Why does the pharmacist take so long?

[Cerys]

I was in Boots the other day, and the lady told me that the sleeping pills I was buying 'might make me drowsy'.

I'm assuming she was speaking from experience.

[Replies From View]

Have you noticed how pharmacists always call prescriptions "scripts"?  It's a new trendy thing they do.

[Icehaven]

Actually. The sticks have a wee slider in them that allows for a range of notes that are numbered on the stick. There is also a tune printed in numbers inside the wrapper for you to peep along to.

I believe their primary use is when someone falls over on TV.

[sevendaughters]

Apparently each script should take a minimum of five minutes to safely gather, check and dispense.

I'd bite your hand off for a five min wait. Hell, 10.

Also I am brilliant at waiting. I once did 2hrs at Hanborough station, no phone, no shop nearby, no cafe, no pub, nothing to look at, raining so couldn't even plod about. Just want to know why you dispensary bastards take so long. If you'd stop taking the drugs maybe we'd get somewhere.

[paruses]

Nice waiting sevendaughters.

I once waited 7 hours in an A&E room until they remembered I was there. Just sitting on a chair staring at the wall. This was pre-smartphone days and I didn't have a book or anything. I don't even remember getting up to stretch my legs. I just read the same posters on the wall over and over. God knows why they just forgot I was there and didn't just prescribe something for me. They were probably trying all the drugs themselves!

[a duncandisorderly]

Yeah. They used to be called 'Toot Sweets' but now they're 'Melody Pops' and made by Chupa-Chups.

One note does not a melody make! but what do your Spanish know about music, eh?

I thought "toot sweet" was the made-up name for the confectionery invented by caractacus potts in 'chitty-chitty bang-bang'. 

[Buelligan]

Surgeries do seem to get things wrong quite a lot. Examples would be not signing the prescriptions, ballsing up dosages, or even handing out prescriptions to the wrong people (just from being in the job too long I'm familiar with a lot of the patients, so when I see a posh older woman handing in a script that has the name of a member of the travelling community whose young kid has robbed from us I inform them that they should probably return the script and double check what they receive next time).

Assumptions though, eh?  I knew well a very posh older woman whose beloved son was a member of the travelling community and would go to collect his scrip upon occasion.  I am not even lying.

If you want my advice, you should eat less of the drugs, then you wouldn't get so confused.

[buzby]

Yeah. They used to be called 'Toot Sweets' but now they're 'Melody Pops' and made by Chupa-Chups.

One note does not a melody make! but what do your Spanish know about music, eh?

There were always made by Chupa Chups (marketed as the  Pita Gol in Spain - it was supposed to be a football ref's whistle), they just used to repackage them for export to local distributors.

In the UK and US they were sold as Whistling Pops (later Whistle Pops), which played a fixed note, and later a second version was produced called Melody Pops, which had a hollow stick with a slider inside it so you could produce the 'slide whistle' effect.


They were first imported into the US by the Peter Paul company in 1975, and I can remember them being around in the UK at the end of the 70s (mostly in chemists, as Chupa Chups UK distribution was originally via pharmacy wholesalers as they had sugar free sweets for diabetics). All you could ever want to know about them (at least from a US market perspective) is here.

Since Chupa Chups have grown into an international brand, they now sell them under their own name (though this also meant they were rebranded as Melody Pops in Spain too, to line up with the rest of the world - Spain's equivalent of the Marathon & Opal Fruits situation).

"Toot Sweets" was a Mattel candy whistle-making toy (which moulded Tootsie Rolls into whistle shapes) that was introduced in 1968 as a tie-in with the sweets seen in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[SteveDave]

When I lived in Oakwood (not the funland you'd think it'd be) the local pharmacy had a hard uncushioned plastic chair emblazoned with the word ANUSOL in it. Taking the piss.

[Buelligan]

I would like to own that chair (I love chairs).  But not in blue.

[Replies From View]

Those would make good chairs for the adults in primary schools, who generally have to support pupils by sitting on tiny chairs that fuck up their knees and backs.

It would be best to have adult-sized chairs without "anusol" written on them but beggars can't be choosers.

I wonder if they do them in brown.

[Huxleys Babkins]

If you're unhappy with Anusol, just take some turps and a toothbrush to it.

Once you've finished, you might want to try scrubbing the name off the chair and all, eh? lol

[Buelligan]

Those would make good chairs for the adults in primary schools, who generally have to support pupils by sitting on tiny chairs that fuck up their knees and backs.

It would be best to have adult-sized chairs without "anusol" written on them but beggars can't be choosers.

I wonder if they do them in brown.

Brown would be my choice, with ANUSOL in plum, fading upwards through crimson and scarlet, to marigold at the top, à la Roger Dean's classic Yes logo.  That would be my choice.

