WE described Gus McNaughton鈥檚 interest in word pairings at the top of the pages of dictionaries as 鈥渦nusual鈥� (2 September). It seems we were wrong. Colum Clarke writes to confess that he too has an interest in what he calls 鈥渁pposite adjacents鈥�. He offers a list of his own favourites from the paperback Oxford English Dictionary (2002). These include 鈥淥nline Open-heart surgery鈥�, 鈥淢etropolis Microclimate鈥�, 鈥淛ohnny-come-lately Jones鈥�, 鈥淢onster Monument鈥� and 鈥淗eedless Hellbent鈥�.
Then there鈥檚 David Scott, who claims that the 1960s Penguin English Dictionary 鈥渉as long been renowned for the page-heading entries carried under H鈥�. He offers two examples: 鈥渢he 鈥楬at Hawk鈥�, now almost extinct due to the scarcity of its habitat, and that dastardly villain 鈥楬eart-rending Hector鈥�.鈥�
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Doug Nichols, meanwhile, mines his local Yellow Pages, which he says throws up such concepts as 鈥淐orporate Desiccants鈥�, 鈥淥il Patrolmen鈥� and 鈥淎brasive Accountants鈥�.
Donna Holmes takes it all a step further. She uses dictionary pairings to make up stories and has sent us an example, gleaned from her New Lexicon Webster鈥檚 Encyclopedic Dictionary (1988), which begins: 鈥淚 went to a 鈥楾attoo Tea鈥� social and spoke with a 鈥楽outh Pole Spaceman鈥� who drank only 鈥榃izened Wood alcohol鈥欌�︹�� Her story ends with the spaceman being consigned to 鈥淯nited States Unlisted鈥�.
鈥淭he can of shaving foam James Hadfield bought carried the message 鈥淣o animal testing or ingredients鈥�. Happily, he says it seems to function perfectly well without them鈥�
Gus McNaughton, we apologise. Your field of interest is clearly entirely normal.
THE member of parliament for Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, is Charles Walker, who writes a regular column in the Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Mercury. A couple of weeks ago he dismissed the idea that people in the UK should change their lifestyles to avert global warming 鈥� because, he said, it is too late to make a difference, it would put the UK at a competitive disadvantage with respect to other nations, and scientists will come up with a solution anyway.
鈥淎cross the UK some of our cleverest people are developing technologies to harness the power of the tide, waves and wind,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e cleaned up coal by inventing a way of turning it into gas.鈥�
It鈥檚 good to see British scientists putting themselves at the forefront of 19th-century technology.
THE subject line on one of the weekly mailings of the Boston Area Physics Calendar gave pause for thought. 鈥淟ate Notice: A. Boozer at MIT,鈥� it said. Are drinkers so unusual at the prestigious institution?
The rest of the notice provides the explanation: 鈥�15 September, 3 pm: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Plasma Science and Fusion Center Seminar 鈥楻econnection and the Response of Toroidal Plasmas to Perturbations鈥� 鈥� Allen Boozer, Columbia University.鈥�
FOLLOWING our item about a 鈥渟olar system controller鈥� (2 September), Jude van Konkelenberg tells us that the Australian tax office recently appeared to have gone one better with a request for tenders for the services of a 鈥淯niverse Developer鈥�. On reflection, he thinks this is someone who designs online communications networks. We hope he is right.
Onomatopoeic nominative determinism
BACK to the subject of names: 鈥淚s this a case of onomatopoeic nominative determinism?鈥� asks Gary Humble of New 杏吧原创鈥榮 story on the European Space Agency orbiter鈥檚 crash landing on the moon (2 September, p 5). There, chief mission scientist Bernard Foing is quoted as saying, 鈥淚t鈥檚 likely to ricochet off the surface.鈥�
THERE was an unusually dense mist when 脫scar Martin was driving along the A6 freeway near Madrid in Spain one morning, compelling him to drive slowly and give his fullest attention to the road. Then he realised that ahead of him there was a message on an electronic display above the road. He thought it could well be something important, but couldn鈥檛 read it because of the mist. For some seconds he did his best to see the road ahead and the display above at the same time. Finally, he was close enough to be able to read the display. It said: 鈥淏eware, dense mist.鈥�
THE swimming pool thermometer that Jon Gregory bought at a specialist south of England retailer set him wondering. The photo he has sent us shows that it is marked with a scale that runs from -30 掳C to 60 掳C. Gregory suspects that swimming in water with a temperature anywhere near either end of that range could prove exceedingly difficult. Is this perhaps an example of what has become known as 鈥渆xtreme鈥� sport?
FINALLY, a light strip offered in the Maplin online catalogue has 30 LEDs which are described as being 鈥淗igh brightness: 14kmcd per LED鈥�. Chris Robbins translates for us: 鈥�14 kilo-milli-candelas 鈥� so that鈥檒l be 14 candelas then.鈥� Congratulations to Maplin. The kilo-milli-candela is the most pointless unit of measurement we have yet discovered.