Lots of people are crappy at giving directions, but I think this is especially true of people who don't or haven't yet learned to drive.
I judge my carpoolmates for taking slow routes to work, though.
Giving directions when you haven't actually driven is really hard. I was better at it then most because my mom can't really navigate and drive at the same time, so I did a lot of navigating from age 10 or so on. But certainly I could give directions to my own damn house. Though I guess mostly from points north, east, and west, I found directions from the south confusing. (Certainly I could get people back, but I wouldn't necessarily have taken them on a good route.)
Yeah, precise driving directions are really hard if you haven't driven the route.
Headphones in someone else's car who you don't know well enough to agreeably ignore are very rude, though. I probably would have been baffled as well, but I think the right thing to do would have been to ask him to turn them off while you talked about the babysitting or something. Kid needs correction or he'll never learn.
I was recently talking to my great-aunt, who learned to drive at 7 and was basically acting as my great grandmother's chauffeur by age 9. So no reason (except the law, and you can sit in the front seat) not to get the kid behind the wheel.
Headphones in someone else's car who you don't know well enough to agreeably ignore are very rude, though.
Boy howdy. Awful. Not to mention the falling asleep when you're supposed to be in charge!
I hope you did not pay him for the time during which he slept on the job.
Next time he falls asleep you should hide the baby.
As for the music, you could have just said something like: "You don't seem that interested in chatting (which is fine), so I'm going to turn on the radio. I hope that doesn't interfere too much with the music you're listening to." And then just turn on the radio.
Make him take out the headphones and plug his iPod into your car. Then you can blog about how bad the music was.
My most promising idea was just to ask "What are you listening to?" except I'd already overthought it so much at that point that I just wanted to sit in silence.
Also, Halford's comment about the twee overdose in Stanley's post has also made me twice over self-conscious about my writing.
I'm sure the whole situation would have been much less awkward if you were young and hip instead of old and square.
I like to inspire fear. It happens so rarely!
13: Never listen to Halford. Is that hard?
Last year I drove our 17 year old intern home from work. She had an impossible time giving me directions, which is amazing because Salt Lake City is on a grid system. She didn't even know her home address. I'm not sure what her deal was. She also wanted to go to college and follow her dreams instead of selecting the career that pays the best and has the most job security. Crazy.
She also wanted to ...follow her dreams instead of selecting the career that pays the best and has the most job securityroute that lead to her home.
WTFingF is with teens who don't know their own address? That's some seriously weird stuff there.
WTFingF is with teens who don't know their own address? That's some seriously weird stuff there.
I bet it's linked to the 'no unsupervised play' thing. I had to learn my address when I was little in case I got lost so I could tell a grown-up where I lived (to be found at the specially marked 'Block Parent' houses which seems extra creepy now)
Don't kids fill out forms for themselves? I could imagine not being able to do street directions to your house, if you didn't drive and were used to being driven by people who knew. But not being able to address an envelope to yourself is strange.
Might also have something to do with the decline and fall of mailing letters.
But not being able to address an envelope to yourself is strange.
A WHAT?
When I buy something online, I like to think of filling in the address fields as 'addressing an envelope'. I am Grandpa Simpson.
My 4 year old not only knows her two addresses, but is willing to shout them at you for free.
I mean, she is incredibly well behaved and respectful due to my excellent parenting.
25: The relative who cared for Val and Alex before they came to us taught them to recite her address (502 Main St.) as "Fifty two Main Street!" and they did indeed shout it a lot and maybe it would have been helpful for someone helping them find their way home since I think the street starts with a 100 block, but still weird. All three kids know the name of our street and Lee's and my full names, but probably not the house number.
13: We can view it as a challenge. Whoever out-twees the other wins a bacon-wrapped tubefruit, supplied by Mr. Paleo himself.
I have no idea how to ask them if they really know how to get home, or only sort of know how to get home.
How about, "Have you given directions to your home before? How did that work out?"
I was given a little grief in nursery school for not learning my phone number until I explained that I knew how to look it up in the phone book if I needed it.
The real question I have for people with one earbud in is, aren't they missing half the stereo mix? They might have panned the drum fills in a cool way, dudes! You're missing out!
The real question I have for people with one earbud in is, aren't they missing half the stereo mix? They might have panned the drum fills in a cool way, dudes! You're missing out!
One earbud works for podcasts.
31: some of us are deaf in one ear, Eno.
The relative who cared for Val and Alex before they came to us taught them to recite her address (502 Main St.) as "Fifty two Main Street!"
This kind of ambiguity really concerned me as a kid. In particular, our address was "2220" which my parents spoke as "twenty-two twenty" and I was often worried that the other person was writing down "20-2-20" by mistake.
Aren't there any local young bluestockings responsible 8th- or 9th-grade girls to babysit?
One of my teammates took me aside when he seemed to be dozing off and told me that her daughters, who were also there, love to baby-sit. I am glad to know this.
Several times recently I've taken cabs home from the airport and been asked by the cab driver how to get there. I can only give vague and noncommittal answers, not having ever driven in the city where I live now. Since when do cab drivers not know how to get places?
