Thank you, Mr Rosenfelder

Eighty years ago, on the 29th of January 1929, Oskar Rosenfelder of the United Paperworks located in Nürnberg (hardly an hour's drive from Munich) was granted a patent for his disposable paper handkerchief. To this day Tempo is, in Germany, the generic word for this hygiene article as is Kleenex in other parts of the world.

I had reason to ponder on this anniversary yesterday when I rang my client to say I'd not be coming into their office... on account of having a vicious winter cold. This occasioned a huge consumption of Tempos!

When this cold was announcing itself on Wednesday I was suddenly flummoxed; such an affliction I recalled only from the dim, distant past. There were, understandably, no 'winter colds' in the Sandlands years! I finally remembered which over-the-counter medications had worked in the past but the most important palliative (not curative) measure was to spend yesterday more or less entirely under the duvet.

Nevertheless, upmost in my mind remains the old adage: "A cold, treated, lasts a week; a cold, untreated, seven days!"