Two years of his life were spent at this elevating game, during which time he had only eighty-two fights with fond mothers who felt that he had been either neglectful of their particular children or had ruthlessly given them the rinky-dink.

Recall that absolute geometry is the set of statements that can be deduced from Euclid's first four postulates. Then existence of parallel lines is certainly a theorem of absolute geometry, while the question being addressed by most of the mathematicians discussed in this section is whether uniqueness of parallels is also a theorem of absolute geometry.

‘He was still booking them in for their check-ups. All that cholesterol to be tested, all those urinalyses.’

The second adjustment [to a door that keeps swinging open] will require the screws to be loosened, and a shim or packing piece pushed behind the hinge to bring it into line.