Letters: Briefly

AFTER reading Jack Hughes's comments on Martyn Lewis (Review, 4 July), I looked at the Oxford dictionary's definition of 'news'. It said 'new things, novelties, new information of recent events, new occurrences . . ' Not a hint there of negativity. When did it become mandatory for 'news' to be 'bad' news?

Evelyn Ross, Liverpool

DORAINE POTTS'S memories (Letters, 4 July) of children's misinterpretations of the dreary words they are expected to sing amused me very much. 'Blessed art thou, a monk swimming]'

Dennis L Matheson, South Wirral

I CAN recall from my primary school the little boy who resolutely prayed 'Harold be Thy name' and, in the Apostles' Creed, the phrase 'suffered under bunch of spiders'. Sunday school misinterpretations and malapropisms can be combined, however. My sister once asked the baker for a large bag of salvation flour.

David Townsend, Brentwood, Essex

FOLLOWING the article 'US immigration draws the line at genocidal maniacs' (July 4) could we be reminded of the identity of the individual who, to the question 'Do you intend to overthrow, by force, the government of the United States?' replied 'Sole purpose of visit'. Or is this story apocryphal?

David Morton, Driffield, East Yorks

I KNOW the Rolling Stones have become Tories in their old age. But surely someone remembers that they once shocked? None of those asked for their best Stones song named 'Street Fighting Man' (Review, 4 July).

Charles Murray, London N17