Suzanne Moore is not alone (Gadgets are supposed to streamline life, G2, 15 December). I always ask myself two questions: is it just because we are in the midst, rather than the end, of a technological revolution that so-called labour-saving gadgets and their bits often pose problems or go wrong? And, will technology and algorithms ever find a way to give us the chance delights found in the diversity of nature or in a bookshop?
Rowan Roenisch
Leicester
• Regarding the speculation on WH Auden’s scrotum, it wasn’t David Hockney who used the phrase (Letters, 19 December). It came about after he and Jim Dine had been drawing Auden’s portrait. As they left, Dine turned to Hockney and said: “I wonder what his balls are like?” Alan Bennett made the same misattribution, and when I wrote to him about it he sent a reply which began: “Thank you for your letter about Auden’s balls”.
Alan Byrne
London
• Ian Jack’s excellent article (Christmas, the season of goodwill…, 17 December) was marred only by his denigration of nut roasts. We have been enjoying them at Christmas for years and can send him the recipe if he’d like it.
Jeremy and Rosemary Goring
St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex
• Trump’s spelling error is Freudian (Trump has no idea how to run a superpower, say Chinese media, theguardian.com, 19 December). It is the US that is about to become “unpresidented”.
David Butler
London
• Gus Pennington suggests Buckfast Abbey should review its business model in relation to its charitable status (Letters, 17 December). While they’re at it, how about changing its name to the more appropriate Fastbuck Abbey?
Roger Wilkinson
Leasgill, Cumbria
• I have a Brexit New Year’s resolution: in 2017 the referendum result will only be described as an underwhelming majority.
Nigel Reynolds
Mirfield, West Yorkshire
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