In praise of the freshly fried chip | Brief letters

Chippies at risk | Consciousness raising | Cupboard love | Student meals | Death of ties

In your article about the plight of fish and chip shops you barely mention the chips (Can fish and chip shops survive? ‘We made more money by closing than staying open’, 17 September). Almost all caterers now seem to use frozen chips, which they reheat. They are uniformly awful and I no longer eat meals with chips as a result. My uncle was a fish frier of great renown locally and he had his chipping machine in the shop by the frying range, chipping as needed. With the right potatoes, freshly fried chips are delicious. Not dry and powdery like frozen ones. Bring back real chips, I say.
Bill Cross
Exeter

• The original Turing test of “Can a machine pass for a human?” is not so testing any more (Letters, 18 September), so I propose an update: which will be first to get a slot on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day – an AI with hallucinations about its maker, or a human atheist?
Angus Macdonald
Bo’ness, Firth of Forth

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