On the homepage today, I have a piece called “Ukraine and the Right.” Difficult subject, important subject. And for something offbeat: “Another F-word.” That word would be “Führer.” A controversy over this word has arisen at — naturally enough — the Bayreuth Festival.

In an Impromptus last Friday, I had a note on drinking water (meaning water to drink). The problems of Jackson, Miss., have reminded some of us that this water can’t be taken for granted — though maybe it should?

A reader writes,

I was a contractor in Iraq from 2007 to 2009. We had several Third World nationals as logistics and support contractors. Early in my tour I asked a gentleman from Nepal how he liked Iraq. He replied that he enjoyed working there because he had so much and made far more than he would have in Nepal. I asked him what his favorite part of living in Iraq was and he pointed to a pallet of water — potable water in eight-packs of two-liter bottles. It was then — at the ripe age of 53 — that I realized that countless people live without ready access to potable water.
Now, on Tuesdays and Fridays, I crow about the “miracle of curbside garbage pickup.”

A friend of mine from Munich writes,

Several years ago, German bottled-water companies successfully sued the City of Munich to prevent them from advertising the superior chemical quality of their water.

I had some notes on Queen Elizabeth II. A reader writes,

I never saw the Queen but I did see Prince Philip in 2016 from a distance. . . .
. . . my parents got married the day after Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip (still a serving officer) did. Both my parents were in the Navy at the time and my dad was serving on the USS Ellyson. One of his fellow officers dubbed him the Duke of Ellyson since that’s when George VI named Philip the Duke of Edinburgh.

In my Impromptus last Friday, I commented on something Donald Trump said when campaigning for a gubernatorial candidate: “He’ll rule your state with an iron fist, and he’ll do what has to be done.” A friend writes,

When I read your “rule with an iron fist” comments, my mind immediately went to this exchange from A Man for All Seasons — Roper is talking about getting at the devil:
William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More : Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?

I spoke of the columnist Steve Chapman, who was born in Brady, Texas. Writes a reader,

When I was growing up, my family traveled from Midland to Houston, and we would sometimes drive through Brady. I remember my dad saying it was “the heart of Texas.” Also, as a music guy, you might like this: the Heart of Texas Country Music Festival.

In an Impromptus, I talked about, and celebrated, the weirdness of English. A reader writes,

I, too, love the weirdness of English. I’ve never forgotten this bit by the Reagan-era comedian Yakov Smirnoff: When asked by a maître-d whether he had reservations, he said, “Yes — but I’ll eat here anyway.”

Marvelous.