Your article, referring to rare earth elements including europium, dysprosium, gadolinium, praseodymium, holmium and ytterbium, was very enlightening (What are Ukraine’s critical minerals – and why does Trump want them?, 17 February). However, it was difficult for me to read, owing to the persistent intrusion of the earworm of a certain song by Tom Lehrer.
John O’Dwyer
Steeple Claydon, Buckinghamshire
• My favourite report (Letters, 18 February), from a history teacher, arrived before my interview at Cambridge: “His melancholy subversiveness will go down well with a certain type of don.” It didn’t. Or perhaps that particular don was elsewhere on the day. Happily, I ended up at Warwick, where EP Thompson bestrode the campus.
Nick Barton
Henstridge, Somerset
• What’s the problem with the US renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America? France and Britain share an expanse of water. The Brits call it the English Channel; the French call it La Manche. Both sides are happy.
Michael Delahaye
Adelaide, Australia
• Come election time, the owners of the cork-covered house (Report, 18 February) will have no trouble pinning up their party posters etc.
Jeremy Sleath
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
• In my house, Doge is pronounced “doggy” and Musk as “muck”, as in doggy muck (Letters, 18 February).
Jennifer Jenkins
London
• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
