Misunderstandings, misrepresentations and quote of the week

There are a few bits and pieces that cropped up over the last couple of days that have been entertaining me greatly.

Firstly, remember this daft post from a week or so ago? Just a dumb sign in a shop that said, “WE STOCK LADIES SIZE 4 – 24″. I’m easily enough amused that I posted a photo of the sign under the title, “Looking for a wife or girlfriend?”

I got a comment on that post. It has no web link attached, nothing apparently being spammed or pushed in any way. Just a name and the following:

hi dear
my name is taher , i am 22 i am from afghanistan , i am looking for a wife

Well Taher, if you’re still reading, it’s really not a good idea to call me “dear” and I’m afraid I can’t help you. But good luck in finding a wife. You’re only 22, so there’s really no rush.

When it comes to misrepresentations, I really enjoyed this article at news.com.au. Basically, an Indian man, Vaibhav Bev, is suing the makers of Lynx deodorant. He claims that he:

…has been using Lynx deodorant since 2002, in the hope the company’s promotional campaign – which features scantily clad women throwing themselves at men – had some basis in real life.

Mr Bev is suing the maker of Lynx – marketed as Axe in his home country – for more than $100,000, seeking compensation for “depression and psychological damage”.

“I used it for seven years but no girl came to me,” he told the Daily Record.

Truth in advertising or blatant stupidity notwithstanding, the makers of the product (Unilever) have been encouraged by Indian compensation lawyer Ram Jethmalani to settle out of court. It would obviously be fairly easy for Unilever to say something along the lines of, “Lynx can help you get a girlfriend, but it’s no guarantee. You have to be attractive and desirable too, just like the men in our ads.” However, Jethmalani doesn’t think that Unilever can use the excuse that Mr Bev is too ugly to get a girlfriend. As he apparently told The Daily Record, “In fact, some of the best-looking women have been known to marry and date absolutely ghoulish guys.” What a great line. Not necessarily a great compensation case, however.

And not as great a line as this one in an article I read in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning. It’s all to do with a big stoush over the Enmore Spiritualist Church in Sydney, “a haven for Sydney’s tight-knit community of clairvoyants and psychics”. There have been big arguments about who should run the church, who should act as treasurer and where a lot of funds have mysteriously disappeared to. The previous treasurer, 87 years old Patricia Cleary has suggested that spirits must have taken the money. Sure, I bet there’s a distinct lack of ATMs on “the other side”.

But the line of the week goes to church member Chorel Terelinck: “I know we’re meant to be psychics, but none of us saw this coming.”

Ah, you can’t write comedy like that.

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