’s. A fossil-free and therapeutic way to wring hand-washed clothes.
Felix Ansell, Benfeita, Portugal
Why did I come up here?
What is so complicated about old age?
Contemplation of the hereafter. Every time I go upstairs I think to myself, “Now, what did I come up here after?”
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
• Thinking makes it so.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• Planning your exit.
Robert Locke, Fondi, Italy
Any answers?
The most boring title for a novel?
Edward Black, Church Point, NSW, Australia
Why is it easier to pull a load uphill than to push it?
Gaynor McGrath, Armidale, NSW, Australia
Send answers and more questions to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
