When I was in the lower sixth, in 1960, we had a talk by the WVS as part of a scheme whereby one in four women in the country would be advised what to do in case of nuclear war. The advice was to put a large paper bag over one’s head and get under the kitchen table. Since large paper bags are no longer generally available, and most people nowadays do not have a kitchen table, has this advice been updated? I think we should be told (US military ‘locked and loaded’, Trump tells North Korea, 12 August).
Kaye McGann
Standlake, Oxfordshire
• Is this the way the world ends, not with a bang but a tweet?
Dr Neil Denby
Denby Dale, West Yorkshire
• Will you please stop headlining articles with the faux-inclusive Daily Mailish “How we all…” or, on Saturday, “Why we fell for clean eating”. Surely a defining characteristic of the Guardian readership is its independence of thought. We don’t want to be told how we feel and think about stuff.
Sue Stephenson
Barrow-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire
• The elongation of “spool” in Krapp’s Last Tape (Letters, 12 August) came not from Max Wall but from Samuel Beckett. It’s in the script: “Revelled in the word spool. (With relish) Spooooool! Happiest moment of the past half million.” Of course, Wall may have added more Os.
Harland Walshaw
Lympstone, Devon
• Protests against mass tourism (Opinion, 11 August) are by no means new. I recall a graffito on a rock wall near Pamplona more than 40 years ago: “Le tourisme – c’est la prostitution folklorique!”
John Dent
Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
