Tuesday, March 07, 2006

(25) A girl incorrectly says "Thirty-six"

On the morning of January 30th 1988 I went swimming at Bedford’s Robinson Pool. On the way there I recalled a scene from an excellent 1970s TV sit-com called Going StraightGoing Straight - Wikipedia which starred Ronnie Barker as the ex-con, Fletcher. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Barker Fletcher is in a café when he spots a teenage girl about to pilfer some goods. He issues a hearty "Hello luv!", which pre-empts her theft. Then he buys her a cup of tea and asks how old she is. "Thirty-six", she replies, in a voice thick with sarcasm. "You look older", Fletcher snaps back. I had found that snippet of repartee very amusing and had several times thought about it over the preceding decade. 
About one hour later I was resting at the pool’s shallow end. To my right were two pre-teenage girls. Suddenly the smaller of them exclaimed, "Thirty-Six??" She had misinterpreted the figures 3’ 6", which were written at the pool side to indicate depth in feet and inches.

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