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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Why do the British drive on the left?
November 11, 1988
Dear Cecil:
Why do people in Britain and some of their former colonies drive on the left side of the road? Is it just a case of clinging stubbornly to an outdated tradition, such as the confusing English system of measures?
— Billy Bob, Memphis, Tennessee
Dear Bilbo:
Try to be tolerant. Seven hundred years ago everybody used the English system, and if distressing numbers of us have proven fickle in the centuries since, that's no reason to dump on the Brits.
In the Middle Ages you kept to the left for the simple reason that you never knew who you'd meet on the road in those days. You wanted to make sure that a stranger passed on the right so you could go for your sword in case he proved unfriendly.
This custom was given official sanction in 1300 AD, when Pope Boniface VIII invented the modern science of traffic control by declaring that pilgrims headed to Rome should keep left.
The papal system prevailed until the late 1700s, when teamsters in the United States and France began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat. Instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since you were sitting on the left, naturally you wanted everybody to pass on the left so you could look down and make sure you kept clear of the other guy's wheels. Ergo, you kept to the right side of the road. The first known keep-right law in the U.S. was enacted in Pennsylvania in 1792, and in the ensuing years many states and Canadian provinces followed suit.
In France the keep-right custom was established in much the same way. An added impetus was that, this being the era of the French Revolution and all, people figured, hey, no pope gonna tell ME what to do. (See above.) Later Napoleon enforced the keep-right rule in all countries occupied by his armies. The custom endured even after the empire was destroyed.
In small-is-beautiful England, though, they didn't use monster wagons that required the driver to ride a horse. Instead the guy sat on a seat mounted on the wagon. What's more, he usually sat on the right side of the seat so the whip wouldn't hang up on the load behind him when he flogged the horses. (Then as now, most people did their flogging right-handed.) So the English continued to drive on the left, not realizing that the tide of history was running against them and they would wind up being ridiculed by folks like you with no appreciation of life's little ironies. Keeping left first entered English law in 1756, with the enactment of an ordinance governing traffic on the London Bridge, and ultimately became the rule throughout the British Empire.
The trend among nations over the years has been toward driving on the right, but Britain has done its best to stave off global homogenization. Its former colony India remains a hotbed of leftist sentiment, as does Indonesia, which was occupied by the British in the early 19th century. The English minister to Japan achieved the coup of his career in 1859 when he persuaded his hosts to make keep-left the law in the future home of Toyota and Mitsubishi.
Nonetheless, the power of the right has been growing steadily. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, it brutally suppressed the latter's keep-left rights, and much the same happened in Czechoslovakia in 1939. The last holdouts in mainland Europe, the Swedes, finally switched to the right in 1967 because most of the countries they sold Saabs and Volvos to were righties and they got tired of having to make different versions for domestic use and export.
The current battleground is the island of Timor. The Indonesians, who own west Timor, have been whiling away the hours exterminating the native culture of the east Timorese. The issue? Some say it's religion, some say it's language, but I know the truth: in east Timor they drive on the right, in west Timor they drive on the left.
— Cecil Adams |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 157
Location: Clarinda, IA | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
It goes back a lot further than that. As always most people are right handed and so people with swords and other arms, wanted to be able to protect themselves in the most efficient manner, which meant staying to the left of anyone they came up to. Our wavying our right hand in welcome comes from the same era when you showed someone your empty hand to show you were not threatening them. This was and is universal around the world with many tribes and peoples. viejo
Edited by viejo 2009-09-06 4:26 PM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Doesn't it also have something to do with which hand you wiped your butt with, at least in the middle east? |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 157
Location: Clarinda, IA | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
That has to do with communal cooking pots where you only used your right hand as toilet paper hadn't been inented yet and your left hand was used to wipe with. So it was a very serious punishment to cut your right hand off for thieving as you then couldn't eat out of the pot. Us poor left handers have always been put down. Even the left eye is called sinister, having to do with evil. Course there also was a Jewish King who was left handed and was able to liberate the Israelites from a King Eglon of Moab by concealing a knife on the side of his clothing none would suspect and then using his left hand to kill the king (See Judges, the third chapter). I also used to make out rather well when playing Snooker because of being left handed and people would leave shots that didn't look good to them. LOL Viejo
Edited by viejo 2009-09-06 4:16 PM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Snooker....now that is a game....Even in Houston, it is hard to find a place with a snooker table. In the boarding school I went to, the juniors had one in their rec room...........The common rec area in the upper floor had a bunch of regular pool tables, but snooker was my favorite....once I started shooting pool, I wasn't worth a crap on a snooker table....and the scoring is sadistic!!!!!!!!!!
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Senior Crew
Posts: 157
Location: Clarinda, IA | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
It's all position and the fact you loose points for doing things wrong. I have won games by being less in the hole than the others. I like it because you can't just blast. A good snooker player can beat most bar pool players because of being able to make long runs and knowing how to play position. But as you said, not very many tables left. I did take a pool table I had once and put snooker sides and pockets on it. Viejo |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
My wife has been wanting me to get a pool table, but now I am thinking, maybe I should get a snooker table!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, Bill! I'll start looking for one!........Good thing we can use the dry erase marker boards instead of the messy chalk boards to keep score!
Pool tables don't really have any official size....does snooker?
