So that was what his officers had been discussing so solemnly; not for the first time, Captain Laplace wished he knew a little more Mandarin.

On the serious side, the two candidates for mayor - the incumbent, Michael Youchah, and the challenger, Andrew Miller - solemnly discussed the issues dividing the community.

He was only a seven-year-old boy, after all, and I was solemnly discussing the oppressive nature of religious belief as if we were two intellectuals drinking espresso in a coffeehouse.

Thian rather hoped that this ended the evening but the diners left the long table and congregated in smaller groups: some officers renewing acquaintances while others solemnly discussed details.

It was like a professor solemnly discussing the tactics of a kid's game of marbles.

That would include the young man who, as the cremator at the end of the movie, solemnly discusses the mechanics of his job with the mourners.

Having stipulated our cultural code as a whole, they fiddle with details- even such piffle as solemnly discussing whether or not the female breast is an 'obscene' sight!

Members of Parliament solemnly discussed whether it should be illegal to report that a man sold a house or owns a Picasso.

So Mr. Yamamoto can solemnly discuss the importance of a warm coat on a cold day and can contemplate such questions as "which comes first, the touch of the material or the shape?"