Old

You know you are getting long in the tooth and your years of repressing the English language have been in vain when you find the following worthy of a guffaw:

Triumphant triontologias

TWO weeks ago we noted that you would be doubly truthful if you said of a computer-assisted tomography scan of a cat: "This is a cat scan" (20 August). We dubbed such statements diontologias and wondered whether there were any triontologias.

The challenge proved irresistible but hard to meet. The groan factor was high as readers struggled to find ways to satisfy the criteria using words such as "catastrophe", "catalogue" and "tomography". None really succeeded, and it was left to Nigel Steel to come up with what we felt was the best solution: "If you did a number of scans using positron emission tomography and an image of your own domestic animal companion was your personal favourite, then the statement, 'this is my pet scan', would be true to the third power."

Quite right Nigel, and thanks. Thanks also to Tom Gallard who reached almost the same solution with his "pet pet project". And we should mention the effort by Richard Saunders, who pointed out that if he bought a large musical instrument for £1000 and thought it was quite splendid, then the statement, "This is a grand piano", would be true three ways.