Thursday, August 17, 2017

Four way stops and other discrepancies


Do you take those tests on Facebook? I am addicted. “Only 5% can correctly spell these top misspelled words. Can you?” I take the test. I can spell the top misspelled words. Frankly, I’ve always considered the tests fake, because I pass them.

The other day I took a driver’s test. I’m zipping along on those nice, green “Correct Answer” and clicking on “Next Question”, when I got one wrong. I do that occasionally. But how to proceed at a four way stop?  Hello. Everyone knows you keep pulling away in rotation. Everyone who stopped ahead of you goes, then you go, and so on, forever and ever at the four way stop by my house.

Not so. This is the Federal, US of A Law: everyone stops. Everyone leaves, in order. But, if two cars stop simultaneously, the car to the left yields to the car to the right. This is not the law at my four way stop, that controls plant traffic from the west, two high schools from the south, and regular people from the north and east. Everyone always knows who stopped before them, and we just go on, so we can go home. And I got it wrong because two cars might stop at the same time. Impossible. Rational people always work out this stuff.

I must look at the doodads on my phone for the microphone for recording. Today I worked my way into high cotton country to have lunch with Ruth. I was listening to an incredible discussion on PRI on the week’s events. All I had to take notes, while navigating the twists and turns of the Adirondack foothills, was the little scrap of paper with the restaurant’s address.

Perusing the notes this afternoon, I spent far too much time translating “listop” into “dystopian.” I must look into this. I recall Hamilton and Emily read nothing else, though I migrated Emily into decent biographies and autobiographies around her senior year. Laura’s genre is dystopian, and I didn’t make a dent in ninth grade. Maybe this year. Maybe it’s a phase. There’s more world to look forward to as each year of high school is in the rear view mirror.

And, I read our side of the aisle is drafting articles of impeachment over Trump’s lack of morality in handling of Charlottesville. That’s like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks. I wish they’d wait for a much more substantial issue. Russia, for instance. It’s not that much longer.

You know I like pictures with posts. I thought I'd ask the wait person to take a picture of Ruth and me, at lunch. But, my parking meter was running dry, and Chagrin Falls has police on scooters who do nothing but monitor meters. Just so no one is confused over who is who, I'm on the left and Ruth on the right in the top picture on my side bar.


Finally, it’s raining, and my rain barrel has a wide open mouth and an empty belly.


22 comments:

  1. Four way stops are an interesting lesson in manners, to me. I thought it was a courtesy to let the car to your right go first. Seems like things go seamlessly till that one person sneaks through on the tail of the one in front of him or her.

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  2. I agree about the impeachments. Being stupid is not a reason to impeach. Now if we could just get him to prove his sanity we might talk.

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  3. Same government rules for four ways here.....sheesh.

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  4. I take those quizzes too and usually ace them. At a 4-way I yield to whoever got there ahead of me of if at the same time the person on the right.
    I'm hoping he'll get fed up and resign, our local redneck friend who voted for him is fed up and hopes he'll go too.

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  5. Hi, Joanne. The four way stop question is not one I am going to worry about, I don't know how I would have answered if asked about two stopping at the same time. I don't know if a resignation by Cheeto would make all well and good with this country. Too many deep divisions. Too much of what happens is decided by the almighty dollar.
    I have to tell you that nobody would ever know about a red bus accident upon reading this post! Your head works a whole lot better than many. I do hope Laura has a good year, and that she hears what you say to her.



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  6. Hari OM
    that 4-way x-ing thingo was the one thing which gave me conniptions when I was visiting the States... and I wasn't even the one driving!!! As for the Duck... yeeeccchhh... YAM xx

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  7. Joanne, I agree with you on how 4 way stops are handled... everyone usually knows who goes next and does. Sometimes a person jumps the line, but whatever... as long as everyone gets through without incident.

    And um..mm, the top picture on the sidebar that I see is you and a plant??

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    1. Turns out to be number 3. And y'all thought I'm recovered!

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    2. You are too funny... but it did make me wonder. I figured you had just forgot to add the pic (I've done that before).

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  8. Lots of four way stops here. People work it out!

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  9. I agreed that his handling of this tragedy doesn't seem like something usable for impeachment. I wish they would put a four way stop in the oval office

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  10. When I learned about four-way stops in driver's education back in the dark ages, we learned that everyone goes in turn according to the order in which they've stopped, but we also learned that if two people stop at the same time, then the one to the right goes first. I don't think I've needed to refer to that rule--ever--but I remember learning it. I do not remember the simplest words or facts sometimes, but I remember that stupid, useless rule from driver's ed.

    Love,
    Janie

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  11. What I'd like to know is who's on the left or right if four cars get to the stop signs at exactly the same time? haha

    I don't mind a good dystopian book myself ... so perhaps it's not a phase but an interest. She will branch out, never fear.

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  12. On this side of the world we are having our own political issues. It seems rather a lot of our current crop of politicians (including our deputy Prime Minister) have no legal right to stand (much less be elected).
    I am over the lot of them. World wide.

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  13. We have the right of way law if 2 people arrive at the intersection at the same time with a 4 way stop. But usually the 2 cars kind of wait it out and try to remember the rule and then (usually the correct one but not always) inches forward and the other one patiently waits.

    Unfortunately with work, taking care of a house, taking care of grandkids, etc., I have less time for Facebook than I might want so no quiz taking there, nor not much time to watch the news either. It could be a good thing I think some days.

    betty

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  14. over here it's the same law, whoever is on the left, gives way to the right, but if four cars are stopped at once I have no idea, but guess the first arrival gets to leave first and whoever is on his right goes next and so on.I don't know why four cars would all be stopped at once though.
    I have no idea what 'dystopian' means. I checked my dictionaries and thesaurus, but it isn't in there. Can you or anyone else tell me what it means in regard to book reading please?

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    1. See Heron and Rachel, below. Hunger Games is a good example.

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  15. I just looked up the rule for four way crossings in the UK and there was no definitive rule given just lots of confusion and contradiction. In reality they work on etiquette and commonsense. As there is often a lack of such qualities in fellow drivers the junctions are known as accident black spots.

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  16. relating to or denoting an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one: the dystopian future of a society bereft of reason | the utopian dream that became a dystopian nightmare.

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  17. Often seen in science fiction books or books of imaginary societies.

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  18. I agree, wait for the Russian investigation to be done - that is what is going to bring him down. Without a shadow of doubt.

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  19. I do actually know the answer to that one, yes, left yields to right. Why that particular rule has stuck in my head all these year, I have no idea. I rarely take those quizzes anymore. they are ridiculously easy or the answers they give you to choose from are never accurate. besides I read that they are just a scam, a way to gather information about you. I guess dystopian literature is popular now because we seem to be headed that way.

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