I have never done that.
It was impressed onme as a kid that spitting in public places (or anywhere else for that matter) is not just rude but unhealthy.
In the UK TB was getting out of hand so they banned public spitting with fines for being caught in the same order as acts of violence against the person. Just as physical violence is likely to cause injury, even death, biological violence is worse. Causing somebody to get ill and die in a prolonged, agonising way is one of the worst crimes against the person.
With Any of the recent ‘flu outbreaks, have caused people to wear masks to help shield themselves. There is no mask against TB and that is on the increase. As a note about cultural habits, I have noticed a great increase in the number of people spitting in public, Football/Soccer players are among the worst offenders!
Apart from the biological health difficulty, a ‘greeny’ is difficult to grip on and cause a rider to lose control. When a tyre rolls over it, it leaves a greasy mark and that effects grip every time it comes down!
In short, a bad habit and this strip has been a bad mark against Yehuda, even if it is just a comic strip and done to highlight the problem..
.
I admit, I do this sometimes when out on the bike in the middle of nowhere. But I think you’re over-reacting – sneezing or coughing without covering your nose and mouth is much more of a risk for droplet-borne infections, and people do that all over the place.
Also I don’t recognise the greasy ‘greeny’ you describe: in cold weather, my nose runs clear and watery. Despite that, it’s not like most bike rides are without plenty of other hazards – a small blob of mud would be more of a problem.
Basically, I don’t see any problem with it, so long as you’re outdoors and nobody is ‘down-wind’ of you. But don’t do it at the velodrome…
Sorry, Tencon, I disagree. While you are correct about the terrors of TB and other communicable illnesses, the advent of modern vaccines (at least in developed nations) has put dread diseases like TB and polio into the same pigeonhole as smallpox or the Black Plague — a horror in its day but more or less eradicated or at least easily preventable now.
I also presume that you are British as evidenced by your mention of the UK ordinance banning public spitting (and the peculiar way you spelled ‘tyre’), and realize that conditions may in fact be different there than they are here in the US. I would also assume that the British national healthcare would provide for the vaccinations mentioned above.
When I first started riding a bike the ability to properly launch a ‘snot rocket’ was considered to be one of the hallmarks of one’s cycling ability, in much the same way one becomes able to shift smoothly and noiselessly; retrieve, drink from, and replace one’s bottle while in motion; or (back in the really old days) flip the pedal and fit one’s foot into the toeclip and strap without looking down.
LOL! Been-there-done-that many times. Farmers-blows are one of the extremely useful (and sometimes even enjoyable) skills that all cyclist should master despite the risk of prolonging a pandemic.
Sorry, Bicycle Bill I dissagree. TB is a complex disease - difficult to treat and is increasingly resistant to antbiotics (even multi-drug regimes). The number of cases is rising steadily, even in the developed countries where it was thought to have been controlled and thus vaccination is reduced. The World Health Organization says it will fail to meet it’s 2006-2014 target of saving 14 million people from dying from TB. Almost ⅓ of the population of the world are potential carriers for the Teberculosis bacillus.
In support of my British compatriot Tencon – Tyre is the original and correct English word for the pneumatic wheel cover (see the official guardian of the English language, http://www.oxfordreference.com) “Tire” is the act of becoming fatigued in both English and American English – oddly enough is also used as the “peculiar” word for Mr. Thomsons invention in the US.
In a light vein re: ‘Farmers-blows’ – at least a farmer is on his own private land when he does that.
In Public places, farmers have been seen to be decent and moral people in the main.
In the UK, By my limited experience.
Animal TB may or may not infect people, but human TB definitely does so! As noted above, it has mutated into a vaccine-resistant form and scientists are tearing their hair out looking for a cure as some of them are infected too. By the people they are trying to cure!
Sorry Bill, you are wrong! TB is on the rise in the UK and getting to be a very real problem.
Far from being eradicated, it is spreading throughout society, yet the authorities fail to remember why spitting in public was banned half a century or so before now.
I spell it “tire.” In England it’s a “tyre.” The language is called English. If one spelling must be called peculiar doesn’t mine seem worthy candidate.
Rick’s last panel eloquently expresses my take on the topic at hand.
