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starts off with a bit of a boob. "Hibernation" refers only to winter. Inactivity over summer is "estivation".
Paddy, Liverpool, UK

If you buy a stamp off a colleague at work, does anyone know what the going rate is? ()
J Paul Murdock, Wall Heath, West Midlands, UK

What sounded like a turned out to be a truly inspiring story.
Nuno Aragao, Aveiro, Portugal

Isn't selling going to particularly appeal to the Tesco Value market?
Rob Falconer, Llandough, Wales
Monitor note: Other value/basic/essential ranges are available.

Re - apple, orange or the slapping man? Think the UN needs to be more specific.
Peter, MK

Re "video's" (letters passim): It was actually considered correct before the 1800s to use an apostrophe before the pluralising "s" if the word was of foreign origin. If Shakespeare had a sex shop, he'd sell video's.
BM, Bergen, Norway

I think the mystery of the apostrophe in "video's" is easy to explain - it's a sign in the Amsterdam Red Light District and Dutch spelling requires an apostrophe between the o and the s in "videos". Not that I recognise every single sign in Amsterdam's Red Light District, of course...
Johan van Slooten, Urk, The Netherlands
Monitor note: It's in Soho, actually. But your secret is safe with us.

acronym n. a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words, as Wac from Women's Army Corps, Opec from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or loran from long-range navigation.
This three-letter abbreviation is NOT an acronym. An acronym is a word, the last time I looked WTF was not a word (ditto).
Mary, Amersham

Funnily enough our Fixed Asset Register Team never used their acronym.
Howard, London, UK

I will temper this slightly for the easily offended, but when considering what universities to apply for back in the early 90s, I had a clear preference for those in the north of England. On one prospectus from a city upon the river Tyne, the first letter of both nouns and proper nouns were capitalised in a rather fancy calligraphy, so these four letters where highly visible. The university being the City University of this place on the Tyne. Oh how we laughed...
Martin Hollywood, Luxembourg

M is a very warm reassuring letter (and ditto again), but I prefer W and K for their comedy value. Did you know there's even a word in the English language that contains the letters "wkw" in that order?
Jim, Coventry

Re Edd, Cardiff (and again). Silent. Like the P in "swimming pool".
Rachel, Minnetonka

Do any others do this? When reading the Letters page after submitting my latest epistle, I scroll down ever so slowly, line by line, to see if my offering was chosen. This is followed by a surge of excitement (like today) or a week's worth of depression all rolled into one moment (like some other days).
David, Jerusalem

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