passing variables to the gnome panel

[J Sigbrandt <js37 ohm york ac uk>]

Hi,

Used to have this in gnome-panel -> properties -> command: 
     "gdict -a $(xpaste.console)"

xpaste.console is a terminal program that grabs stuff in the clipboard and
can pass it to a bash script, for example. So, using it in the panel means
that anything in the clipboard is passed to gdict when the panel icon is
pressed. 

This doesn't work anymore - now gdict tries to lookup the word
"$(xpaste.console)" and is not very successful!

How do I re-enable this functionality?

Thanks,
jay