"Hear, hear!" cheers Lady Agatha Maberley, of Bowral. "Well said, all those anti-overbearing-informalitists!" (The rampant spread of casual forms of address, Column 8, for days). "I am appalled when, on a regular basis, I am forced to contact my telephone company for yet another billing bungle they ask for all the details, then say 'I have to transfer you to another section, Agatha'. Or worse, when these underlings have the audacity to refer to me as 'Ags'! How dare they! And, on more than one occasion I have been forced to reprimand some subordinate oik on their informality. Indeed, when these people have the gall to address me in terms of such unwelcome familiarity, I insist on taking their full name, then address them by their last. 'Have someone telephone me back, Smith. Immediately!' one simply says." We could not agree more, Lady Agatha. The world has gone to hell in a handbasket, has it not?

We warned you that this subject had created a storm of correspondence, and here's just a little more, from Bruce Hackett, of Runaway Bay, Queensland. "When I came to Queensland from Sydney 18 years ago, I found it hard to get used to the informality in business. Once when phoning a businessman, I asked to speak with Mr Smith and, when asked by the receptionist - who sounded all of 17 or 18 years old - for my name, I replied, 'Hackett.' She then asked, 'What's your first name?' Slightly peeved, I pompously replied 'Lord', which went straight through to the keeper as she said, 'Just a minute Lord - I'm putting you through.' "

"There's a simple answer to Greg Rutter's dilemma of the spoon's location," writes David Eddey, of Gunning, (Here or there? Column 8, Monday). "If one can reach the spoon without spilling one's chablis, or getting too familiar with the person in the next chair, it is 'right here'. If not, it is 'over there'."

We have discovered that we are not alone in suggesting recently that Foghorn Leghorn was one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. "Another of his classic quotes, similar to the bowling ball comparison, was 'about as sharp as a pound of wet leather'," writes Rick Townsend, of Soldiers Point. "Says it all!"

It sure beats being hit in the ear by a rotten egg: "West Ryde station at 7.30 this morning" reports Celia Ching, of that neck of the woods, "some schoolboys were giving out long-stemmed carnations. At first I thought it was for a charity and asked if they needed some money, but was told no. Then I read the note attached to the flower: 'On this our last day of secondary school, please accept this small gift as a token of our appreciation of your patient consideration of any inconvenience we may have caused to members of the public in our six years of coming to and from school. Year 12, Marist College, Eastwood.' This brightened up a rather rushed and gloomy Tuesday. With this attitude these smart young boys will do well in the future. I wish them well - congrats to them and to the school for a job well done."

Column8@smh.com.au(no attachments please).Phone 9282 2207 fax 9282 2772. (include name, suburb, daytime phone)