It’s funny how the good-better-best sequence misbehaves if you apply it to the word “friend”. A best friend is a perfectly good superlative of a good friend. But if you say Joe is a “better friend” than John, that introduces a negative tone. The right thing is to say that Joe is a “closer friend” than John.

As my mother always told me and my sister, comparisons are odious.

[20 September 2018]