Country Living: Our Man in Arundel

This may surprise you. I'm not a pseudo Country Living fan who's just here for the blogging competition. I'm an intermittent reader and former subscriber. I'm also a bit of a geek. (You may have spotted that in some of my blogs). Only a bit of a geek, mind you. (Unfortunately I think it's the brain bit).

Anyway, once upon not such a long time ago, I subscribed to the American version of Country Living. I'd discovered it to buy in downloadable form on Zinio.com at a rate that substantially undercut the UK version.

The downside, I told myself, was that there'd be a bit of a cultural difference - more pumpkin pie, less Guy Fawkes Night - and the advertisements wouldn't be particularly relevant.

Well, I was right - but not in the way I expected.

Now, I may be preaching to the converted, but I was shocked. Not by the interior design articles. They were similar to those you'd find in the UK, albeit a little tweer (is that a real word?) in a saccharine-glazed aspartame-crusted way. Not by the recipes: I'll tolerate zucchini, cup measurements and s'mores. Not by the featured people (even though the appearance of anyone really living from or in the 'country' seemed rare). But by the drugs. Allergy relief. Heartburn. More heartburn. Pain relief. Cholesterol. Vitamins. Each with a page of small print. Okay, plenty of choice but nothing too unusual yet. Anti-depressants. Hang on a moment. Anti-depressants? I don't know if that's a good thing - making people aware there are better solutions than the one chosen by Ted Moult - or whether it's getting people hooked unnecessarily - but (even given the different pharmaceutical regulations between the UK and the US) it was definitely a surprise to find amongst the gingham and lace.

Which brings me to today's rhetorical question. Are the anti-depressants advertised for people who are struggling to cope with living in the country... or for people who are depressed that they aren't?