A patient who had server abdominal pain has a warning: If you think you need to do so, go to the ER, even with a pandemic raging.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a full-blown disaster, but if shortages mean Americans eat less meat as a result, then so be it.

The author of the Americans With Disabilities Act warns that coronavirus treatment that takes disability and age into account is immoral and illegal.

Someone wearing gloves and an N95 mask likely had a stockpile at home before the pandemic hit.

Calls to open all beaches because Californians have a right to them are silly and dangerous. Gov. Newsom is making the right call.

We don't know enough about the coronavirus to experiment with deliberately infecting volunteers with COVID-19.

Just like in Sedona, people have been fleeing to Palm Springs to ride out the pandemic. It happens in every small resort town favored by rich people.

There's no evidence that the use of plastic bags prevents exposure to the coronavirus, so why use them instead of reusable bags?

Coronavirus: Los Angeles is doing better than New York, but much worse than San Francisco. Our experience with COVID-19 is not an argument for sprawl.

Republicans didn't seem to care that Trump had multiple credible allegations against him; why should one accusation against Biden derail his candidacy?

A professor's suggestion for college student to take time off and turn out the vote is nice, but why not help them with the loan debt first?

"right to literacy": children learn to read mostly at home

Democrats who expect all voters sick of President Trump to vote for Joe Biden are insulting people who care more about the issues than the party.

It's simply wrong when a much younger person dies. Let younger patients take the ventilator if there's a scarcity -- and let doctors make the decision.

Californians feel hopeless, so some are protesting. The solution is to limit access to public spaces without completely closing them.

Professors don't want us living in single-family homes, the only option for average people to own something all their own.

The people waving the American flag at lockdown protests are using it as a symbol of selfishness.

COVID-19 lockdowns are inflicting too much economic pain and misery. We need to do more cost-benefit analyses.

The Brown Act doesn't give officials any excuse they want to shut out the public from their meetings.

We're comparing the number of Americans to have died from COVID-19 to war casualties. Why not consider AIDS?

The fact that Trump refuses to wear a mask, a precaution meant to protect other people, is evidence of his lack of empathy.

You can't explain away your support for Joe Biden despite a sexual assault allegation without talking about Brett Kavanaugh.

A second-generation surivivor whose grandparents died in the Holocaust blasts a newspaper publisher for comparing coronavirus restrictions to Nazi Germany.

Sweden's death rate is high compared with those of its neighbors, who took much more drastic and appropriate action against the pandemic.

An anti-war student in Ohio at the time of the Kent State massacre explains why the protests were led largely by well-off whites.

Why the argument that we should reopen the economy because we don't shut it down over the thousands of car deaths every year is wrong.

The president brooks no criticism and disregards inconvenient facts, much like the Chinese government he opposes.

In one article, wealthy private schools get government aid. In another, desperate citizens beg for funds online.

The language of the 2nd Amendment suggests that the Constitution's framers did not want to empower rifle-wielding protesters to invade statehouses.

Letters to the editor: May 6

Kat (Monday's letters) the pedants' plural for the octopus is 'octopodes' since the word is of Ancient Greek rather than Latin origin - this is why the pedants' word for 'Latin name' for a species is 'scientific name', since not all species names are in Latin. For regular folk ˜octopuses" are perfectly acceptable; this also avoids invoking James Bond film titles. Pedants may wish to note that Octopussy wasn't a James Bond book title in itself... I could go on; the world of the pedant is a Mandelbrotian nightmare. I'll get my anorak.
Duncan, Hurstpierpoint

Kat, (Monday's letters)
modern dictionaries say 'octopuses' or 'octopi' are acceptable, but marine biologists prefer 'octopodes'. Although quite how you could make something of that in Scrabble, I have no idea...
Fee Lock, Hastings, East Sussex

Re: Iron Lady's passing. Handbags at half mast today.
Candace, New Jersey, US

To Rob Falconer (Monday's letters), I don't know why you're worrying about that rabbit eating 50 quids worth of lettuce and carrots or whatever. He'll still have three quid left over for frivolities such as visiting the Bunny Club.
Emigrant, Marseille, France

Kat, actually it's octopodes as the root word is Greek (eight-footed) not Latin. Yours in Pedantry.
Heather Simmons, Champaign, Illinois, USA

I'm aware that Lady Thatcher is dead, but the Magazine Monitor is more important.
Rob Mimpriss, Bangor, Wales

Oh, poor PM. I recommend a nice cup of hot cocoa, some biscuits, and a good thoughtless movie on the telly. Maybe an early bedtime, too.
Dragon, Concord, Calif, US

Duncan: "Pedants may wish to note that Octopussy wasn't a James Bond book title in itself"
No, but it was itself in a James Bond book title: "Octopussy and the Living Daylights", a book of (two) short stories by Ian Fleming published posthumously.
Goldfinger, London

