How to respond to an invite

The other day something happened which I suspect is vaguely normal in the Christian community but totally and utterly unimaginable anywhere else. And whilst it isn't commonplace it is not the first, fifth or even tenth time this has happened to us.

Mrs Long-Suffering came back from the shops of a Saturday morning and said 'name from place told me to tell you she's coming to your course in September.'

Can you think of any other circumstance in which you'd respond to a general invitation to a course by telling the administrator's partner in the supermarket?

Amongst the many problems this raises is that I am not, as far as I am aware, running a course in September.

Footballers Are Stupid - Part 247

A handshake? What is a handshake? I doubt very much that more than a handful of footballers have the first idea.

It goes back to the days when, in order to kill someone, you needed to get close enough to plunge something sharp into them.

A handshake, with the most commonly used hand, the right, was an open palm which contained no dagger. It removed suspicion.

Which means that a handshake was not originally a comment on the past but a statement about the future. I do not intend to kill you. The crisis will subside from this point onwards.

Pretty soon afterwards, or perhaps even in parallel, it became a recognised sign of finalising a deal - let's shake on it.

But in essence one does not have to have resolved the past in order to shake a hand. The errors of the past still need reconciliation but the handshake offer is my intention to do nothing to make matters worse.

So, a refusal to shake hands actually escalates. By not agreeing to stop making matters worse you contribute to making matters worse.

I almost understand the problems with the handshake between sparky managers (pun intended) at the end of a heated game. Most problems of this nature are sorted over a drink later. But before the game? Not for the first time I think some players need to grow up.