Great Uncle Fred? I saw a starling land all wrong on a branch today. It righted itself so quickly that I came up with this question. Great Uncle Fred, what is the briefest pause in nature? (Matthew, Winter 2007/8)

You have got a bit of a cold, a rattling sort of one. You cough unexpectedly. Something comes out, something almost solid, about the size of a pea and the colour of vegetable soup. If you now pause for the briefest time possible - that is, hardly any time at all - that object, if it is an object, can be safely returned whence it came, into one of the most intimate parts of you, your mouth. If the pause is any longer than the briefest pause in nature, the thing will turn into one of the most disgusting things that you have ever seen, felt, or even thought about - and must be removed from your person as swiftly as humanly possible and then disposed of and forgotten about. Phew. At the moment there has been no answer logged for this question.

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