That’s the old tale – English and American pronounciation and spelling is a subject where we are 2 peoples are divided by a common tongue! At least we don’t need to go the way of China or India and have an agreed common tongue for communication across the country while having our own private dialects/languages that nobody else understands! Just like in London: street talk became ‘rhyming slang’ to hide the content of the conversation from eavesdroppers…
My wife was always good at languages. At school, she and her friend took French and Latin as well as English. They also went to college to learn other stuff like German etc. So when we were gathered in the usual after-church get-together at somebody’s house (where we met and fell in love) they would chatter away but nobody could follow their conversation as each word of any sentence was a different language! This kept their minds active and alert etc. Her friend ended up as PA to the MD of Jaguar cars, My wife is helping manage the software that the BBC use to field audience feedback and questions. The same company she works for, created the database for the London Congestion Charge. She was only a CSR to begin with but eventually wrote code to help them use computers to register applications for being ‘in the zone’ and getting a better deal than visitors. To begin, they were trying to work each application manually and was failing to get anywhere near completing all of them before ‘go-live’ (when the scheme began) Her software caused such a stir that they took her on as a programmer (doubled her salary and she has never looked back. When we lived in Eire we got access to an early CPM computer and she was frightened by it to begin with. I told her that computer code is just a different language that computers use. She ‘saw the light’ and never looked back.
She still has problems with cases where the customer (the general public) fails to communicate intelligently what is wanted, but her nimble thinking allows her to decipher what is wanted and solve the problems. Her boss thinks of her as the main ‘engine’ of the department. Since she is roughly half of the team these days, that doesn’t say as much as when he first said it and there was about 30 of them I am proud of her needless to say.
Well I don’t get quite as deeply thoughtful about it but yeah, spitting is disgusting and should be done discreetly the same as blowing noses, letting out farts, and all the other little biological things our body thinks should just happen whenever. Our city recently passed an anti-spitting law, so it’s certainly not old fashioned. I get a frisson of stress up my spine when I hear that nasty horking that precludes a flying snot rocket from someone’s fetid maw.
I’m surprised nobody has quoted the ancient limerick:
There was an old man from Darjeeling,
Who boarded a bus bound for Ealing.
A note on the door:
Said ‘Don’t spit on the floor’,
So he stood up and spat on the ceiling.
- or the one I just came across today, which seems appropriate:
Said an angry old man of Amritsar
“Have the goodness to mind where you spit, sir!
That last shot of yours
Has besmirched my plus fours
And my lawyers will issue a writ sir!”
Also on topic (pretty much) I was in Cambridge recently with my wife when a guy lolling in an electric wheelchair came along at high speed, nearly knocking us over. Looking at him as he zoomed away, I asked my better half “Was that Stephen Hawking?” “No,” she replied, “He was just clearing his throat…”
Snot-rockets & farmer’s blow are the reasons I no longer maintain wiskers on my upper lip. Chin-wiskers only-a billy-goat beard-so as o not show up with frozen mucus on my face (again).
I once read a story about a cyclist who was not feeling particularly well, and had been given a hard time by an aggressive driver of a nice Mercedes. The driver rudely pushed up next to his leg at the lights, and the cyclist did a little vomit on the car. Bet that’s the last time that driver gets close to that cyclist.
I’m uncomfortable merely discussing “biological excretions,” let alone performing them in public. Eww! But then, I was raised in a time when even words like “sweat” were discouraged; the preferred term was “perspiration” if one simply couldn’t avoid talking about the subject at all.
I’m afraid I’m going to get piled on for even admitting that I do it, but this winter I finally became proficient at the snot rocket. As a matter of courtesy, I do it when no one else is anywhere near me and I do my best to propel it hard enough to get it to the grass on the side of the MUP or the road, but I’m not always successful. Case in point, yesterday afternoon, when my cheek and my shoulder were the landing zone for the snot rocket due to a good gust of wind. :ugh: As for hygiene, one of the grassy areas along the MUP I ride on for a few miles on my way to work is home to overwintering geese and copious amounts of their, shall we say, deposits. For that matter the National Mall in DC is also a home for overwintering geese, and there are no fewer “deposits” there than by the MUP, and that’s right in the heart of the city. IOW, I’m not too worried about my snot rocket launching an epidemic and wiping out American civilization.
What is the shelf life of bacteria in a Snot Rocket? Actualy I’ve got to admit to blowing a few and feeling like I am improving my own health. Winter is by far the best time for this activity as it appears to decongest me pretty fast. Many Cities in the US have laws against public spitting. I grew up in a time of antibiotics and thought such things were funny. Then I read about he epidemics and the problems public hygene or the lack of it cause.
I do say that there is nothing more exciting then letting one rip to find it hit the motor care traveling too close to me. I don’t drive but I imagine that those who do must enjoy the spectical for near say a second before they puke. I would.
