Coomaraswamy also maintained that traditional technologies (like the needle or the fire drill) were applications of metaphysical ideas, just as modern technology is an expression of scientific principles.In 1971, building management conducted what city officials believed was the first voluntary fire drill at a New York City office building.During the training cycle the ship certified the Main Space Fire Drill for ECERT at TSTA II and had a near flawless performance during ECERT.One coach characterized Akron's single-wing attack as, "A Chinese fire- drill in the backfield every single play.A fire drill was held just before the supposed time of detonation, so passengers could be placed close to their lifeboat stations without arousing suspicion.Basil later joins her after he gets concussion during the fire drill.On panels that have this function, the drill function activates the system's notification appliances, often for purposes of conducting a fire drill."Chinese fire drill" is a slang term for a situation that is chaotic or confusing, possibly due to poor or misunderstood instructions.All three Emerson Schools were immediately evacuated by a fire drill around 11:00, and neither students nor teachers were allowed to collect any of their belongings, including backpacks, cell phones, and purses.It always sounded like a marvelous idea to my young mind, but I don't know that we ever executed a true Chinese fire drill. But we'd try our luck and yell "Chinese fire drill!" and judge how much trouble we were going to get into for trying to do it before opening the car doors.
#Meaning of chinese fire drill driver#
When I was a child (a bit later than the dates in the Wikipedia article), the driver never got involved-because the driver was Mom or Dad. The term is also used as a figure of speech to mean any large, ineffective, and chaotic exercise. People have reported this phenomenon as early as the 1940s, so it is possible that the phrase was current at the time, but simply was not written down that early.
Occasionally, if one of the participants is late to get inside the car, the others might drive off without him/her. Chinese fire drills are sometimes executed when one needs to get something from the trunk of a car. It is performed when a car is stopped at a red traffic light, at which point all of the car's occupants get out, run around the car, and return to their own (or go to other) seats. Wikipedia describes it as:Ī Chinese fire drill is a prank, or perhaps an expression of high spirits, that was popular in the United States during the 1960s. It also reminds me of an AmE term (at least I've not found a BrE speaker who knows it yet-but I haven't asked that many) for another silly pastime with an ethnically (BrE) dodgy name: the Chinese fire drill. It makes me a little uncomfy, but then I don't find myself needing to say it very often, so I don't worry about it too much. People disagree about whether Chinese whispers should be avoided due to racist connotations. ( a) a game in which a whispered message, after being passed from player to player, is contrasted in its original and final versions ( b) gossip inaccurately transmitted The OED lists Russian scandal as having the same two senses as Chinese whispers (though I've only ever heard the latter): This is probably not too surprising, since telephone has other senses that would make the metaphor less clear. What has thrown Cathy off is the fact that Chinese whispers is much more likely to be used in an extended or metaphorical way than this sense of telephone is. (And this came up once before in the comments for a previous post.) Any thoughts?Ĭoincidentally, the night before, Better Half and I had been watching the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry David (surprise, surprise) makes a faux pas in playing telephone at a party, and BH asked, 'That's Chinese whispers, right?' Chinese whispers and the telephone game are indeed names for the same game in BrE and AmE, respectively.
Pritchard's right hand man (I can't remember his title) has passed on a bit of gossip that was passed on through several people. Then I thought, in the context it was used in, that it wouldn't be appropriate to suggest the person was playing a child's game. Pritchard used, " Chinese whispers." I thought at first she meant what Americans mean when we say children are playing telephone or whisper down the lane. Pritchard" on Masterpiece Theatre in the US.
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