In cryptic crossword No 29,286 (23 January), the clue for 20 across, “Merit a couple of eggs from French waiter?” may be misleading for some solvers on two counts. Firstly, the F in œuf is pronounced in the singular, but not in the plural œufs. Secondly, we Scots pronounce the letter R regardless of its position in a word. It was a bit of a stretch, therefore, for this Glaswegian reader to go from deux œufs to reach the answer “deserve”. Alex Patrick Glasgow Our local fish and chip shop is The Cod’s Scallops, which only works with the pronunciation used in England (Letters, 23 January). In Scotland it would have to be called The Cod’s Pollocks. Dr Allan Dodds Bramcote, Nottinghamshire If only there were enough space to be thorough and plough through the doughy slough of spelling inconsistencies without a hiccough! Marianne Chipperfield London “Trump wins big…”, ‘Succession, Beef and The Bear win big…’, “Why we’re so bored by people winning big on TV gameshows”. Is Donald Trump writing the headlines on your website now? What next: will the long read become “read big”? John Ellis Emeritus professor, Royal Holloway, University of London In the light of his concerns about the bias of the BBC and The News Quiz in particular (Report, 23 January), I wonder if the transport minister, Huw Merriman, should consider changing his surname. Clare MacInnes Milcombe, Oxfordshire