
Once upon a time, many moons ago, I was on an internal flight with Southwest Airlines in the States. I ordered a drink, which was accompanied by a packet of dryroasted peanuts. Amazingly, the packet bore the legend; ‘Caution; contains nuts’. I mean, who could possibly have worked that out by themselves?
On another occasion in the States, we got pizzas to go. On the box it stated ‘open box before eating pizza’. Then the was the Heinz Ketchup bottle which had ‘serve on food’ in big letters on the front label. Honest. As Yoda would say, ‘I shit you not’.
Everywhere you go, you encounter these statements of the bleeding obvious; instructions for idiots. You get in a lift at ground level, and press for level three. A disembodied voice then tells you ‘doors closing, lift going up’. No fucking shit. You buy a tube of haemorrhoid cream and the label shrieks ‘for external use only; do not consume!’. Well I don’t know about you, but I always thought it tasted good spread on toast. When I was working, we got this ‘health and safety’ shit circulated, and one thing it strongly advised was ‘wear sensible clothing and shoes’. As cunters will appreciate, I was immediately driven to forego my cherished fishnet stockings and stilettos.
This kind of persistent nannying has always driven me nuts, but this morning I came across possibly the most ludicrous ‘statement of the obvious’ instruction ever. I’ve got to go in for an operation soon (which I fervently hope proves to be completely routine) and received the usual information pack to prepare me about what to expect. Included in this was a leaflet about the benefits of getting up and moving about during your stay in hospital. Fair enough, you might think, but it contains this absolute gem; ‘if you have a urinary catheter, you can still be active. Just always remember to take the catheter with you’.
Fuck me sideways. Thanks for that. While you’re about it, why not advise us always to ensure that we’ve got our heads screwed on when we stroll up and down the ward?
pwdirect
Nominated by Ron Knee.