I was impressed with Jesse Winter’s nod in his article (A road for all seasons puts Arctic Canada on the map, 15 November) towards what many Canadians think should be their real national anthem, the song Northwest Passage by Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers. He refers in the song’s moving chorus to John Franklin’s fatal attempt at finding a sea route across arctic Canada – “tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage, and make a Northwest Passage to the sea”, some phrases from which are used by Jesse Winter in his article. I trust the proposed road has a happier outcome than Franklin’s ill-fated expedition in 1845-47.
Rick Cowley
Whitworth, Lancashire
• What depressing reading your article on advent calendars made this morning (’Tis the season for ludicrous luxury, G2, 16 November), and what a pity there wasn’t a single calendar in the “affordable advent calendar” section depicting the scene that started the whole thing off in the first place. Oscar Wilde was right: we now know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Anne Abbott
Bath
• Why is Tim Davies unhappy with the word “swath” (Letters, 16 November)? It is listed in the Chambers dictionary as a perfectly acceptable alternative to “swathe” (pronounced to rhyme with either north or moth).
Dan Howison
Exton, Rutland
• Never mind all those ridiculous versions of caffè latte (Latte lessons, G2, 14 November). The lesson I wish most coffee drinkers and baristas would learn is how to pronounce “latte”. It rhymes with paté, not par-tay, and is Italian for “milk”.
Alan Greenslade-Hibbert
Mollington, Oxfordshire
• If any prime minister was to receive “Orwellian” messages (Report, 13 November), surely it should have been Blair.
Michael Cunningham
Wolverhampton
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