The best of both worlds

Our chairs here in Vanier dorms are these square-shaped half-rocking chairs. I call them half-rocking chairs because they are just that.

So the base of the chair resembles something like this from a bird’s eye view: | | <– each line is a “foot”, what I call the piece of wood that rests on the ground. Clear?

From a side ground view, however, a foot looks like this: __/ <– from front to back. The first part of the foot is the straight, grounded part that rests on the floor, as mentioned before, yes? The second slanted part isn’t as dramatic as that, but it does still slope upwards from the ground. The idea is for the slope to act as a kind of rocking chair. We can push back and lean into the slope so we relax. Someone probably thought it was a good idea to give us the best of both worlds: a steady chair we can use while studying, and a rocking chair that allows us to relax. Except, of course, it’s not really a rocking chair since you fall forward the moment you stop trying to push backwards. There is no rocking to and fro motion. Hence the name of half-rocking chair.

The thought that someone meant to give us the best combination possible helps me tolerate what comes next: the problem — and alas, who can ever see all the problems? — that arises from that same slopey part of the foot that allows us to sort of rock backwards.

The chair is square.
The feet are not rounded.
They have sharp corners and edges.
There are sharp corners hovering in mid-air.

Once a week, a scream (and maybe a rude word) will emerge from my room due to the catching of a foot on one of those sharp corners hovering in mid-air. But no one is too surprised, as I am sure that it occurs every day somewhere in Vanier.