Half a Mind

Posting the previous blog reminded me of the signs I saw in Boots during this year's January sales. Items on rows of shelves were being sold for "Half Marked Price!". Helpfully, strategically stuck on some of the shelves were "ready reckoners":

Marked price ....................................... Sale price
£1 ....................................................................50p
£2 ..................................................................£1

and so forth.

I had half a mind to complain about being patronised in this way..... surely anyone who needed this simple reckoner should not have been allowed out with their own money?

Semantically Suspect Shop Signs

The re-emergence of my pal Alliterative Al! The following sign caught my attention yesterday as I rushed through the shopping centre at Luton:

"Every garment £10 and less".


Surely it must be "or less"? Or am I just too pedantic to be let loose in a shopping centre?

When Socratic Questioning Goes Wrong

One of my patients explained she was nervous about telling her husband of her newly discovered pregnancy. In an attempt to help her realise that her husband had played a part in bringing about such an outcome, I asked her who was responsible for the pregnancy. She looked at me in a state of bewilderment, until I explained that I was not for a moment suggesting that it might have been anyone else other than her husband!

More Oranges

In the week of St Valentine's Day, it was pleasing to find that my daily oranges were in fact blood oranges. There was something special about this juxtaposition, and drinking the richly coloured juice was a lovely way to start the day. It made feel feel quite sanguine.

And this was beautifully counterpointed by an orange sun penetrating the early morning fog that curled over the fields on my journey to work.