Stuart Jeffries is perfectly entitled to rail against bikes on the pavement (Pavements are for everybody. Except pedestrians, 27 February), but not mobility scooters. Many, such as my wife’s, are not allowed on the road. What’s next on his hit list? Prams? Wheelchairs?
Dr Howard Mason
Manchester
• What’s this recent trend of highlighting text in G2 about? There are four examples in today’s edition (27 February) and, try as I might, there’s seems to be no pattern or significance in their usage. A word of explanation wouldn’t go amiss as close textual analysis has failed to spot the underlying reason.
Gus Pennington
Stokesley, North Yorkshire
• Simon Ingram (Country diary, 26 February) opines that we have acquired dale from the “earthy English” dell. Those of us with Viking heritage prefer to think that dale (at least in the north eg Langdale – “long valley”) is one of the many borrowings from Norse (cf dal in modern Danish).
Professor Michael Fay
Kingston, Surrey
• While I heartily applaud those who are paying to holiday in Amsterdam and picking up plastic waste from the canals (Fishing for plastic: the Amsterdam canal tour with a difference, theguardian.com, 28 February), if anyone fancies a few days’ dredging nearer to home, I won’t charge them a penny. There might even be a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich provided.
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Shropshire Union canal
• “Oh hell, another hour of Alan” was how we remembered the sides of the triangle in the sin, cos, tan formulas (Letters, 28 February). Alan was the maths master.
Tom Frost
London
• Toys Were Us (Toys R Us expected to call in administrators, 28 February).
Toby Wood
Peterborough
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