Stupid TV ads

[pat]

"What if you took a trip, and only took left turns? Who would you meet? Where would you end up?"

My neighbors, and right in my own driveway, given that I would have only have driven around the freakin' block.

Idiots.

[edit: okay, so maybe it's not stupid. Or maybe I'm just more literal minded than you guys are : ) ]

Comments

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Yes.

As it happens, while if I only take left turns I go around a rather short block, if the people across the street do, they get quite a nice 1.5k or so walk before coming home again. This was one of the first things I did when I moved in here, because the streets confused me and I thought it was best to start with some walks I knew I wouldn't get lost on.

On the other hand, if you follow an alternating left-right rule you can get some quite interesting longer walks, although in other places you get boring short trips that take you home again quickly. It seems to depend on how many dead end streets you have. If I remember, most US cities have far fewer, so maybe those routes wouldn't be guaranteed to turn around in a reasonable amount of time.

[godmoma.livejournal.com]

ah, but that's only if you take the *first* of every left turn, m'dear... you can always go loooong stretches between left turns and end up quite far away.

And then, of course, there's Albuquerque ;)

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

you can always go loooong stretches between left turns
Not in some neighborhoods you can't.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Hmm. So do we need to take the first left we come to, or go as far as we can go and then take a left?

If the former, I end up more or less in my back yard, on the next street up the hill.

If the latter, I end up either way the heck up the hill in back of the Arboretum, or, um... wow. Somewhere in Milpitas, apparently. (There's an ambiguity in one place as to whether one should go left or straight, as the prior street ends at a fork in the middle of those two options).

[sisterfish125.livejournal.com]

*hee*
I'd end up in the lake...provided I back straight out of my driveway and then turn left to head up the hill...If I'm at the house facing the street and turn to that left, I'm at the end of the cul-de-sac, which I guess would still send me to the lake.

[runeshower.livejournal.com]

I've seen that commercial. "Only took left turns" doesn't mean "turn left at every opportunity". I think they meant turn left whenever you see something interesting in that direction. You might end up doing an ever-widening sharp-cornered spiral. Or cut across your own path now and then as you head back in a direction you previously went, but left-turning at a new point. Or retrace certain sections. There are infinite possibilities.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

If I don't have to turn at every intersection, I get to go anywhere I want. It may take longer, but three lefts = a right.

TK

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true ... I think I was just in a cranky and literal frame of mind last night, and the particular announcer for this commercial sets my teeth on edge.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Three lefts = San Francisco right.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

That's where I learned that particualar trick.

TK

[(Anonymous)]

So the correct answer is, you would end up wasting precious gas and looking like a complete idiot, or you would go around in a circle. It's still stupid.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Depends -- in San Francisco, most of the major streets in downtown have "no left turn" signs on them, even if they are two-way. Therefore, the only way to turn left is to go three quarters of the way around the block. That's why it's called a "San Francisco left."

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I answered your comment, walked away, and was five blocks away fgrom my house when I remembered I was answering a comment in my own journal and therefore the restraint I show when answering elsewhere was not merited.

Anonymous, at first I was prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that the "you" in your comment was generic. Rereading it however, I find it to be quite rude. I do not allow incivility towards my friends here -- especially from someone who doesn't even have the guts to sign their name.