I did this in basic training in the Army … where everyone at one time or another is congested and leaking all kinds of noxious bodily fluids … and one time it landed square on one of my drill sergeant’s glossy, spit-shined combat boots. Up to that point, I had not heard most of the names he called me as I was doing many, many, many push-ups afterward as he cleaned his boot toe on my fatigue uniform. I think it scarred me for the rest of my adult life as even today I have to look around to make sure my “danger area” is clear before I let one rip.
I must say though, that even though sending a snot rocket onto the side of a car that buzzed me sounds attractive, I’d be concerned about someone sending a bullet my way — some folks would consider that the worst kind of insult, even worse than cussing them out, or talkin ’bout their mama.
Is it just me or has the strip gone all gnomic since going behind the paywall?
The longer story arcs, the intrigues, the sub-plots, all seem to have disappeared. It’s increasingly a strip of single moments, unconnected except through the presence of the characters we al ready know.
My wife has a much better memory than me and she says that the strip hasn’t changed much. The stuff you are missing were played out over a 4-year period and Rick hasn’t had the time to develop that stuff yet.
Be patient, I am sure that Rick has plans to create new threads when the right ground work has been laid.
Personally, a little snot on the street in the car lane is far less polluting that what the average car will drop over a trip. There aint no hanky big enough for me on a cold day. If jettisoned into traffic the cars process it pretty quickly like everything else.
Harder to do effectively with a ‘stache. But if at first you don’t succeed…
I have never done that.
It was impressed onme as a kid that spitting in public places (or anywhere else for that matter) is not just rude but unhealthy.
In the UK TB was getting out of hand so they banned public spitting with fines for being caught in the same order as acts of violence against the person. Just as physical violence is likely to cause injury, even death, biological violence is worse. Causing somebody to get ill and die in a prolonged, agonising way is one of the worst crimes against the person.
With Any of the recent ‘flu outbreaks, have caused people to wear masks to help shield themselves. There is no mask against TB and that is on the increase. As a note about cultural habits, I have noticed a great increase in the number of people spitting in public, Football/Soccer players are among the worst offenders!
Apart from the biological health difficulty, a ‘greeny’ is difficult to grip on and cause a rider to lose control. When a tyre rolls over it, it leaves a greasy mark and that effects grip every time it comes down!
In short, a bad habit and this strip has been a bad mark against Yehuda, even if it is just a comic strip and done to highlight the problem..
.
I admit, I do this sometimes when out on the bike in the middle of nowhere. But I think you’re over-reacting – sneezing or coughing without covering your nose and mouth is much more of a risk for droplet-borne infections, and people do that all over the place.
Also I don’t recognise the greasy ‘greeny’ you describe: in cold weather, my nose runs clear and watery. Despite that, it’s not like most bike rides are without plenty of other hazards – a small blob of mud would be more of a problem.
Basically, I don’t see any problem with it, so long as you’re outdoors and nobody is ‘down-wind’ of you. But don’t do it at the velodrome…
Sorry, Tencon, I disagree. While you are correct about the terrors of TB and other communicable illnesses, the advent of modern vaccines (at least in developed nations) has put dread diseases like TB and polio into the same pigeonhole as smallpox or the Black Plague — a horror in its day but more or less eradicated or at least easily preventable now.
I also presume that you are British as evidenced by your mention of the UK ordinance banning public spitting (and the peculiar way you spelled ‘tyre’), and realize that conditions may in fact be different there than they are here in the US. I would also assume that the British national healthcare would provide for the vaccinations mentioned above.
When I first started riding a bike the ability to properly launch a ‘snot rocket’ was considered to be one of the hallmarks of one’s cycling ability, in much the same way one becomes able to shift smoothly and noiselessly; retrieve, drink from, and replace one’s bottle while in motion; or (back in the really old days) flip the pedal and fit one’s foot into the toeclip and strap without looking down.
LOL! Been-there-done-that many times. Farmers-blows are one of the extremely useful (and sometimes even enjoyable) skills that all cyclist should master despite the risk of prolonging a pandemic.
Sorry, Bicycle Bill I dissagree. TB is a complex disease - difficult to treat and is increasingly resistant to antbiotics (even multi-drug regimes). The number of cases is rising steadily, even in the developed countries where it was thought to have been controlled and thus vaccination is reduced. The World Health Organization says it will fail to meet it’s 2006-2014 target of saving 14 million people from dying from TB. Almost ⅓ of the population of the world are potential carriers for the Teberculosis bacillus.
