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The Illusion Of Control: Buttons That Do Nothing

Stormkhan said:
I even look both ways when crossing one-way streets. I know how stupid people can be.
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Always. With me it comes from getting kids safely across roads although I'm old enough to have had Tufty rammed down my throat.

Here's Tufty's complete cinematographic oeuvre.
Willy Weasel gets splattered a lot, considering the traffic-spotting potential of his extended neck arrangement.

 
Stormkhan said:
I even look both ways when crossing one-way streets. I know how stupid people can be.
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Yup. Always.

I also always do what I call my 'bike check' - which is, as I'm crossing a road and almost at the opposite pavement, to give one final look to the nearside of any car that's stopped for me, just in case some fucker's decided that undertaking a stationary car at full pelt when they have no idea why it is stationary is a really safe thing to do.

Doesn't seem to matter whether it's a courtesy stop or a legit pedestrian crossing - happens all the time.
 
Spookdaddy said:
Yup. Always.

I also always do what I call my 'bike check' - which is, as I'm crossing a road and almost at the opposite pavement, to give one final look to the nearside of any car that's stopped for me, just in case some fucker's decided that undertaking a stationary car at full pelt when they have no idea why it is stationary is a really safe thing to do.

Doesn't seem to matter whether it's a courtesy stop or a legit pedestrian crossing - happens all the time.
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I was helped off my pushbike at a legal pedestrian/cycle crossing some years ago by some tosser who overtook the minibus that had stopped for me to cross. His excuse was the usual SMIDSY. I said 'Well that's why you should stop then!'

No great harm done except, I suspect, to his gusset.
 
brownmane said:
We now have pedestrian lights that stop cars for only pedestrians - that is, there are no stoplights at these intersections because the traffic is not overly heavy. However, these lights go on immediately and the people who have a death wish, just step out immediately or before they've pushed it. I have had people step out when I'm going to work at 0645 when it is still pitch black and I am about 10 feet from the spot where they are crossing and only see them last minute, already in the street. But apparently making sure that the crossing spot is safe to cross doesn't even come into their tiny minds.
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If there are no stoplights, how does the traffic know to, er, stop?
 
escargot said:
Always. With me it comes from getting kids safely across roads although I'm old enough to have had Tufty rammed down my throat.

Here's Tufty's complete cinematographic oeuvre.
Willy Weasel gets splattered a lot, considering the traffic-spotting potential of his extended neck arrangement.

Click to expand...
When I was young I was a proud member of the Tufty Club and wore my Tufty Club badge with pride. My older brother scoffed at Tufty as just being for the stupid kids like me but I knew Tufty would prove me right in the end. Tufty never did, my brother never got run over by a car even though I willed it with all my childish might. I wanted to be able to go and visit him in hospital, him having been run over by a car, with my parents and say to his face that he ignored Tufty's advise and this is what happens.

I lost my Tufty badge one day at school when having a pee in the boys toilets while we were all seeing who could pee the highest and my proud Tufty badge became unpinned and fell into the urinal. Such a sad end for Tufty. Rusting in urine. RIP.
 
Stormkhan said:
I even look both ways when crossing one-way streets. I know how stupid people can be.
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Same!

After a lifetime of being a pedestrian/dog walker/buggy pusher/horse rider, I don't trust indicators or brake lights, or people flashing their headlights at me either, some drivers are idiots and just can't be trusted!
 
A few vacuum cleaners ago, we had one that had a hook for hanging the cable on when stored (as they do) but this one also had some wording under it, that said something like time saving device.

It was referring to the fact that you could twist this hook to one side to allow the cable to be de-hooked, and therefore enabling you to not have to go to the extreme exertion of simply lifting the rolled up cable off the hook.

So while it sort of did something, what it did do was absolutely pointless.
 
kesavaross said:
When I was young I was a proud member of the Tufty Club and wore my Tufty Club badge with pride. My older brother scoffed at Tufty as just being for the stupid kids like me but I knew Tufty would prove me right in the end. Tufty never did, my brother never got run over by a car even though I willed it with all my childish might. I wanted to be able to go and visit him in hospital, him having been run over by a car, with my parents and say to his face that he ignored Tufty's advise and this is what happens.

I lost my Tufty badge one day at school when having a pee in the boys toilets while we were all seeing who could pee the highest and my proud Tufty badge became unpinned and fell into the urinal. Such a sad end for Tufty. Rusting in urine. RIP.
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1588208882

;)

maximus otter
 
Reproductions, I'd imagine. Nostalgia is always in demand.
 
We use controlled pedestrian/cycle crossings on our bike routes and have been nearly splattered by vehicles on every one.

When I say 'vehicles' it's always cars. Not lorries, buses or motorbikes, just cars. The odd van. Private individuals going about their careless business, paying minimal attention to the road and their surroundings.

We press the button and wait for approaching vehicles to actually stop in case they don't. No nipping across while the traffic is moving.
At least, the plan goes, where one car has stopped but the next doesn't, the one nearest to us will cop the shunt.
 
I 've not heard it as a phrase before, but - given what Scarg's describing, it's her own.
To 'cop' something means to get or recieve something, such as "he copped a smack around the face" after "copping a feel of her breast!"
A shunt is literally that; a shunt is a sudden pressure or movement from one vehicle etc. onto another. If a car stops suddenly then an unsuspecting driver behind might 'shunt' their car into it.
 
Stormkhan said:
I 've not heard it as a phrase before, but - given what Scarg's describing, it's her own.
To 'cop' something means to get or recieve something, such as "he copped a smack around the face" after "copping a feel of her breast!"
A shunt is literally that; a shunt is a sudden pressure or movement from one vehicle etc. onto another. If a car stops suddenly then an unsuspecting driver behind might 'shunt' their car into it.
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Yup, like James Hunt - 'Hunt the Shunt'. :chuckle:

Railway shunting is moving rolling stock by pulling or especially pushing it with an external locomotive rather than under its own power.

A road shunt is a rear-end collision.
 
I've never accepted the argument that being wealthy is to be more respected than their personality.
"That guy is a real arsehole!"
"But he's got more money than you."
"So? He's a rich areshole."
And I'd rather be a poor but good person than a bad but rich one.
 
Stormkhan said:
I've never accepted the argument that being wealthy is to be more respected than their personality.
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Respect has to be earned. Deference doesn't.

It's like the difference between King Charles and Prince Andrew: Charles is king because his mother was queen, but Andrew risked his life in a war zone to rescue sailors from the Falklands. He was a hero.

As it turns out, Andrew threw away all that hard-won respect by messing around with young girls.
But there are people alive today who are still glad they, their husbands or their Dads met Randy Andy in the chilly south Atlantic.
 
escargot said:
As it turns out, Andrew threw away all that hard-won respect by messing around with young girls.
But there are people alive today who are still glad they, their husbands or their Dads met Randy Andy in the chilly south Atlantic.
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I still remember the Spitting Image sketch when it was Andrew's birthday. All his Navy chums were singing "Twenty-five today! Twenty-five today". Then a pretty girl walked past, followed swiftly by HRH, to the tune of "Twenty-six today"!
 
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