´óÏó´«Ã½

I would like to thank the Magazine for providing me with the . I completed the quiz on the 11-plus and then started to use the skills I had just proved were still intact to think about how long it was since I had actually sat the papers myself- and worked out that its been a whole 11 years since I had the pleasure of completing the exam's notoriously confusing puzzles. I must say it served me well though- I got an A- got into a grammar school and then headed onto the dizzy heights of medicine- where I'm sitting my finals next year- although I doubt if they'll be even nearly as difficult as the 11+ seemed all those years ago.
Louise McMurran, Glasgow

I would just like to point out that the type of questions that are part of your mini 11-plus exam are of the old type used in N Ireland. They ceased being used about 15 years ago, I was the 1st year to do the new style which is of a more useful style with normal science, English and maths questions and not the number and word puzzles included in your exam. As a result of the changes made 15years ago I think the exam became more relevant to the subjects normally studied in school.
Owen K, Coleraine, N. Ireland

Is another case of nominative determinism?
Vicky O'Brien, London

Tinks, Reading

Hurrying through my local supermarket, I picked up my customary bag of mixed lettuce leaves, then paused and looked at the bag which was different: it now bore the legend: "Christmas Salad." Why? It's a desperate attempt to give everything a seasonal appellation. I was reminded of Auntie Vera in the Giles cartoons who, in one Christmas cartoon, was pictured clutching something labelled "Jolly Foot Powder." Anyone else seen examples of this madness? Happy Cling Wrap?
Susan, Brisbane, Australia

Was anyone able to read

Re , if some of the early computer systems had 500 single key commands (perhaps the reason they didn't catch on is that few could fit the keyboards on their desks.
Adam, London, UK

Nope, have gone home by 5:30 pm... usually catch up with the letters the next day though.
Ali Longstaff, Ipswich, UK

I may not have been there last night (broken internet connection), but will be tonight. The distraction will be very welcome!
Andrew, Leicester

I'm still here, (not) working hard. And I'd quite like to know who set the timer on the 11-plus test to 6 seconds?! I know it was supposed to be hard, but that seems a little extreme. (Am a little proud of the fact that I still scored 3)
Nicky, London, UK

I'm disappointed that MM is testing us with its request for us to beg for letters (Tuesday). I would have begged quite happily had it not been for the fact that I was out of the office. Does that mean that we miss out on letters for Tuesday?
Louisa, Leicester

No I wasn't there I was on my way home for my tea (chilli). I now am here eating lunch (sausage roll and beans) and there are no letters to read, not even yesterday's.
Paul, Plymouth

Dear Monitor, No I wasn't here last night, I was Christmas shopping, and now wish I hadn't! Next time I get the urge to shop I'll stay home to read your letters page instead.
Sue, Swindon

Is anyone still there? Well yes - it is only lunchtime here and that is prime Magazine Monitor reading time!
richard, picton, canada

I come come in this morning with a slight hangover and thinking, oh well, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ didn't publish the letters yesterday so at least I'll be able to read them this morning. Then I just get an experiment! My brain can't deal with experiments currently. Give me some letters!!!
Tom, London

No I wasn't in, so am rather disappointed to come in and read them this morning to find that... there still aren't any letters. A late bus, a cancelled meeting and no letters - so much disappointment and it's not even 9am!!
Jennie Fisher, Leeds, UK

At 7:12am on Wednesday morning I've been up for over an hour as the beautiful sunshine streaming in through the curtains has woken up the kids. So I do have time to read through the latest crop of letters before getting my ferry into work! And all jealous responses are gratefully accepted!
James S, Auckland, NZ

Dear Monitor, I thought you should know that I cannot bring myself to leave the office until after that day's Letters have been published. My boss keeps wondering why I pull all-nighters here almost every Thursday, but I simply haven't the heart to tell him the truth yet...
Wolf, A Lonley London Office ...

I have always thought that if a TV version of the Magazine Monitor were made it would be more suited to post-watershed. Not sure if it would be ´óÏó´«Ã½3 or ´óÏó´«Ã½4 to start with, but that would mean working well past 6pm. Given the question of publishing letters past business hours, that now puts you with a 5 minute slot at the end of Newsround. I fear the hooded "yoof" might not get the porridge references.
Niki, Frome, Somerset

There's a snow storm outside. Highway's a parking lot. At work late waiting for it to clear and can't help but think - if letters had been posted 5 hours ago, I'd have something to do rather than work at this point.
Kat, Montreal, Canada

Hello, I'm still here! xxx
John Mac,

11.13, still here. Letters still aren't...
Andrew Fermor, Deal

Monitor - yes! Here I am, checking back at 11pm, long after the end of my working [procrastinating] day, hoping for a bounty of letters to make amends for the tardiness of the riches of today's daily press... and no letters either? It's not even Thursday. I shall have to entertain myself with some Cabbaging (all the Tunnock's Teacakes for me!).
Nich, Nottingham

Yes.
Margaret O'Connor, maggsoc@yahoo.com

What a cop out! We're not all in your time zone, you know!
Pix6, Vienna, Austria

Yes. And I'm still working. Do I win?
Sue, London

I work nights, so yup, I'm still here. Post 'em anyway!
Adam, Nottingham

Hi, yes, I see your message now at 21:43 while waiting for my PhD thesis to spool to the printer!
Lisa, Bath

