I was surprised to find G A Woodward had not heard the term ‘SNAFU.

It does of course stand for ‘Situation Normal, all fouled up’ and not what he may have read on the Internet, which as we all know, is not always right about everything.

Regarding the internet, a few years ago my more distant family suggested I join them on a particular blog site, so we could exchange news, pictures etc in a series of posts, which unlike Facebook as it was then, was more private, and so I attempted to create an account. It required a user name but every possible combination of names I tried was rejected as already owned by the untold myriads of people who inhabit the internet, with a similar or identical name to myself.

Getting frustrated after my hundredth or so attempt, I facetiously put in SNAFU and at that point the system accepted my pseudonym and password, and so I am now known to my blogging friends as SNAFU.

For the record, there is another common term that G A Woodward may like to know for future crosswords – FUBAR, which may have been my next offering if SNAFU had not worked, which of course stands for ‘Fouled up, beyond all recognition’.

Pete Morris, Upton Close, Swindon