Readers, I cannot remain silent. Rafael, at The Observer Blog, has posted that blog's top ten letters of the alphabet, and the list contains a scandalous omission. One is bound to ask how it was arrived at. Rafael reports that it was 'voted by our panel of experts'. But he doesn't say who the experts were, what voting procedure was used, or whether any money changed hands. These, in any case, are the top ten letters, in rank order:
g, w, s, k, o, e, y, z, b, xI leave it to others to try to find a decent anagram from these letters. But you won't have failed to notice the absence of the letter p from our experts' choices. I ask you - no p. A letter of impressive power (and, as you can see, the very word begins with it) and versatility. It can be itself, as in 'perfect' and 'praiseworthy' and 'prawn sandwich'; but it can also miraculously vanish as at the beginning of 'psychology' and 'pseudonym'; and it can mix to become an f, as in 'phenomenology', 'phlegmatic' and 'phorminx' (eh? - Ed); nor should one forget how it can turn into a t in 'Ptolemaic', 'ptomaine' and 'pterodactyl', or into an n in 'pneumonia' and 'pneumatic'.
I rest my case. This letter is not merely absent from the Observer Blog's top three; it's nowhere in their top ten. I'm saying their list is busted. It's phinished. It's of pno account whaptpsoever.