Peter Blair

@Allison I have already revealed myself not to be a fashion expert, but Webster's New World College Dictionary Fifth Edition, The Times's in-house dictionary, says that a "stay" can be either "a strip of stiffening material used in a corset, the collar of a shirt, etc." or "[Chiefly Brit.] a corset stiffened as with whalebone." So it seems to be *both* part of a corset *and* a different (albeit similar) garment.

@Dave K. Grate pun, and my friends all say PETE'S A tough critic.

@Sam Corbin, I assure you I would never have developed an eye — or an appreciation — for artful stacking were it not for you and Deb. (And I'm sure I'm not alone here.)

@MC I'm glad you enjoyed the column. Thank you for reading. But I assure you that I was not *just* trying to guarantee an extra busy comment section today. (That was, at most, 50% of my motive.)

@Bill Thank you for reminding me this earworm existed. It has been years since I thought of this "Weird Al" parody, and I did not remember that it included the coincidence-vs.-irony reference. It's (not Its) brilliant.

@kilaueabart Interesting that GROW never occurred to me, but GAIN entered my mind immediately, perhaps because I suspected (wrongly, it turns out) that [Increase] was being used as a noun.

@Ms. Billie M. Spaight It's "*one* of my favorite" games. But I consider trying to get into the creator's head part of the challenge. It's partly a psychology game for me. Pips is probably my No. 1 online game at the moment, although nothing will ever supplant Split Decisions as my favorite on any platform. Fair cricitism of the column for being self-referential, by the way. Part of the challenge of being a guest writer is trying to balance that against having only a limited amount of time to introduce yourself to the community and giving readers a reason to care what you have to say.

@Heidi @Wendy A+ use of irony!

@Kiley Splendid!

@Kiley Splendid!