Mixed guest musings

A new Abstract is long overdue, for which I apologise, and herewith present you with a mishmash of musings.

Firstly, originally from my friend and colleague Susie, musings on what people see in their 'mind's eye' if they have been blind since they were born. I think this is a very interesting question, but unfortunately don't know anyone who is blind to ask them. Can they imagine colours? And if they can, are they necessarily the same way a sighted person does? Come to think of it, do two sighted people visualise colours in the same way as each other?? The direction of these thoughts perhaps takes one back to solipsism and the very first Urban Abstract I ever posted (solipsism apparently being the philosophical idea that it might be the case that nothing outside one's own mind actually exists, and even if it does, one can never conclusively determine that it does because one only has one's own mind and experiences to draw on!)

Secondly, also from Susie and principally her experiences on the tube system in London, why do people tend not to follow the simplest of functional rules in modern Urban society? For example, walking out of 'no exit' gates, not moving right down the carriage when asked to and walking on the right/left of connecting walkways when signs instruct them to walk on the left/right. For my part, I suspect in the majority of cases it is because it is most convenient for the perpetrator (at the expense of others). But I do remain puzzled sometimes, for instance I do recall seeing a shop recently which had two doors, one with a large sign saying "Please use other door --->" and yet I saw more than one person struggling to open this locked door with the sign on!

Finally, from my brother Steve, we have the ponderings regarding social norms, in particular how one responds when thanked for doing something. Often in America, you will get a 'you're welcome' when you thank someone, but over here frequently there is nothing, save for perhaps a grunt or a silent smile. Why is this? Does it signify something related to the national psyche? I'm not sure how prevalent it is in cultures around the world but would hazard a guess that it is more common to say something than not.

Electric/fields

I attended a bushcraft weekend in July, where we did a bit of ‘roughing it’ and learning how to live ‘at one with nature’. One of the people who were running it was a young-ish woman.

During one of the group conversations we were having about natural living, she made the claim that she “lives a life without electricity”. This seemed plausible at that point, given that she was quite handy with these outdoorsy techniques and apparently lodged in a building connected to the nearby farmhouse (an old barn?)

However, later on I spied her flipping open a clamshell mobile phone, and immediately wondered where she charges it up. Further, she also discussed in detail a bath that she had taken recently which warms itself back up so that you can bathe for extended periods.

Granted, these points don’t necessarily mean that she has an electricity supply in her principal dwelling, however I would forcefully argue that it does mean that she is not “living a life without electricity”.

What’s the point of all this? Well, ultimately I wondered if there are enough people out there who could genuinely live and survive if electricity were to suddenly be withdrawn on a global scale (e.g through some sort of Armageddon-type event)? Because whilst there are maybe a decent chunk of people who make the above claim, the reality of their lives may be somewhat different!

Rubbish banter

An email went around the office a few weeks ago from the group secretary on the subject of rubbish receptacles, in advance of our forthcoming office relocation.

One of the sentences in the email was something like:

“On the West side of the lifts you will see a large wheelie-bin; this is in fact a skip.”

My immediate thought was that it must be either a wheelie-bin or a skip but could not be both! When I walked past it later that morning, I looked at it and concluded that it was a large black wheelie-bin and not – in fact – a skip.

I wondered what the cryptic sentence in the secretary’s email meant, and concluded that her definition of ‘skip’ was by reference to function rather than form (i.e. a skip is a temporary purpose-placed rubbish dumping unit that will be removed once it has served the specific purpose). By contrast, my own definition of skip is the physical one (i.e. large metal open-topped box with the distinctive shape for loading on and off the back of a lorry).

Although I haven’t thought about it in great detail as yet, I cannot really imagine many situations where different people can have such mismatches in their noun definitions – can any other Urban observers enlighten me? Or even come up with other nouns which are principally defined with reference to function?

Dilemma at the urinals

In a bar in central London not so long ago – went to use the toilet, and there was an attendant guy in there with all the usual paraphernalia – fragrances, sweets, soaps, combs (I think?). Normally when I use the urinals it’s about 50:50 whether I wash my hands or not and depends on various factors like degree of splashback felt, how much of a hurry I’m in, whether anyone else would see me leaving without doing so, etc.

But whenever there is a guy there, it immediately comes down to one thing only – if I have a pound coin I will wash them and if I don’t then I do not – cannot! The former because knowing that the custodian of the sinks knows that ablutions were avoided is just too much (and potentially feeling the eyes like daggers in the back when exiting); the latter because taking his services and then not paying may well whip him up into some sort of frenzied rage (or at the very least seems ungrateful).

On this particular occasion I had a pound so I allowed him to soap me up, turn the tap on and off, and hand me towels. When I rejoined my friends I was castigated for doing so because it only ‘encourages’ them. I had not thought about it from this angle before – as I understand it they don’t get any fixed wage so I thought that as many people as possible should pay them for their services.

But perhaps this type of vocation is more akin to begging – if these are services that no-one actually wants then maybe they shouldn’t be ‘guilted’ into paying for them!

I would like to canvass views from other Urban observers on the issue of trendy bar toilet attendants.

Expression impression

I was thinking about school days recently and I recalled a friend and I each being able to do a recognisable impression of someone in the year below simply by pulling a certain facial expression. Absolutely no words or bodily actions were required.

I’m sure he cannot have walked around 24/7 with exactly that expression on his face, for that would not allow him to exhibit the whole range of emotions that humans are capable of displaying.

So what was special about that particular expression? Or perhaps it was that his facial structure lent itself to falling naturally into that sort of position? Does anyone else know of anyone who can be successfully mimicked using just one facial position? If so, what do you think is the reason behind the success of the impression?