On Tuesday, June 30, 1992 at 1:12:39 AM UTC-4, ske...@skatter.usask.ca wrote:

In "The Perfect Mate," Alexander said "the higher, the fewer" at least twice. What the heck did that mean? Our station routinely chops two minutes
from every episode, so we might have missed something. Please email.

skeeter@skatter.usask.ca no nifty .sig

So, 26 years later, and I come across this mysterious phrase again - not just once, but twice. The first is in the title of a 1911 movie about a poor prizefighter who falls for a rich girl and feels he's unworthy. Then he receives an inheritance and
becomes afraid to betray his past. The second is that it's actually in the Stephen King book, The Shining, in chapter 39. The voices in little Danny's head ask Lewis Carroll's Hatter's famous riddle, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" and immediately
answer it with, "The higher, the fewer, of course! Have another cup of tea!" If I remember Alexander's demeanor when repeating it correctly, my guess is that this is where it came from. It still doesn't explain anything but it could imply that Mrs. Troi
was reading The Shining to him - by far the most inappropriate lesson she could have taught him!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tuesday, June 30, 1992 at 1:12:39 AM UTC-4, ske...@skatter.usask.ca wrote:

In "The Perfect Mate," Alexander said "the higher, the fewer" at least twice. What the heck did that mean? Our station routinely chops two minutes
from every episode, so we might have missed something. Please email.

skeeter@skatter.usask.ca no nifty .sig

As another poster said, Alexander was simply repeating another character's line, which Mrs. Troi pronounced "a conversation stopper", in order to actually stop a conversation. As far as the phrase itself, I just came across it not once but twice in
unrelated places (which then referred me to this thread).
First, it is the title of a 1911 film about a poor prizefighter who thinks he's unworthy of the rich girl he loves and after he receives a substantial inheritance, takes pains to hide his past. Second, Stephen King used it in chapter 39 of The Shining.
The voices in little Danny's head pose Lewis Carroll's Hatter's famous riddle from Alice in Wonderland, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" and then immediately answer it with, "The higher, the fewer, of course! Have another cup of tea!" My guess is
that this is where the script writer found it.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

It's a quote from "the Shining". Stephen King offers it as an answer to Lewis Carol's unanswered riddle in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland": "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" This episode has many elements of madness in it, just like both the
Shining and the mad hatter's tea party. One wonders if Lwaxana's marriage would've ended up like the Torrance's had she gone through with it? I also wonder if the writers were perhaps trying to show how terrifying it can be to have a strict
disciplinarian for a father. Here's Warfy?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)