A chara, – A search of The Irish Times archive shows that Brian Dillon's use of "stichomythic" in his review of Roddy Doyle's novel Smile is the first appearance of the word in this newspaper's 158-year history (Weekend Review, September 2nd).
Whether stichomythic accurately describes the “pub-bound Flann O’Brien” dialogue of the novel I do not know, but it’s worth 72 points in Scrabble. – Is mise,
BLAIR NOONAN,
Dublin 6.