Must be an Oz thing, Bill. Never heard anything like that here...
Doug
On May 28, 2014, at 1:32 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks, Max, Pat. That's the thing. I struggle to remember too, Max, whether I have any plans or not. The first time, I felt quite unmanned.
>
> Cheers,
> Bill
>
>> On 28 May 2014, at 9:59 am, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Bill, you nail much of this recurring situation and the thoughts prompted.
>>
>> When I ask the youngish ones about themselves,
>> they tend to say they are students with assignments
>> falling due.
>>
>> Did you have a good weekend?
>> is another standby.
>> My first response is
>> I don’t remember.
>>
>> I do recall a parent-child standard exchange
>> (maybe it was the title of a book)
>> Where did you go?
>> Out.
>> What did you do?
>> Nothing.
>>
>> Max
>>
>>> On 28 May 2014, at 7:50 am, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Have you got any plans?
>>>
>>> It's the new intrusion
>>> at the checkout.
>>>
>>> Well, do you?
>>> No casual enquiry
>>>
>>> this conversational prompt.
>>> A management directive?
>>>
>>> Whether you admit
>>> you don't or say you do,
>>>
>>> the polite follow-up
>>> would surely be Do you?
>>>
>>> Flirting, supermarket style
>>> to the accompaniment
>>>
>>> of coin jingle, bar code
>>> blip, wallet flourish.
>>>
>>> Then again, if tied
>>> to the till, anyone
>>>
>>> with trolley and time
>>> must seem free.
>>>
>>> Or, hang on a second,
>>> has the checkout chick
>>>
>>> exposed a yawning?
>>> Just what in hell
>>>
>>> are your intentions
>>> on this blue planet?
>>>
>>> bw
>>
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Latest books:
Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
Recording Dates
(Rubicon Press)
would you
care to be more
precise about whatever
it is you are
saying, I said
Bill Manhire
|