Oxford dong
LUMINOUS OR NOT, a dong is the stan- dard monetary unit of Vietnam, and so earns its place in Oxford's newest publica- tion, a Dictionary (at £15.95) for the Busi- ness World. So does 'managing director', though without the classic definition, which comes from How to Run a Bassoon Factory: 'The managing director is the one who knows where the factory is, and even goes there sometimes.' So do Gresham's law, new time, Nikkei index, greenmail, golden parachute and gobbledegook. Oxford has a bad habit of bringing out new titles for the sake of it — I recall the dire Oxford Book of Canadian Political Anecdotes — but this one is well done. Its only quirk is to include an arbitrary smattering of business biogra- phies — Thomson, Lord, of Fleet: Bronf- man, Edgar : Reichmann, Paul: Black, Con- rad. It must have started life as the Oxford Book of Canadian Businessmen.
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