Today: "Hi there"

1. Several years ago, the popular English musician Peter Gabriel released a recording entitled "Big Time." As students of Mr. Gabriel's oeuvre will recall, the recording both opened and closed with a short spoken-word performance:

"Hi there!"

These, however, were the mid-1980s, the days during which video was clubbing the radio star with a nightstick. What this meant for Mr. Gabriel's recording, unfortunately, was that the closing spoken-word section was removed from the most widely-heard version, the one released to broadcasters as a "single."

Consequently, a majority of the listening public never learned of the existence of the second spoken-word performance.

2. Today, in the twilight of the second millennium, a large retail concern, doing business under the trade name "Wal-Mart," operates stores in a number of municipalities across the Western world.

When retail patrons enter "Wal-Mart" premises, elderly staff stationed by the doors make eye contact with them and recite, from memory, the following script:

"Hi there!"