Walking back to my car after an afternoon concert in a local church, I passed a couple admiring some flowers in one of the front gardens, and asking each other what they were called. Since neither seemed to know, I paused briefly and told them they were leucojums. Then I worried that I shouldn't have butted in and apologised that I couldn't help overhearing, but they thanked me and seemed genuinely pleased to know.
It reminded me of a time a while back when I was shopping in the branch of Tesco in Colchester nearest to the university. A couple of young men of east Asian appearance were debating something, and just as I walked behind them one demanded of the other 'who wrote The Art of War'? Into the silence that followed I murmered 'Sun Tzu'. Without turning, the speaker answered his own question 'Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War', and the debate continued. I wandered on by. I still don't know if he even registered that a passing stranger had spoken to tell him the anwer, or if he thought it had popped up out of his own memory.
I should be careful. One of these days I will get told off for interfering.
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