As I was walking them there (it was on my way; otherwise I would have found someone else to help them) one of them asked me how long I’d worked for Kaiser — I pointed out my hospital wristband and held up my bag of drugs and said, “They just let me out.”

They felt really bad for bothering me, but I like to think that when I’m old someone will help me.

I was in a little antique store wearing a wool blazer and tie and was immediately asked for help by a couple of women in their fifties.

I’m always happy to help. Sometimes if I see someone looking through books or wine or what have you I’ll go over an offer assistance. “Is this wine for you or for a gift?”

We’re all in this together.

Becuase of this, I always try and locate a name tag/logo shirt before asking for help from any store personnel.

Also, I worked at Boston Market as a teen, speaking of the Khaki/Chambray combo, and always thought it was funny when I went to Gap or Blockbuster and fit right in. At the time I was rather quirky and thought it was hilarious to pretend I was an employee and just see the transaction through, helping pick out movies, walking them to the counter, handing the movies to the register clerk, noting the name tag name and handing them off with a “Jill, can you ring this nice lady up?”, and then walking off. True story.

However, you should note that until 2005, the New York Times’ house style - and the hundreds of other publications that based theirs on the NYT’s - was to use the strictly incorrect but “stylistically flexible” form, because they believed it “read better.”

They continue to pluralize both acronyms and initialisms incorrectly on a regular basis.

The decades thing has always bugged me, so I saw it as an opportunity to do a quick PSA on the correct way to do it. People should get some educational benefit along with the snark — that’s what I say.

You must exhibit the counselor quality. I sometimes have the “you can tell me anything” sign on me when running out on the trails, based on the stories I get from fellow runners during events.

As I worked as a bookstore employee for several years, this is not as surprising as it might be otherwise.

However, I also get approached for help not only within stores, but outside— I guess I just exude a level of general helpfulness. And then I go on to prove the questioner’s judgement by actually trying to be helpful, so I guess it works.