30 JANUARY 1982, Page 16

Ugly acronym

Sir: I notice that in spite of a mildly deprecatory reader's letter of some weeks ago the expression SODPAL still appears regularly in your 'Portrait of the Week'. It is neither inspired nor remarkably apt, merely spiteful and does the inventor no credit. So far as I know it has not been taken up in any other quarter. Can you not ask `AAW' to agree that it has had a long enough run and give it a rest?

R. C. Mitchell

Gorsedene House, The Long Road, Rowledge, Farnham, Surrey