Kim, isn't a "dandy brush" universal, at least in racing stables? Maybe not .....

Sorcha, I had no idea you had become so Anglicized. Bonnets and boots, indeed ! Do the garage mechanics in Wyoming understand you ? And talking of mechanics, this is the very place to clear up something which I have wondered about for a long time.

Back in the sixties an acquaintance of mine, a plasterer by trade, claimed to have seen an advertisement in a USA newspaper which read : "Plasterer wanted, must be first-class mechanic". He found this incomprehensible, until I ventured a suggestion that "mechanic" in the USA might just be their word for "craftsman" or "tradesman". (In Britain of course, a mechanic is a motor mechanic.) Now, was I right? I remember in some movie (Five Card Stud, maybe ) hearing a card-sharp referred to as a "good mechanic".

Vive la difference

Murray