Were your good old days really good?
Not entirely, but being young and innocent certainly helped.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• Not particularly but, for my generation, there was hope that they would get better – as they did.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• How could they not have been? I was young, healthy, fit, well-educated, well-employed and blessed with a wonderful young family. Oh yes, I also had all my hair and not a worry in the world.
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
• The good old days gathered yeast, and in the ferment of time, got better and better; the bad old days were forgotten.
John Geffroy, Las Vegas, New Mexico, US
• Yes, the bits we choose to remember were really good. The bits our memories select out – well ...
Lorna Kaino, Fremantle, Western Australia
• I was born in 1946. Need you ask? My good old days were bloomin’, boomin’!
Alison Monks-Plackett, Pillemoine, France
• Yes, really good. And in 20 years these will be the good old days.
Tony Chiarletti, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
• They were then.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia
• For the wealthy and powerful minority perhaps, but for what I know of my grandparents’ lives, it was a hard, unrelenting grind – leaving school at 14, with no chance of moving beyond their “station”. How grateful am I to have been “born at the right time” (as Paul Simon says)!
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• I cannot tell. My good old days lie ahead of me: at least I hope they do.
Greg McCarry, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Sure. I even wear a pair of rose-tinted glasses now.
Sunil Bajaria, London, UK
• Good? They were really great!
Charlie Bamforth, Davis, California, US
Can I take the mic off now?
Why is the cliche ‘at the end of the day’ uttered so often in interviews?
Because when all is said and done, there are lessons to be learned and we can take the positives before moving on.
Richard Bennett, Chelsfield, UK
• To bring the interview to a quick conclusion.
Bonnie Barton, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, US
We never even got that far
Why are there so few books with really bad endings?
They all lived happily ever after.
David Isaacs, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• To balance out the many books with really good endings.
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
• Because a bad book coming to an end is actually a good ending.
Tara Bajaria, London, UK
• Because Fantasy Fiction is all the rage.
Malcolm Campbell, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• If the book is good it doesn’t have a bad ending, and if it’s bad you either don’t finish it or experience enormous relief when you get to the end. Either way, you don’t notice the bad ending. That leaves the relatively few books that are good, but come to a bad end.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• I suspect that the majority of books have really bad endings – it’s simply that we’ve thrown them down in disgust long before we get there.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
Not much celerity there
What determines the speed at which clouds move?
Clouds don’t move over the tiny islands of the Pacific; they sit over the land like a hat. The trade winds rise as they pass over the land, condensing out the moist air, then drop again to dry out and move on.
David Trubridge, Havelock, New Zealand
Luther really nailed it
When has signing a petition ever got us anywhere?
Wittenberg, 1517, when the petition of 95 theses was nailed to the door of the local church by Martin Luther. It got him outlawry, the Diet of Worms and the Protestant Reformation.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Any answers?
What is the best ‘freebie’ you have ever been given?
Dave Robinson, Newstead, Tasmania, Australia
Which planet would you choose to live on if you had the choice?
Jenefer Warwick James, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Send answers and more questions to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
