Humpty Dumpty recommended commemorating 'unbirthdays' – 364 celebrations a year compared to just one, as noted in Paula Cocozza's article on half-birthdays. A letter from Jonathan Finn of South Kensington, London, reveals that this reference is actually a hint that Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass is a half-birthday novel. The story is set on the eve of Bonfire Night, 4 November, when Alice is 'seven years and six months'. The entire book, which revolves around rules, chess, and winter, serves as the flip side of Alice in Wonderland, a tale of misrule, cards, and summer set on 4 May, the real Alice Liddell's birthday.
In another letter, Les Forester of Greetland, West Yorkshire, shares a long-serving headteacher's approach to paperwork backlog: turning the pile upside down and working from the top down. If something important was left unanswered, the headteacher philosophically applied the theory that 'if it is that important they will get in touch with me again'.
Ben Timmis of Emsworth, Hampshire, at 75 years old, admits to sitting on the top deck at the front of a bus, above the driver, and often wishes for a plastic toy steering wheel with a rubber suction cup to steer the bus and correct any errors committed by the expert driver below.
Gordon Glen of Bexleyheath, London, points out that there is already a television version of Wordle: Lingo, contradicting Stuart Heritage's claim that 'Wordle is the TV spinoff the world does not need'.
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