On 8/29/2008 8:50 AM Rich256 spake thus:

I never paid much attention but just a couple months ago a metal
hangar fell behind a dresser. There was a big flash and a breaker
blew. The plug behind the dresser was not plugged in all the way and
luck would have it the hanger shorted out the contacts.

There you have it. I think this one data point is enough to tilt the
argument in favor of ground pin up. Since it's otherwise arbitrary, why
not do the safer thing?

So far as the orientation of 90° plugs goes, I've seen them made both
ways, so it really doesn't matter which way you put the outlet: the plug
is going to be going the wrong way half the time anyhow.


--
"In 1964 Barry Goldwater declared: 'Elect me president, and I
will bomb the cities of Vietnam, defoliate the jungles, herd the
population into concentration camps and turn the country into a
wasteland.' But Lyndon Johnson said: 'No! No! No! Don't you dare do
that. Let ME do it.'"

- Characterization (paraphrased) of the 1964 Goldwater/Johnson
presidential race by Professor Irwin Corey, "The World's Foremost
Authority".