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Unintellegence Attacks Mid-West 2

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thekl0wn

Programmer
Jan 12, 2006
292
US
It seems like I'm surrounded by more sub-par intellectuals than most on here, so I thought I'd share a few recent incidents from people around me.

Incident #1: A guy I work with was asking about different sandwich selections at a local Subway restaurant, and made his decision, but needed to know the price. He asks the girl behind the counter, "How much is a foot-long?" Her reply was holding her hands about twelve inches apart, and saying, "About that much." Dead-serious. No smile.

Incident #2: A friend of mine calls me, and asks, "Is Alaska an island?" My reply was, "You're joking, right?" She was not, however. She saw a truck in Indiana with Alaskan plates, and couldn't figure out how it got to Indiana, and her husband told her they probably drove, and she thought that was funny because everyone knows trucks don't float. Her argument for thinking it was an island, is that when looking at a map of the United States, Alaska is typically shown in a separate box in the corner of the map... Right by Hawaii.

Incident #3: Same girl from incident #2. She was helping her husband fill out a job application, and was going through the checklist the employer sent along. One of the items on the checklist was, "Be sure to include your return mailing address on the envelope." She got a blank stare, and looks at her husband going, "Honey, I know what our mailing address is, but what's a return mailing address?"

Incident #4: Eating at Hacienda (local Mexican restaurant) a few months ago, I asked our waitress what day that Cinco de Mayo fell on this year. She said she would check, and walks over to a calender to see. She came back and said, "It looks like it's on the fifth of May this year." I found that funny enough in itself, but didn't laugh, and simply said, "No, I meant what day? As in Monday, Tuesday..." She then came back with another classic line, "Oh, so it's one of those holidays like Thanksgiving that falls on the last Thursday of the month."

Incident #5: Same girl from incident #2. We were swimming at her house one day, and she got home about the same time as her brother-in-law was leaving. Well, after he left I told her that he dropped a cigarette in the pool, and burnt a hole in the bottom. She looked down, and saw a brown sap stain on the bottom, and flew into a fury! She was out for blood! Well, we got her calmed down, and then I simply told her, "Think about it. How could a cigarette burn the bottom of a pool full of water?" Her reply, "I know. I know. It would float."

Let's hear some of yours.
 
Dollie...for some reason, I'm hearing "Dueling Banjos" in my head. [roll1]
 
I like Dueling Banjos!

[COLOR=#aa88aa black]Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.[/color]
 
rjoubert.... if you're hearing the banjos, you're about 2 miles away from the town I visited :)


Going off to deal with the daily "it's not working" error. This could mean anything other than the computer is not working. Should be fun!
 
If it were truly "Dueling Banjos", wouldn't it be back in Georgia? That town sounds like the town I'm from... We had a party at one of the local bars about a month ago in celebration of the 35th anniversary of "Deliverance".
 
Right up the river, a bit north of the GA border.... just watch for the blue people.

And don't bend over if you see one of them.
 
Yesterday on the way to the river, we stopped at a gas station to fill up the truck and the boat. While pumping, a guy filling up his car looks at me and asks, "Y'all goin' boatin' today?" I simply replied, "No, we've been pulling this thing around all day to see if it affects the gas mileage.
 
thekl0wn, to be fair, you could simply have been on a multi-day boating trip and heading off for parts unknown. You could also have simply been topping off the tank of your boat in preparation for a trip you were about to take in a few days.

I suspect the guy was just making conversation rather than actually wondering if you were going to be/had been using your boat.

[COLOR=#aa88aa black]Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.[/color]
 
I just thought it was obvious what was going on. Three guys wearing flowery board shorts, three girls wearing skimpy shorts and bikini tops, boat in-tow, and the girls were in the process of icing down beer and not being any kind of discrete about it. I guess there's alway the possibility that it wasn't the case.
 
Reminds me of a MAD Magazine featire, "Snappy Comebacks to Stupid Questions".

