The reaction to getting a letter published in your favourite ‘newspaper’ always reminds me of Freddie (played by John Candy) in the 1984 film Splash with Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks:
[Excitedly waving a Penthouse magazine]
Freddie : “They published my letter. Here it is, ‘A lesbian no more’. They published my letter.”
Oddly, a Disney production.
“Tax heavens” (May 30th) looked at how to tax businesses that operate in space and the growth of offplanet finance. The more immediate market failure is not untaxed Martian income, but unpriced, man-made orbital debris; there are 140m pieces up…
Johnson’s wry note suggested replacing “one fell swoop” with “one foul swoop”. Macduff wails in Macbeth, “Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam, At one fell swoop?” Shakespeare is using an avian…
Mike Godwin’s law of Nazi analogies states that as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. A corollary adage might be that as an economic discussion grows longer, the probability of…
Your essay on reinventing liberalism for the 21st century was a wide-ranging, refreshing reminder of where we’ve been, where we are and how we need to improve (September 15th). As you said, “the core liberal causes of individual freedom, free…
With unproven innovation utility and litigation costs exceeding licence income, as well as frivolous lawsuits, legal bullying, and patent portfolios barring market entry, patent reform is essential (“A Question Of Utility”, August 8th). Patent offices are 19th century fixed fee…
SIR – You began an article with the old saw “that half of all advertising budgets are wasted—the trouble is, no one knows which half” (“Change of track”, June 9th). The remark is frequently attributed by Britons to Lord Leverhulme,…
SIR – I read your leader on financial companies that are “too big to fail”, and your statement that “on the left, some want banks cut down to size” (“In praise of Doddery”, March 20th). Many on the left would…
