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

What is unusual about this sentence?

‘All that wine with a heavenly man left inattentive Natalie (nineteen) in the family way’

I assume Natalie was a flapper?

Well, I wouldn't have used that word...

Is it something about the letters in it ?
It doesn't use all 26.

Something about the letters *not* in it ?

There are a number of noteworthy things about the sentence, but who [besides Icy] knows what answer we're expected to give?

Here are some points worth making:


1. The sentence is somewhat clumsy. One assumes that the wine was drunk, but the sentence doesn't actually say so.

2. There's a bit of alliteration [InNATtentive NATalie]

3. For centuries, wine has had some symbolic importance in the Middle East. Some interpreters of Omar Khayyam's poetry say that his references to wine meant the love of God. This seems relevant to this sentence because "wine" and "heavenly man" are both words used.

3. There are 19 syllables through "Natalie" in the sentence. The next word is "nineteen," which are the 19th and 20th syllables.

4. Another possible hint at divinity is the last four letters of the sentence: y way, which could imply Yawweh, another name sometimes used for God.

5. The book "heavenly man," which is a biography of a Chinese missionary, was reviewed by Natalie Vellacott at Amazon. This may just be random "noise," siginifying nothing.

Paul, you're a genius.

This isn't a quiz. It's Kabbalah.

I agree! It's amazing what you can see in a seemingly random sentence.

SuperFrenchie is on the right lines, though

Scrabble scores ?
Number of letters / syllables ?
I have no idea.

Oh, you're getting colder again now

There's no "o" in it. Nor is there a "u" but that is not necessarily unusual. No "e" or "a" would have been more of a challenge.

Back with a jumper.

Is that sentence an anagram of another sentence ?

Not an anagram. Keep going on those letters...

"Paul, you're a genius."

Genius is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration, Dmitri. I do what I can, and if others use my ideas to score, so be it. Group efforts are often what counts.

Taking an analytical approach, I have worked out that there are the following numbers of each letter

a - 10
e - 11
f - 2
h - 4
i - 8
l - 6
m - 2
n - 10
t - 10
v - 2
w - 3
y - 3

which was probably a waste of time. Even just reading the sentence you can tell that there are an awful lot of letters which do not occur in it. And those are not the scrabble scores of those letters, either. Shame : 10 for "A" would be rather nice.

You might find post 3 useful...

Was Natalie's surnamw WAX by any chance?

All the letters when written as capitals use only straight lines. There are no curves.

You've got it, Gnomon.

You saw through my lowercase disguise.

Yes, I should have put a K, X and Z in there to complete the set. I thought I'd go for surface reading instead.

[Amy P]

Supplementary question for bonus points:

Can anyone name a ten-letter word that is made only of letters with curves (in upper case).

Clues: It's generally hyphenated, and it's something dog owners might possess.