In support of my British compatriot Tencon – Tyre is the original and correct English word for the pneumatic wheel cover (see the official guardian of the English language, http://www.oxfordreference.com) “Tire” is the act of becoming fatigued in both English and American English – oddly enough is also used as the “peculiar” word for Mr. Thomsons invention in the US.
In a light vein re: ‘Farmers-blows’ – at least a farmer is on his own private land when he does that.
In Public places, farmers have been seen to be decent and moral people in the main.
In the UK, By my limited experience.
Animal TB may or may not infect people, but human TB definitely does so! As noted above, it has mutated into a vaccine-resistant form and scientists are tearing their hair out looking for a cure as some of them are infected too. By the people they are trying to cure!
Sorry Bill, you are wrong! TB is on the rise in the UK and getting to be a very real problem.
Far from being eradicated, it is spreading throughout society, yet the authorities fail to remember why spitting in public was banned half a century or so before now.
I just looked it up. The ban after WWII was dropped in 1990. Just about that time the practise was allowed, TB cases increased. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/10/enfield-council-fine-spitting-public
We don’t have a vaccine against TB and it has become very antibiotic resistant.
I spell it “tire.” In England it’s a “tyre.” The language is called English. If one spelling must be called peculiar doesn’t mine seem worthy candidate.
Rick’s last panel eloquently expresses my take on the topic at hand.
That’s the old tale – English and American pronounciation and spelling is a subject where we are 2 peoples are divided by a common tongue! At least we don’t need to go the way of China or India and have an agreed common tongue for communication across the country while having our own private dialects/languages that nobody else understands! Just like in London: street talk became ‘rhyming slang’ to hide the content of the conversation from eavesdroppers…
and she has never looked back. When we lived in Eire we got access to an early CPM computer and she was frightened by it to begin with. I told her that computer code is just a different language that computers use. She ‘saw the light’ and never looked back.
I am proud of her needless to say.
My wife was always good at languages. At school, she and her friend took French and Latin as well as English. They also went to college to learn other stuff like German etc. So when we were gathered in the usual after-church get-together at somebody’s house (where we met and fell in love) they would chatter away but nobody could follow their conversation as each word of any sentence was a different language! This kept their minds active and alert etc. Her friend ended up as PA to the MD of Jaguar cars, My wife is helping manage the software that the BBC use to field audience feedback and questions. The same company she works for, created the database for the London Congestion Charge. She was only a CSR to begin with but eventually wrote code to help them use computers to register applications for being ‘in the zone’ and getting a better deal than visitors. To begin, they were trying to work each application manually and was failing to get anywhere near completing all of them before ‘go-live’ (when the scheme began) Her software caused such a stir that they took her on as a programmer (doubled her salary
She still has problems with cases where the customer (the general public) fails to communicate intelligently what is wanted, but her nimble thinking allows her to decipher what is wanted and solve the problems. Her boss thinks of her as the main ‘engine’ of the department. Since she is roughly half of the team these days, that doesn’t say as much as when he first said it and there was about 30 of them
It is Pronunciation, not Pronounciation in BOTH “languages”
… plus point for Yehuda: he doesn’t actually soil the streets, as he deposits the snot on his shoulder…
Otherwise, I never really liked this technique myself. I stick to using a handkerchief.
Weather report - yesterday, I shared a picture of “messengers of spring”. During the night, a complete turn in weather came and now it is snowing. .)
TB or not TB, what is congestion??? Of cough of cough… but not for a lung lung time!!!!
Well I don’t get quite as deeply thoughtful about it but yeah, spitting is disgusting and should be done discreetly the same as blowing noses, letting out farts, and all the other little biological things our body thinks should just happen whenever. Our city recently passed an anti-spitting law, so it’s certainly not old fashioned. I get a frisson of stress up my spine when I hear that nasty horking that precludes a flying snot rocket from someone’s fetid maw.
I’m surprised nobody has quoted the ancient limerick:
There was an old man from Darjeeling,
Who boarded a bus bound for Ealing.
A note on the door:
Said ‘Don’t spit on the floor’,
So he stood up and spat on the ceiling.
- or the one I just came across today, which seems appropriate:
Said an angry old man of Amritsar
“Have the goodness to mind where you spit, sir!
That last shot of yours
Has besmirched my plus fours
And my lawyers will issue a writ sir!”
