h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I always find that those 'automatic' sliding doors are just a bit too slow to react. Okay, I know I walk faster than average, but I can nearly walk right into thar d@rn things before they start to open!

Yep I had that. At college we had a double set like an airlock which must have been on a timer rather than having individual sensors because no matter which way you were going the 2nd set was always really slow , with the result that when you stomped into college soaked with rain and fuming about the inability of bus companies to run to time table and therefore late for a lesson Again, injury was often added to insult.

There's a great bit about broken automatic doors in The Salmon Of Doubt. People stand in front of them getting panicky and existentially worried as the door fails to open.

Am I the only one who waves his arms about in order to set off the presumably poorly angled but actually non functioning trigger?

Somedays, I wish I had a wand in my pocket, so I could explain to the curious that I was just cursing the place for being closed.