FEEDBACK WITH IAN PARRI.

Byline: IAN PARRI

IT was David Gates who penned those immortal words to the song If, that have since been set on disc by voices as various as those of Frank Sinatra, Telly Savalas and Jack Charlton, of all people.

``If a picture paints a thousand words. . . '', they all crooned.

Well, recited actually, in the case of both Savalas and Charlton. But they're prophetic words indeed, if the unwavering interest in our All about. . . daily photograph feature is anything to go by.

Rarely can there have been a newspaper feature whose accompanying few words of description and explanation are so carefully perused and dissected. And who can blame you?

They've proven to be a constant source of agitated phone calls and letters to our HQ in Llandudno Junction down the months.

The caption accompanying last Saturday's aeriel photograph of Yr Eifl near Trefor, on the north coast of the Lloen peninsula, and the disused granite quarry on its slopes is a case in point.

It provided the catalyst for another rush of disgruntled communication.

Yes, I did say granite quarry, one of Wales' largest in its heyday which provided the setts that cobbled the streets of many an English city.

However we wrongly stated that it was a slate quarry.

Yes, I know, a monumental mistake.

Worse still, we claimed that slate from Trefor was used to make the curling stones that they hurl across ice rinks, and which the Scottish women's team that represented Britain at the 2002 Winter Olympics used to strike gold.

Slate! I ask you. Any ignoramus could, of course, tell you that curling stones are made of solid, heavy granite, not its much lighter and easily split cousin.

But I plead with our Celtic pals not to set off down here on a trek to red-ear us about the art of curling. Rest assured that our particular ignoramus will be placed in one of the famous pillories outside the office to be publicly ridiculed. Or at least he or she will be as soon as one of them is vacated.

Meanwhile it seems that yours truly also boobed slightly by not telling you where you could obtain your copy of the new edition of Dr Iorwerth Peate's classic book The Welsh House featured in the Daily Post on Monday.

Costing pounds 19, it's available from Llanerch Press, whose phone number is 01570 470567. Or visit their website, www. llanerchpress. com.

I'll just be off to join the pillory queue, then, shall I?

On a more serious note, Joseph Caffari got in touch to express his disquiet at our use of a photograph of a family grave at Penmaenmawr to illustrate an article about the local cemetery's serious state of disrepair.

No upset was intended, and Mr Caffari was gracious enough to concede that we did at least draw much needed attention to the problems at the cemetery.

However, our picture desk holds its hands up and accepts in hindsight that it needn't have used a photograph that so clearly identified whose grave it was.