38 has bothered me as well (It mostly happens to me in my home town, where I do know how to get there, but it seems like it could easily happen somewhere else). I want to blame GPS/navigation boxes for this phenomenon, even though they are tremendously useful.
38: It's entirely possible that they know the fastest route and want to find out if you know it, too.
40 I think gets it. More charitably, they could know that there are two (or, in this town, more) basically equivalent routes between which people nonetheless have a strong preference.
Years ago I took a cab from Union Station in DC to an apartment building in the Rosslyn area I was just about to move into and didn't know the route to and once we got to Virginia the cab driver drove up alongside some cabs waiting in front of a hotel and asked for directions.
I've taken cabs home from the airport and been asked by the cab driver how to get there.
Huge variance here city to city, with IME Houston cab drivers almost incomprehensibly bad at directions, and NYC cab drivers excellent.
40 I think gets it. More charitably, they could know that there are two (or, in this town, more) basically equivalent routes between which people nonetheless have a strong preference
I have definitely had cab drivers who did not know how to get to my destination.
Holy shit Philadelphia. The dude had teeth filed to points. I am not a believer and not a stickler for speed limits, but I prayed in his taxi.
40, 41
Usually it happens to me in Boston and it's very clear that they know at least one route. So I always assumed they were asking to pre-empt complaints. If you say you don't know or care, you can't complain about the route they take (and they could maybe rip you off).
This is why the best place to take a true cab is in London where they have to memorize a whole map of the city.
I knew how to give directions to people before I could drive, but not the names of most of the streets. So I'd be full of "okay, well, you'll turn right when I tell you... NOW!"
Since I didn't have any clear conception of how much warning was needed, this was an irritating system for other people.
Now, I think it's interesting how many other people would like to use this same system, which really doesn't work well if I'm deaf and they don't sign. No, I'm serious, tell me the whole plan ahead of time- I'm not turning to look at you for any extended period of time en route.
This is why the best place to take a true cab is in London where they have to memorize a whole map of the city.
Also, you get to say things like, "I hate to say this, but Savile Row, please."
It was near my hotel.
I never know how much detail to include when I am giving directions. Like, should I mention that this exit off the freeway requires you to change lanes suddenly, watch for pedestrians as you come out of the bend, then change lanes suddenly again? Is that kind of assistance helpful or insulting?
Giving directions when you haven't actually driven is really hard
I've never had any particular difficulty giving driving directions to a place I live, assuming the driver is able to get to someplace I'm familiar with. The only problem is that I might sometimes forget which way a one way goes.
"But, officer, I was only going one way!"
49 I tend to do both with NYC cabbies, mainly because experience has taught me that they are often completely clueless about even major Brooklyn streets. And when I first moved here some seemed to have it hardwired into them that everybody going from Manhattan to Brooklyn late at night must be going to Park Slope.
53 No cops, but for some reason drivers aren't always too pleased after turning into a one way in the wrong direction due to your directions.
A friend who travels to London for business moderately often says that his experience of taxis there - including getting him to where he needs to go on particular streets - is not actually that good, and that The Knowledge should die in a fire, since it just seems to constrain the supply of drivers without improving their navigation.
Minicabs don't need the knowledge though, do they? Only if you want to take the fancy black cabs with the bale of hay for the horse in the back (and why the horse is in the back...) is that even an issue.
18, 19 and 52 are right. What kind of fucking idiot doesn't i) know their address and ii) can't find the way to their own house?
45: wait, your taxi driver was an Orc? Nice.
58: agreed. I so rarely drive, though, that I have great difficulty giving directions to my house; partly because I know the cycling route, and that involves a lot of stuff that is either tedious or impossible if you're not on a bike.
London taxis are not great. I generally have to give them some sort of hint, and they are eye-wateringly expensive (helped by the mayor's "Don't take minicabs! You'll get raped!" advertising campaign. I bet Tesco would love the mayor to run a "Don't shop at Sainsbury's! They'll eat your flesh!" campaign) and also very aggressive. Minicabs all have satnav and as a result are better able to find your house than black cabs.
re: 59
Yeah, and there are places that are really shitty to navigate around at the best times. But, as a general rule, adults who don't know their way home, or near-adults (8th graders are what, 14?), somewhat shocking.
as a general rule, adults who don't know their way home, or near-adults (8th graders are what, 14?), somewhat shocking.
Extremely shocking. Is the idea here that you have 14-year-olds who have never been out of the house alone?
8th graders are more in the 12-13 age range (or at least, I was 12 and 13 in 8th grade). Not that changes much.
I doubt that it's that they haven't been out of the home alone, but that in American cities that are built for driving, they haven't navigated their way solo on the roads. I used to walk home along city streets, but if you live in a suburban development, you might be taking bike paths/shortcuts through parks/etc if you're that age and out alone. Then again, perhaps I'm underestimating the paranoia that has kept parents from letting their children roam free, as I was on the cusp of the abduction-paranoia generation but not actually of it. In addition, I do notice many more children alone on the streets in the UK than I ever did in the US - there's definitely a cultural difference.
(Also, it's hardly a newsflash that a lot of teens are shockingly oblivious to pretty much everything, at least IME, and often inarticulate when speaking to adults.)
