Mahler is essentially a miniaturist writ large. Webern, on the other hand, writes huge symphonic structures on a vast canvas and then shrinks the canvas. Do not discuss.

In common with other cities, as time passed, so Sydney grew.

But do you suffer from Naires' Disease?

Best,

Alistair

Only Naire are prey to that particular pestilence, as anyone with even half a gram of logic would surely have fathomed.

it's the term to describe a man who always loses his dog in hyde park on wednesdays.

Well, I didn't know that, so there we are! - indeed, I've never even seen sang d'homard...

Anyway, if the best things in life are free but there's no such thing as a free lunch, lunch cannot be the best thing in life, can it? Or have I got that wrong as well? Or does it apply only if one has lobster for lunch?

Best,

Alistair

Now come on, Baz, this shouldn't be difficult if we apply some logic. It's the adjective applied to activities practised by the police force in order to apprehend criminals; thus 'a contrapuntal sting' is a ruse designed for the specific purpose of catching felons at their game. (Con (colloq. for "criminal") + trap (" a device or enclosure designed to retain animals, typically by allowing ingress but not egress, or otherwise by retaining hold of some part of the body") + untal (general purpose adjectival ending).
Thus by derivation also now used as a musical term used when composers have tried to be too ambitious in trying to combine more than one theme simultaneously, therefore revealing themselves as just too clever-clever.

 (I am, as ever, indebted to the Ladybird Book of Words for the explanation.)

Ron

I wish this was true, but I fear it is actually an adjective describing drug smugglers on the Cam.

Tommo