Your views: Readers' letters

Eggspert advice

Hello, Frank Greenall. My name is Al Bumen. I enjoyed your column (Chronicle, October 27) with hints on cooking eggs, and would like to share some from my family heritage.

1. Prior to cooking free-range eggs, put them in a glass of water; they should sink to the bottom. If an egg floats, it's rotten.

2. Before boiling eggs in hot water: Prick through the eggshell with a sharp pin (e.g. a map pin or drawing-pin) to release the air from the sac ([this is in the "blunt" end of the egg). Then the egg can be placed in hot water; it won't crack, and cooking time is much reduced.

3. To check on progress of the whites and yolk setting, you only need a smooth, level surface, such as the kitchen bench. Lift the egg from the boiling water with a spoon and try to spin the egg quickly on its end upon the bench using your fingers and thumbs to set it in motion. Only a firm egg will spin. If you doubt this, try spinning a raw egg and see the difference. With practice you will be able to discern soft-boiled from hard-boiled; the latter will spin for ages like a boy's whipping top, that simple toy from a bygone age.

This spinning test may not rival the practicality of your method of severing the crown, but has merit in its simplicity. What's more, it always seems to impress those who have never seen it demonstrated before. Bed 'n' breakfast guests are thoroughly puzzled by its mystique. Thanks for sharing your eggspertease with us.

AL BUMEN a.k.a DENIS RAINFORTH
Whanganui

Democracy

Darrell Grace's letter ("Backing fluoride", Chronicle, October 29), presumably written in response to my own one of October 14, seeks to assure me (and I quote) "For his [Stan Hood's] information, fluoride is not a medicine ..."

Um, Darrell, I already knew that. You would have read it in the first sentence of my letter, which said (quote) "� the Ministry of Health (MOH) passed a regulation declaring fluoride was not a medicine."

I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment of the MOH. And now that Darrell Grace and I have both publicly confirmed our agreement on that matter of importance to the subject of teeth health, I just want to reaffirm that my letter of October 14 was essentially about democracy in New Zealand, as I had thought the body and conclusion of my letter had made clear.

It was -- to me -- incidental that the subject matter in my letter was the issue of fluoridation and what groups of citizens thought about it.

It seems that fluoridation has two almost implacably opposed "camps". I personally have no strong feelings about whether it should be in our water supplies or not. However, I do feel strongly about democracy.

As I wrote previously, if people don't want something, they shouldn't be forced into it.

STAN HOOD
Aramoho

Bigotry abounds

Today's Chronicle cartoon (October 26) demonstrates that the bigotry and vitriol that dog US presidential candidate Donald Trump are alive and well here in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

I look forward to chuckling smugly when he is elected.

I have been told by several individuals that Mr Trump is an idiot, which may indicate that all who vote for him are also lacking intelligence. Is all of this fact or is it just prejudice?

Or is Mr Trump the quintessential ugly American?

As for his alleged contempt for women, true or false?

None of us are the same people that we were 10 or 20 years ago. And it is generally accepted that wisdom comes with age. Is Mr Trump to be denied that privilege?

I, for one, wish him -- and indeed America -- well.

One good reason for this is that he has promised to increase funding for Nasa.

They who took me on a tour of Mars while sitting safely in my couch.

For that gift I must forgive Mr Trump and America all their sins and look forward to a human Mars landing.

Go, Donald.

POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff

1080 concerns

Darrell Grace, I never implied that I was the only one to have gone tramping or that I was the oldest.

What I said was that I had concerns regarding the blanket broadcasting of 1080.

Whenever I have ventured into the bush after a 1080 poison drop, the bush is silent -- no bird song or activity -- and I have never seen the reinstatement of the forest structure as you suggest.

I know of areas that have been poisoned beside excluded areas and it is like walking from a bird sanctuary to a soundproof room when walking from the excluded area into the drop zone.

Yes, I have tried to play a part for conservation in the hunting of possums, pigs, goats and deer.

I have always attempted to humanely kill any animal I am hunting.

My conscience is clear, as the harvesting of fish and game animals has been done to feed me and my extended family and friends.

I would have thought, with you being so concerned with the animals I have taken, that you would be in an uproar over the cruel and agonising deaths of all birds and animals killed with 1080 poison.

This toxin does not kill humanely.

It is horrifying to see anything suffer such a prolonged horrible death.

Animals/birds don't have to eat the poison directly to die.

They may feed on the dead or dying or amongst a decaying carcass and suffer the same consequences through secondary poisoning and they in turn can kill again.

GARY GLEESON
Aramoho