Your Letters
15:35 UK time, Thursday, 4 January 2007
Well done to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news editors in including the name of the chemical involved in today'sstory. To those of us who did any science at school or university this is very refreshing; usually stories involving chemicals assume all its readers are sociology or media studies graduates.
Bob Peters, Leeds, UK
So one possible origin of the phrase is that it was the name of a wealthy socialite famous for... well, not much at all. Time we updated it, I think. "Paris Hilton", anyone?
Rob, London, UK
Bearing in mind your interest in , I could not help but notice your spelling, "distain" on the . Of course you meant disdain, which means scorn; whilst distain is a bit like discolour. Unless of course you have coined a new portmanteau word by combining distaste and disdain - in other words a scornful dislike. Given that the look is given in Paris, perhaps the portmanteau is made up of distance and disdain - a far-away look of scorn.
PJ, West Yorks, thelbiq.co.uk
A firm pat on the back and a wry smile for the few fellow readers who refused to vote "And more" in today's . There are still some of us left, you know.
David Dee, Matola Mozambique
Hmmm. What attracted the Cheeky Girl to the publicity-hungry LibDem MP? The prosecution states that it has just heard what sounds suspiciously like a Cheeky Girls song being played on a national radio station for the first time since Touch My Bum (what was that tune called?) was in the charts way back when.
Patsy, Sheffield
In Wednesday's letters, Imogen describes Paper Monitor as a tall, rich, rugby-playing animal lover... she seems to be confusing it with me.
Mark, London
All this speculation about the gender of Paper Monitor is somewhat redundant. Those of us in the techie world know it's a computer-driven Personality Matrix. It (sorry, but it has to be "it") was knocked up (sorry, again) by a couple of nerds called, oh, Bill and Steve, in the 80s, which would explain the regular technical problems (viruses and other bugs). PM has since been endlessly reprogrammed by a succession of Silicon Valley surf 'n' cellphone types, before being acquired by the Beeb, where it was put in the care of a couple of slightly Sloaney admin girls who persuaded the chaps in tech support to jam a couple of "really human" bits in, like a love of shopping, red wine and double-shot latte. I hate to tread on anyone's dreams, but it's only right that people know they're flirting with something that you could store on a smart drive. Come to think of it, that could be a neat girl/boyfriend... downloadable and with regular updates. PM, marry me.
Chris, Witney, UK
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