Higher Manual Education

One, two or three kisses on the cheek or a handshake. There are many ways to greet friends, friends of friends or distant relatives.

Friends from Southern Europe sometimes blame those of us from Northern Europe for being too cold, because we do not do the social kiss, but shake hands in stead.

I don't agree. I think I get much more from eye contact and, possibly, a smile, and that a handshake can express at least as much friendliness, empathy and compassion as a kiss on the cheek. In the final analysis I suppose it depends on what you grew up with. 

Now science has shown that a handshake express even more than we thought. Scientists say in a recent study that the strength of a person’s grasp may also be one of the most useful ways to measure people’s true age. And not only that, but also your level of education (“We found that based on this survey, a 65-year-old white women who had not completed secondary education has the same handgrip strength as a 69-year-old white women who had completed secondary education ...").

So from now on when you meet someone with a very firm handshake you can be sure of one of two things:

1) Either the person in question has been to university, or

2) the person in question has read this blog.

The Local Angle

Catastrophes of all kinds hit the headlines. Both the smaller local papers and the big national papers.

In 1912 an Aberdeen paper ran the headline Aberdeen Man Drowned at Sea.

The same event was also reported in the big papers. Here one of the headlines was The Titanic has Sunk.

Mad I and II Missing

George I and II were OK, but George III was mad. Or rather, he became mad. So mad that sometimes he had to be tied up.

This, of course, is great material for fictional treatment. In 1991 a play was staged in London. The title of the play was The Madness of George III, and it was written by Alan Bennett.

In 1994 the play was made into a movie. The original title, however, was changed. It was no longer The Madness of George III. It was changed to The Madness of King George. 

Why was that? Well, at least according to urban myth, the reason was that the producers were afraid that people wouldn't bother to see The Madness of George III if they hadn't seen I and II.

For Whom the Lights Beep

My Uncle Jack is a tourist guide. He takes visitors around the old brewery and tells them all about how beer was brewed, and he knows the names and uses of all the old utensils and machinery. He can also tell you stories about all the former owners of the place and of the people who worked there.

He is a properly qualified guide, and to prove it he wears a blue badge indicating that he is a tourist guide.

One day after having shown visitors round the old brewery he walked home through town. He had forgotten to take off his badge, and while waiting at a zebra crossing for the green man to come on, he was approached by a lady, an American tourist.

- "Excuse me", she said. "I see that you are a guide. I have been wondering about these pedestrian crossings. I can understand the green and red man, that's like in the US. But why does the beeping come on, when the pedestrians have a green light? What is that for?"

- "It's for the blind", Uncle Jack answered. "In this way they can hear when the light is green."

The lady looked perplexed for a moment, then said with disdain: "In the US we don't let blind people drive!"

Now my Uncle Jack never forgets to take off his badge when off duty.

Smiles and More

Everybody going to work by car in the morning knows how boring it can be. Congestion everywhere and stressed parents trying to get their kids to school on time. To make it more interesting I started to time my drive. By cutting corners, using a free lane to get ahead and then edging my way into the lane I should have been in, not letting anybody out from a side road etc. I managed to cut nearly two minutes of my half hour drive to the office.

But that also got boring in the end. Now I have devised a new strategy. I count smiles from other drivers and road users. I let another car get into the line (1 smile), I do not enter the intersection until I am sure I can make it across before the light turns red (1 smile), I give way to cars waiting to enter from a side road (1 smile), I let cars enter the nearly blocked roundabout (1 smile), and there are many other ways to make life easier for your fellow road user.

My record so far is 7 smiles. My target is to get to 10 smiles on a drive to work before the summer holiday. Can you beat that? And the strange thing is, I actually also have managed to get to work as fast as I used to.

And a smile to start the day on is a nice thing. One day a lady even blew me a finger kiss.