Okay, this is again about the book I just read. Sorry for those of you who skim over the book-related blogs as this is the third one in a row.

In the ninth grade, our World History teacher, Kim Pennington, told us that there was a queen who didn’t like knocking and insisted that people scratch on doors instead. Immediately, classmate Jayson Kennedy raises his hand and says, “But what if you’re vaccuuming?” Needless to say we found this very funny since they didn’t have a lot of vaccuums in Queen Victoria’s time. For most people, that’s where the story would end, but not with me. Amber and I decided to start using the scratch when knocking on one anothers doors when we lived together. This is actually a handy technique because if you are asleep, you don’t typically hear the scratch. This is handy if you’re just checking to see if the other person is awake without having to open their door or knock and wake them up. When I moved in with Meghan, I introduced this to her and she uses it like a champion. So, we have long been proud to carry on this Queen Victoria tradition. Is it funny that this is the take-home lesson I took away from 9th grade World History? Probably.

Anyway, in the Know It All in the V chapter, what does the author tell me he learned but that Queen Victoria made people scratch on doors instead of knock. I should probably let him know that it’s not a long-dead practice, but frequently used on the Upper West Side.