Talk:3034: Features of Adulthood

No comments yet? Probably everyone's still considering the filling in of the table. As for me, I just put a load of words in about the middle name(s), but perhaps it drifts and could be cut back a lot. However, I think we do know a lot of middle names of people, especially politicians. Or at least use their middle initials (like with "John F[itzgerald]. Kennedy"), even if we don't use their full names (like with "Harry S. Truman"... :p ). Not that I've had much experience with middle names. Don't have one myself. Knew a couple of people at school who would admit to having them (one had "Colin", the other had "Douglas"), which weren't really names given to people our age and location, so they must have been grandparental honorifics (though I'm not sure the names were right for two generations back, either... never enquired further, but maybe they were being traditional middle names, inherited but never really used). To my knowledge, neither the "Colin" nor the "Douglas" ever went on to use those in post-school life, but at least one of them also changed from their first name as their habitual name to be known by, and likely they prefered to go for something altogether new. 172.69.195.27 03:23, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

In Denmark middle names are common, and Kynde is actually my middle name... Many people use their second name like their first, which can be confusing in work places where the e-mail is auto generated from full name, so no one can find Nicolai, because his first name is Christian... which he never uses. Have more than one of those here at my job. --Kynde (talk) 11:56, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

In Denmark middle names are necessary. Otherwise we'd be lost in a vast sea of Jens Jensen, Hans Hansen and Niels Nielsen. Min farfar Niels Peder Nielsen, hedde altid Peder, ikke Niels. 108.162.238.139 (talk) 13:58, 7 January 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Not having a middle name is unusual in the UK too, and many people (myself included) choose to go by them here as well.172.70.85.5 12:59, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Maybe more in your part of the UK? I can't really say how many people around me have normally 'undeclared' middle-names (there are some, but the rest I wouldn't even know, by definition), but I can pretty much count the number of people I know who ever use such additional forenames (cummutively, along with the 'first first-name') on the fingers of no hands... And I'm not particularly provincial, but of course I realise that some people might have decided to adopt their middle-moniker (or their choice of one, if several are available) by the time I first met them at university (away from the family home and childhood friends who knew what their 'Sunday' name was) or in later life.

Though, I appreciate that various corners of the Home Counties, Welsh Valleys or Hebridean Islands (for example) might have different name-distinguishing needs to the Inner City, Suburbia, Commuter Village, etc... 141.101.98.54 14:38, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Unexplained smells or noises: I'm trying to figure out what he means by this. I can't say that this comes up often in my adult life. Am I just deaf and anosmic (I don't think so)? Is Randall worried about gas leaks or his house creaking and falling down? What could he be referencing? Mtcv (talk) 09:29, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

I often smell something that others cannot or do not. So I'm completely at par with Randall here. Just now my office has a damp smell, after new people moved their things into my office replacing earlier office mates (four in the room). I'm sure it is some of their stuff that smells, but since the hole room is permeated with the smell, it has not been possible for me to find out what could cause the smell. But have tried this many times, for instance when someone leaves a citrus fruit to rot. Some people just cannot smell the fruit whereas I'm getting an instant headache from it. Also in my office, the guy with the rotten fruit, actually destroying his backpack, could not smell it, whereas other people could smell it down the hall. But inside the office it was hard to pinpoint the source as for those that could smell it is was all over the room. I could go on... --Kynde (talk) 11:57, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

I guess this is in reference to ownership of expensive things that you fear might get broken (houses, cars) as well as in reference to being wary of medical issues. "Unexplained smells or noises" could attribute to both IMHO. (BTW, if you have kids, this would be another source...)--162.158.110.237 21:58, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

"In later life, a person may drop the use of middle names (or, conversely, adopt only them as the name they are known by) and the unwieldy complete set of names becomes less common, as they may be considered unprofessional and unnecessary." -- What? Who says middle names may be considered unprofessional? Never heard of this before. --172.70.55.140 14:55, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah - seemed spurious - removed it.172.70.85.5 12:59, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Just popping in to explain where this comic came from. It's an adaptation of an old John Mulaney bit that makes the rounds every so often on social media unattributed. (Example: Tom Morello stealing the bit over ten years ago on what was then Twitter.) 172.69.58.74 18:23, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

