""What remarks should I make about The Satanic Verses? Should I stay silent when Salmon Rushdie has to go into hiding because the religious head of Iran has put a contract on his head?""

A crusty old cynic like me isn't too impressed with that so-called threat of death to Salman Rushdie for the following reason.

The Media hyped threat to his life and his apparent disappearance into a "place of safety" converted an inaccurate rant about Islam which might, at best, have sold a couple of dozen copies into an all time best seller.

The world and his wife knew where he was "hiding", and neither his publishers nor the World's journalists had any trouble finding him to deliver the scads of lovely lolly he made.

I only wish I had been so endangered, and so rich!

Don T