City Diary.

By Martin Waller.
95 words
5 November 2002
The Times
28
English
(c) 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd.

FAREWELL, then, Lonnie Donegan, king of skiffle, whose earlier bout of
ill health sparked a nasty outbreak of jitters on the foreign exchange
markets. True story: one day back in the Reagan years, the markets were
panicked to learn that the President was seriously ill. The dollar
plunged. The rumour arose in Tokyo and swept across the various time
zones. Then it gradually dawned on traders that the stricken personality
was Donegan, not Reagan. The blame was eventually put on the
idiosyncracies of Japanese pronounciation.

(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2002.