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Natter 72: We Were Unprepared for This  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


tommyrot - Dec 18, 2013 8:40:09 am PST #14914 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

They have glass sections on the floor of the top observation deck of the CN tower in Toronto. I tried to walk on one while looking down but my body just refused to do it.

I wonder if I could do it now--my fear of heights seems to have mostly disappeared after I lost most of my depth perception.


Dana - Dec 18, 2013 8:40:45 am PST #14915 of 30000
I haven't trusted science since I saw the film "Flubber."

There's something like that in the CN Tower in Toronto. I had to physically make myself do it. You try to move, and the body's like, "Hell, no, are you stupid?"

Edit: Strangely specific x-post!


juliana - Dec 18, 2013 8:42:49 am PST #14916 of 30000
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

No. Just no.

I would do it. I would be scared as heck, but I'd do it. That looks awesome.


Amy - Dec 18, 2013 8:44:06 am PST #14917 of 30000
Because books.

Me, too. Total queen of the world moment.


Jesse - Dec 18, 2013 9:03:58 am PST #14918 of 30000
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I think I would be OK on a glass floor? My fear is connected to being off-kilter, so a stepladder is way scarier to me than a tall building.

There is a go fund me link for them that should be added - it is over $20K, so maybe not a link, but a note recognizing that not all people suck. It looks like maybe some of the funds will go to the org that trained the guide dog.

Thanks -- someone else sent me some links, too, so I should go post an update.


Theodosia - Dec 18, 2013 9:24:23 am PST #14919 of 30000
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"

There's a psychological term for that -- visual cliff -- and they test babies (and other baby animals) for it by setting up a glass-topped table so it's as though the table ends. Below a certain threshold of brain development, babies will crawl over the edge with abandon.

A couple years ago I walked over a big grate -- the kind you see in parking lots -- only to find out when I looked down: somebody had left a light on in the shaft about 50 feet down.

I may even have yelled out loud. It was a very sturdy grate that trucks drove over all the time, so it wasn't any kind of dangerous. I leaped to safety and stood there for a while with my heart hammering.


Consuela - Dec 18, 2013 9:28:01 am PST #14920 of 30000
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

Whereas I'm all, "Dude, that is cool."

Fear of exposure can be unlearned, you know. Not that anyone other than a climber or a professional tree-cutter or linesman would want to, I suppose. But if I stop climbing for a while and then go back, I have to retrain myself so that I don't freak out when I'm up really high on an overhang.


Calli - Dec 18, 2013 9:32:52 am PST #14921 of 30000
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

The Mackinac Bridge (http://www.mackinacbridge.org/), a five-mile long bridge that connects the two peninsulas of Michigan, has grating instead of pavement on the two inner lanes. When I was a kid and felt the car drive over it, the grate was just a noisy, vibrating annoyance. Then I went under the bridge on a boat and looked up. You can see the cars driving over the grate--and from the water (or a few feet above it) it doesn't look like they're driving over much of anything that would hold up a car. I've been a fan of the outer lanes ever since.


Theodosia - Dec 18, 2013 9:37:48 am PST #14922 of 30000
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"

I think if I'd worked my way onto it voluntarily, I wouldn't have spooked like that, but because of the semi-dark twilight, it wasn't until I was several steps onto it that I looked down.

OTOH, I've been totally unable to walk out on (very short and safe) RR bridges, stepping on the ties over the gaps.

Note to self: brains weird.


Matt the Bruins fan - Dec 18, 2013 9:54:10 am PST #14923 of 30000
You have to remember that being a 5-time Olympic medalist means Hilary Knight has been playing hockey at an elite level at least 16 years. It's impossible for her to be a teenage girl less than 16 years old, thus the President's complete lack of interest.

My heart was beating like a triphammer in that little enclosed overhang walkway at The House on the Rock, and that had an opaque floor and visible beams/support structure. Not my cup of tea.

Though the big overlook at Lookout Mountain didn't bother me, probably because of the solid rock underfoot.