Damn you! Now I got to get to work and do some research................................ |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 157
Location: Clarinda, IA | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Dave, the proportions are usually a little different and 9 by 5 is more normal for snooker than eight, but what I used to play on in Tucson a lot was a 12 x 6 foot table. That's where I learned how to really use a crutch. If you are thinking about a new one, most big cities have a company that makes tables and or if you were to get an old one as I did, you can put snooker side cusions on any table and then of course the pockets are smaller, but come with the cusions or rails. I put new green felt on and new sides and it wasn't hard to do at all. Couple of things to keep in mind is that the heavier the cloth the longer it will last and hold up for things like masse shots, but also the slower it will be so may not respond to english as much on a slow shot. Also noticed in an article that snooker tables have the nap running from the end you break from (the Baulk) to the other end which is called the top. You also have some spots marked for the extra numbered balls you place, but not totally necessary. Here's a good article on this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_table#Dimensions_3 But it works fine to take the normal 4 x 8 table and just use the different cusions and pockets to make a snooker table and probably a lot cheaper. You can also get pretty cheap, one of those string racks to hang on the wall to keep score. Then you can start sinking money in good cues. I used a 12 0z a lot for snooker vs a 15 oz for pool shooting. Viejo
Edited by viejo 2009-09-06 6:21 PM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Well, I figured the upstairs rec room would be just perfect for a 4x8 pool table....got at least 6' on all sides...If I went with a 9', I might have to reconsider......I don;t have a room downstairs I could use.....damn! Well, back to the drawing board....thanks for the benefit of your experience!
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 566
Location: Inyokern, Ca. | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Might as well get a snooker table Stoops. I was going to say you'd run into a problem because so few people know how to play it but I think it's a moot point. I have such a hard time trying to convince people who play just plain 8 or 9 ball what the real rules are vs. what they play in the bars, you'll be better off just teaching them snooker from scratch.
They don't believe me when I explain ball-in-hand, or the actual rules regarding a scratch on the 8. And heaven forbid you try and explain why their break was illegal. I usually just let them play by bar rules. But my Step and Grandson... They are learning and have to play by the real rules. My table 
BB |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 157
Location: Clarinda, IA | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
If you got one from one of the companies making them, you could make it into the size you needed. Rule of thumb is enough to run your cue around the outside of the table. One of the houses I had in Tucson, had to take 14 feet out between living room and rec room, but had a sledge hammer, so didn't take too long. Also if you find a nice slate pool table used, you can get the parts to make it a snooker table pretty cheap. Those sizes 9 x 5 are just for regulation play so doesn't really matter. And BB is right, no one knows or cares about the right rules. Try and teach someone how to play 50 point call shot. That is funny also. Viejo |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1247
Location: Rockingham Western Australia | Subject: RE: Hey way kewl!!
How driving on the left turned into pool/snooker tables.
Whats the convention in the US do ya have to play from the left or right side of tthe table at the break? |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: Hey way kewl!!
Blue said you couldn't play cause you got no balls, iPOD!
Edited by Stoops 2009-09-06 10:27 PM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1247
Location: Rockingham Western Australia | Subject: RE: Hey way kewl!!
Stoops - 2009-09-07 12:27 PM
Blue said you couldn't play cause you got no balls, iPOD!
Hey I got feelings ya know, just cos I got the snip is no reason to get nasty!!!! |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 6180
Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Y'all have it all wrong. My son when he was 10 years old figured it out for himself. I'm sure you noticed, as he did, that those big June bugs always kill themselves on the left windshield, the windshield wiper that always fails is the one on the left side. Snow and ice always clogs up with that crap way before the one on the right. Really very simple when you get down to it. 
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Old Salt
Posts: 402
| Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
If you want a challange play 14-1 continuous. This used to be the game of choice for the professional players. You start by racking all 15 balls. You have to call all shots so if a ball is pocketed on the break and you didn't call it it doesn't count. You shoot the balls untill only 1 is left. The 14 balls pocketed are re-racked on the spot with the head position vacant. You then pocket the last ball and break the new rack of 14 balls and continue playing. This is the game Willie Musconni played when he set a record for most balls pocketed without missing a shot. He said in an interview the trick was to look at the lay of the balls and deturmine which would be the last ball and were it should be then pocket all the other balls so you end up in the position on that last ball. So you only have to plan ahead 15 shots! Most 9 ball players today plan 3 to 4 balls ahead.
When I've played this game, I've found it's best to have rubber padding on the walls and all sharp objects removed from the room. LOL.
Steve
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2561
Location: Rapid City, SD | Subject: RE: Hey way kewl!!
Did they 'snip' too much, Peter?
Did I need that last comma?
Time to go to bed; getting silly.
Cora |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 157
Location: Clarinda, IA | Subject: RE: A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
Well, I put this below the wrong post, but was referring to the 14-1 post.That is what we called 50 point call shot as you played as described, but the first person to reach 50 points won the game. I believe in the tournaments, they might have used games in a set as tennis does, but been too long to remember. You could shoot multiple balls with one shot and also could play banks, but had to call them first. I am sure the rules varied, but still have a set of rules for that game. Viejo
Edited by viejo 2009-09-14 8:16 PM
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A Sunday morning bit of useless trivia (don't read it if you want only sub related stuff)
