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I have mentioned this topic before (in my PSA about pedestrians and traffic), but another incident happened so I feel like writing about it again.

The main argument for having pedestrians travel in the opposite direction of traffic (i.e. facing oncoming cars instead of going with them) is for situational awareness – being able to see the nearest danger.

But this time I was driving instead of running and realized another reason for it – it’s better for drivers too.

In this case, I was driving up a hill on a dirt road. The jogger was on my side of the road, going the same direction. Being a conscientious driver, I was going to move into the other lane to go around her. But this was a dirt road, which is about 1.75 lanes wide. So if I swerved at all to go around her, I would be in the other lane. Directly and completely facing oncoming traffic.

And that was the problem. Because we were near the top of a hill. So I couldn’t see if there was oncoming traffic. Anyone who has read Bill Peet books (specifically Jennifer and Josephine) will know that one of the worst things to do just before the top of a hill is to swerve into the other lane. So I idled along behind the jogger until we crested the hill and I could see that there was no oncoming traffic.

What was the problem? Her presence in my lane unnecessarily delayed me.

If she had been in the other lane, like she was supposed to, then I could have travelled at a decent speed (faster than the 4 mph that I did while trailing her) without bothering her. It would cost her nothing to be in that lane instead of this. She would be safer from traffic. And she could have gone jogging without wondering why some car is following her very slowly.

Here are a few images of Michael Buffer plus something other than boxing.

You may not know the name Michael Buffer (I didn’t either, before I started this), but you probably would recognize him. He’s the “Let’s get ready to rrrrumble” boxing announcer guy. And if you’re not a fan of boxing, you may have seen him in a car insurance commercial.

I thought about setting this up as a quiz, with the final word omitted until you got through them all, but I decided not to spend that much time on this, so you are on the honor system to scroll slowly and try to guess what these people or things are getting ready to do.

Ready?
Read the rest of this entry »

My son asked me when summer begins and my answer, which is a good lawyerly answer, was “It depends.”

My definition of summer is June, July, and August. So to me, summer begins June 1. But that wouldn’t work very well in the southern hemisphere.

So I told him that, but I added some other definitions.

To some people, summer runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But that wouldn’t work very well outside the US.

To other people, summer runs from solstice to equinox – June 21 to September 21. My problem with that is that June 21st is the peak of sun so it should be the middle of summer, not the beginning. Go ahead and lookup “when is midsummer?” and you’ll see.

The other definition I could think of relates to farming. In that case, summer would be the time between planting and harvesting.

What do you consider to be the start of summer?

I haven’t written too much about roundabouts, but I am a fan of them. Most of the arguments for them, as I see it for our neck of the woods, is that they keep working during a power outage and don’t make people stop unnecessarily when there’s no other traffic.

But a situation yesterday reminded me of another benefit: they remove ambiguity.

In this case I was at a 2-way stop. What happened was that the person across from me was there first, but he was waiting for traffic to clear so he could turn left. Then I arrived, intending to head straight across the intersection. I knew the other guy was first, so I was waiting for him to go before I tried to cross.

He, unfortunately, was trying to be nice and so he didn’t go, in order to let me go first. What happened was that no one went and both of us missed the clearing of traffic.

After that, he waved his hand to let me know I should go first. That happened at the exact same time that I waved my hand to let him know he should go first. So not only do I have to watch for cross traffic, but at the same time I have to negotiate with the opposite car for who wants the other car to go more.

What is good about roundabouts is there is no negotiation with other stopped cars. There is only you and the oncoming traffic. If you see an opening, take it. No indecision, no wondering if the other car is going, no misunderstandings of who was there first and whose turn it is.

Roundabouts make life simpler.

or

Due to a long flight for business travel, I’ve been reading books when it’s not summer vacation. Rather than wait until my annual summer book review and write an interminably-long post, I decided to write about them now.

Here they are, approximately in the order that I read them.

• Airman by Eoin Colfer
  I read this book because my older kids wanted to read it. They go through a lot of books, so I can’t preview them all. Consider this a random sample of their books.

  It was intense. Or maybe it just felt more intense because I don’t go through many stories like this anymore. My reading choices are either non-fiction or books for young children (like Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter kinds of plots).

  It was very engaging, with some mild language and a bit of violence. I thought about how to recommend or rate this, and I settled on a comparison to Treasure Island. The bad people are bad, and they threaten murder and harm, and they accomplish it. But the descriptions of violence are brief and not any more gory than they need to be.

  I’d say ages 10 and up.

• The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
  I chose this book because it was purported to be an inspiration to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

  It’s a quick story, and more along the lines of old fairy tales than it is to any modern story. Especially after finishing Airman.

  I’m having a hard time deciding on an age limit. Maybe ages 4 and up?

• The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
  This was another book that my kids wanted to read but I took it to preview it first.

  There was not any gore in this, and I don’t remember any offensive language. The story was not as intense as Airman, mainly because there aren’t any villains. There are some antagonists, but they aren’t evil.

  The main problem with this book is a common malady among modern stories – kids are the heroes and adults are the problems. It wasn’t that overt, but the general theme was there.

  I’d say ages 9 and up.

• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
  This is the original story. Another one which inspired some great authors. Beware when checking out or buying the book that it is the original story. Some books in the library were retellings.

  The plot is pretty much as you expect, if you’re familiar with any versions of Peter Pan. Of course, there are some nuggets in there that make the book worthwhile. I’m in particular thinking of the descriptions of Nana.

  If your kids are fine with the movie version of Peter Pan, then they’ll be fine with this book. If you’re reading to younger kids, then you might have to gloss over some parts, such as why Smee’s sword has the name that it does.

  Maybe ages 7 and up for reading on their own?

• Jack by Liesl Shurtliff
  I didn’t read this one, but my wife did – in order to preview it for the kids. She said it was okay, so go ahead and let your kids read it.
• Magicalamity by Kate Saunders
  I didn’t read this one, but my wife did – in order to preview it for the kids. She said it was not acceptable, so we returned it to the library. It had an overall air of rudeness and disrespect, plus some other things. So avoid this book unless you want your child learning new insults and certain medical procedures.

There is now a German accent option on Accenterator. Go try it out. It’s not as fun as the Australian accent generator because the vowels aren’t as dramatic, but it’s pretty good if you get the right collection of consonants in there.

If you need suggestions, here are some phrases to enter in the translator box:

• Slow and steady wins the race.
• What are you thinking about?
• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

In case you missed the link, go to Accenterator.com and click the German button.