The magazine whose engine room JD and I inhabit is part of an international company which has just appointed a senior exec to look after purchasing. Which would be a big 'so what?' were it not that the lady in question is an American.
No, this is not going to be an anti-American rant, it's just that she might have some problems when handling stationery orders from the UK and our colleagues Down Under.
For example, a Brit might ask for rubbers, which is the accepted Stateside usage for condoms. Once that's sorted out and she's realised we actually want erasers the good lady might well have a request from the Aussies for sticky tape. No problem, unless she asks them if they want Sellotape which, in Ozspeak, is a brand of condom.
It could be an interesting learning curve in the upper echelons of international purchasing.
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3 comments:
I hereby claim my prize for spotting your (deliberate?) mistake. In Australia, Sellotape is not a brand of condom (a very pleasant French village, by the way), whereas Durex is an Australian brand of sticky tape.
Quality meat pie to the usual location, please.
As Apus would no doubt say, 'even subs need subs'.
Thanks for pointing our error out, Colin. Durex seems to make more sense as the name of a brand of sticky tape than Sellotape would do as a name of a brand of condom...
Much obliged, Colin; nope, there was nothing deliberate about that mistale but fortunately there's still plenty of opportunity for confusion when our Aussi colleagues put in a request for Durex!
On which subject, I presume by meat pie you mean that classic Oz dish, the floater? Take my advice and beware of asking for a floater in a Brit eatery...
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