Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[mmswm]

The second hand of a clock is the minutes hand (the long one). 

To tell time on a clock one only needs one hand, the hour hand.  At one o'clock it will be on the one.  As the hour progresses it nudges along towards the two.  You can roughly figure out how much after one it is simply by where the hour hand falls between the one and the two (only 1/4 of the way to two?  Its 1:15ish.  Just over halfway to two?  Its 1:38ish.  etc).  To be more precise in what time it is, many clocks/watches will add a second (as in not the first, but another, second one) hand.  This hand will tell you the actual minutes after the hour the first hand is.

The third hand is the one that shows the actual seconds-as-in-unit-of-time, and is often not included.

You can google image "single hand watch" for examples of what an 'hours only' handed clock/watch look like. Sun dials are also single 'hand' clocks.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought about two different meanings for the "second hand"! Maybe sunnygirl is right and it's some kind of geographic distinction, but here in the Midwest we are at the intersection of two different preferences. Kind of like how we say both "soda" and "pop." Usually I encounter this confusion when someone says, urgently, "What does the second hand read?!"  A little more pressure than requesting a carbonated beverage...

I'm from the Midwest and have never encountered first-second-third hands, only hour-minute-second. But soda/pop was a source of endless debate at my college, with a sizable minority coming in from the South and arguing that they're all Coke.

No, no, no.  They're all coke.  With a lower-case c.  Coke with an upper case C is Coca-Cola.  There's an important distinction here. 

[TylerBelle]

I have box turtles as pets. Over the years I've had many questions about them that has caused some brain twitches.


At the end of a turtle's head, such as with my Horsepill here, there are two side by side holes. I have actually been asked what are those for.

[ladyknight1]

Respiration? 

[Piratelvr1121]

I may be rare in this but I'm an east coaster who was born and raised in the midatlantic region that thinks "Pop" sounds better than "Soda."

And yeah, count me as one who would assume those holes are his nostrils? What else would they be?

[ladyknight1]

My story is of young J. J graduated high school early (he is 17), and started at the university in January. J seems like a nice kid, but has very little apt for interacting with others.

J sits next to me in biology class. J raises his hand at least 5 times every 50 minute class period. J likes to demonstrate how he knows so much more than the professor. He most often asks questions that are outside the very general review of biology in this class. He also calls the professor by her first name, even after being advised on that. 

[VorFemme]

I may be rare in this but I'm an east coaster who was born and raised in the midatlantic region that thinks "Pop" sounds better than "Soda."

And yeah, count me as one who would assume those holes are his nostrils? What else would they be?

I saw something about a particular species of turtle that eliminates liquid waste through a similar orifice.  I saw this article this morning on my home page - so either MSN, Yahoo!, or Comcast.net.

I am so glad that I don't play with turtles...the very idea of THAT coming out of something's nose really is gross.  Even if DD and DS did the same thing as infants....at least the liquid waste wasn't coming out of their nose.

Of course, sick small children seem to secrete green and yellow slime out of their noses...which might be even worse in some ways, on the gross scale.  But...erk...what a thing to have to rank on a scale of "which is worse?" - talk about six of one and half a dozen of the other...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doIFt4h9DeE - gross warning - turtle

[Shoo]

I have box turtles as pets. Over the years I've had many questions about them that has caused some brain twitches.


At the end of a turtle's head, such as with my Horsepill here, there are two side by side holes. I have actually been asked what are those for.

What ARE they for?  Breathing?  Hearing?  How is a non-turtle person to know?

[MariaE]

Here is something that makes my brain hurt, though it's probably my own fault: when people reference the "second hand" of a clock. Do they mean:

1) The hand that counts off 60 seconds in a minute, which is usually the thinnest hand and often red?
2) The hand that counts off 60 minutes in an hour, because it's the #2 hand, the hour hand being #1 and the red hand being #3? (According to the order in which you would give the time--hours, minutes, seconds--and also a sort of importance measure.)

With all of my qualifiers on #2, I'm guessing people are usually referring to #1. But apparently at some point in time I was taught with, "What number does the first hand say? What number does the second hand say?" and now I'm screwed up for life. Thank goodness for digital. 