Also on topic (pretty much) I was in Cambridge recently with my wife when a guy lolling in an electric wheelchair came along at high speed, nearly knocking us over. Looking at him as he zoomed away, I asked my better half “Was that Stephen Hawking?” “No,” she replied, “He was just clearing his throat…”
Snot-rockets & farmer’s blow are the reasons I no longer maintain wiskers on my upper lip. Chin-wiskers only-a billy-goat beard-so as o not show up with frozen mucus on my face (again).
I have a simpler answer, use a handkerchief!
Use a handkerchief and keep your snot in your pocket? No, thanks.
I once read a story about a cyclist who was not feeling particularly well, and had been given a hard time by an aggressive driver of a nice Mercedes. The driver rudely pushed up next to his leg at the lights, and the cyclist did a little vomit on the car. Bet that’s the last time that driver gets close to that cyclist.
Oh so familiar
Under 32 degrees, that’d become a snot-cycle… Break it off and give it a heave…. Cake!
I believe the freezing point of snot is somewhat lower, thanks to the composition of the solution. Kinda like salt water.
I’m uncomfortable merely discussing “biological excretions,” let alone performing them in public. Eww! But then, I was raised in a time when even words like “sweat” were discouraged; the preferred term was “perspiration” if one simply couldn’t avoid talking about the subject at all.
I’m afraid I’m going to get piled on for even admitting that I do it, but this winter I finally became proficient at the snot rocket. As a matter of courtesy, I do it when no one else is anywhere near me and I do my best to propel it hard enough to get it to the grass on the side of the MUP or the road, but I’m not always successful. Case in point, yesterday afternoon, when my cheek and my shoulder were the landing zone for the snot rocket due to a good gust of wind. :ugh:
As for hygiene, one of the grassy areas along the MUP I ride on for a few miles on my way to work is home to overwintering geese and copious amounts of their, shall we say, deposits. For that matter the National Mall in DC is also a home for overwintering geese, and there are no fewer “deposits” there than by the MUP, and that’s right in the heart of the city. IOW, I’m not too worried about my snot rocket launching an epidemic and wiping out American civilization.
Animal poo is a source of some human diseases but all human secretions are!
What is the shelf life of bacteria in a Snot Rocket? Actualy I’ve got to admit to blowing a few and feeling like I am improving my own health. Winter is by far the best time for this activity as it appears to decongest me pretty fast. Many Cities in the US have laws against public spitting. I grew up in a time of antibiotics and thought such things were funny. Then I read about he epidemics and the problems public hygene or the lack of it cause.
I do say that there is nothing more exciting then letting one rip to find it hit the motor care traveling too close to me. I don’t drive but I imagine that those who do must enjoy the spectical for near say a second before they puke. I would.
As Peter Lore would say: “It’s Alive” !!!
This is an informative link: http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/tuberculosis/fact_sheet.htm
Today’s conversation has been brought to you by the MedTalk guys.
I’ve had this happen, and invented a baby that I’d been holding earlier by way of an excuse.
I did this in basic training in the Army … where everyone at one time or another is congested and leaking all kinds of noxious bodily fluids … and one time it landed square on one of my drill sergeant’s glossy, spit-shined combat boots. Up to that point, I had not heard most of the names he called me as I was doing many, many, many push-ups afterward as he cleaned his boot toe on my fatigue uniform. I think it scarred me for the rest of my adult life as even today I have to look around to make sure my “danger area” is clear before I let one rip.
I must say though, that even though sending a snot rocket onto the side of a car that buzzed me sounds attractive, I’d be concerned about someone sending a bullet my way — some folks would consider that the worst kind of insult, even worse than cussing them out, or talkin ’bout their mama.
Is it just me or has the strip gone all gnomic since going behind the paywall?
The longer story arcs, the intrigues, the sub-plots, all seem to have disappeared. It’s increasingly a strip of single moments, unconnected except through the presence of the characters we al ready know.
My wife has a much better memory than me and she says that the strip hasn’t changed much. The stuff you are missing were played out over a 4-year period and Rick hasn’t had the time to develop that stuff yet.
Be patient, I am sure that Rick has plans to create new threads when the right ground work has been laid.
Just one word: gross! (But I’ve done it too
)
My thoughts and actions exactly. I’ve even had to play dodge snot. >:-(
Personally, a little snot on the street in the car lane is far less polluting that what the average car will drop over a trip. There aint no hanky big enough for me on a cold day. If jettisoned into traffic the cars process it pretty quickly like everything else.
yehuda has fulminant TB ?!?!?