# Can switching between reverse and drive ALOT hurt my car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2011, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404 "2011-06-22T10:32:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404/41 "2011-06-24T21:57:42Z")
> [@papergirl](#): > > _You_ may not, and that is of course your right. > However, if your paper is ever delivered by an amateur, my guess is you might notice a difference. Just as you might notice a difference between the cashier who is a newby or just doesn’t care about her job, and one who considers cashiering (yes, even a cashier might dare consider herself thus) her profession. > My degree is in another field. So perhaps I’m a professional who is moonlighting as a paper carrier. There is a difference between describing someone’s profession and labeling them as a professional. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404/42 "2011-06-25T00:05:34Z")
Are you a professional pedant, then? Or an amatuer? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404/43 "2011-06-25T02:10:22Z")
I have often stated here how much I love irony. Here’s a wonderful instance. I’ve pointed out that trying to get at shades of meaning in words by quoting dictionary definitions is a losing game, because dictionaries only manage gross generalities. People why try to do it in political discussions, e.g., always look bad. Yet here is the one in one hundred case in which citing the dictionary is the perfect response. [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional) > [@](#): > > 1. following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder. > 2. of, pertaining to, or connected with a profession: professional studies. > 3. appropriate to a profession: professional objectivity. > 4. engaged in one of the learned professions: A lawyer is a professional person. > 5. following as a business an occupation ordinarily engaged in as a pastime: a professional golfer. > 6. making a business or constant practice of something not properly to be regarded as a business: “A salesman,” he said, “is a professional optimist.” > 7. undertaken or engaged in as a means of livelihood or for gain: professional baseball. > 8. of or for a professional person or his or her place of business or work: a professional apartment; professional equipment. > 9. done by a professional; expert: professional car repairs. > > –noun > 10. a person who belongs to one of the professions, especially one of the learned professions. > 11. a person who earns a living in a sport or other occupation frequently engaged in by amateurs: a golf professional. > 12. an expert player, as of golf or tennis, serving as a teacher, consultant, performer, or contestant; pro. > 13. a person who is expert at his or her work: You can tell by her comments that this editor is a real professional. Thirteen basic definitions! And yet Omar wants us to bow before only one. It is to laugh. I love irony. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404/44 "2011-06-25T05:24:09Z")
> [@papergirl](#): > > Also, I think the main reason kids don’t do the routes around here anymore is that the delivery deadline is 6 a.m. Perhaps, but when I was about 11 or 12, I occasionally delivered my older brother’s morning route when he couldn’t do it for whatever reason. I don’t remember a deadline, but I seem to recall getting up about 5 a.m. to do it. Maybe the kids these days can’t get up that early… > [@](#): > > They also involve rather large neighborhoods. If you live in Mayberry, you might be able to deliver that paper twice a week after school, riding on your bike. But in a town where you have routes that encompass large areas, papers 7 days a week, and an early deadline…well, you do the math. I have seen some good high school carriers though. I think this is more likely. When I was 14, I had my own route, an evening one. I could walk it in about an hour or less. But since newspapers have lost so much circulation, they’ve had to consolidate the routes, so now they’re much longer, despite (I expect) having about the same number of customers per route. BTW, I never threw my newspapers. The houses in that neighborhood all had mailboxes with an attached rack for the paper. I walked up to the porches and put it in that. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404/45 "2011-06-25T09:05:12Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Perhaps, but when I was about 11 or 12, I occasionally delivered my older brother’s morning route when he couldn’t do it for whatever reason. I don’t remember a deadline, but I seem to recall getting up about 5 a.m. to do it. Maybe the kids these days can’t get up that early… The newspaper policy here (as stated below its masthead) that the daily paper must be delivered by 6 AM and the weekend paper by 9. BTW, some years ago I had an elderly gentleman (probably retired) who consistently delivered the daily paper after 6 and always had the same excuse: some problem with the delivery of the paper to him. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404/46 "2011-06-27T13:06:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I have often stated here how much I love irony. Here’s a wonderful instance. I’ve pointed out that trying to get at shades of meaning in words by quoting dictionary definitions is a losing game, because dictionaries only manage gross generalities. People why try to do it in political discussions, e.g., always look bad. > > Yet here is the one in one hundred case in which citing the dictionary is the perfect response. > > [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional) > > Thirteen basic definitions! And yet Omar wants us to bow before only one. It is to laugh. I love irony. By your definition, the 13 year old kid on his bike delivering papers is also a professional. Yet you want to distinguish between the kid and an adult in their car. I see no distinguishment in any of the definitions. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404/47 "2011-06-27T16:34:57Z")
I guess I would consider a kid delivering papers on his bike to have the equivalent of a part-time job, just as a kid working 15 hours a week at a fast food joint does. It may be his primary income, but he doesn’t depend on it to support himself or his family, generally. He’s earning college fund money or pocket money. A kid on a bike also does not deliver 250-550 papers, as adult carriers usually do. For these people, this is a primary source of income. It’s what they do for a living; it is, per the definitions posted by **mapcase** a means of livelihood. Much as a person may be a professional golfer, singer, writer, builder…whether they have a degree or certificate or not. Then again, if a kid wants to consider himself a professional at his part-time job, and he behaves professionally as he performs it, why would it be any skin off my nose? Live and let live, I say! Life is too short to get your panties in a twist about such things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-switching-between-reverse-and-drive-alot-hurt-my-car/586404.md?page=2)