# You'd think everyone would know about **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2025, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800 "2025-08-07T06:44:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/321 "2025-08-13T17:56:02Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I guess analog clocks are getting uncommon enough that one can get by without that knowledge. How long before ‘clockwise’ and ‘counterclockwise’ become alien concepts? Can we bring back ‘sunwise/deosil’ vs. ‘widdershins’ ? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/322 "2025-08-13T17:56:28Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I’m a Boomer who grew up in California, and didn’t go to school with Okies and Arkies. My father did, though. I was born in 1957 and grew up in the Bay Area. He was born in 1928 and grew up on a farm in Ontario, California. I wonder if dropping the ‘baby’ off of ‘baby boomer’ let’s people forget where we’re positioned in time. The Depression & the dust bowl were before WWII. The baby boom happened when the GIs came home after WWII. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > They call it _keyboarding_ now. > > It’s taught in school. When my kids’ high school changed the name of the class, they were up front about why. It was done to keep boys from avoiding taking a girl’s class. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/323 "2025-08-13T18:04:03Z")
> [@Pixel\_Dent](#): > > I wonder what percentage of Millennials or Gen Z are true touch typists. I’m guessing it’s a high percentage among elder Millennials (born c. 1980-84), since touch typing was still being taught in elementary and middle schools well into the mid-90s. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/324 "2025-08-13T18:12:13Z")
My TYPING class in high school has served me very well. That and drafting and math has provided me with very lucrative employment. Like another poster above, I was a draftsman for quite a few years. Every thing was upper case hand printed. Until we went to Leroy lettering. Also print of course. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/325 "2025-08-13T18:30:45Z")
> [@ricepad](#): > > Other days, her entries were just a few words. More than once, she just wrote, “Pooped”. We can’t figure out if she was recording that she had a BM or that perhaps she worked so hard that day she was too tired to write anything more than a single word Does that entry show up about once a month (not necessarily precisely so?) She may have been tired due to her menstrual cycle, but might not have wanted to written that down more clearly. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/326 "2025-08-13T18:44:46Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > She may have been tired due to her menstrual cycle, but might not have wanted to written that down more clearly. Good point! We’ll have to look at the journals again to see if there’s a periodic element. (heh!) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/327 "2025-08-13T18:52:00Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > wanted to written Oof. Wanted to write, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/328 "2025-08-13T19:09:27Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I took a touch typing class in high school in the 80s, too. Like you, it was mostly girls in the class, but it was obvious it would be useful. My high school, mid 80s, required typing class for both girls and boys in or before 10th grade. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/329 "2025-08-13T19:26:44Z")
A keyboard. How quaint. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/330 "2025-08-13T21:23:11Z")
> [@vbob](#): > > How long before ‘clockwise’ and ‘counterclockwise’ become alien concepts? Can we bring back ‘sunwise/deosil’ vs. ‘widdershins’ ? And when was the last time you really actually dialed a phone? Yet we still say “dialed” and may well for another century. “Clockwise” and “counter/anticlockwise” will outlive analog timepieces by centuries. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/331 "2025-08-13T21:27:44Z")
Over the years, I’ve signed so many charts that my signature has devolved from reasonably legible to pure chicken scratch—no actual letters in sight. I never once saw my father write in cursive, but his printing was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. My printing, on the other hand, has eroded into near-illegibility (possibly because I switched to the _other hand_). At least my typing still looks respectable—so long as no one asks me to handwrite “typing.” ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/332 "2025-08-13T21:40:13Z")
but you have to actively Google to know. Do people randomly Google, like browsing through an encyclopedia? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/333 "2025-08-13T22:06:30Z")
Com-PUT-or! 😊 ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/334 "2025-08-13T22:17:02Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > “Clockwise” and “counter/anticlockwise” will outlive analog timepieces by centuries. As words, sure. As quickly understood concepts, maybe not so much. “When I said ‘righty-tightly’ I meant turn it clockwise….snap….” ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/335 "2025-08-13T22:20:22Z")
As God is my witness, I’ve trained guys who interpreted “righty-tightly/lefty-loosey” to mean use their right vs left hand. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/336 "2025-08-13T23:01:47Z")
One odd thing I do when handwriting is that I tend to duplicate my most common typo for the word I’m writing. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/337 "2025-08-13T23:04:07Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > My high school, mid 80s, required typing class for both girls and boys in or before 10th grade. When I was in Grade 9, picking electives for Grade 10, (yay! I’m growing up!) our home room teacher said that everyone should take typing. She followed that up with “and when I say “everyone” I mean boys as well as girls!” Thanks, Mrs Maguire! One of the best bits of counselling I got. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/338 "2025-08-13T23:43:54Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > I’ve trained guys who interpreted “righty-tightly/lefty-loosey” to mean use their right vs left hand. Not sure to what task they were applying the advice. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/339 "2025-08-13T23:47:08Z")
Opening and closing valves. No different from faucets ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/340 "2025-08-14T00:19:49Z")
> [@Pixel\_Dent](#): > > When I was in high school in the 80s I was offered a full semester touch typing class in a room filled with IBM Selectric typewriters. By the time I was done with that I could do 80wpm easily. Over 90% of the students taking the class were girls, but I could tell how useful it would be. > > My kids, on the other hand, living in a world dominated by keyboards were expected to just pick it up. None of their schools even offered a touch typing class. While they are very fast hunt and peck typists, they are still hunt and peck typists and can only type around 30 wpm. I vaguely remember being offered a typing class in high school in the 80s, but I didn’t take it, and I’m very glad I didn’t. I think it would have been a humongous waste of time. I’ve been typing all my life, so I know where the letters are; I didn’t need a class to teach me how to press the keys. I have no idea how fast I can type, but since it’s not significantly slower than I can think, it’s not a limitation. Almost all the typing I do is what comes out of my head, not typing what I or someone else had already written. That skill became semi-obsolete when we ditched typewriters for word processors where we could edit as we typed, and becomes more obsolete the better scanning and OCR technology becomes. On the other hand, I’m not particularly fast at thumb-typing on a cellphone keyboard. Do they have classes for that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800.md?page=18)