It is impressive that a person can rise to the position of chief investment officer of a major financial institution without understanding the difference between a person and a company (Mocking the Abrdn name is ‘corporate bullying’, says chief investment officer, 8 April). People have feelings and mental health, and these are harmed by bullying. Unlike people, companies are accountable to external stakeholders. If Abrdn’s managers don’t want people making fun of the company’s silly name, they shouldn’t have given it a silly name. We’re not obliged to support their decision – and it’s not bullying when we don’t.
Daniel Owen
Great Torrington, Devon
I’m as puzzled as Emma Joliffe (Letters, 8 April) as to why people assume women are put off by bitter tastes. My husband and I have often found that, having ordered a cappuccino with extra chocolate sprinkled on top (for him) and a double espresso (for me), we are served them the wrong way round.
Leslie Taylor
Cambridge
Hopefully Emma Joliffe is heartened by the drink choice of the decidedly masculine ‘hardest geezer’ after his African run (‘Hardest Geezer’ Russ Cook enjoys a day off running after epic Africa journey, 8 April).
David Chaloner,
Greenfield, Greater Manchester
When the novelist Vladimir Nabokov was teaching at Cornell University in the 1950s, a colleague (a nun) told him disapprovingly that she had seen two students “spooning” in public (In-flight canoodling: is it ever acceptable to spoon at 40,000ft?, 9 April). Nabokov replied: “At least they weren’t forking.”
Richard Ehrlich
London
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