This made my head hurt because my brain tends to mess with me when it comes to language.

In Danish the words for 2nd and for 1/60 minute are completely different - as in, have no similarity whatsoever.

So I read Lynn's post (and many of the subsequent posts as well...) as talking about the 2nd hand, and couldn't for the life of me understand why that would be the hand counting off the 1/60ths of a minute.

It wasn't until around Bexx' post that I caught on to it....

[TylerBelle]

I have box turtles as pets. Over the years I've had many questions about them that has caused some brain twitches.


At the end of a turtle's head, such as with my Horsepill here, there are two side by side holes. I have actually been asked what are those for.

What ARE they for?  Breathing?  Hearing?  How is a non-turtle person to know?

With a lot of animals (and people, too ) having two side by side holes in the middle of their faces, I imagined most would know those are the turtle's nostrils. I guess I wasn't as correct as I thought.

All in all, I thought it was kinda funny to be asked about it.

ETA:
If you're curious, turtles do have ears. One on each side of the head, just beyond the corner of their mouth, there's a small, circular indentation and I've been told those are the ears. It's like that way for boxes, I'm not very familiar with other species.

[jpcher]

RE -- Pop vs. Soda debate:

I grew up in the midwest. Carbonated drinks were always called Soda Pop . Not sure what this does to the debate, though.


RE -- Clock hands:

I also learned big hand, little hand and second hand.

I remember when I was first learning to tell time, my mother would sometimes get second hand clothes for us kids. That kinda made my little brain hurt "What? really fast clothes?"

[sunnygirl]

The second hand of a clock is the minutes hand (the long one). 

To tell time on a clock one only needs one hand, the hour hand.  At one o'clock it will be on the one.  As the hour progresses it nudges along towards the two.  You can roughly figure out how much after one it is simply by where the hour hand falls between the one and the two (only 1/4 of the way to two?  Its 1:15ish.  Just over halfway to two?  Its 1:38ish.  etc).  To be more precise in what time it is, many clocks/watches will add a second (as in not the first, but another, second one) hand.  This hand will tell you the actual minutes after the hour the first hand is.

The third hand is the one that shows the actual seconds-as-in-unit-of-time, and is often not included.

You can google image "single hand watch" for examples of what an 'hours only' handed clock/watch look like. Sun dials are also single 'hand' clocks.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought about two different meanings for the "second hand"! Maybe sunnygirl is right and it's some kind of geographic distinction, but here in the Midwest we are at the intersection of two different preferences. Kind of like how we say both "soda" and "pop." Usually I encounter this confusion when someone says, urgently, "What does the second hand read?!"  A little more pressure than requesting a carbonated beverage...

I'm from the Midwest and have never encountered first-second-third hands, only hour-minute-second. But soda/pop was a source of endless debate at my college, with a sizable minority coming in from the South and arguing that they're all Coke.

This might make some people's brains hurt - in the UK, we have no comparable word for soda/pop/coke etc. Maybe 'fizzy drinks' or 'soft drinks' though the latter also covers stuff like juice, tea, etc. Soda means soda water, pop means a genre of music, and coke means coca cola exclusively. I do wonder why we don't have a word for that, actually.

[emwithme]

The second hand of a clock is the minutes hand (the long one). 

To tell time on a clock one only needs one hand, the hour hand.  At one o'clock it will be on the one.  As the hour progresses it nudges along towards the two.  You can roughly figure out how much after one it is simply by where the hour hand falls between the one and the two (only 1/4 of the way to two?  Its 1:15ish.  Just over halfway to two?  Its 1:38ish.  etc).  To be more precise in what time it is, many clocks/watches will add a second (as in not the first, but another, second one) hand.  This hand will tell you the actual minutes after the hour the first hand is.

The third hand is the one that shows the actual seconds-as-in-unit-of-time, and is often not included.

You can google image "single hand watch" for examples of what an 'hours only' handed clock/watch look like. Sun dials are also single 'hand' clocks.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought about two different meanings for the "second hand"! Maybe sunnygirl is right and it's some kind of geographic distinction, but here in the Midwest we are at the intersection of two different preferences. Kind of like how we say both "soda" and "pop." Usually I encounter this confusion when someone says, urgently, "What does the second hand read?!"  A little more pressure than requesting a carbonated beverage...

