Hi, Paul!  Recently you wrote in a message to Alexander Koryagin:   
      
    ak>  Again there is some problems here, in Russian fidonet.   
    ak>  I send it again via Paul's station.   
      
    PQ>  This is one of the better cared-for echoes, here.   
      
      
             Ah.  Thanks for the vote of confidence....  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  Men and women are so different that even when they wash   
    ak>  their faces they have different results. Men will look   
    ak>  better.   
      
      
             So when her Significant Other realizes what she looks like, without   
   her War Paint, it's All Over?  I thought that went out in the 1960's....  ;-)   
      
      
      
    PQ>  Give me a dirty-faced woman any time.  :)   
      
      
             As either Erma Bombeck or Peg Bracken... both USAian writers, BTW...   
   has commented, many people are more attracted to female hands which look as if   
   they've been doing something interesting than to the soft & unscarred hands in   
   TV ads.  By the same token, I don't object to the sweat of honest toil when it   
   is fresh enough not to remind me of "Eau de Locker Room".  If only some of our   
   male friends recognized that they needn't shower & shave & drown themselves in   
   cheap cologne immediately prior to visiting with us... [wry grin].   
      
      
      
    ak>  If you want soup making to be less boring laugh ominously   
    ak>  every time when you add any ingredient.   
      
    PQ>  I would call it "soup-making", though I cannot explain why.   
    PQ>  (Ardith could, I'm sure.)   
      
      
             I'd spell it the same way you do, but as a native speaker I may not   
   always be able to explain the underlying reason(s) for such decisions either.   
      
             I find it easier to read as a hyphenated word than as a single word   
   without the hyphen or as two separate words... maybe because this combination   
   is a bit unusual?  I can offer fragments of a road map here, but without many   
   more examples I don't feel I can count on precedent for guidance.   
      
      
             Anyway, here are the examples I've come up with thus far:   
      
    1)  standard two-word combinations (in North America, anyway):   
      
            soup kitchen, soup spoon   
      
    2)  two words (from a wooden box which originally contained Bronnley   
        English Lemons & which is now about forty years old):   
      
                             BY APPOINTMENT   
                             TO H M THE QUEEN   
                             TOILET SOAP MAKERS   
      
   Both Pears & Carr's of Carlisle, OTOH... in more recent packaging... describe   
   themselves as "xxx manufacturers", which more clearly requires two words.   
      
    3)  one word, no hyphen... confirmed by two dictionaries of Canadian English   
        and apparently consistent with US English:   
      
            dressmaker, dressmaking   
            haymaker, haymaking   
            metalworker, metalworking; woodworker, woodworking   
      
    4)  mixed results:   
      
            merry-maker/merrymaker   
            holiday-maker/holidaymaker/holiday maker   
      
   In both cases the hyphen seems to be more popular among Brits & ex-Brits of a   
   certain age... but these words are not commonly used in North America.   
      
    5)  hyphenated word regarded by the authors of my OXFORD CANADIAN DICTIONARY   
        as North American & Australian slang:   
      
            widow-maker.   
      
   No doubt you'll excuse me while I ROFL here!  Bottom line is, I won't quibble   
   about how others choose to spell words which can't easily be looked up.  :-))   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)