h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I’m looking for two phrases used in English (although one of them originates elsewhere)

One means “so-so”, the other means “that which is readily won is readily lost”.

Both have four words, and both are fourteen letters long.

What is the other remarkable property that they share?

The remarkable property is that the first word is the same as the third word in both cases.

That wouldn't have been remarkable even if it were correct

Ah, wait - it "is" correct - it's just not the remarkable property

So it's not comme ci comme ca, not that I thought it was....

Easy come, easy go for one of the phrases?


[I'm just guessing off the top of my head]

Yes, both are correct, and Gnomon was correct, except no-one has yet identified the most remarkable property that those two phrases share.

Sorry about my earlier post - I'm having a bad day with an e-mail "reply-all war" (see Icy Naj journals passim)

They both contain the name Seacombe.

So far, so good?

There's a common pattern in which the first and third words are the same.

But apparently that isn't the "remarkable" part?

Forf what it's worth, both expressions have been the titles of films.

You're not there yet, but Recumbentman is thinking along the right lines.

They contain the same syllables, albeit in a different order.

No they don't.

"cosi cosa" is an Italian expression meaning so-so. I don't know if it has been borrowed by the English.

Cosi cosa must be cognate with the French version, I'm sure. It's the French version which matters for this quiz - you have both phrases you need. I just need to know what's remarkable about them.

They are both usually said with a shrug.

I thought comme ci comme ca was normally said with a downward palm see-sawed.

If you say both expressions at the same time, it sounds like come come come go.

like in quiz 18, it's something to do with the letters involved. (But it's a different property to 18)

In both quizzes, I have ruled out the fact that they can only be typed with one hand or are all to be found in one line on the qwerty/qwertz keyboard.