10 August 2008

There are things you don't learn in school

Schools can't teach everything, of course. In my era we learned irregular Latin verbs and how to balance chemistry equations; nowadays there's diversity appreciation and global warming. But I often think there should be something, somewhere in the curriculum that teaches people how to cope with the real, everyday problems of actual living.

For example, reverse threads. Raise your hand if you knew that some screws and bolts are threaded in reverse, so that if you try to loosen them by turning counterclockwise, they will only get tighter (or strip the thread). Congratulations. Perhaps you learned that principle with regard to the lug nuts on the wheels of older cars.

But how many of you knew that there are reverse threads on TOILET HANDLES !! Perhaps, like me, you spent 40 minutes of your precious life desperately using multiple wrenches in a fruitless effort to twist those *%$#@* plastic connectors the wrong way.

There's also a website called Toiletology. It teaches you how to do these things. But then you miss out on the chance to yell out irregular Latin verbs at the echoing bathroom walls...

2 comments:

  1. Remember: righty tighty, lefty loosy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. But these are REVERSE threaded - so they would be "righty loosy..."

    ReplyDelete