CHRISTOPHER HANAFIN,
Sir, - Reading Kevin Myers's Irishman's Diary on inkjet printers (January 17th) prompted me to pen a few thoughts on the vagaries of my computer. I paid £59 for my inkjet cartridge, not so long ago in Eircom. Now, the black ink has run out and I am forced to write letters to The Irish Times in colour. My computer gives me the choice of 40 colours to choose from, including white. Imagine writing in white on a white sheet of paper.
I have selected red as the colour of my choice. The danger in this is that the editor might not accept letters written in colour, but this might be a very great blessing in disguise to all concerned.
The "Spelling and Grammar Checker" is constantly informing me that Co Clare is not in the dictionary, which I knew already. Whenever I type in The Irish Times as the addressee of my letter I am informed that it is a "fragment", which sets me pondering that I might not be getting the whole newspaper from the people in D'Olier Street. Probably due to cutbacks.
Recently I had occasion to type in the Virgilian phrase, "Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites". The checker informed me that the last four words of the quotation were not in the dictionary and ordered me to put a hyphen between "non" and "nostrum". This was Bill Gatesian stuff at its best. - Yours, etc.,
CHRISTOPHER HANAFIN, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare.