Stupid things

To smoke or not to smoke – PERFECT SWISSNESS

kenritley

When you think you have experienced life everywhere else, you need to move to Switzerland – because only by living here can you truly appreciate the MAGNIFICENCE of Switzerland.

And by Switzerland I really mean the Swiss culture: low-key, non-offending, non-judgemental, and above all: democratic.

So it was NO SURPRISE to me to find this sign about not smoking at the train station:

If you don’t speak German, then here is a translation:

“In order to improve the cleanliness and out of respect to the non-smokers, smoking at this train station is not allowed. This also includes smoking e-cigarettes. Smoking is only allowed by the ash containers.”

So there you have it. On just one sign: Smoking is not allowed. But . . . well . . . in case you smoke, it is allowed.

I think only by living here for a while in this AMAZING country will you come to know, understand, and LOVE this sign!

Keeping your hands clean in Texas

kenritley

Not just in Texas, but this is increasingly a common sight in many places in the United States:

In Texas we might say something like: This ain’t worth a hill of beans.  The overwhelming majority of easily transmissible infections are URI’s, or upper respiratory infections – and the overwhelming majority of them are caused by viruses, not bacteria, that are not affected by topical alcohol.

NOTE ADDED MAY 2025 – As I look back on this snap, I realized I took it more than a year before Covid. So now in fact this is a common sight just about everywhere you find shopping carts.

World’s most stupidest train

kenritley

Sometimes, I see things that are dumb.

Occasionally, I see things that are really, really dumb.

But every once in a very rare while, I see something that is so incredibly, mind-bogglingly stupid that I really makes me question how something so ludicrous could even be thought of by mankind, much less implemented!

And here is one of those things, a little train that runs back and forth in Terminal A of the Detroit International Airport.

Here is what it looks like from the outside:

And, not being able to resist trying out something so incredibly stupid, here is what it looks like from the inside:

Now here comes what the famous magicians Penn and Teller call The Reveal, when I tell you why this is so stupid.

Many large airports have little automated trains – actually, one of the first was probably the train at the Dallas Fort-Worth airport, which I remember from back when I was a little kid.  Airports are huge but with well defined stopping places, so a train is an ideal way to get around.

But in this case, the train only plies Terminal A, from Gate 1 to Gate 70.  That is not a big distance to walk – with the rolling  floors, I think I required no more than about 7 minutes to walk / coast the distance.  But worse that than, this train has only three stops: at Gate 1, at Gate 35, and Gate 70. Plus the train is elevated.

So that means for anyone wanting to shave off a little time from their gate-to-gate journey . . . no way they can do this!  They have to schlep their luggage up to the platform, wait 5 minutes for the train, then take it to somewhere where, unless you are lucky, walking will be required anyway.

I could think of no usecase in which this train would save anyone any real time – and in fact, most of the people riding it seemed to be like me: curious folks with a four-hour layover and plenty of time to kill doing stupid things. And I could think of no usecase in which this train would benefit the mobility limited.

My best guess: this was a project intended to channel public money to the right private parties, such as the company the makes the train.