Your Letters
18:12 UK time, Monday, 16 April 2007
In reference to quote of the day "'Pleased to meet you... toilet... pardon' - Phrases used by Kate Middleton's mum said to have displeased the Queen": all three phrases are listed as socially taboo in Kate Fox's wonderful expose of English manners and customs, Watching the English. However, the crowning glory of the snippet is the reference to Kate Middleton's "mum" in the explanatory prose: a hugely loaded term in KF's study. The implication seems to be that, by virtue of having made such social faux pas, Mrs. Middleton clearly is a "mum" rather than a "mother"
David, Cambridge
Re Dave Godfrey's letter about Neil Aspinall being "equal fifth" Beatle, I always thought that the fifth Beatle referred to Stuart Sutcliffe. But maybe there was only one "fifth Beatle" at any one time so those mentioned would be the "fifth Beatle at that particular time".
Katherine Broadhurst, Cardiff, Wales
Re: Fifth Beatles: Pete Best was of course one of four. Jimmy Nicol replaced Ringo for 10 days; Stu Sutcliffe played bass (sort of) when The Beatles were a five-piece band. And Billy Preston played on the Get Back sessions, so there were five musicians present. Maybe the best candidate is the late Mal Evans, The Beatles' faithful roadie, who died so tragically.
John Whapshott, Westbury, England
Know your hamsters, ´óÏó´«Ã½. The hamster in is Syrian, not Chinese.
Pamela, Bradford
Saturday's article about the break-up of Kate Middleton and Prince William's relationship described Prince William as having "a life dominated by the destiny he will one day fulfil". As opposed to the other sort of destiny, presumably.
Bob Peters, Leeds, UK
May I be among the first to nominate for the title of "things we already knew last week"?
Kate, Oxford, UK
Here's yet that turned out to be disappointingly tame after the headline - was anyone else expecting another Norton?
Katy, Cambridge
In response to David Cormie's letter on Friday about Latin translation, we have recently discovered that we have a family motto: Deo Luce Duce. An internet search has proved fruitless. Can anyone translate for us please? It might help us to abide by it.
Luke, London
The 