A car has crashed into a tree, with the driver disheveled.

Passerby casually asks, "Have an accident?"

Driver replies, "No, thanks, I already have one!"

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 
==> I just thought it was obvious what was going on.

Even in context, things are not always what they seem. Let's look back at ESquared's situation. We know from his explanation how and why he go to where he was, but let's look at it form the perspective of the restaurant worker. He sees someone park near the "to go" door, enter through the "to go" door, step towards the "to go" counter and asks are you open?. And that question has nothing to do with the "to go" aspect of the restaurant's operations.

I grant that one would expect a restaurant worker to know what's going on, but then too, wouldn't we also expect someone as intelligent as ESquared to recognize that his actions, all connected with the "to go" side of things, would give a false perception of context, and therefore ask, what time to you start seating customers?

No things are not always what they seems, and even moreso, what we perceive as the "obvious " context may be very different from is obvious to someone coming from an entirely different perspective. What do you assume?

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I suspect the guy was just making conversation rather than actually wondering if you were going to be/had been using your boat.

I am with Erik here (and in some other stories, too).

So were there a way for the poor guy to start out a small conversation with your group without sounding stupid to you? I mean, he may have had further questions, or maybe some information to tell you.

Of course, he might have still proceed, something like that:

Him: "Y'all goin' boatin' today?"
You: "No, we've been pulling this thing around all day to see if it affects the gas mileage."
Him: "Oh, then sorry. I thought you would want to know not to go to this and that area, because the police is investigating that drowning case there and closed off everything from here to there. Probably not."

Or, maybe, like this:

Him: "Y'all goin' boatin' today?"
You: "No, we've been pulling this thing around all day to see if it affects the gas mileage."
Him: "Oh. I just wanted to ask you if you ever went boating to this are before and is it any good. I was planning to go next month myself."

But not everyone would continue after a gas mileage reply.

 
Man, it just keeps getting harder and harder to be a smart-azz in this politically correct world...

< M!ke >
Acupuncture Development: a jab well done.
 
Keep in mind the man found my comment funny. The only time I'm ever rude, as suggested, is when someone is of the "know-it-all" type, and gets on my nerves. I don't think the man was the least bit offended.

After my smart reply, we then went on to other small talk about gas prices while I topped off the 120 gallon tank and he stared at the girls.
 

After my smart reply, we then went on to other small talk about gas prices while I topped off the 120 gallon tank and he stared at the girls.

So he really did want to start a small talk with you (it sounded like it) - to have an excuse to stare at the girls.
 
Stella740pl said:
So he really did want to start a small talk with you (it sounded like it) - to have an excuse to stare at the girls.

I would've said something much more idiotic than that to get to stare at them! The original question was just one of those Bill Engvall moments... Here's your sign.
 
So he really did want to start a small talk with you (it sounded like it) - to have an excuse to stare at the girls.
If that's the case, instead of asking about boating, he should have said,
Oogler said:
I've been shopping for mermaids similar to yours. Our local Wal-Mart seems to be completely out. Can you tell me where you found yours so that I can have some of my own?
...At least that way, he would have a decent reason to be "viewing" and chatting up the young ladies.

[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
 

SantaMufasa said:
If that's the case, instead of asking about boating, he should have said, "I've been shopping for mermaids similar to yours..."

Santa, do you REALLY think this would be better? I am surprized.
 
Staying with the current vein of the thread, not the entire content....

Why is it ok for men to leer and drool, but when women start looking at the sweet young things (SWT), all sorts of names go flying?

My grandad drove off the road while staring at a girl in a bikini, went thru a small culvert, crashed through a fence and hit a tree. The reaction was "Haha, the old man still has some life in him."

If I had done the same thing while staring at a SWT, I would have been promptly tagged as a lecherous pig a la Demi Moore, kind of like what happens when I introduce my husband who is 10 years younger than I....
 
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