11 MARCH 2000, Page 30

Taximetre

From Mr Evan Williams Sir: Jaspistos, your competition setter, says there are no rhymes for 'taxi' apart from `waxy' and 'the unsatisfactory Greek "en taxi"' (26 February). Fred Astaire fans will recall that in Fol- low the Fleet (1936) Irving Berlin solved the problem as follows:

Instead of a girl or two in a taxi We were compelled to look at the Black Sea, But the Black Sea Isn't what it's cracked up to be.

Evan Williams

Sydney, Australia