Grasping the Nettle

In Britain, filling out endless bureaucratic forms is accepted as inevitably as a bad cold, a bus queue or a summer holiday ruined by rain. But every so often the worm turns, and victims everywhere enjoy a victory against the common bureaucrat. Recently Builder Eric Neate. constructing a small factory at Andover in Hampshire, routinely sent a blueprint of the factory to the County Planning Committee. Complying with committee orders that all factories must have flower beds. Neate's architect indicated a space for "shrubs." Back to Neate came the plan with a question: What kind of plants did Neate intend planting? Back to the committee went Neate's reply: he was planning to plant Urtica dioica, Calystegia sepium, Rnmex obtusijolius and Taraxacum offi-cinale--but was willing to amend the list in any way the Planning Committee desired. Mollified, the county council stamped his application "approved." Apparently none of the committee bureaucrats realized that what Neate proposed to plant was stinging nettles, bindweed, dock and dandelion.

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