Clarity
Mountain of stairs
Posted 24 Nov 2008
Commuting, Daily Life, People | 3 Comments | Email to a friend
Over the weekend, I was caring for a young child I know. The child had learned to walk in the previous months and so powering about on his feet was still very exciting to him. This child loved to climb the stairs in his house – just for fun. And I was watched him climb, making sure he didn’t tumble backwards to a painful crash, I was amazed at how much work it was for him to climb the stairs.
Each step just about came up to just below his waist. There were 13 steps leading from the ground floor to the next. So, this little fella was pulling and scrapping his way to the top, time and time again, for fun. He was giggling, laughing, talking and singing on each trip. It was a hoot.
As I watched on, I began to think about whether or I would climb proportionally sized steps for fun. I am 6′3″. Would I repeatedly climb 13, three-foot steps just for fun? For that matter, would I go back up almost 40 feet (close to a 3-story building) in stairs to collect whatever it was I forgot this morning as I ran down the stairs this morning, late for work? Could I even run down the stairs if each step was half my height?
Think clearly. Act quickly.
Posted 21 Nov 2008
Commuting, People, Places, Signs | 5 Comments | Email to a friend
O’Hare Airport has many emergencies exits, and a number of these exits in Terminal 3 look like the one shown in the photo below:
(They may also look the same elsewhere at O’Hare, but this is where I’ve noticed them.)
I know it is hard to see in the pictures, but note that this door:
(1) Requires a security code input prior to use.
In case of an emergency, you’d better hope that you happen to be an airport employee with a security id code, and not just some Joe or Jane Traveller.
(2) Not using a security code would be a violation of both city and federal laws.
Break the law or stay put in an emergency – you can only choose one.
(3) Door can be opened in 15 seconds.
If this is a real emergency, fifteen seconds will seem like a really, really long time.
Why all this guerilla on gorilla violence!? Won’t somebody please think of the homonyms?!?
Please note that the editors of chickenmonkeydog do not support violence and do not condone the endangerment of the mountain gorillas.
Thanks to a reader from Chicago for the contribution.
Glad I’m not from a swing state (Part II)
Posted 19 Nov 2008
Events, The Little Things | Leave a Comment | Email to a friend
Following on from my previous post about absentee voting in the recent US presidential election, I thought it would make sense to follow that up with some of the details about the delivery of the absentee ballot. It came via email – which is brilliant – but I do wonder about the system as a whole given the second email that I received from the Cook County Absentee Department.
Read email containing details of absentee ballot.
And so that you can see that I am not making this up, I’ve also produced a screenshot of my Yahoo email inbox which shows the arrival of the two emails in question:
View screenshot of Yahoo inbox.
A bit of house-keeping here: A few months ago we created ourselves a delicious account for chickenmonkeydog blog. So, we wanted to flag this up to our readership and suggest that you check out our recommendations.
Go on. Check ‘em out. You’ll be happy you did. We promise.
