Needles & bottle men

Regarding Nick Maloret’s letter ‘Bags, dogs and cats’ [ FT415:71], a friend of mine had a similar (but darker) experience. Driving his jeep down a dirt track that saw hardly any traffic but was near to a few houses, he spotted what appeared to be an empty brown sack lying in his path. He drove over it, only to realise too late that it had been a sleeping dog. Needless to say, it didn’t jump up and run away.

• Further to the teachers’ nicknames detailed in Classical Corner [ FT415:14-15], we had a chemistry teacher whose first name was Fred, and we simply reversed it to Derf. Why? He just looked like a Derf, I guess.

• I enjoyed ‘Taking The Future As Read’ [ FT415:40-44]. The Simpsons have been quite good at predictions. For example, in 2000 they forecast a certain Donald Trump would become President.

• Regarding needle panics [ FT416:71], I’ve read newspaper reports that it would be difficult to inject a drug into someone without their knowledge. My understanding is that it takes quite a few seconds to inject enough of a drug to have a noticeable effect, and once a person felt the prick of a needle they would almost certainly react by moving away. There may well be a few sick individuals who go around poking people with needles, but I would suggest that anyone who has definitely been