"Your anonymous Monday caller was mistaken regarding the 'Party of the First Part' routine between Groucho and Chico Marx," writes John Pollock, of Mount Pritchard. It was not in A Day At The Races, but in the even funnier A Night At The Opera. A Day At The Races featured the 'tutsi frutsi ice-cream' sketch, with Chico as a racecourse tout with an ice-cream cart as his front and Groucho as his hapless victim." We stand corrected (or at least our anonymous contributor does), and feel compelled to declare our favourite Marx Brothers effort to be Duck Soup. Why do you never see these triumphs on TV any more? Or even in schools? They are critical to a well-rounded education.

Speaking of slapstick, "I don't recall the monkey circus at Taronga Zoo," writes John Swanton, of Botany (Column 8, Saturday), "but do recall the elephant ride which meandered around the paths with an overzealous driver-rider, who would lean down and hit wayward pedestrians on the head with a mallet if they wandered too close to the roving giant."

"I have never written to The Times or New Scientist," writes David Morrison, of Springwood (Column 8, Monday), "but I have had more than 200 letters published in the Herald and 35 items in Column 8. My father's eldest sister had an item in Column 8 in 1947, its first year of publication, and my mother used to read Column 8 items to me before I began to read them about 1949. Column 8 has its long-term fans, and let's hope it survives the world financial crisis." We intend to, David. Oh, and make that 36 items published.

It's astonishing, but it seems bushfire cliches have a longer half-life than weapons-grade plutonium. Our tinderbox search brings this incendiary piece of work from Sally James, of Melrose Park: "The Lakes Mail (Lake Macquarie) had a front-page story last Thursday reporting that 'the thick underbrush is a tinderbox timebomb'."

More on the mysterious chemistry of love: "My husband wouldn't skite," insists Marion Jordan, of Crookwell, "but I can report our 36th anniversary (six years ago) was perfectly in accordance with No.36 on the periodic table of the elements for calculating anniversaries."

We asked on Tuesday how intense spring cleaning can become, and have received an answer from Jennifer Summers, of Coogee, who writes: "Since you ask, when you get a call from the housesitter to say that a pipe has burst and 80 per cent of the flat is underwater, and that she and the neighbours have been doing their best to cope, the answer is very intense indeed, in fact the most intense since at least 1998." Good heavens, Jennifer, what happened then?

"Brian Himsley admonishes Column 8: 'Don't attempt to correct the incorrectible'," writes Gary Sullivan, of Sans Souci, and indeed he did, only a day or so back. "If such an ugly word did exist, then surely it would be spelled 'incorrectable'." This is incorrect. Consider "corruptible".

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