Calling up visions of the Duchess of York's new career as a pitchwoman, a New Jersey reader wrote to the New York Times to cite the lyrics to Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Gondoliers," sung by the Duchess of Plaza-Doro:

(I) vow my complexionDerives its perfection

From somebody's soap - which it doesn't - . . .

In short if you'd kindle

The spark of a swindle,

Lure simpletons into your clutches. . .

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Or hoodwink a debtor,

You cannot do better

Than trot out a duke or a duchess.

- Leah Garchik

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