Isn’t it time we met some of the regular N&Q contributors in the space below?
I certainly agree as I feel I already belong to some sort of “club” of contributors who often tell similar stories of lives of travel and working in far-flung places. My husband and I would be happy to meet other “left-leaning” N&Q contributors who may be passing through our remote but rather lovely part of the world.
I confess that I was an early contributor to Good to Meet You and a lady recently shook my hand at a meditation session I was leading and said that she felt she already knew me from reading the GW!
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• My wife and I stopped recently for a cup of coffee at the cafe on the corner of the Princes Highway and Potato Point Road in the small village of Bodalla on the far south coast of New South Wales. I asked the waitress, who is this Ursula Nixon from Bodalla who has an answer in the N&Q section of almost every edition of the Guardian Weekly?
The waitress had never heard of her. Does Ursula Nixon really exist? (Mind you, neither had the waitress heard of the Guardian.)
Bill Coote, Canberra, Australia
• Maybe, but we really are fully occupied in thinking up informative/tongue-in-cheek/provocative/exquisite or funny and punny responses.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, New South Wales, Australia
• The answer is probably yes, but I genuinely believe that over the past 20-odd years, one way or another (sometimes unwittingly thanks to the local red), enough personal information has been revealed to make a contribution to the space below redundant.
Just for the record though, E stands for Edward or its diminutives depending on who I’m talking to (oh no, another grammar blunder…)
E Slack, L’Isle Jourdain, France
• Some of us might prefer to meet in the space above.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Oh, you mean that space – in the paper edition.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Above all else, I prefer to be a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Donna Samoyloff, Toronto, Canada
Still scratching our heads
If ignorance is bliss, then what is knowledge?
Knowledge is the cure for ignorance, which is why epistemology should be better understood. Thus if ignorance is not cured, then it is not knowledge, which is why ontology should be better understood.
P Gifford, Wee Waa, Australia
• In the 20th century, “the knowledge” was what London taxi-drivers had to acquire to enable them to get a fare by the most direct route from A to B. Now that knowledge is GPS.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, BC, Canada
• A dangerous thing in little doses.
Dr John Reynolds, Auckland, New Zealand
They make the thing go round
Who are the main characters of this world?
€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€.
Malcolm Shuttleworth, Odenthal, Germany
Tools down, everyone
Who invented the coffee break?
An older woman who worked for a major bank here in New York City told me that coffee breaks were introduced during the second world war to help soothe/calm peoples’ nerves. Meanwhile, I have such fond memories of tea breaks when I studied and worked in London. Forget about trying to reach anyone by telephone at 4pm.
Laura Miner, New York City, US
• Mr Bean.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Any answers?
Why are caravans still white? Why can’t we have leopardskin, psychedelic or simply purple nowadays?
Geraldine Blake, Worthing, UK
Are monks in and of themselves good humans? If not, who is?
Burkhard Friedrich, Berlin, Germany
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
