Slight, myopic, and notoriously absent-minded, he conceived his famous problem in 1904, eight years before he died, and tucked it as an offhand question into the end of a sixty-five-page paper.
Whether he's an out-and-out wrong'un is up for debate, but his offhand question to Danny about pinching an item of "sentimental value" was loaded with menace.
But what still thrills him most is providing offhand answers to questions steeped in obscurity.
Offhand I doubt that there are ten original words of [Oliver ] Garretts in the whole script.
Just a casual question, an offhand remark, as it were.
A pointed little thriller with metaphysical pretensions, "First Snow" is shrewd enough to approach basic philosophical questions in sneaky, offhand ways.
People who must interact with a Codependent often feel "forced" into telling an offhand lie in answer to a codependent's manipulative question, and this should be avoided; recognize that it is completely within your rights to say, "I wouldn't be comfortable answering that question".
Grint has always managed to avoid questions about any real-life girlfriends in a similarly offhand way.
Such questions are tendered by Mr. Williams's gruff tiger in an offhand, conversational tone that considerably lightens their weightiness.
His offhand comments, which seemed to home in on specific points but actually questioned the fundamentals of research, could spark years of study, former students said.
If you ever get out of bed and use this cord in public, be prepared to be asked a lot of questions about where you purchased it, to which you will reply, with an offhand laugh, "Why, from the online cat-food store, Amazon, of course".
