Originally published at: Man makes rope from sheets to escape 4th floor of quarantine hotel | Boing Boing
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Wait. Hold up, i’ve never seen story spelled as “storey” 
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“Lolita Westinghouse” = super cool name
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On the one hand, from what I’ve heard about hotel quarantines I can’t really blame him. On the other hand, forward planning doesn’t seem to be this gentleman’s strong suit in any way, shape or form.
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Those must be quality bedsheets.
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I was more impressed by his knots.
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Double water knot – simple and effective.
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Is that like a double fisherman’s knot? That’s what i would have gone with, one on each sheet and the sheets are likely to tear first.
ETA: Ahh, a different knot i see. Not familiar with it since it seems to be good for making slings out of tape and you don’t see those much anymore.
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And my brain hurts every time I see it as story.
A story is what one mistakenly tells oneself about why storey is the wrong spelling for the various floors or levels of a building.
Hey-ho. 
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Yeah, I think it’d be hard to get a reliable fisherman’s knot from a flat sheet. The double water knot is basically using water knots to do the double fisherman’s knot trick. If I’m remembering this all right.
(I am not a rope safety expert.)
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So their “three sheets to the wind”.
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Very likely, yes. I’m unfamiliar with Mythbuster history but it seems like something they would have tested. Knot strength is definitely a factor here as you can get wildly different breaking limits.
https://dmmclimbing.com/Knowledge/March-2012/Knotting-Dyneema®
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I also want to know what he tied it to. Out of curiosity.
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From what i could find online the Storey spelling is recent (1940’s). Not saying it’s correct/incorrect, just surprised to find out it hasn’t been around much longer
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Not sure about WA, but in some other Aussie states that little stunt could cost him an $11,000 fine and six months in jail. Still, I guess he could plead some form of diminished responsibility as he was certainly acting like a child.
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From OED:
“Now considered a distinct word from story n. and distinguished from it formally in British English by the standard spelling storey, while U.S. English retains story. The form with -e- is prescribed by British guides to English usage and spelling from at least the 1860s.”
[edit: copy-paste error]
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I’m impressed by the bedsheets and the knots and his anchor.
But really its the bedsheets. The point of failure is almost always going to be there. Unless he’s been really sloppy with the knots. Or chose a terrible anchor. Or his bedsheet rappelling technique faltered.
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I’ve often seen it, but I read the Guardian UK and lots of English books.
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He is currently being held in gaol, without bail, for 14 days, until he has passed the quarantine period.
Then the judge will throw the book at him for breach of quarantine, failing to comply with a direction and providing false or misleading information. The breach of quarantine is good for 12 months inside and $12,000 fine.
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Unless he’s a Deputy Premier’s child, in which case he gets the first one free as long as he’s “helpful and apologetic”.
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