By God
Stephen Fry’s incisive remarks about God (if God exists, he is mean and stupid) reminded of an earlier comment by Jill Tweedie that there was no God had helped her accept life’s injustices. She was unable to accept the possibility that a loving powerful God could exist who had afflicted his creation with all the miseries of human existence.
Mabel Taylor, Cheshire, in The Guardian
That Darkie Fellow
My late husband, a Guardian reader from his arrival from India in 1956, used to tell the story of a visit to our news agent. The assistant called out in the shop: ”Ere Fred, you know that darkie fellow what reads the Guardian...ain’t got it today.” He asked for his epitaph to be ’That darkie fellow what reads the Guardian’ and considered it to be the perfect summing up of his life.
Jennifer Basannavar, Surrey, in The Guardian
Back to the Basics
I am afraid the idea that ‘those encouraging the use of Latinised plural’ should have ‘their recta kicked’ has a fundamental error. The rectum (from rectum intestinum, ‘straight intestine’) is an internal organ and thus not directly kickable. Presumably your correspondent meant culi (buttocks).
Burce Holman, Hampshire, in The Guardian
Er, what was that?
You report that alcoholic nightcaps can impair memory. I can’t remember the last time I had a drink before bedtime.
Keith Robinson, Berks, in The Times