Duncan (Tuesday's letters) - surely that should be "species' names"? I'll get my apostrophe.
David, Cardiff, South Wales

Fee - look for lots of space when your opponent plays "pod", and hope you have the right letters.
Mark, Banbury, Oxon

Really, it's their own fault for delaying this so long - had they done it earlier, there'd be less history to teach.
MK, Reading

Mark (Wednesday's Letters) - Fee can get her octopodes after the opponent plays to,top,op,po, pod,od,de,ode,odes or es. I'll get my tiles.
Steve, Southampton

I was out by one! When, on Monday, I saw the published letter on octopodes which said, and I quote, "octopuses (octopi?)", my first thought was "Ooh! That person really needs to know the correct plural of octopus! Somebody well-informed on such important matters had better write in and tell them. I'll do it." But I was busy, so I didn't. Instead, I mulled the matter over and came to the conclusion that you, Magazine Monitor, deliberately published that letter knowing that it would be extremely provoking to many of your readers, and that you would get a mailbag stuffed to the electronic gills with letters giving the proper plural form of the word. I then guessed that you would publish four of them.
P.S. Duncan's was my favourite.
James, Stockport

Dutch horse or Malian camel?
Martin, Luxembourg

How sad the Dutch didn't take warning - one of the companies behind the current meat scandal is in the town of Oss.
Rahere, Smithfield

The new Galaxy Mega phone appears to be displaying a weather forecast of a sunny 25 degrees for London on Tuesday April 30th. That must be almost as optimistic as the idea of getting a 6.3inch phone in your trouser pocket.
Simon, Cambridge

Re: labrador puppies tussling under one's jumper. Running does, however, have a synchronising effect on those puppies. The scientific question then becomes a problem of clockwise or anti-clockwise motion.
Candace, New Jersey, US

"Jam firm given permission to spread"? So what else are you supposed to do with it? Fire it off your spoon like a trebuchet? Sheesh!
Fi, Gloucestershire, UK

I could point out that 50,000 tons of meat is equivalent to about two thirds of the London bus fleet but that doesn't help very much. 50,000 tons of meat is one dodgy quarter-pounder for every EU citizen.
David Richerby, Liverpool, UK

Great. As if we weren't already being forced to hear people chatting on their mobiles in public too much. Now we're going to have to put up with mega-phones.
Dave, Truro

There IS a God!
Angus Gafraidh, London UK

Vodafone making bird-brained decisions like usual.
Chris Malton, Southampton, UK

Re this story: It calls to mind Mario Balotelli's reply when police questioned why he had £5,000 in cash on his person - "Because I am rich".
AD, London

Streetview, Pot, Kettle, Black.
Andrew, Malvern, UK

Considering what a superlative conductor of electricity gold is, I do believe that Datta Phuge has become the world's most expensive lightning rod.
roarshock, Oregon, USA

I just want to clear up any confusion regarding this story "Narrow Swindon alleyway painted with double yellow lines". This is an art installation and is a project on my media studies course. I'll get my paint brush.
Graham, Hayle, Cornwall

Andrew, Malvern, I knew I should have closed the curtains when the car drove past. Now everyone knows the colours of my kitchenware!
Darren, Birmingham

Re: tobacco memories. My grandfather regularly fielding calls at his corner grocery asking "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?"
Candace, New Jersey, US

Re: the story on Liberace. He was gay? Honestly? Well I would never have thought it. While the revelation floodgates have been opened - d'you have you any clues to the religious leanings of the Pope?
Ted Rodgers, Cheshire

This year, I am currently making over $12,000 less a year then I was supposed to when I was hired in 2004, a letter to the editor says.

Right now there is an epidemic of suicides and opioid overdoses, on top of the unacceptably high murder rate in the city, a letter to the editor says.

Education is the smartest investment an individual or a society can make, a letter to the editor says.

In this materialistic culture, this holiday stands alone as a time to reflect on the blessings we've been given by God, a letter to the editor says.

If used properly and regulated in a reasonable fashion, vape technology can have a positive public health impact

Carmel is spending too much taxpayer money building expensive roundabouts when simpler ones would be enough, a letter to the editor says.

The best way for Indiana to continue its momentum and move forward is with Holcomb's leadership, a letter to the editor says.

Half of Americans do not vote, and many choose not to stay politically informed because the display can be infuriating, a letter to the editor says.

We need to educate ourselves and then trust the process the framers' included in the Constitution, a letter to the editor says.

The interstates were a disaster with snow more than 3 inches deep in places, a letter to the editor says.

Trump will fade into history, but his legacy and the failure of leadership in Congress will long be remembered, a letter to the editor says.

In 2019, we connected young people to shelter, food, counseling, a non-judgmental listening ear and more, a letter to the editor says.

Everywhere I look I see the most heinous and immoral acts.

We have not kept up, and we are losing a generation of teachers.