Which is more important: Notes or Queries?
It’s always good to maintain a questioning mind. It’s never good to think that you have all the answers.
Avril Taylor, Dundas, Ontario, Canada
• Queries are clearly more important than Notes. A description of our world (Notes) advances little, but questioning our world (Queries) has been the bedrock of human advancement.
David Turner, Bellevue Heights, South Australia
• Both may be questionable, but Notes are always notable.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Queries. Without them there’d be no direction for Notes.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• Neither. They go together like the proverbial love and marriage or horse and carriage.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• They’re both equally desirable: like having your cake and eating it too.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• I must make a Note to Query that.
Cameron Grant, Nailsworth, South Australia
• Queries: they generate Notes that only give point to Queries.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
God doesn’t care about status
When should social respectability be abandoned as a pursuit?
When socialising with my friends.
Ron Lowe, Hope Valley, South Australia
• When you become a hermit.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
• When you meet your maker.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Before you start pursuing it.
Peter Rosier, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
I am currently in injury time
What is your pet term for old age?
I can do no better than to read you my T-shirt, which says: “Aged to perfection.”
John Geffroy, Las Vegas, New Mexico, US
• In my late 60s, I regard myself as “upper middle-aged”. I like to think that, in my 80s, I shall become a “senior citizen”. Age is never old; it merely has more experience than younger ages.
John Wood, Hornchurch, UK
• The Estonian term rauk is essentially untranslatable but it resonates with the aches and stiffness of old age.
Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
• I don’t have a pet term, but my theme song is I Fall to Pieces.
Jim Takas, Dunedin, New Zealand
• Injury time, though were I a shopper I might prefer the Spanish equivalent, discount time – tiempo de descuento.
Nicholas Albrecht, Paris, France
• Tommy the tortoise.
Doreen Forney, Pownal, Vermont, US
• Now.
Jim Neilan, Dunedin, New Zealand
Step out your front door
Where I can find “the real world” that everyone refers to?
Just give away all your reales and it will find you.
David Percival, Ludmilla, Northern Territory, Australia
• Look away from your screen.
Doug Porteous, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Certainly not in so-called reality TV shows. Unless you live in a gated community, just step out your front door (without your smartphone) and look around you.
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Any answers?
Will we be ever happy?
E Slack, L’Isle Jourdain, France
Which fantasy land would you like to live in, and why?
Tijne Schols, The Hague, The Netherlands
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
