beware nipples schnauzer

This time the instructions are, Warning Guard Dogs. Apart from a wild look in the eye this one seems to be short of the teeth which would if they were shown would give more credibility to the warning.

 To reach the counter at the sub post office, also a newsagent and convenience store,  the queue has to file past the magazine-display shelves. Examining the titles my eye strays to the uppermost shelf where the magazines called "men's magazines" are on show. Without exception these publications have naked women on the covers. Not completely naked though. Every breast  is covered  at its extremity with a  tiny star, which leads me to be believe that a censor somewhere in the long chain of  wholesalers, retailers and moral arbiters which govern newsagent displays has decided that there is something dangerously erotic about nipples, though not about the flesh which supports them. The logic of the stars eludes me, but thinking about the management meetings and resulting minutes (the dialogue above all) ,which must have ensued to produce them helps pass the time while waiting to post my parcel.

Outside The Compasses Heidi calls "Schnauzie, Schnauzie.." to a medium sized Schnauzer tethered to a chair inside the sheltered area. The dog, which is longing for entertainment jumps up and runs towards her forgetting that there is a long lead extending behind it, which after a certain point can extend no further. Such is the impulse of its charge and its evident boredom, that yapping with excitement, it drags the chair behind it, knocking over other chairs in its wake and rushes upon us, despite its owners entreaties. "Is it a puppy?" asks Heidi. " No. She's six,"says her owner. "I wish I were," says Heidi.