Some coincidences are too good to miss. The National Pig Award breakfast this week, as speakers kept reminding their audience, happened to take place during British Sausage Appreciation Week. From the platform, I noticed that farm minister Nick Brown enjoyed a giggle when he introduced his recently appointed deputy head of food safety, Jenny Bacon. Also in the audience was MLC press officer Jon Bullock who would doubtless have given the minister a steer on how embarrassing it can be to have a family name that echoes your work. Also on the subject of the importance of names, may I thank the Scotsman for giving me cause to chuckle this week. There on the front page of its business section I spotted the following apology: "Maitland Mackie, chairman of Mackies of Scotland, is not married to Aberdeen jam maker Isabella Massie as our caption last Friday (Oct 27) stated." Whoops. But at least Maitland has a sense of humour. He told the paper: "Isabella is a fine woman but not my wife. "I have my own splendid model, legally attached and of whom I am quite fond." I spotted the correction while in Edinburgh attending the CIES management development programme conference. Now, part of the conference involves store visits. And plenty of overseas delegates were confused about the poor state of the fresh produce offer in most outlets. Until one store manager explained the Scottish diet. However, most delegates thought they were being treated to an example of great British humour when the manager also tried to explain the mysteries of the deep fried Mars bar. {{COUNTERPOINT }}