It’s not the fact that an exotic animal had hitched a lift and arrived in the UK that surprised me but the cargo that it used to get here (Forklift driver finds deadly saw-scaled viper in Salford brickyard, 22 December). What on earth are we doing importing bricks from Pakistan, 4,000 miles away? The environmental costs of shipping must be horrendous.
Gareth Hopcyn
Stockport, Greater Manchester
• A friend of mine who taught domestic science in the 1960s (Letters, 23 December) once showed me a GCE O-level paper that required the examinee to imagine she was a housewife going out for the day and leaving prepared food for her husband and children. My friend assured me that my suggestion of fish and chips for lunch and sandwiches for tea would have resulted in a fail.
Margaret O’Connor
Otley, West Yorkshire
• The humorist SJ Perelman would, no doubt, have endorsed Susie Dent’s campaign for orphaned negatives (From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words, 26 December), having observed when he relocated to America from the UK: “New York may be uncouth, but in London you can have too much couth.”
Martin Shankleman
London
• My father didn’t need to indicate to guests that it was time to go (Letters, 27 December). When the clock struck 10pm, our boxer dog would go over to his favourite chair (the dog’s, not Dad’s). Then he’d firmly push the knee of its occupant, until they took the hint to stand up. And that was time to get their coats for them, and bye-bye.
Mary Pickard
Ossett, West Yorkshire
• Here’s an idea. Why don’t hunt members just go out for a nice ride in the countryside on Boxing Day, leaving their dogs at home (Boxing Day hunts to go ahead despite Covid and calls for ban, 26 December)?
Ann Newell
Thame, Oxfordshire
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