Sometimes ground squirrels bring it close to town and vets catch it from pampered pets. But if they call it the Black Death they may be wrong.(Photograph omitted). MICHAEL Maine asks why people in West London refuse to accept BAA's promise that it has no wish to build an additional runway at Heathrow. Perhaps part of the answer is in the second half of his letter where he tries to convince readers that BAA wants to build a fifth terminal not because it is in the interests of shareholders but because it is in the interests of the country. What nonsense] BAA is a public limited company with a primary duty to shareholders.

Any claim that it is working solely in the national interest raises doubts about its integrity David Rich Colnbrook, Berkshire. SUPPOSE I went into my supermarket to buy a bottle of wine recommended by a widely publicised panel of wine-tasters and the manager said: 'Don't buy it, mate] I know it's on our shelves but it's dry, boring stuff with no sparkle. I don't think we'll ever shift it.' I'd think he was out of his mind and would soon be out of a job. Yet the big booksellers are doing just this, according to your front-page story last week. Shortlisted Booker authors have run the gauntlet of publisher's readers, editors, accountants, critics and prize judges.

Aren't they entitled to a little positive salesmanship from retailers? It isn't as if the big booksellers have done much to acquire reputations for discrimination. Look at the stuff they do promote]Clive KingThurlton, Norwich. IN 'The sea must be governed' (2 October) you wrote that statistically, flying is by far the safest form of transport. Public relations people have persuaded us that deaths per passenger mile are the criterion, yet what we want is a safe journey, not safe miles. Moreover, nearly all fatalities occur at take-off and landing; in between, auto-pilots are free from human error, and never fall asleep.The criterion, if applied to passenger lifts, would show on average that a lift in the tallest skyscraper would be the safest even in free fall - for passing the most floors before the crash.And, of course, 'statistically' there is never more than one bomb on any aircraft flight, so to play safe you pack one of your own.Peter HillTanworth-in-Arden.

YOUR report 'Jews get in tune with Arabs' (2 October) states that oriental (Mizrahi) music is virtually banned from Israeli television and radio. Israel won the Eurovision Song competition twice - first with 'Abanibi' and second with 'Halleluiah' - both strong Mizrahi tunes written and sung by Yemen Israeli artists who had extremely successful careers in Israel. Ofra Haza was the first Israeli singer to have real international success - again a Yemen Israeli singing in Hebrew, Yemeni and Arabic. I was born in a kibbutz in the 1950s, a third generation Ashkenazi. My first record (before even the Beatles]) was of Yehoram Gaon singing Mizrahi songs. When I was a teenager I had all the records of Pink Floyd and all those of Haood singing pure Mizrahi songs in Hebrew and Arabic.I never heard the phrase 'Anti-Zionist' used in connection with Mizrahi music and my childhood memories are all of Mizrahi music and 'Central Bus Station Music' coming daily from every radio station including that of the army.