I'm sorry, I'll read that again

I think it's time I got some reading glasses.

Browsing for books online this week, I was arrested by the sight of a cover featuring an armoured centurion wielding a bloodstained sword under the title 'Warrior of Frome'.

Some interesting speculation - this was a side to Somerset I really hadn't imagined - was cut short by the disappointing realisation that it actually said 'Warrior of Rome'.

It's not the first time I've misread something -  but it's happening more and more; what finally decided me, however, was a feature in today's paper on 'Priapic Sportswear'.

It was such an apposite term too; obviously the article was a piece on where footballers buy their clothes, or possibly on the hideous contents of those high-street 'sports' emporia that sell nothing but logo-infested streetwear for strutting teenage boys*.

Not so; on closer inspection, the garments turned out to be merely 'Patriotic' - as in the attire of our Olympic team; "Hurrah for the old blue, white and blue!"

Sometimes the real world is an infinitely duller place.

(I should point out, before anyone suggests I might need psychoanalysis for my Freudian misreading, that I have recently taught several lessons on Classical drama)


*Another chance to air this joke from Hugh Dennis (on 'The Now Show'):
"This train will shortly be arriving at Birmingham New Street. For passengers wishing to change for Wolverhampton, there is a JD Sports opposite the station entrance."