An even bigger welcome to first-time visitors and also in advance (and with great hope on my part) to all those who haven't checked out What's With That? yet.
Congratulations to Lynne Hill of Mosgiel, who goes down in history as the first reader to reply to a WWT challenge.
Lynne's favourite first sentence in a book or play will be popular with many of you:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife'' - Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen).
Lynne says it is her favourite "because it sums up the plot of so many books, from Cinderella to the current crop of easy-read romances''.
Kari Wilson-Allan, of Dunedin, has chosen Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries:
"The twelve men congregated in the smoking room of the Crown Hotel gave the impression of a party accidentally met.''
She says you "can't help but continue reading: who are the men, why are they there, and what is the uncertainty in the air?''
Marie Harbitt, of South Dunedin, is a firm fan of the opening of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, referred to in yesterday's column. And Peter Ramsay, of St Kilda, says you can't go past the first sentence of Ronald Hugh Morrieson's The Scarecrow: "The same week our fowls were stolen, Daphne Moran had her throat cut.''
Hopefully, more on this for you tomorrow - keep those literary opening lines coming.
Have you noticed how everything is a "conversation'' these days? You can't just "talk'' to someone anymore - an extra, delaying step is added to a simple process and you hear instead how "we must have a conversation about that''.
It's the same with "journey''. Everything is a journey - we're going on a personal journey, a health journey, a spiritual journey. What about a proper journey journey, actually involving kilometres?
I suppose it's all part of the ebb and flow and fashion of language, of how the lexicon is changing.
Let me know if you've heard, read or come across any ridiculous journeys lately.
Don't forget to keep writing to the email address above with your favourite first lines.
I'm also waiting with bated breath to hear your most embarrassing cellphone autocorrect texts. And please, please send us your photos of the bizarre and baffling.