I love Walgreens. Notice there's no apostrophe in this pharmacy's name. I know that because I visited the Walgreens.com Web site, then checked my prescription bottle. I also used the spellchecker program on this blog entry. And wouldn’t you know it? The so-called dictionary on my computer told me that “Walgreens” is not a word. It wanted to replace my correct spelling with either “Walgreen’s” or “Walgreen.” Interesting. As I always tell my students on the first day of class: “The spellchecker is evil.” Anyway, on to my story about Walgreens.
I went to Walgreens today to pick up a prescription. I'm walking along, minding my own business, and then I hear it. "John, you have a call parked on line one." My eyes bug out. My blood boils. And I want to scream at the top of my lungs, "No parking!" And to any of my former or current students reading this, I meant to put that exclamation point there. This is a problem just begging for an exclamation. My point? … Why the extra word? What's wrong with saying "John, you have a call on line one."? I have heard this troublesome announcement many times in the last few months, but only at Walgreens. I do hope it dies a quick death. If not, I might feel the need to park my fist in the cashier's mouth the next time I hear it while checking out.
3 comments:
I think using the word "park" isn't that bad. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "park" can mean, "to set and leave temporarily." For example, "He parked his book on the chair," or "She parked her money in a savings account."
Hope you enjoyed reading this comment I parked on your blog. ;)
I agree that it is unnecessary to say "park" when talking about a phone call. It is a superfluous word, and I am all about conserving time and space. But that's just me. Also, it just sounds stupid! Again, just my opinion...
I once worked with a multi-line phone system where "Park" was the button I pressed to transfer a call. I agree that the word isn't necessary in the sentence, but I believe that phone function may be why the term is used at Walgreens.
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