Dear LPG,

I have a question for my fellow readers; have you ever found yourself walking up the road, in the shops or at a club when you spot someone who has something so obviously wrong going on?

Perhaps the price tag is hanging down at the back of their collar, or they have their slippers on instead of their shoes, they have left a curler in their hair, or perhaps there is a bit of stuff that looks like breakfast leftovers stuck on their chin or, worse still, in their beard.   

I think that I would first work out if the problem can be fixed there and then because if not (slippers for instance) there is no point. After all they say that ignorance is bliss and if they don’t find out until they get home again it might be the best thing for them. But if it is easily fixable and happening to someone you know, there is no problem, because you have an idea about how they will react when they find out.  The real problems start if you see this happening to a complete stranger.  Do you smile to yourself or do you go up to them and tell them? 

At this point I would like to tell you a story…

I saw this happen when I was in a rather long shopping check out queue the other day.  The young lady behind the man, who was standing behind me, had just got to the far end of the checkout and was arranging her things on the conveyor belt. We had been standing there for a while and she had used her time to make what sounded like a very officious business call on her mobile phone, as she appeared to give orders to someone so loudly that everyone could hear. Her authoritative manner made her appear to be a lady not to be messed with but, as she put her shopping on the counter the gentleman behind me noticed that her top was not properly done up. I could not help but listen although I had my back to the situation, until the young man behind me tapped me on the shoulder and mentioned her unbuttoned shirt and asked me to mention it to her. He said, “If it were me I would like to know, but if I tell her she will think me a bit of a pervert.”

This left me in a bit of a position, but I tried to be subtle as I quietly mentioned it to her.  In the light of the telephone conversation I had just heard, I don’t know just what I expected to happen, and I have to say that she was a little embarrassed when she got the message but was able to sort it quickly.

The young man managed to limit her embarrassment by asking me to tell her because, coming from an older lady, the message was embarrassing but not as much as it would have been if the young man had delivered it himself.  So, once you have worked out that there someone around you with a visible but immediately-fixable problem the answer is to find a more suitable person to pass the message on, and if any ladies find themselves discovering a man in a similarly embarrassing situation, the answer has to be to find another man to let him know,  if you can. 

I see that young man in that shop from time to time and we exchange a smile or a couple of civil words; which is another positive that came out of an attempt to limit someone else’s embarrassment.

LD, Deptford.