Family codes and ritualsFreddy Woo writes, "as a child we used to have a 'whoever cuts doesn't choose the slice' rule with cake. It worked brilliantly, but it's left me completely anal about dividing up food - my wife just takes the piss as I ritually compare all the slice sizes."
What codes and rituals does your family have?
(
chthonic, Thu 20 Nov 2008, 18:05)
« Go Back
StreetlightsWhen my siblings and I were travelling in the dark in our parents' trusty 2CV as young children (usually on our way home from piano lessons), we would crouch on the backseat, peering out the rear window and spying at the streetlights...
Orange streetlights were benign, white car headlights were "goodies" and red rear lights (or worse, brake lights!) were "baddies". As we were facing backwards (no seatbelts in them days!), we saw more red lights than white lights, hence the need to crouch behind the backseats just peeping over the top, so the red lights couldn't get us. A purple streetlight (y'know the ones with a violet glow?) was a super-goodie, and cancelled out all the red lights we could see. I think there was a super-baddie too, but I can't remember what that was.
I'm not sure what we were afraid of, but if we were in heavy traffic, surrounded by cars braking, we would cower in the footwells fearing for our lives! What a relief it was when we escaped to the relative safety of the country lanes! (Tho no orange streetlights out in the sticks to watch over us, so it was potentially more dangerous territory...)
(, Sun 23 Nov 2008, 10:22, 2 replies)
*clicky*"A purple streetlight (y'know the ones with a violet glow?) was a super-goodie,"
You mean "cold" white and sometimes a little purplish? That must have been mercury vapour lamps, and yes I agree, they are a super-goodie as they get rarer and rarer these days.
Nowadays you mostly see sodium ones. Longish deep-orange lamps are low-pressure sodium and have been around for a long time -sometimes they are even to be found in awesome vintage fixtures -whereas the shorter, more bright orange ones are high-pressure sodium and currently very common.
Metal-halide lamps are now becoming more and more popular, as are QL induction ones. Both kinds of lamps give off a "warm" white light. Metal-halide lamps are related to mercury ones; it's not the same thing though.
Why yes, I AM outdoor-lighting crazy.
(, Sun 23 Nov 2008, 21:56, closed)
Outdoor lighting geek...Shame I don't play the game any more, I reckon those Xenon headlights you get these days would blast all the evil brake lights into the middle of next week!
(, Mon 24 Nov 2008, 12:26, closed)
« Go Back