What determines the speed at which clouds move?
As Joni Mitchell put it: I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow ... I really don’t know clouds at all.
John Ryder, Kyoto, Japan
• The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind (with apologies to Bob Dylan).
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• The proximity of my umbrella.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, BC, Canada
• Weather it’s Cumulus or a Nimbus.
Peter Stone, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• The number of terabytes they are storing.
David Ross, Fenières, Thoiry, France
• The internet, of course!
Alan Williams-Key, Madrid, Spain
Evasive, or simply hungry?
Why is “at the end of the day” uttered so often in interviews?
Perhaps because there is no end of the day in our current 24-hour news cycle, and we’re all longing for it.
Sarah Klenbort, Bronte, NSW, Australia
• Most people giving interviews use cliches because they are nervous or, if they are a politician or a banker, to avoid answering the question.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Um, it’s just dawned on me, so I’ll make sure that it never happens again.
John Benseman, Auckland, New Zealand
• Because other cliches such as “to be honest” and “to be fair” have had their day.
Jenefer Warwick James, Paddington, NSW, Australia
• It’s the speaker’s subconscious wish to get the hell out of there and go home for dinner.
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Because “going forward” that is where we expect to arrive.
Mike Kearney, La Mouche, France
Black, white and read all over
Do you have a pet name for the Guardian?
Yes, the gud’n (the good one). I just can’t wait for the “guan’o” to pop through my letterbox – all that white with those little specks of black to fertilise my mind.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• In the 1960s, when I was a Manchester undergraduate, it was always the Grauniad.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• No.
FJ Thorpe, Ottawa, Canada
• “Emily”, as in “The Americanization of”.
Jeffry Larson, Hamden, Connecticut, US
The secret to success
What personal qualities are required for a successful career in politics?
A detachable conscience.
Mick Mallon, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada
• Avoid the question.
Tina Moose, Wakefield, Quebec, Canada
• Judging by recent Twitter activity, thicker skin is de rigueur.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Films and fond memories
What comedy film still makes you laugh?
Jacques Tati’s performances as the avuncular, taciturn Monsieur Hulot with the idiosynchratic tennis serve and insouciant sense of humour. The scene where he and some boys put a brick in a paper bag in the middle of the street, only to have the local priest take the bait, is comedic poetry.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
• Kind Hearts and Coronets, a British film from 1949.
Gerald Garnett, Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada
Any answers?
Invent an equivalent to the French idiom, “falling like hair on soup”.
Gerald Garnett, Kaslo, BC, Canada
When has signing a petition ever got us anywhere?
Angela Blazy-O’Reilly, Villeneuve-la-Comptal, France
• Send answers and more questions to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