I am still here and if the letters are not published by the time I leave work I check for them at home as well! I even read the letters pages in order when I return from holiday to catch up! Did I just say that out loud!?
Katherine, Cardiff

I'm still here - am I too late???
Lola, Birmingham

I'm here. I am unemployed and look forward to reading the letters every day.
Nicola, Bristol

YES, I am still here and have wasted nearly half my afternoon checking back to the MM/PM page to see what bounty awaits me. And now you're asking me to JUSTIFY that??!? Hmph. I hope you're feeling really cold and... and contrite!
Nima, DC, USA

"Is anyone still here"... you seem to forget that this column doesn't just go out to the UK. I look forward to reading this column mid-Morning (still a few hours after you put new items online). So yes, definitely - don't turn every day into a Thursday.
Mark Richards, Timaru, New Zealand

Not everyone lives in the UK. Those of us in exile in parts remote (I'm in the North American colonies) are still at work hours after the motherland gets its hat and coat. Imagine, then, my dismay when I took my lunch break look at the Monitor, and found, in the space where "Your Letters" should be, a lack, nay a dearth, of said letters. Come on, Monitor -- you're just not trying hard enough. There's still a fortnight to go before Christmas, you know...
Steve, Florida

Thanks to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Mobile site, I enjoy reading the letters whilst sitting on the train via my TyTN II!
Nick Thomas, Walton on Thames

Dear MM, Yes I'm still here. Due to snow and a cancelled flight I'm very much STILL here in KC. My colleagues haven't donned their hats or coats and are also still here. Please don't forget those of us abroad that work in different time zones that rely on MM just as much as people in the UK to waste productive hours pondering the relative sizes of buses and football pitches.
Michael B, London (but Kansas City right now)

I was wondering where you'd got to ! I looked to get my Letters fix around 6pm, and now, just before I leave work, thought I'd try again. So, no amusing names or obvious headlines to keep me warm while I scrape the car windscreen before heading off home.
Paul Greggor, London

It's just gone two o'clock over here, and I've come back from lunch, looking forward to today's letters (I always save them for after lunch). However, I really don't mind waiting until tomorrow if the Monitor has bad weather and a long journey home to contend with.
Nicolas, Warrenville, IL

Not only am I still t(here) I am hoping that I might be the only one, and therefore get a letter published - an occurrence rarer than a sighting of letters on a Thursday. And I live in Germany, so it's an hour later......
Harvey Mayne, Frankfurt, Germany

Some of us of course are so very blooming busy during work time that they don't have a second to call their own and have to wait until eight o'clock to read MM. So yes, I'm here, but here is home not work.
Vicky, East London

What with is only being mid-afternoon here (Atlantic time), yep, you still got me babe!
Morwenna Hancock, North Sydney, NS

Yes I'm still here, on a foreign laptop. Waiting for daughter to produce our first grandchild. Will send news as and when.
Carol, Portugal

Yes I'm still here and I will keep coming back until the letters are published (or there is something good on TV)
Mark , Exeter

I'm still there! But not all there, clearly, otherwise I'd have gone home by now.
Tom, Aberystwyth

Yes! We on the other side of the pond are still here. Porridge, Routemaster buses and nominative determinism know no time zones.
Jennifer, Connecticut, USA

Working in a mundane call centre from 09:30 to 19:30, 5 days a week, I am still here!! And! Disappointed that no letters have appered today! It's my only link back to sanity in these 10 hours! I'm going to go home and foam at the mouth! Thanks Monitor! p.s. The exclamation mark at the end of my name is to highlight how common and uninteresting my name is... Does anyone else have a more common name?! John Brown perhaps!?
David Smith!, Kidsgrove, Stoke, UK

The land of the Tonka toy never sleeps!
Rachel, Minnetonka

I'm still here! I usually check the Monitor for PM and the stories when I get into my office (8am Pacific Time) and then again at lunch to catch the letters and any exra items.
Dragon Paltiel, Concord, Calif. US

Here! (It's like school, this.)
Stig, London, UK

I'm still here, mainly because the time difference means North Norfolk lags behind GMT by about 15 years.
Noel Hinton, Holt Norfolk

I'm here - I keep checking for the letters. I'll love you forever dear MM if you print them just for me!!
Sue B, Oxfordshire

I'm here! But here is home, where I've been since lunchtime because I have a double free on a Tuesday afternoon, so I may not count.
Louise, Surrey

I'm still here! Although I'm going in a minute, lots of papers to mislay on trains, that sort of thing....
Bernard, Whitehall,

Yep - still here. Photocopier jammed. No chocolate left in the vending machine. Anyone seen the ship's cat?
Violet, Leicester

Depressingly so...
Phil, Oxford

Yes I'm still here. Am pretending it's because I'm uber diligent, but really it's because my choir practice starts in an hour and it's not worth going home in between. So once a week I can look like a model employee! But still wish you'd publish letters earlier though, as other days I'm outta here.
Sally, London

Yes, and I'll be here for a while. Should we order a pizza?
Simon, London

Yes, I'm still here. But given that you hardly publish my letters, even when some of them are maybe slightly amusing, I'm not sure if you really mind or not. Sorry, it's been a long and rather fruitless day, involving taking several hours to discover the difference between " and ' in a script I'm writing, and I've got a cold. And so has my girlfriend. And the house is freezing, and I've run out of potatoes.
HS, United Kingdom

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