Reading Joan Bakewell’s reminiscences about the Didcot cooling towers (National gallery, G2, 16 March) reminded me of the delighted observation by a little girl who, on seeing the billowing columns of steam rising from the towers, exclaimed: “Look, Mummy, a cloud factory!” Sadly, even cloud factories can’t withstand the advance of progress.
John Hunter
Bristol
• John Palmer should have known the gaps in fencing on the Norway/Soviet border would never have been a viable crossing route for spies posing as indigenous reindeer herders during the cold war (Letters, 15 March). James Bond would have been spotted in no time because everyone knows that apart from the Sami, the only person who can get reindeer to do as they are told is Santa.
Mark Lewinski
Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire
• Our mum, in the 1940s and 50s, used to put a small spoonful of mincemeat on the leftover pastry, fold it over and roll out (Letters, passim). We called it toe pie because of its shape.
Enid Ball
Mickleover, Derbyshire
• I have been told that when food has been dropped on the floor (Shortcuts, G2, 16 March), it can safely be eaten if you make the sign of the cross over it. Works for me.
David Ridge
London
• My Concise Oxford dictionary defines “ambient” as “surrounding”. So the Waitrose director of ambient buying (Gin and bike helmets are back as UK goes hipster, 15 March) is in charge of … what?
Jenny Haynes
Barton on Humber, Lincolnshire
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