Making a meal of Covid restrictions
The contortions that some people get into when trying to define a scotch egg show what limited understanding they have beyond their own metropolitan experiences (Scotch egg is definitely a substantial meal, says Michael Gove, 1 December). If your evening meal is called “dinner”, then maybe a scotch egg is just a snack, or a starter. But if, like many of us, your evening meal is your “tea”, then a scotch egg, served with baked beans and chips, is extremely fortifying and economical. Anne Neale Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear
• I’m surprised Zoe Williams’ Aussie boyfriend didn’t tell her that what she calls a French wash, “where you just stand at the sink, splashing yourself” ( One in four Britons don’t shower every day. And the rest aren’t doing it right, 27 November), is commonly known in Australia as a Pommy wash. Peggy Sellers Pickering, North Yorkshire
• A friend has just sent me a photograph of the message I wrote in his Christmas card 12 months ago: “Things can’t get any worse – can they? Onwards to a better 2020!” Any ideas for this year’s message? Les Bright Exeter, Devon
• Could the prevailing failure of blind dates to hit it off (Letters, 29 November) be down to the marked discrepancy between many couples’ replies to the question: what did you talk about? Listening is an important skill if empathy is the goal. Peter Lowe New castle upon Tyne
• Be assured that Sodom in Denbighshire is definitely thriving (Letters, 30 November). Dinah Hickish Tremeirchion, Denbighshire
• Surely we should allow the good citizens of Climax, North Carolina, to bring this correspondence to a mutually happy end?Richard ManganLondon