Diversions

NOTES & QUERIES

The mysteries of life may have to wait until the football is over

What’s a good way to hush an inquisitive child?

It depends on what one considers good. When I was an (over-)curious four-year-old child, my mum said to me once: “You’re asking me holes in my belly!” (The German idiom for: “You‘re driving me up the wall/round the bend!”) It did the trick. I kept shtum. She regretted having said this very much as she told me many times later. Effective but maybe not very wise.

Matthias Balkenohl

Bielefeld, Germany

• “I have no idea, go ask your mother.” Works every time … but oh, what a missed opportunity for wit, wisdom