I had several unusual experiences today, but I'll just mention two which made me think. Tonight, I decided on going to McDonald's to pick up some food, which isn't something I do that often. The girl behind the counter had one of those "In Training" badges on, so I immediately expected everything to get completely messed up (to her credit she did a fine job) and maybe that's why it took me a while to notice the scarf she was wearing to cover her hair. I'm not sure what the proper word is for the type of scarf Muslim women use, so I'm just going to call it a scarf.

I see plenty of women wearing scarfs all the time, so I barely noticed it. But while waiting I realized she wasn't wearing a regular scarf. She was wearing a dark blue scarf with golden arches on it. She was wearing an official McDonald's scarf made especially for Muslim women. Is it just me or is that a bit weird?
I think it's great the McD's have an open policy for everyone regardless of race and religion, but I think it's a little odd that they would make their employees wear (or at least supply them with) corporate logo scarfs.

Is this a Danish thing by the way or is it like this in restaurants all over the world? I didn't feel like asking the girl what the story was with the McD scarfs (like she doesn't have anything better to do than discuss corporate vs religious issues with me), but I must say it really peaked my curiosity. Could you imagine having people wear little crucifixes with Ronald McDonald on them? Or maybe that's not exactly the same.

This summer there was a huge scandal here, because a company had made sandals with pictures of the Virgin Mary on them. Some people didn't like the idea of people sticking their smelly feet on sacred imagery, so a group of Catholics actually went nuts in a store and destroyed the sandals. There was a lot of fuss in the media about this and I think the sandals were recalled from the stores. But again maybe that's not the same. I just made me think is all.

The other thing happened when I was out riding my bike in the rain (as we depressed, sentimental, Nick Drake wannabies like to do). I was almost home when a guy, who's running across the street, whistles at me and motions me to follow him. Usually, it'll take at least a few drinks before I'll follow someone who's whistling at me. But when I saw he was running towards a guy, who was lying in the gutter I followed him. Turns out the guy had been looking out his kitchen window and seen a man warble a bit and then collapse dropping his two grocery bags. When I got up there the guy had put his gloves and a scarf underneath the man's head and was trying to talk to him. The man was just lying there looking up blankly without saying anything. He was conscious, but maybe he was in shock or something, because he couldn't do anything.

The guy called for an ambulance and while we waited for it to come we told the man not to move and just relax. The man tried to speak after a few minutes, but unable to do so he just grabbed the guy's hand and held it. After a few more minutes a man, who lived nearby came out to see what was going on and as it turned out he knew the man lying in the street. From what I could figure out the collapsed man lived nearby and whenever the two men would pass each other they would chat a bit. And through that he knew the name of the collapsed man and that he had epilepsia. The collapsed man seemed to come to and started talking a bit and when the paramedics arrived he was able to tell them where he was hurting. Then a car with doctors arrived and we decided that the situation was under control. They'd be taking him in for a check-up and since there wasn't anything we could do we left.

There's not really a point to this story, but it is a strange experience being torn out of your thoughts like that and stand face to face with a person, who is just lying there staring blankly at you. The only CPR I know is Bad Moon Rising, so I was about as helpful as an umpire at a cockfight. But at the same time I was glad I tried to help if nothing else so the first guy didn't have to stand there by himself trying to figure out what to do.