How quaint to see in Jamie Fahey’s piece (Subeditors are our first readers and last defence against errors, 11 February) the phrase “off stone”, which must be the last link to an almost forgotten method of newspaper production. How many of the young subs even know what it once meant? Poor old printers. They were the first casualties of modern technology and this is their (head)stone.
Wendy James (former sub)
Cottenham, Cambridgeshire
• Of course we’ll accept the jurisdiction of the ECJ (Brexit deal will lock UK into European court of justice, 11 February). The ECJ’s main function is to arbitrate in trade disputes in Europe. If France refuses to import stilton, what are we going to do otherwise? Declare war?
Terry Leary
Dunchurch, Warwickshire
• Currants in pastry may be known as “devil’s nose” in Wigan (We love to eat, Family, 11 February). Seven miles down the road in Leigh, that’s a “Singing Lily” – and tastes all the better for it.
Val Seddon
York
• Does the portrait of Donald Trump in sporting gear in the bar at Mar-a-Lago, Florida (page 21, 11 February) make any one else think of the work of Tom of Finland?
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hampshire
• Sue Jenkins (Letters, 6 February) and Margaret Drabble may be mistaken in the cardboard dividers being in Weetabix packets? To my memory they were very useful for drawing or other crafts and came from Shredded Wheat packets – one or three depending on the box size, sixes or twelves. (Regularity came before godliness in our house!)
Anne Ayres
Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire
• I think you will find that the football commentator Archie Macpherson’s nickname (Letters, 11 February) was “Shredded Wheat”, a much more apt description of a hairstyle than Weetabix.
Tim Nicholson
Little Neston, Cheshire