Also recalling the psychedelic inner minds of drug-addled pharmacists.

[Norton Canes]

It's the casually discarded weighing scales that really add piquancy to that photo

[Buelligan]

Those aren't weighing scales, though it's an easy mistake to make.  They're a custom brace for photocopying your own arse when you're out of your mind on drugs.

[touchingcloth]

I've finally figured out why the pharmacist takes so long!

It's because there's only one of him.








And he's taking all of the drugs.

[Buelligan]

Bit sexist.

[SteveDave]

I once wrote to Anusol asking if they had any promotional t-shirts for my friend who's life was changed by their great product. They wrote back to say they didn't but they'd be happy to send me a hi-res transfer of their logo for me to make the t-shirt myself.

Lamentably when I replied, the person answering this time called tish and fipsy on the offer.

This is why I only use turps and a toothbrush for my piles.

[poodlefaker]

I once did 2hrs at Hanborough station, no phone, no shop nearby, no cafe, no pub, nothing to look at, raining so couldn't even plod about. Just want to know why you dispensary bastards take so long. If you'd stop taking the drugs maybe we'd get somewhere.

We used to have an office nr Hanborough, so I've spent plenty of time on that single platform, often in the dark. Once the train was so delayed this guy cracked and pressed the Information button thing. It rang through to a call centre in Calcutta. He was a picture of rage.

[touchingcloth]

Bit sexist.

The pharmacist is a man at the moment. It has been a woman in the past and will be again in future I'm sure, but for the moment it is a man.

Would you cry sexist if someone asked "why is the prime minister such a cunt?", and I responded with "because of the way his public school upbringing interacts with his psychopathic nature"?

In fact the question doesn't usually get asked when the pharmacist is a woman because she can multitask and dispense drugs at the same time as eating them.

[Blue Jam]

I actually know a couple who run a pharmacy. Fuck me do they take themselves seriously. I dared to suggest that it was "like running a sweet shop" and they bored me senseless for the rest of the evening about the pressures blah blah blah.

You were right though- all pharmacies sell Melody Pops. All of them:



I was at the pharmacy just now, one that only recently opened, and I thought "I bet they still have Melody Pops", and lo and behold, there they were, in a dusty little stand on the counter. Alright, I didn't look closely, but I'm assuming it was dusty, and you know I'm right.

You can't buy Melody Pops anywhere but small pharmacies. Boots and Superdrug don't sell them, and sweet shops don't sell them. No-one has ever eaten one and they are probably horrible.

My prescription is also basic AF. It still took 20 minutes for them to sort it.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

My prescription is also basic AF.

Digoxin or bisoprolol?

#medjokes

[Replies From View]

Who here always opted for the cola flavour whistle lolly?


I did.  It was the best one.

[touchingcloth]

I always opted for whistle flavoured cola.

[Replies From View]

I always opted for whistle flavoured cola.

Evoking a plastic whistle or more of a ferrous one?

[touchingcloth]

Evoking a plastic whistle or more of a ferrous one?

Evoking the taste of your dad when he whistles.

[Replies From View]

Evoking the taste of your dad when he whistles.

I'm not sure he emits a taste to be honest

[pancreas]

On the other hand, imagine cutting a notch into the top of Replies' dad's penis so that when you blew it, it made a whistling noise.

[Non Stop Dancer]

There were always made by Chupa Chups (marketed as the  Pita Gol in Spain - it was supposed to be a football ref's whistle), they just used to repackage them for export to local distributors.

In the UK and US they were sold as Whistling Pops (later Whistle Pops), which played a fixed note, and later a second version was produced called Melody Pops, which had a hollow stick with a slider inside it so you could produce the 'slide whistle' effect.


They were first imported into the US by the Peter Paul company in 1975, and I can remember them being around in the UK at the end of the 70s (mostly in chemists, as Chupa Chups UK distribution was originally via pharmacy wholesalers as they had sugar free sweets for diabetics). All you could ever want to know about them (at least from a US market perspective) is here.

Since Chupa Chups have grown into an international brand, they now sell them under their own name (though this also meant they were rebranded as Melody Pops in Spain too, to line up with the rest of the world - Spain's equivalent of the Marathon & Opal Fruits situation).

"Toot Sweets" was a Mattel candy whistle-making toy (which moulded Tootsie Rolls into whistle shapes) that was introduced in 1968 as a tie-in with the sweets seen in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Do you just know these things or do you think "Ooh that's an interesting subject, I'll research it and share that info"? Love it either way.

[Replies From View]

On the other hand, imagine cutting a notch into the top of Replies' dad's penis so that when you blew it, it made a whistling noise.

I don't think I will ever grasp why you have never gone ahead with this plan.  All the opportunities you've had, and even the backdoor planning.  Quite literally all the chances on earth and I'd say you blew it but you never.