<Chandler Bing> “Could you be any more racist?” <Chandler Bing>
Just shave the dog’s tail and tell them it’s a pet rat.
Anyway, something I don’t know that some people might be shocked at: I’ve lived in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area for 35+ years now, and I’m still unfamiliar with most of the suburbs even within the main Interstate loop, much less the outlying townships. It’s been kinda embarrassing lately because I’m working a temp job where I need to know based on someone’s city if they’re nearby or thirty miles away. :o
Last time I used Mapquest, I was pleasantly surprised that it includes landmarks when it can. I’m good with directions, but having something to watch out for helps a lot too.
Sorry, I typed that on my phone and didn’t finish my thought.
My point is, that the big green signs with the white words on them are landmarks themselves. Since there’s only one sign that says “Exit to 281 N”, that’s a far better landmark than 1 of the 3,000 Arby’s in the country.
So, get on 281 N. Need a landmark? Use the sign that says “Exit to 281 N”.
Take the Thousand Oaks exit. Need a landmark? Use the sign that says “Exit to Thousand Oaks Blvd”.
Turn right (hope I don’t have to clarify this one).
Go three blocks, the business will be on the left. Need a landmark? Use the sign that says “Business Name”.
It also helps to look at a map to see where one is going and how the city is laid out.
That’s not where the problem lies. Obviously if there’s a big sign with an arrow that essentially says “This way is East” us directionally challenged people will be fine. It’s later in the route where you say, “Turn North on Elm Street” where we have problems.
Wow I need a large dose of humble pie :smack:. Having a twin sister, the question of whether her and I were identical always greatly irked me, to the point of condescension at times! I will take some heart in the fact that this is a medical curiosity rather than a more common occurrence.
If I was being picky to save face, I’d say they weren’t really identical at all if they were different genders, despite the fact that the questioner asking whether we were identical implies “other than gender” as a condition.
Back on topic, I remember having some fun back in school asking
“What happens if you drop a hammer on the moon’s surface?”
You would not believe how many thought it would float away.
My wife is far from stupid, so this is about what she knew (or didn’t know) when she came to the USA from her native Ukraine as a result of her having been educated in the Soviet era schools:
- That the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, thus causing the US to enter WW2
- That the Soviets did not defeat Japan on their own
- That the US simultaneously fought massive wars against Japan and Germany
- That the atomic bombs were not dropped on Japan to scare the Russians
- That Alaska was sold to the US outright by the Tsar (Not leased to us for 100 years, after which the US welched on the deal, as she’d been taught)
- That the UK fought the Nazis alone (pretty much) for a couple of years before the invasion of the Soviet Union
- Who John Wayne, Bob Hope, and a number of other American celebrities were.
What she did not know taught me a great deal about how much we Americans assume our views are shared universally; and how little most Americans knew about Russians and Ukrainians, especially during the Cold War.
Considering she was in her 40’s when she had to adjust to all these new ideas, I think she’s done a wonderful job of adjusting to the changes in perception required by all this new information.
My wife has since become an American citizen and enjoyed the requisite course she had to take in US history. She’s proud to say she knows more US history now that many Americans seem to (probably true.)
She still thinks of the Brezhnev years fondly, however…they were apparently the “Golden Age” for middle-class Soviet citizens.
Well, she (arguably) got the one right about the US dropout the nukes on Japan to scare Russia.
Historian Guy Alperovitz wrote a meticulously researched book which explains how this was, to a large extent, the case. I won’t get into details here – read the book, it’s a great read! – except to say that it centers on Truman’s having been influenced by his Sec of State James Byrnes, who opposed reassuring the Japanese about their emperor in any surrender terms.
It’s not necessarily true that we wouldn’t otherwise have used the nuke at all (although that’s quite possible)…other possibilities included using it after an evacuation warning, using it offshore as a visible demonstration, and waiting more than three days to use a second one.
I worked with a guy that was about 30 years old who missed a couple days of work. Turns out he had gotten sick after getting a flu shot. “The doctor said the shot they gave me actually had a little bit of flu in it. Did you know they did that?”
I’m always irritated at people who are amazed that it rained in one place but didn’t rain at a location 10 miles away. “I was on the phone and it was raining at the other persons house but it didn’t rain at my house at all and they can’t be more than 15 miles away.” I thought I cured a coworker of that when I showed him how the pavement was dry in front of our building but wet 100 yards away, but he still does it.
According to McCullough’s Truman, that’s not the case. They weren’t confident enough that the atomic bomb would *work *to try a scare with an offshore demonstration, and an evacuation order would have let them know when and where our bomber was coming, which could have been disastrous.
Well JohnT’s example that his wife is unable to follow was:
[QUOTE=JohnT]
“Take 281 north from 410 and get off on the Thousand Oaks exit, turn east and go about three blocks”
[/QUOTE]
So if it were a matter of being direction challenged she could look for an enormous green sign that says 281 NORTH, drive on that until she saw an enormous green sign that says Thousand Oaks Exit. From there, there’s either a giant green sign saying which way is east and which is west, or there isn’t.
If there isn’t then sure, the direction challenged excuse would be valid. But from what JohnT told us the whole thing is like sanskrit. So maybe she’s just bad with all directions?
