I wrote to colleagues in the US highlighting the absurdity of the situation in the UK, where on the one hand, the government wants to make criminals out of rough sleepers for being smelly (Report, 2 April), and on the other, the police can’t be bothered with pursuing car thefts. One responded: “The optimal solution is for the rough sleepers to steal cars and sleep in them. The police won’t be able to find and arrest them, thus unclogging the courts and jails.” Amit Chopra Lancaster In a special recorded-for-radio production of King Lear many years ago at the Globe theatre, the sound of Gloucester’s eye being gouged out was created by using a kitchen knife to gouge a deep hole in a water melon (Letters, 8 April). It was horrifyingly effective. Robin Lustig London In the second world war, when butter and margarine were in short supply, my mother, reluctantly at first, baked using liquid paraffin. She reckoned the things she baked then, particularly sponge cakes, were lighter than any made with butter or marge (Letters, 4 April). Frank Cosgrove Presteigne, Powys Nell Frizzell talks of the power of “showing your shilling” (There are many ways to deal with grief. But few as full-on as this…, 7 April). An advance in value from “keep your hand on your ha’penny”, as well as a policy reversal, but I’m not sure if it’s kept pace with inflation. Cherry Weston Wolverhampton Re vorfreude or anticipatory joy (9 April), in the film Gregory’s Girl, his sister, Madeline, explains that the best part of a milkshake is “just before you drink it”. Peter Gray Chesterfield, Derbyshire