As someone born before 1960 who grew up when espionage shows were prevalent on television and toy spy gadgets were prevalent in toy stores, it is amusing to me the difference in what children thought about passwords then and how we use passwords now.--172.70.83.55 18:42, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, I was also born before 1960 and I can attest that flat tires were very common then, and every kid learning how to drive also practiced changing the tire. The tire could go flat when you just hit a pothole or hit the curb. I clearly expected to have to deal with flat tires frequently. However, with the advent of radial steel tires, flats are very infrequent unless you pick up a nail or something. So nowadays, flat tires are almost nonexistent. I can now go for years without a flat. In this case change in frequency was because of changed technology rather than changed perception. Rtanenbaum (talk) 19:45, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

As far as cutlery is concerned, in "special dos" where you might think you might be out of your depth, you generally can't go wrong with "from outside in", for whatever the current course demands. If it's soup for starters then the uppermost spoon, if something that might look like it's something like a "pâté on toast" then the outermost knife and fork. If there's a choice of courses, then the waiting staff who know your preferences will come around to add/swap as necessary (like the extra-serated steak-knife, rather than the simpler one that's sufficient for the chicken or vegetarian options). Including replacing the desert spoon, shortly before you need it, if you did accidentally eat the soup with yours.
In general, a formal meal setting (like your firm's annual Christmas Meal) is probably being attended by others that are as much hoi polloi as yourself. And if you instead seem to have been invited to an official reception in honour of the Grand Duke Of Hapsburg, Burgandy, Luxembourg And San Antonio, surrounded by people with a similar number of titles who can each count the number of unrelated individuals in attendance on one hand (i.e. six!), then you might not pass "The Test" (by using only the crab-claw crackers on the crab-claws and only the lobster-claw crackers on the lobster-claws, etc), but as long as you accidentally don't knock the au jus all over your neighbour to the right (the Crown Prince Of Upper Volta And Lower Ampa, or wattever he happens to be) and take note in which direction the Ne Oublie Tawny Port is being passed around the table then all you really have to worry about is your sparkling conversation.
But pretty much the only thing that I find that I'm perpetually confused about (and pretty much everyone else), in every such meal, is the breadplate. Especially on circular tables, but even on rectangular ones, the question is often whether each person's bread-roll is to their left (their left-neighbour's right) or their right (their right-neighbour's left). I can understand the logic of being sat by your off-hand (leaving your soupspoon hand free) or your dominant one (it's surely rude to dip and spoon, and the knife on the breadplate is for your righthhand too...). Generally, though, everyone who is similarly bothered waits until someone who seems to know (or not care) decides that they are sure which way it is, then follows suit accordingly to keep the direction entirely in synch (easier to solve than the dining philosophers problem!), although I'm not exactly sure that it always flips or flops out the exact same chirality at each occasion, and with just two or three such occasions a year (in my particular social schedule!), I don't get quite so much experience, or even remember to look it up in advance. ;) 172.71.26.42 14:12, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

I love the joke in the fact that so many things ended up in the area of the 1:1 diagonal that no adult would have ever expected to be there in the time when Randall was a kid. I.e., kid Randall might have thought Star Wars would be in the 70ish range, but any adult back then would have laughed it off and given it a chance of not more than 5%. Now, it is in the 50%ish range. Same thing with cool toys, video games, board games, pizza and so on.--162.158.110.237 21:58, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Should we include "Cluedo", because it is almost always referred to solely as "Clue" in America guess who (if you desire conversing | what i have done) 04:02, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

In the UK, you'll never hear it called "Clue". So much so that Clue (film) needs to be explained as based on the boardgame of the different original name. You'd also rarely hear of "checkers", you might even more think of "Chequers" if you heard it, or just the check-pattern in general. Possibly the most troublesome one is the Pachisi-derived game, because of its many different names. Might even simpler just to remove those from the list, if you didn't want to admit to there being common (more common?) non-US names. 172.69.43.243 10:02, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Why was the incomplete tag removed? Cooking, Laundry, Customer service and Shopping still have empty "Notes". 172.70.123.134 19:25, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Fixed it. Apollo11 (talk) 19:33, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Why was the incomplete tag removed? Customer service and Shopping still have empty "Notes". 172.71.8.37 02:11, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

I've modified the table sliiightly, as I think that the first one, (which fork you're supposed to use for what), has a higher (but not high) "expected frequency rate", as it is not as close to the y-axis border as to the x-axis border. Xnerkcd (talk) 13:21, 31 March 2025 (UTC) xnerkcd, 14:20, 31 March 2025 (UTC)