Sir, - "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." So wrote Lewis Carroll in 1872, in his book Through The Looking-Glass. I am pleased to report that, contrary to popular belief, Humpty Dumpty is alive and well, and living in Tyrone Productions.
Pat Lonergan (July 6th) is, by his own admission, a quiz master of long standing. He must surely be aware, therefore, of the perils inherent in setting general knowledge questions which, by their very nature, would mean different things to different folk. For example, "a trifle" might mean "a sweet dessert" to a child; yet, to an adult, "an insignificant object" might spring to mind - both totally unconnected, yet both completely correct, and this is where the question-setter must be on his guard, to be aware that there may be a valid answer out there which may not have occurred to him. This is what I tried to illustrate in my sneering letter of June 28th.
My own copy of the New Shorter Oxford Dictionary, a tome available to both heart surgeons and hoi polloi alike off the shelf of any good Dublin bookshop and hardly classifiable as a "specialised medical reference work", gives a definition of "lunula" which broadly concurs with what was given by the contestant on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? on that fateful night: "A crescent-shaped region of thin tissue on each side of the module on each cusp of a valve in the heart or aorta." And not a fingernail to be seen anywhere!
Certainly, the question-setters made a couple of errors in this case; but their bigger mistake was not in overlooking the possibility of a second correct answer, but in haughtily ignoring the professional view of one of the most eminent cardiac surgeons around, and for quite some time.
Pride certainly came before a fall, when overwhelming public opinion forced the producers, with egg all over their face, to reinstate the contestant. I hope that Tyrone Productions has learnt a lesson from all this and will in future begin to emulate Mr Lonergan, and not Mr Dumpty. - Yours, etc.,
D.K. Henderson, Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.