Monday, February 27, 2006

The Shape of Things to Come

I read a report in a newspaper the other day that a school has removed all the small plastic pencil sharpeners from classrooms because the kids were breaking them open to get at the blades. The school was for under-tens.

That should concern us on so many levels.


Mechanical signal arms on railways come in two basic varieties - upper quadrant that lift up in a snooty fashion to let the train pass and lower quadrant that drop as if on one knee. The latter gesture always seems much friendlier somehow. Now they both are becoming rare having been replaced by the baleful and uncompromising glare of the colour light signal.

3 comments:

Peter Bryenton said...

The big hand is pointing to . . . *CRASH*

shara said...

I remember hand-written letters, which has nothing to do with traffic signals at all, but I miss them all the same. The computer is wonderful for editing and it does help to clarify my thoughts sometimes, but I still love my notebooks and my pens and pencils. Nothing beats a good pen.

Canbush said...

Lee - I wonder if that was invented by a committee?

Bluesmama, of course you're right and as I'm a committed doodler, a pen is essential - either a fountain pen or a roller ball - can't get on with biros.

Dave - how long have you been waiting to get that joke in?