More nice than wise.
Concerning nice distinctions, family resemblances, iterative walls and festive windows.
Another Nice Mess
Something I always enjoy reading is authors from different times moaning (or, if sneaky, having characters moan for them) about words they feel are being over-used at the moment. I have examples including ‘really’, ‘right-o’, ‘23-skidoo’ and, most surprisingly to me, ‘camouflage’.
And here’s Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey (incidentally in my opinion the funniest of Austen’s romantic male leads, and therefore my favourite) allowing his author to let off steam about how people misuse ‘nice’… and simultaneously, because Jane knew how to have her cake and eat it, about pedants who correct other people’s English.
‘But now really, do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world?’
‘The nicest; – by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding.’
‘Henry,’ said Miss Tilney, ‘you are very impertinent. Miss Morland, he is treating you exactly as he does his sister. He is for ever finding fault with me, for some incorrectness of language, and now he is taking the same liberty with you.’ […]
‘I am sure,’ cried Catherine, ‘I did not mean to say anything wrong; but it is a nice book, and why should not I call it so?’
‘Very true,’ said Henry, ‘and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk, and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! it is a very nice word indeed! – It does for everything. Originally perhaps it was applied only to express neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement; – people were nice in their dress, in their sentiments, or their choice. But now every commendation on every subject is comprised in that one word.’
‘While, in fact,’ cried his sister, ‘it ought only to be applied to you, without any commendation at all. You are more nice than wise.”
News and Ads
Last mention of this for a while, I promise, but my puzzle / box of postcards / murder mystery The Researcher’s First Murder remains a surely ideal Christmas present for your Auntie Kathy, who’s such an enthusiastic puzzler, postcard collector, and murderer.
Unfortunately, my publishers are absolute martyrs to bad luck; like Job, or the Ancient Mariner, or the Beano character Calamity James: constantly buffeted by various disasters which- as they often assure me- are no fault of their own. One can only sympathise. The latest of these random and undeserved misfortunes is that, like the original print run, the delivery of the reprint has been delayed by several weeks, and so my book is currently unavailable in many shops, including Amazon, in these last two weeks before Christmas. Which is, you know… a pity.
However! For now, you can still find it in some places. Online, Blackwell’s and Waterstone’s can still get it for you by Christmas, for instance.
Oh, and speaking of your Auntie Kathy, another present idea for her (I’m in such a helpful mood today) might be a subscription to the Airport. Or, of course, she could get it for you. Otherwise - you know her - it’ll only be socks, or postcards, or trophies from her murder victims.
Uncanny
I wouldn’t normally bother you with clickbait, but you have to admit, he REALLY does….
Commentary Box, on:
Re: mnemonics, martinthehypnotist shares this pleasing one:
While we're on ingenious mnemonics, should you ever need to know the number of books in the Bible: in the OLD TESTAMENT (3 letters, 9 letters) there are 39 books; in the NEW TESTAMENT (3 letters, 9 letters) there are 3x9 (ie. 27) books.
All I need now is a meta-mnemonic to remember which one to apply the first method to, and which the second…
‘Between These Four Walls’ Solution
Last time, I gave you five Only Connect style connecting walls, and added in my irritating way that these were split two on the free side of the chasm, two on the paid side. I also said I wanted the first solver to indicate their victory with a certain phrase relating to the whole puzzle.
So. Here are the solutions to the first four walls, the ones you were actually given:
The sneaky bit was realising that these four walls give you sixteen solutions… and to wonder what happens if you put those solutions into a meta-wall of their own. Well, I’ll show you what happens. And if you want to try solving it, don’t scroll down too fast, because I’m putting the solution immediately below it.
…And then when you solve that one, this happens:
…providing you with Victoria Coren Mitchell’s… well, not catchphrase exactly, but the statement of fact she often provides when a team, y’know, solve the wall. Which is what I wanted to see in the comments. And I didn’t have to wait long at all before I did, courtesy of Deane Short. Closely followed by the infallible HBB, who has taken either first or second place in all three puzzles so far, with a full explanation. Bravo to both.
And now, farewell to Thrifty Squadron, as, in a new piece of writing, I take Spendy Squadron on a tour of some of the Christmas window displays in the little village of Allwyn.
Love,
The Airport