A reader objects to this passage from today’s column : “Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize, proving that such prizes have as much worth as an expired car-wash coupon.”

He writes: Expired car-wash coupons can be used as toilet paper. Also, many are

blank on the reverse side so that they can be used as scrap note paper.

This makes such coupons of vastly greater worth than the Nobel Prize

for Peace.

Thank you for your kind attention to this detail.