50: there's no shame in that, flippanter.
my children (10 and 7) know their address perfectly well and can give perfect directions because they've heard me give the address and directions to cabbies approximately 1 billion times. if I were always driving them...no way. they'd still know their own fucking address, and what major landmarks are located nearby. that's just stupid. what's your child supposed to do after he escapes from the evil kidnapper?
I do notice many more children alone on the streets in the UK than I ever did in the US - there's definitely a cultural difference.
I'd buy that. But I also think some people just have more of a knack for directions. I moved away from Chicago at 11 and was back only for Christmas after that. And yet, by the time I was 16 and would borrow a car to drive across town when visiting, I knew perfectly well how to get among the various relatives' and friends' houses, despite some of them being almost an hour apart. It's just something I pay attention—where I'm going and how we're arriving—that otherwise very smart and capable people (my own mother*, for instance) seem not to notice.
*Who once, when driving from Chicago to the Michigan Dunes, managed to make it to Ohio.
OT: Greil Marcus has published a book about the Doors? In 2011?
what's your child supposed to do after he escapes from the evil kidnapper?
Jump really high over the third coin from the castle, thus warping to a bonus world. Duh.
66: I was given to understand that elaborate traps would be required.
64: Oh, definitely, on the some people have a knack. I know plenty of adults without a clue.
65: great, I can just add that to my "never read" pile now!
I almost made it to Phoenix on the way from Palm Springs to LA once, but one, it had been a long weekend, and two, I was too distracted by driving really, really fast across the desert.
I never know how much detail to include when I am giving directions.
My father is hilarious this way. "On your right, you'll see a Shell gas station with a damaged sign and six pumps, and with a little convenience store. It will be at a corner with a stop light. Don't turn there, but you'll need to turn about a mile after you see that station."
I can't remember a time when my siblings and I did not know our own home address, complete with idiosyncratic spelling. I wasn't a great navigator as a kid (or now), but I could certainly repeat directions given to me by someone else.
But not being able to address an envelope to yourself is strange.
I find it astounding that three or four successive interns have ruined envelopes by putting stamps and/or addresses in totally wrong locations. WTF?
It's gotten to where when I get a new volunteer, I say apologetically, "You probably already know this, but it costs us a lot of money if this is done wrong, so...."
71: to be completely fair, the mescaline had just kicked in.
72: my step-dad did this, causing him to give the worst directions in the world. tell me to drive another half mile, and then turn left on flower avenue. I don't need to know about that abandoned bowling alley!
72, 74: I occasionally catch myself giving directions based on landmarks that no longer exist. "Then turn just past the abandoned drive-in theater... that burned down... seven years ago... Huh. I wonder what's there now?"
The fact that Marcus wrote a book about the Doors in 2011 makes me like him more. Writing a book about Van Morrison in 2010 just makes you an old fogey. Writing a book about the Doors at this point transcends any notion of being in or out of touch.
I find it astounding that three or four successive interns have ruined envelopes by putting stamps and/or addresses in totally wrong locations.
I've never actually ruined one, but I've certainly had that doubting moment where I wondered if I'd swapped the places of the stamp and the return address. I send maybe one piece of mail every two or three months.
|| Today's opening numbers: 6F, wc -4F. 25" snow on Stuart Peak. Snow in the forecast the next 4 days, 8 of the next 10. |>
(And no one is sorry that the Occupy encampment folded up peacefully over the weekend.)
Today's opening numbers: 6F
High of 80 degrees here today, but the cold front is blowing in this afternoon.
Back when I used mail, I always wondered if I couldn't get a letter delivered by swapping the addresses and using insufficient postage.
81, 82: Back in the days of the Roman Empire when you had to lick stamps, a common scam was to dab a bit of glue in the stamp spot and hope that the USPS would consider it "Evidence of Postage Affixed" and deliver your letter anyway. I doubt that would work now.
"But, officer, I was only going one way!"
Or, as Fred said to Barney,* "Oh-nee way."
*Could've been the other way around. All I know is that my sister and I still say, "Oh-nee way, Barney, oh-nee way" to one another when approaching a one-way street. Because we're perpetually twelve close enough to have 30-year-old inside jokes.
62.last None of the teenagers I know ever bloody shut up.
85: Heh, I suppose that's true. I was just surprised at the last time I interacted with young teens from a vague position of authority and they didn't seem to know how to converse back to me. (Then again, this could just be me.) They talked and talked to each other, though.
Ah, perhaps it's the air of authority - must cultivate that! "Friend's mum" clearly isn't daunting enough. As for my own teenagers ... Are you still in the country? Fancy popping round and seeing if it keeps them quiet?
87: I am, permanently now! And yes, I would love to! We're on honeymoon next week, but once we're back now that everything has settled a bit for us there is plenty of time for a meet up! And, I really like the chance to see new bits of the country!
So are you staying there? I was under the impression you were moving back sometime after the wedding. Congratulations, by the way!!
Thank you, Kraab! I am staying here for the foreseeable future. We might move back to the US at some point but immigration to the UK is more streamlined and comes with better perks.