Your crossword compiler “Brendan” (Cryptic No 26,898, 31 May) predicates a clue on the idea that “bottle” is cockney slang for courage: “Bottle, or something Dutchman can get from one (7)”. In fact, just as “loaf” (loaf of bread) means head, as in “use your loaf”, so “bottle” refers to something that rhymes only when you complete the phrase. The phrase in this case is “bottle and glass” and it rhymes with, er, arse. Cockneys wishing to avoid the Chaucerian vulgarity call an arse an “Aris”. This is not a misspelling of arse, like the American “ass”, but rhyming slang. Aris is short for Aristotle; Aristotle = bottle; bottle and glass = arse.
So “to lose your bottle” means to lose your arse or, vernacularly, to shit yourself. Someone who loses her bottle displays cowardice.
Rhyming slang is designed to be impenetrable by the uninitiate. It is not surprising that the uninitiate should guess “bottle” means courage. It sort of does; but only sort of. A person with “a lot of bottle” might not be brave at all (but might be Kim Kardashian).
Mainly the error doesn’t matter. Mainly, in fact, it is desirable. The less the middle classes and the mockneys understand rhyming slang, the better it is doing its job. Cryptic crosswords, however, depend on the precision of the clue and the accuracy of the solver’s knowledge. Clues should not be accessible only to the equally ignorant, and it behoves erring crossword compilers to extract their loaves from their bottles with alacrity.
Keith Kirby
Llanwytherin, Monmouthshire
• You report that spice withdrawal brings out uncontrollable anger in people (Legal high ban risks creating fresh crisis, 28 May). For some years since the death of my wife I have been prescribed the drug Citalopram for stress. But in my 10th decade I find it increasingly difficult to mine the information stored in my brain, words and names especially, and I am getting slower at completing the quick crossword. According to the test I don’t have dementia.
In a recent experiment, I halved the dose, and now find I am up to speed again. If I get cross and provoked by an article in the Guardian, I find an instant letter on my iPad cathartic, even if it is just filed away, and feel even better if it is printed. You may be helping to balance the NHS budget.
Tommy Gee
Wingfield, Suffolk
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