Letter: Bum note

Wednesday 22 January 1997 00:02 GMT

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Bum note

Sir: Jilly Cooper and Paul Barnett (report, 16 January; letter, 18 January) have both got it wrong. Glockenspiel is a German word and years ago, at a party in Austria, when I said I didn't know much German, I was asked to try to say something in that language.

Inventing rapidly, I said: "Meine Grossmutter hat ein grosses Glockenspiel" ... whereupon the assembled company fell about laughing. It was explained to me that in some areas of Austria, "Glockenspiel" is dialect for "bum".

LEN CLARKE

Uxbridge, Middlesex

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