Some years ago we visited academic friends in Oakland, California, and were shown round the spacious university campus at Berkeley. We encountered a largish car park with signs saying “Spaces for NPL ONLY”. “What are NPLs?” we enquired. “Nobel prize laureates” came the reply (The briefing: What’s the point of the Nobel prizes?, Journal, 7 October).
Steven Dorner
London
• Re Charlotte Higgins’ article (Johnson’s love of classics is about just one thing: himself, Journal, 7 October), I’m reminded of Browning’s Fra Lippo Lippi in his scornful put-down of his monastic superiors: “Don’t you think they’re the likeliest to know, / They with their Latin”.
Trudy Powell
Penzance, Cornwall
• Omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset.
Christopher Gordon
Winchester
• Amy Sedghi refers to “pack[ing] your bag while brushing your teeth” (Five ways to improve your bedtime routine, G2, 7 October). Can you post a video of her demonstrating this technique on the Guardian website?
Jenny Moir
Chelmsford
• “I have tried to explain that foreplay is important, but it goes in one ear and out the other” (Sexual healing, G2, 8 October). Well, highly unusual, but marginally better than nothing, perhaps?
Barry Riches
Hanwell, London
• Letters page, 8 October: not a single one mentioning Brexit. I know I’m 81, but did I miss something and it’s all over?
Keith Yarwood
Stourpaine, Dorset
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