The possibility of Geert Wilders’ party heading the new government (Report, 8 February) was sufficient reason for me to take up Arabic. The Duolingo app is of great help in this act of symbolic resistance against Wilders’ anti-Islam stance. Learning Arabic is far from easy, but I am making good progress (in itself extremely gratifying for someone in her late 60s). I shall do my utmost to achieve my goal: better communication with Arabic-speaking compatriots and, indeed, non-compatriots beyond the borders of the Netherlands.
Hetty ter Haar
The Hague, Netherlands
• I hate to disabuse Stuart Harrington (Letters, 4 February), but both domestic breadmaking and needlepoint are alive and well. Our bread machine chunters away daily, and my son regularly makes sourdough. And there’s a subversive exhibition of needlepoint by me and my sister on in August in London.
Polly Mortimer
London
• To answer Kevin Ward (Letters, 8 February) on why I wrote to you while advocating dolce far niente (the joy of idleness): after a dozen glorious years in Rome I moved to this address, where taking up the pen is practically an obligation.
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• I was interested to read in my Chambers dictionary that “mike” can mean “loiter idly”. That might explain a few things, if nominative determinism is to be believed.
Mike Crapper
Whitchurch, Hampshire
• Apparently Frank Auerbach’s models “were busy doing nothing” (Art review, 8 February). An early example of niksen?
Pete Bibby
Sheffield
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