Crooks and nannies

One of your readers' letters of Saturday (Oct. 21, 1995) emphasizes how much she loves Jakarta and lives "with its crooks and crannies". Was this expression actually included in that letter, or could it be the result of a perverse editor's mediation?

As any native English speaker would have noted, this is a rather ludicrous reinterpretation of the real expression, which, of course, is "crooks and nannies." Incidentally, a nanny is known in Jakarta as a "baby sitter" or, sometimes, "baby zuster," and both expressions are clearly in need of thorough Indonesianization (perawat bayi, or penunggu bayi?).

An inclination to congregate with crooks is, naturally, a matter of personal partiality, with which not everybody will concur.

B. SELLATO

Jakarta

Note: The phrase in question was the writer's own wording. The correct saying is nooks and crannies.

-- Editor