Two more "disconcertions"

1. When I arrived at the hairdressers yesterday, the staff were very busy discussing a recent funeral....which, they assured me, had been held at the pub down the road. Further discussion established that there had indeed been something in the church beforehand but as far as those women were concerned the real funeral was what happened by way of a party afterwards. Despressing but probably salutory for someone who spends so much time preparing funerals, weighing every word, trying as best I can to make a twenty minute slot at the crem helpful and meaningful. It's quite possible that I could actually read through the Yellow Pages with equal effect - because the pub's the thing.
2. I heard an ad promoting a "Sponsor a Child" scheme - which had as its basic incentive not the huge difference that sponsorship would make to the family concerned but, dear Lord, the feel-good factor for the sponsor. The punch-line of the campaign was "What will you feel as a child sponsor?" What I feel, is slightly queasy. Leaving aside all the ethical questions about whether child sponsorship is a good idea, selling it as the latest means to self gratification is, in my book, really rather horrible. What do you think?