I can only agree with Grace Dent (12 March) that strong feelings and dishwasher stacking go hand in hand. The passion aroused can be expressed by a few tweaks to the final verse of a Frank Sinatra hit: “For what is a man, what has he got? / If not his dishwasher-stacking-method, then he has naught / With my procedure no plate will reveal / The baked-on remains of yesterday’s meal / The record shows / I stacked the bowls / And did it my way.”
Steve Daggitt
Kidlington, Oxfordshire
• The NHS is placing full-page adverts in newspapers showing a young woman hunched on her sofa using her laptop, telling people to work from home. While this is a necessary request in order to prevent Covid-19, the long-term implications of working from home may be storing up problems for the nation’s health.
Frances Crook
London
• Scientists investigating the killing of sperm whales in the 19th century have promoted their favoured theory (Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack information, 17 March). Isn’t it more likely that the “strike rate of the whalers’ harpoons fell by 58%” because they had already killed over half the whale population?
Pete Lavender
Woodthorpe, Nottinghamshire
• You report (16 March) that scientists have unlocked the secret of why hummingbirds hum. And I always thought it was because they didn’t know the words.
Bernard Taylor
Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees
• Not a pompom, not a bobble (Letters, 16 March). If it’s on your bunnet it’s a toorie.
Avril Jaques
Edinburgh