As I said in my previous post, I have famously read the word “right” on a written set of directions and interpreted it as “left”. It’s not just the landmarks vs. navigation issue, it’s that the navigational words themselves are confusing and “Sanskrit” to me. I responsed to JohnT’s post in the first place because when I read his set of directions, it did read like Sanskrit to me. Even if there was a big green sign with 281 North on it, it would just be confusing to me, and I would not interpret it as a landmark.
John, you also suggested looking at a map. That only works if you are able to translate a flat paper map with a bunch of squiggles on it into something that has meaning in the real three-dimensional world. Since left/right and north/south/east/west have little meaning for me, the best information I can get from a map is how many streets past Elm Street I have to go to find the street I’m looking for. But I won’t be able to tell you which direction to go on Elm Street, or where to turn when I get there.
I’m exaggerating a little, and as my mother says, “I’ve never been permanently lost.” But the truth is that I don’t do at all well with the type of directions you describe, with numbered and/or directional highway signs, or with maps. I just thought if it’s been three years and your approach isn’t working, you might want to try something different.
I’m utterly confused as to why one restaurant out of thousands acts as a better landmark than the big green signs that tell you what to do and how to do it. Completely boggles me.
Because 1) The big green signs are all big green signs. They have different words on them, but for someone who is more visually oriented, they’re all just big green signs with white writing. And 2) numbers and directional letters (N., S.) don’t create visual images in the same way that descriptive road names (“Elm Street” “Cesar Chavez” “Mission Street”) or actual three-dimensional landmarks do. Check out this set of road signs – even though they all have English on them, would you be able to differentiate the one you need at 65 mph?
I appreciate your frustration, because I’ve had this same conversation with my father eleventy-million times. He doesn’t get why I can’t follow his directions, or serve as his navigator reading the map. I’m just suggesting that since it’s possible that your wife has issues similar to mine, you might want to try some of the methods that work for me to help her better find her way. Thirty-six years after my father taught me to drive, I’m still seeing Sanskrit where you see directions.
It just seems like an exceedingly small distinction to the point that it’s hard to imagine how anyone could keep track of what giant objects along the road do and do not count as visually oriented.
For instance, a gigantic sign that says “Thousand Oaks exit” seems like it would be incredibly easy for a visual person to remember. Look for the sign that makes you think of thousands of beautiful Oak trees.
On the other hand, if you can’t remember whether it’s 95 or 495, how can you remember if you’re looking for Arby’s or Hardee’s or Popeye? They’re all garish red logos that sell shitty food, how can you keep track?
This isn’t an argument you can win. Someone is describing their cognitive quirks; you’re not going to argue them into admitting that the quirks don’t exist. Clearly some people can distinguish between Arby’s and Hardee’s, but not remember 95 or 495; the question you ask shouldn’t be rhetorical, but should be (if it’s asked at all) a question driven by genuine curiosity.
For myself, it’s easy to understand: people have lots of cognitive ties to “Arby’s” that they don’t have to “495.” I don’t have a lot, but I do have:
-Horsey sauce
-Horrifyingly bland jalapeno poppers
-The roast beef sandwich I loved as a kid but hate now
-I think I visited the house once of the folks that run all the Arby’s in my multi-state region.
-Some godawful commercial I just saw for their “gourmazing” sandwich.
My assocations for 495:
-Isn’t that like a sub-route or something of an interstate?
-I think the Interstates ending in 5 run North-South.
Note that all my Arby’s associations are unique to Arby’s (well, I’ve visited other folks’ houses, but otherwise unique), whereas my associations with 495 apply to any 3-digit road ending in -5.
If someone’s head works like mine, they’ll use completely different kinds of assocations to remember 495 vs. remembering to turn at the Arby’s. My head is actually pretty good with numbers and not so good with landmarks, but I totally get how other folks work differently.
Well I am genuinely curious. To me, spatial reasoning is inherently visual. It makes sense to me that turning right onto Main Street from Elm Street is north because I can visualize that intersection/part of town. And I can visualize a gigantic green sign that says “Thousand Oaks Exit” that I’m going to see when I’m going to drop in unannounced for a visit with JohnT and his wife, even though I’ve never been there. I can also visualize an Arby’s on the corner just as easily.
So for me, they’re equally clear means of giving directions and they are all inherently visual. I can’t really even conceive of a means of navigating that doesn’t require visualizing what you’re looking for.
That’s why I don’t get the difference between a garish red sign that happens to say Arby’s and a staid green sign that happens to say Thousand Oaks. If your mind can picture and look out for one, why not the other?
It actually makes slightly more sense if it’s not about being visually oriented at all, but about having some kind of emotional connection to roast beef that helps you remember to turn at Arby’s. I still don’t really get it…
This seems very likely true. I’m shocked that some are shocked by such cognitive differences. 
Verbal directions are often lost on me. I abandoned any thought of using Ebay when searching for tutorials on Ebay led only to video. :dubious:
What if 10 miles is replaced with 1 mile? I’m afraid I might irritate you, unless also replacing “are amazed” with “think it worth remarking on” would make all the difference. The terrain where I live is fairly flat; could a few small hills set “shadow” patterns for rainfall? (And for all I know we get just as much rain overall as neighboring villages, but I have a perception bias. :dubious: )
My university classmate didn’t know how to use a hole puncher (fold paper in half, align…). He’s from China. Apparently they don’t use it much there; they don’t use much material on paper in school.