Sir, - One must share this - a cartoon from the New York of October 5th, 1998. A bookstore assistant, consulting his "screen", is advising a bemused potential customer: "We have a calendar based on the book, stationery based on the book, an audiotape of the book, and a videotape of the movie based on the book, but we don't have the book."
Some cold comfort in the fact that it's not, apparently, a problem peculiar to Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Aidan O'Hanlon, Herbert Road, Dublin 4.