Ref the OP I agree that:
A) The recliner factory got those backwards; switching makes more sense to me.
B) This stuff is more arbitrary and more cultural-determined than most of us suspect.
The tub/shower in my house has the water controls ass-backwards: the hot is on the right and the cold is on the left. It took years for me to remember which one to turn down without getting scalded or, if doing a really long shower, frozen. I didn’t have my glasses on and was standing with water pouring over me so crouching to check just didn’t work. I’m not usually a slow learner… Every other faucet in the house whether using 1 or 2 controls it’s cold on the right and hot on the left.
I’ll have to wait until we switch to a shower only unit to have Mistermage change the whole set of lines. (And then I’ll probably freeze and scald myself a couple of times just because I finally remember which is which only to have it reversed.)
Moho = Motorhome, pole = poll. Sorry for the confusion.
Thanks for the replies. I asked the question because our family response was strictly drawn on male/female lines which is unusual for us. Nice to see other opinions matching/contrasting both sides. We thought it was pretty funny.
As far as motorhomes with recliners, it is the thing these days. In the past the majority of mohos had incredibly uncomfy sofa beds. Fine if you are camping for a weekend or a couple of days with all the kiddies and dogs. Not so great if you are long time users.
We actually live in ours full-time, volunteering at state and national parks 4-8 months a year and touring around the rest of the time, so comfy chairs are required.
My dad and stepmom did that for a while; worked at a fish hatchery a couple times, campgrounds, places like that. I wonder if you ever crossed paths with them.
We are only 5 years into this life style. We have only done campgrounds on the east and west coasts. Now that we are full timers we are looking to expand our options. We would love to hear about your parents experiences with hatcheries.
I’m trying to remember all the places they’ve been. They were at the Carson fish hatchery in Washington (near the Oregon border), Bonneville Dam, a campground near Little Big Horn, and a tree farm down in Virginia or North Carolina, I think. They must have liked the fish hatchery; they were there twice.
I have a reclining sofa wired like this as well and it doesn’t bother me. I suppose I feel like the forward button corresponds to “footrest goes up” rather than “backrest goes down”, since the back doesn’t start moving down until the footrest is fully up.
I know of no culture where people used both hands to control both taps when they got hot water. In most of the world faucets were originally devices by whigh right-handed people turned off the cold water, and identical taps were used when hot water on-tap was introduced.
And before the regulation of faucets, the water just ran when there was water in the pipes.
IANAAnthropologist, but the Mînërighox of the Serengeti come to mind.
I think we’re talking different "historically"s. I mean the US in the 20th century.
In the early years sinks had two faucets, each with a knob. The hot & cold water mixed only in the basin. Many turned in opposite directions.
The next step was to keep the two valves, but combine the spigots. As best I can piece together, this became the standard some time after WWI but before WWII. These separate valves mostly turned opposite ways.
The final step was to combine the valves into a single handle / knob with some sort of 2D motion that controlled both volume and temperature. The alternative was a single fitting with two knobs which usually turned the same way: CCW = on, CW=off.
As of today if you go into any US store selling bathroom sink fixtures you’ll see all three of the most recent flavors. By and large the cheapest ones are the one-fixture with two same-way knobs. The three separate fixtures with counter-rotating knobs and the one fixture with one handle flavors are the nicer ones.