7 JUNE 2008, Page 24

The original Homer?

Sir: Reading about Jeremy Clarke’s Homer Simpson talking bottle opener (Low life, 31 May) has not quite made me rush out and buy one, but I am pleased to discover that Homer is heard yelling, ‘Don’t mind if I dooo!’ That’s almost exactly Colonel Chinstrap’s catchphrase from It’s That Man Again. Only a day or two earlier I’d been listening on BBC7 to a 1945 episode of that show and been amused to hear Tommy Handley’s battleaxe secretary, played by Diana Morrison, utter an exasperated ‘Doh!’ before slamming the famous ITMA door. I hope that the harmless drudges at the OED are aware that what is popularly regarded as a Simpsonian interjection predates the cartoon by more than half a century. Now I’m off in search of a Chinstrap bottle opener. Keith Norman

Oxford