Pharmore Than You Bargained For

There is perhaps no punnier industry in America than that of hair care. I'll let our neighborhood's wonderful assortment of salons speak for themselves. But I'm reminded as a write this of punny places I've seen over the years. You've probably seen popular favorites like Shear Delight or Hair Today Gone Tomorrow, but I still recall with a smile Styley Dan, Sonny and Shears, Volt Hair, Hairy Berry, Coiffing Fit and an integrated barbershop down South called Whiteheads and Blackheads. Other businesses sometimes hit the mark - I recall seeing a plumber named Drain Surgeons and a window joint called A Pane in the Glass. All in good fun, though there are some businesses that should probably NOT get too goofy with their monikers - I always found the medical chain Stand Up MRI too double-entendrey for the task at hand. Hospitals, hospices and funeral homes seem like bad choices too. I'm only reminded of any of this because over on Ocean at Church, there's a drugstore with this lighthearted name:

(Is it my imagination or am I starting to sound like a poor man's Andy Rooney?)

I don't know about y'all, but I'm endlessly fascinated by how many drug stores exist within spitting distance of the Q at Parkside. But I suppose you don't need THAT many regular customers with ongoing prescriptions to make your monthly rent payments, right? The average retiree, i.e. Medicare recipient, has between three and five thousand dollars worth of drugs to buy every year. Imagine spending that kind of dough at any other single business, save maybe the grocery...not bloody likely. So if you build up a nice steady clientele of older folks, you're in like Flynn. By the by, "In Like Flint" was a movie that was a play on words after the "in like Flynn" phrase had long entered the lexicon. Thus the confusion.

And it's champing at the bit. Not chomping.