Your Letters
16:49 UK time, Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Au contraire, Basil (Monday's letters): nothing about that story is great. Writing a long list of words and fragments of words that Shakespeare used, interspersed with garbage, isn't nearly the same thing as writing out his complete works. (Indeed, it's only eight steps beyond writing out a long list of letters that Shakespeare used.) Did Hamlet say, "O be or not/ something/ leep, perch/ summation"? Did Henry V rally his troops by telling them that, "My brother/ is call'd th/ emember wi/ th no stoma/ ch outward"? Does Richard III exclaim, "seahorse!/ seahorse!"? Not in the versions I read...
David Richerby, Liverpool, UK
I understand Colin's confusion (Monday's letters) but presumably the writer of the story, being in Cambridge, didn't want to clarify his prose with an Oxford comma.
Andrew, Cambridge, UK
Rare snail found after 110 years in Fife. First thing he asked was had his telegram from the Queen arrived.
Jennyt, NY Brit
I think Steve from Edinburgh (Monday's letters) means that he does not choose to boil an egg (ie he won't), not that he is physically and/or mentally unable to do so (ie he can't). I hope his senior honours is not in english, philosophy or politics.
John Whapshott, Westbury, England
Why is the ability to boil an egg the baseline for cooking ability? I don't eat boiled eggs so would have to look up some instructions, but can poach one perfectly!
KTvS, Plymouth
So it would seem that the perfect recipe for an antisocial garden is some leylandii and an iPod?
Ruaraidh, Wirral, UK
I'm in agreement with this farmer, in that I had previously never heard of Rihanna either. I differ with him on one point though - had she "stripped down for a video" in my field, my reaction would not have been to ask her to "cover up".
John Bratby, Southampton
I have recently returned from the US, where I discovered a new unit of measurement - the Washington Monument. They used it to demonstrate the depth of the Chilean mine, for example.
Heather, Jersey
The 
