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

People who do crosswords in pencil so they can rub out their mistakes, come on, join me in the fast lane, life is all about risk-taking! Get yourself a Bic and live a little!

I can write fairly faintly with a biro if I'm not sure - a felt tip, now that is difficult to replace!

PH today: the lockers in my gym. Which are pretty much the same as lockers in every gym - higher than they are wide, so everyone has to stand their gym-bag on end to get it in there. Why aren't they wider than they are high?

Well, because the human body's also higher than it is wide, so you can have people standing side by side using lockers. To fit the same amount of lockers in a given space horizontally, they would need to be stacked up, and most people using them would have to crouch at an uncomfortable height somewhere between kneeling and standing, which would be a whole new PH.

Can you still buy Biro's? I'm not being picky here, just wondering, we always referred to any ball point as a biro, same as any vacuum cleaner became a Hoover, but when the disposable ball points came in, they used to be a shilling, Bic were actually the first to make them as far as I know, we weren't allowed to use them at school, you had to use a fountain pen, I could never afford a decent one, just leaky cheap things, and I'm left-handed and used to always be getting in trouble for handing in smudged work. To this day I'm a pen neurotic, if I misplace one of my pens there's no peace in the house till it's found.

I believe that Lazlo Biro (Hungarian, Romanian or something out that way) was the first to produce the ballpoint and that Bic were Johnny-come-latelies in the field.

PP.

The clear Bic writes best of all of them though IMHO.

PP.

the lockers start from the ground up and are in two rows, so the bottom row have to bend down anyway. It's only to chuck a bag in and take it out again, like left luggage at the station.

I agree with Sho. Introduce wider-than-tall lockers in leisure centres.
If you're going swimming and trying to put a family of 4's belongings in a taller-than-wide locker, all the shoes end up pile on top of each other in a heap, but with a wider than tall locker, the shoes would line up neatly. Besides which, if you are trying to get to a locker low down, you can ask one of the kids to put the bags in. They enjoy doing that sort of thing and keeps them out of mischief.

<BB<

Lockers in general. Mine at work is slightly too narrow for my bag to go in easily, so it tends to get caught on the rather wicked edge strip causing frayed edges.

PH People you don't know who start smiling when they're explaining something to you. I'm guessing they've been told it helps to smile to put strangers at their ease, and so they just click it on half way through their spiel, not realising how creepy it makes them look.

Similarly, people who say something, nod, and then look at you and wait for you to nod. Especially when spouting managerial speak. If you want to nod that's fine, I respect your right to nod, but I'm not a nodding dog, I'll nod as and when I choose.

<BB<

Today's PH: using a price comparison website & having to give so much info eg email so will now be plagued with follow up.

It's a question of fitting the lockers into the available space. Yes, some people have to kneel, but if you take the same number of verticle lockers and stack them sideways, you will have people stooping somewhere between a kneel and a stoop, and getting in the way of each other,

Try it with stacking up chips, and see if you'd be happy with a locker at knee-level when there's someone using the locker at ankle level and another person using the ankle at elbow level and another person using the locker at waist-level. I've tried it. It was a good idea but it didn't work. It might work if people were robots, but they do stupid things.

Sho, buy a bike and give up on the gym, you're just getting conned anyway, something like 80 percent of gym subs are wasted so I read, of all the fads of recent years the gym craze is the most depressing, oh apart from the little fish that eat your feet, but that seems to have died the death, oh and sunbeds too. Everyone should aim to build just a bit of exercise into their daily routine, half an hour's vigorous walking a day is great, and a couple of longer hikes or bike rides a week, all better than running on a machine or pulling on a rowing machine with a bunch of sweaty saddo's, awful. My next door neighbour goes to the gym every day, it's about half a mile away through a lovely park and she drives there and pays for parking, mad!

Worrying is a petty hate of the moment.

Hammondorgan - with respect... I've been going to the gym for over 30 years. Thanks for calling me a sweaty saddo though

I leave my house at 6am and get home at 7pm, I fit the gym in after work 2 days a week and on a sunday (and indeed, I do sometimes go on my bike - but parking is free anyway)

It's all very well to say "build exerise" into your life, and indeed for some people that can be getting outside, playing team sports or whatever. But not everyone can. Plus at the gym I can meet people, join a class if I want, use the sauna, use their shower (reducing my water bill) and get advice on exercises (particularly when I had a horrible knee injury) and so on and so on. It's EUR 20 a month well spent.

PH - forgetting that expensive Italian watch isn't waterproof

I was leanest, if not as fit as I might have been, when I walked to and from work. The main reason I did it was to lose weight. There was also the fact that, after a certain time in the evening, buses only ran every 20 minutes. It was quicker to walk home if I missed one. So I agree that getting exercise is easier if you can build it into your daily routine.

My Petty Hate is that exercise advice is always pitched at the able-bodied. I know that they are the majority, but people like me who are less able need advice and exercise routines too. Fortunately there is more information available on the internet these days. Now all I need is the self-motivation and willpower to actually do it.

That's a really good point CD, too much exercise advice is aimed at those who need it less.

Thankfully there is more and more coming through. There's a great range of Couch to 5km stuff out there, and the NHS in particular is trying to sort out exercise for the less able, although they seemed to be aiming it more at the elderly