Friday, December 7, 2007

Things I just never quite got down in my youth

Left vs. right
Cardinal directions
Telling time on a clock with hands
Alfredo vs. Marinara sauce
Writing with down- and not up-strokes
Multiplying by 7

7 comments:

mlh said...

For me, it's the 8s....those crazy eights. All I remember from my 3rd grade is 7*8=56...5678. I'm pretty sure that cost me at least 20 points on the gre.

Crolace said...

Amazing! I can't tell left from right at all. In my profession, that's an incredibly serious handicap. The other day, I was talking to a friend about it and he said, "I wonder if that's hereditary." "No," I replied sadly, "The rest of my family can tell left from right with no problem. I'm just a dough-head." Little did I know.

Suddenly, I feel an even stronger sense of kinship with you. It reminds me of that line from "Shadowlands" - "We read [blogs] to know we are not alone."

As for the rest of the list:

With cardinal directions, did you mean on a map or in the world? On a map, I can't tell east from west. I think it goes back to the same left vs. right dilemma.

I can't tell time either.

Alfredo sauce is white and Marinara sauce is red. You can remember which is which because Alfred (Batman's butler) has white hair.

I never even heard that you're supposed to write with down- and not up-strokes. I use up-strokes as well. I use them both. It's more efficient.

Yeah, times tables are hard.

xister said...

Cardinal directions on a map are actually easier for me that right and left because I remember that California is on the west coast and New York is on East. If you were to ask me if east was to the right or left on a map, I would struggle.

I was mostly referring to once I'm outside. (It's even worse if I'm inside. I get so disoriented.)

Mom used to always tell me I wrote wrong and actually, lots of people have recently. I guess most people try to start from the top of their letters.

Ms. T said...

Maybe it is hereditary!

Left vs. Right-I started violin at an early age. I have to pretend I'm playing to figure out which is which. That doesn't help much when you're giving directions in a car.

Cardinal directions-Never Eat Soggy Waffles. The only problem with that is, which way does the circle go? Once I wanted to sing a life guard "Happy Birthday." The other life guard told me she was on the East side of the pool. You know the rest.

Telling time on a clock with hands-I only struggle if it's roman numerals. The hand closest to the numbers is the minute hand. I just round to the closest 5 minutes.

Alfredo vs. Marinara sauce-I don't put anything like that on my food anyway, so why is it important?

Writing with down-and not up-strokes- I write like that. As long as it's legible, you're OK.

Multiplying by 7- That's the trickiest one because it doesn't have a trick! I have to sing the seven song or remember that 7*7 is 49. Then you just have to have the other multiplication tables down pretty good.

Man o Steel said...

Dude, I'm amazing at 7s. That was one that I was awesome at. 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84. 8's I could do but it took forever cause my only trick was multiplying by 2 three times. I'd usually lose count, and multiplying like 4 with 8 was always a disaster.

Portia said...

Guys. I can totally do all of those things. Doy. Maybe it's hereditary to never pay attention in second grade or something. Or maybe you all had the same dough head teacher in second grade and I had an awesome teacher.

Maddy said...

With directions i get mixed up with latitude and logitude.