Do we, as opposed to authors, publishers and TV celebrities, need any more cookbooks? Are there any really new recipes out there?
Ninety-nine per cent of cookbooks and accompanying TV programmes are not about cooks at all. They are about chefs. A new word should be used to describe them: chefbooks. A cook is someone who, with no training, has to feed themselves and a family three times a day, often on a tight budget. There are millions of people in this country doing just that, with no help from the famous chefs. It's not about new recipes; it's about teaching a whole generation economy and nutrition.
Linda Williamson, Sheffield
I have something like 30 spices in my kitchen, half a dozen meats in my freezer, and a dozen veg in my fridge. Take into account the different ways these could be combined, and there must be trillions of combinations. Most would be inedible, but that still leaves enough recipes for billions of cookbooks.
It isn't only cookery books that are in surplus. When I reviewed books for East London Organic Gardeners Newsletter I was amazed to see the number of books about herbs. It seemed every publisher had to produce at least one, but this didn't lead to any great originality. Although I am all in favour of recycling, I had to object when many lifted from other books and repeated hoary old myths without any effort to check for the truth.
I cannot see a simple, ethical way of bringing the flood of useless books to an end. Desktop publishing has made it easier and cheaper to produce new photographic books with small print runs. Publishers issue what they think they can sell, and if this means printing unoriginal rubbish, they will.
Roger Backhouse, Ilford
If we were to build a massive dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, would the Mediterranean dry up, or flood?
The Mediterranean is more salty than the Atlantic. From this we can infer that it loses more water to evaporation than it gains from rainfall and river discharge. So one would expect that it would shrink if it was cut off from the Atlantic. However, as it shrank, it's surface area would be reduced, and thus the rate of evaporation would decrease. It's possible that it might then reach an equilibrium at a size smaller than present where the evaporation was equal to the rainfall and river flow.
In recent years we've seen the Aral Sea shrink when much of the river flow into that sea was diverted for agriculture. We could expect that the use of the Nile in a similar way would have had an impact on the size of a Mediterranean sea cut off from the Atlantic.
Why did the Lone Ranger wear a mask? It would have singled him out from all the other Rangers, and it was pointless when there was nobody else around …
We comic readers of the 1950s all knew the reason why. Twelve Texas Rangers were ambushed in a canyon and only one survived. He took on the role of the Lone Ranger to avenge the deaths of his fellow rangers and to uphold the law, etc etc. The story goes on to say that the bullets he used in his trusty Colt 45 were fashioned with silver from the mine in the canyon.
Angus MacIntosh, Burley–in–Wharfedale, West Yorkshire
The Lone Ranger's status as a sole survivor places him in a long literary tradition including Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Ishmael, of the Pequod in Moby-Dick, going right back to The Wanderer in the Anglo-Saxon poem of that name. Often these survivors have special powers. The Lone Ranger has his magic silver bullets, and his eye-watering ability to drop from the upper storey of a building into a hard saddle without castrating himself.
Derek Farnworth, London NW3
The Lone Ranger and Tonto find themselves surrounded by 5,000 Sioux. "Looks like we are in trouble," says the Lone Ranger. "What do you mean, "we", paleface?", replies Tonto.
John Richards, St Ives, Cornwall
Why do the Lone Ranger and William Tell share the same theme tune?
Most European languages differentiate between familiar "thou/tu" and formal "you/vous". When did English stop doing this and why?
Margo Romberg, Broughty Ferry, Dundee
What causes someone to possess a "glass half empty" (negative) mentality, as opposed to a "glass half full" (positive) attitude?
Richard Curtis, Southwell, Notts