I'm from the Midwest and have never encountered first-second-third hands, only hour-minute-second. But soda/pop was a source of endless debate at my college, with a sizable minority coming in from the South and arguing that they're all Coke.

This might make some people's brains hurt - in the UK, we have no comparable word for soda/pop/coke etc. Maybe 'fizzy drinks' or 'soft drinks' though the latter also covers stuff like juice, tea, etc. Soda means soda water, pop means a genre of music, and coke means coca cola exclusively. I do wonder why we don't have a word for that, actually.

But if I was offering to get drinks for guests, and someone asked what "pop" I had, I wouldn't turn to my CD collection, I'd say I had "Coke, diet Coke, lemonade, juice and squash (or whatever)". 

[SheltieMom]

If it's not Diet Dr. Pepper, it doesn't matter anyway! 

[MommyPenguin]

My daughters are 4 and 6, so we've been working on learning time and referring to the hands a lot.  So today when I was working with my kids, I paid attention to the words I use.    When I am trying to describe a hand and explain whether it is an hour or minute hand, I use "short" or "long."  So I'll say, "remember, this short hand is the hour hand."  I think saying "large" or "small" is confusing to little kids in this circumstance, because their language skills aren't quite up to the level of making the distinction between "large" meaning width versus height.  The length tends to be more obvious.  Also, the book we're using doesn't really draw the hour hand much fatter than the minute hand.    But, anyway, when I'm talking about a hand and I'm not trying to describe it by size in order to establish which hand it is, I just say "hour" or "minute" hand.  I'd also say "second" hand for the one that counts the seconds, except that that one isn't covered in this book or at this level, generally.

[kherbert05]

The second hand of a clock is the minutes hand (the long one). 

To tell time on a clock one only needs one hand, the hour hand.  At one o'clock it will be on the one.  As the hour progresses it nudges along towards the two.  You can roughly figure out how much after one it is simply by where the hour hand falls between the one and the two (only 1/4 of the way to two?  Its 1:15ish.  Just over halfway to two?  Its 1:38ish.  etc).  To be more precise in what time it is, many clocks/watches will add a second (as in not the first, but another, second one) hand.  This hand will tell you the actual minutes after the hour the first hand is.

The third hand is the one that shows the actual seconds-as-in-unit-of-time, and is often not included.

You can google image "single hand watch" for examples of what an 'hours only' handed clock/watch look like. Sun dials are also single 'hand' clocks.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought about two different meanings for the "second hand"! Maybe sunnygirl is right and it's some kind of geographic distinction, but here in the Midwest we are at the intersection of two different preferences. Kind of like how we say both "soda" and "pop." Usually I encounter this confusion when someone says, urgently, "What does the second hand read?!"  A little more pressure than requesting a carbonated beverage...

I'm from the Midwest and have never encountered first-second-third hands, only hour-minute-second. But soda/pop was a source of endless debate at my college, with a sizable minority coming in from the South and arguing that they're all Coke.

This might make some people's brains hurt - in the UK, we have no comparable word for soda/pop/coke etc. Maybe 'fizzy drinks' or 'soft drinks' though the latter also covers stuff like juice, tea, etc. Soda means soda water, pop means a genre of music, and coke means coca cola exclusively. I do wonder why we don't have a word for that, actually.

I've hurt the brains of cousin both Canadian and English by saying "Do you want a coke?" they say "yes", I say, "What kind" Cue mom explaining that coke means any type of fizzy soft drink in Texas.

She also translated Fixen to - (Texas for getting ready to), shanks mare (PEI for walk) and numerous other expressions. Texas and PEI both have colorful dialects  rich in idioms.

She also had to explain that I wasn't being disrespectfull when I thought that they were saying Fool's Corner, when they were saying Pool's Corner. Fool's Corner makes perfect sense when you watched "Eyes of Texas" every Sunday with your Dad and Grandmother as it often featured places like No Name, Texas along with better known locations like Cut-N-Shoot.