Your Letters
17:44 UK time, Thursday, 2 July 2009
Re Paper Monitor's thoughts on shorthand, as one of the swots who sits at the front of the class during speed tests, might I recommend using : for "symbol"? Not having to take your pen off the paper rather helps with speed, too.
Sam Bannister, Portsmouth, UK
Didn't Jackson Browne sing the praises of roadies in Stay?
Kieran Boyle, Oxford, England
Last night I got a rare seat on the train but was accused, and found guilty, of the crime of "getting off the train ahead of someone who had stood". What should my punishment be and what other commuter rules do readers think should be enshrined in law?
MCK, Stevenage
Re Schindler's Lifts - I'd always believed that there was an Otis (the lift company) office in Reading and when answering the phone they would say, "Otis, Reading". I was very disappointed recently to find its actually in Wokingham.
Paul, Plymouth, UK
So sorry, so very sorry, but I have to tell you that there is a mobile fish and chip van, regularly seen near here, called TA-DAH! The Frying Squad. The name has everything you could wish for - especially now I'm wearing my tank-top and platform soled boots. I just knew they would come back into fashion one day.
Roy Bennett, Abergavenny
The best punning shop name I've ever seen is a German florist on the corner of its street. For native German speakers its name simply means "Flower Corner", but English speakers and visitors are likely to chuckle at "Blumen Eck".
Chris Philpot, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Locally there's a hairdresser called Savoir Cheveux. Very few people know what it means or get the pun(s).
John Martin, Erie, USA
The punning shop names is an old old meme. I remember Dave Lee Travis doing them on Radio 1 when I was a teenager (that dates me!) I got a Radio 1 pen for giving him a fine example of nominative determinism in my local town: - One J. Weller, a Jeweller.
Caroline Brown, Rochester, UK
Monitor: LBQ keyring, Caroline?
There's a cleaning company in Surrey called Spruce Springclean which is clearly the winner of the best shop name pun contest, as documented on .
Abigail, Brighton
Monitor: Which nicely brings the shutters down on this particular conversation thread. No more punning shop names, thanks.
The 
