# Wellwoman Vitamins - an anecdote



## JustRob (Jun 20, 2017)

Today as we drove to the shops I saw on the back of the bus ahead an advertisement for "Wellwoman Vitamins" and started to speculate, as one does having entrusted the driving to one's ever-vigilant guardian angel. 

What might a "Wellwoman" be, I wondered. Could this be a reference to the tale of three sisters who lived in a well, as recounted by the dormouse in _Alice in Wonderland_? It seemed unlikely at first, but was a line of thought worth pursuing, given none other. However, it promised to be a hot day, hotter even than the stifling yesterday, not a day for thinking but for ... I can't think what just now, it still being today. The coolness of the supermarket with its many refrigerators gave respite, an opportunity to resume thought, so I thought.

The sisters in that well lived on treacle with no mention of vitamins. Unsurprisingly they were ill, "_very_ ill," according to the dormouse. This could explain how the enterprise "Wellwoman Vitamins" had found a niche in a highly competitive market, but then I recollected something from my childhood. At boarding school the matron had given me regular doses of Minadex, a sweet treacly substance fortified with vitamins, to fortify me against the rigours of life in a 1950's English boarding school. Oh yes, I still have many detailed memories of those bittersweet years etched into my mind, much like the taste of Minadex itself. Returning my thoughts to the fortunes of others though, if this substance was a redeemer of health then why had those sisters fared so badly? 

Back home, as the midday heat built and my mind dissolved in sweat while my angel hurried to put the equally vulnerable shopping in the refrigerator, I searched the Internet for an explanation with the last of my rationality. Minadex wasn't treacle but malt extract, a very similar substance but evidently not so in its effect, if the dormouse's evidence was to be believed. I realised how fortunate I had been in my youth and how, no doubt as a consequence, I may still unravel the great mysteries of life in my dotage, but I will postpone that experience until another day, it being far too hot to speculate today.


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## Olly Buckle (Jun 26, 2017)

I think they are on a loser trying to sell vitamins to women who think of themselves as 'Well women', on the other hand 'Sick women vitamins' doesn't sound too great either


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## HarriB (Jul 9, 2017)

William Zinsser emphasized a writer's need for self-confidence in the first few chapters of _On Writing Well_, and your contentedness with yourself is what makes this piece so delightful. I don't have a passionate interest in well-women or nutritional supplements, yet your whimsical tone made the very _act_ of reading enjoyable (in all honesty, your piece could be poetry!)

There were minor interruptions in your tone that your piece could benefit from correcting:
     Using both "I" and "one" in your first few sentences was a bit distracting. 
     "Gave [_me a_] respite" or "[Granted me] respite" (in paragraph 2 I loved your "...so I thought" at the end of that sentence!)  
     In paragraph 3, perhaps you could put the dormouse's quip in parentheses to ease the sentence along. 

The above are suggestions. I thoroughly enjoyed _Wellwoman Vitamins_ and look forward to reading more of your work!


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## JustRob (Jul 10, 2017)

Hi Harri. Thanks for your comments. We are currently working on providing a central forum for these short reads so that people with only a little time to spare can easily find something to fill it. You are perceptive about the poetic style. I have commented in the past that my prose is my poetry and that becomes evident in short pieces such as this one. I am glad that you appreciated the double meaning in "so I thought." It was one of those gifts that just come to mind if one is lucky. I agree that I am inclined to wander between "one" and "I" but try to choose them according to whether I see the statement as being specific to myself or generic, "one" implying not just oneself but also others, so first, second and third person all rolled into one. (Oh dear, I've done it again, haven't I?)

I see that you haven't created a thread in Introduce Yourself to tell us a little about yourself yet. Please do that to give us a meeting place to chat to you personally. You are clearly a perceptive person about whom we want to know more.


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## old.bull.lee (Jul 15, 2017)

The above commenter was correct in his choice of word: whimsical. It was quite an enjoyable read for such a short anecdote, just a brief glimpse into the inner workings of your mind as you playfully coquette with a train of thought. The piece was also quite clever in more than one place, which has also been pointed out. I thoroughly enjoyed this. The reference to Alice in Wonderland - a book I cherished in my youth and surprisingly haven't thought about for quite some time - also hit close to home for me, adding to the piece's charm.


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## JustRob (Jul 16, 2017)

Hi again ... should we just call you Lee? Thanks for your comments. I suppose this is the sort of observational diversion that a newspaper columnist might offer as a respite from the hard truths of life. It is probably reasonably representative of my writing style, incorporating whimsy, wordplay and a little hidden philosophy. There is also often a structural complexity which takes even me by surprise. That I attribute to my past career as a software developer. 

I recently attended a full day course on Alice in Wonderland given by a woman who has made it her speciality. She had an incredible collection of versions of the book, which has been illustrated by many different well-known artists over time. The number of different treatments of the story in various media is also amazing. Also the author was a remarkable polymath and his diaries and letters are even more entertaining in that they show that the Alice stories were just the tip of an iceberg. It is also intriguing to compare the original hand-written version of the story that he gave to Alice herself and the later expanded version with all its clever political commentary that he created for publication. It does emphasise a point that I consider to be fundamental when writing, to keep one's target readers in mind. If a writer needs to have a clear idea of just one imaginary character in his mind when writing then that is his target reader. I don't think it is possible to project one's words out into a void effectively. Of course, in your world of newspaper work the typical reader is probably well profiled.


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