# Amazingly stupid things overheard **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 28, 2011, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599 "2011-12-28T04:33:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/241 "2012-01-04T16:46:04Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Löwenbräu…I still fail to grasp how a person fails to recognise one of the World’s most well know German beer makes. Never heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/242 "2012-01-04T18:12:10Z")
I don’t think I would call this one “stupid” as much as “shocking” I was at the pool store picking up chemicals and the college-age girl behind the register was telling the guy next to her about the book “A Wrinkle in Time”. I chimed in with my own fond memory of this childhood SF book. That’s when she stated that she had only ever read two books in her whole life: the aforementioned “A Wrinkle in Time” and “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” I can’t imagine that she made it through high school without reading books like “Of Mice and Men” or “The Great Gatsby”—hopefully she was only referring to the number of books she read voluntarily. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/243 "2012-01-04T22:15:38Z")
“You can tell the difference in Chinese people and Japanese people by their eyes. Chinese people’s eyes slant upwards and Japanese eyes slant sideways. Or I might have that reversed.” Other Person [OP]: Didn’t MLK Day used to be Confederate Memorial Day? Me: No Alabama still gets Confederate Memorial Day. We used to celebrate Robert E. Lee’s birthday back in the 1980s. OP: [completely serious] Well what day do they say Lee was born on now? Me: His birthday didn’t change, we just celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday instead. OP: Well when was MLK born? Me: January 15. OP: What about Robert E. Lee? Me: January 19. OP: So they robbed us of a holiday? Me: No, basically they just changed the name of the same holiday from Robert E. Lee to Martin Luther King. You still get off the third Monday in January, the only difference is what they call it. OP: So they stole a holiday? Me: They… no, th… it… what they… yeah, okay. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/244 "2012-01-04T22:54:39Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Other Person [OP]: Didn’t MLK Day used to be Confederate Memorial Day? > Me: No Alabama still gets Confederate Memorial Day. We used to celebrate Robert E. Lee’s birthday back in the 1980s. > OP: [completely serious] Well what day do they say Lee was born on now? > Me: His birthday didn’t change, we just celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday instead. > OP: Well when was MLK born? > Me: January 15. > OP: What about Robert E. Lee? > Me: January 19. > OP: So they robbed us of a holiday? > Me: No, basically they just changed the name of the same holiday from Robert E. Lee to Martin Luther King. You still get off the third Monday in January, the only difference is what they call it. > OP: So they stole a holiday? > Me: They… no, th… it… what they… yeah, okay. That doesn’t sound that stupid if they meant that instead of creating a new holiday for MLK, they just changed the already existing holiday date to a new name. It’s the difference between getting two days off for two separate events, versus one date for both. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/245 "2012-01-04T23:11:38Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > I can’t imagine that she made it through high school without reading books like “Of Mice and Men” or “The Great Gatsby”—hopefully she was only referring to the number of books she read voluntarily. Neither of those were assigned reading when I was in school ('97 to '00), though _A Wrinkle in Time_ was assigned reading in elementary school. I didn’t read it, or most of the other books assigned during middle school and high school, the only two of which I remember being \*The Education of Little Tree \*and _Fahreinheit 451_. I just took the hits on homework, and scored well on tests by paying attention in class. I like reading, but didn’t care for the books assigned. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/246 "2012-01-04T23:19:59Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I had a friend eons ago who used to make up a quart with dry milk, then mix it with whole milk. As long as it was really cold, it tasted OK, and it was cheaper than buying a half-gallon of milk. Guess that’s what you do when you have a bunch of kids… You knew my mom? I never understood this. She mixed up the 50/50 milk diligently for years, so there must have been some savings to make it worth it. And your description is right: it wasn’t exactly _nasty_, but real unadulterated milk was always better. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/247 "2012-01-04T23:27:51Z")
LOL don’t introduce that person to [del]Victoria Day[/del], [del]Fête de la rêne[/del], [del]Fête de Dollard[/del], [del]Journée nationael des patriotes[/del], [del]May two-four[/del] the holiday Canada has on the last Monday before May 25th. You’ll blow her mind ETA: that’s in reply to **Sampiro’s** post 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/248 "2012-01-05T00:22:43Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Not that dumb a question. In the U.S. alone, at least three states license homeopaths (purveyors of magic water). :smack: and I thought my faith in humanity couldn’t get any lower ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/249 "2012-01-05T01:58:31Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Not that dumb a question. In the U.S. alone, at least three states license homeopaths (purveyors of magic water). License them to do what, sell magic water? The Evile Ex Mrs. Plant was into that, but I digress… ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/250 "2012-01-05T02:30:06Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > A brilliant young physician once asked me; > > “What kind of licence do you need to be a witch doctor” Why would s/he ask **you** that? I’m not certain if I am horrified or enchanted. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > So has anyone clarified what pickles are yet? :rolleyes: Yes, pickles are pickled cucumber, and, therefore, grow exactly like cucumber. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/251 "2012-01-05T03:07:25Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > LOL don’t introduce that person to [del]Victoria Day[/del], [del]Fête de la rêne[/del], [del]Fête de Dollard[/del], [del]Journée nationael des patriotes[/del], [del]May two-four[/del] the holiday Canada has on the last Monday before May 25th. > > You’ll blow her mind > ETA: that’s in reply to **Sampiro’s** post 🙂 I just learned today that Virginia celebrates a 3 in 1 holiday in January: Robert E. Lee/Stonewall Jackson/Martin Luther King. That would be an interesting trio to go golfing with. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/252 "2012-01-05T03:15:24Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > People freeze milk? I had no idea. I guess I assumed it would develop weird ice crystals or something. You just shake it up a little after it thaws. > [@Colophon](#): > > That’s not necessarily stupid - she might have meant “We can’t drink that much milk before it goes off.” Probably, but at the time it sounded like the joke about the guy who ordered a pizza and asked for it to be cut into six pieces because he wasn’t hungry enough for eight. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > “Yeah, I know how _she can_ be, though.” D’OH! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/253 "2012-01-05T03:40:12Z")
> [@Ephemera](#): > > Neither of those were assigned reading when I was in school ('97 to '00), though _A Wrinkle in Time_ was assigned reading in elementary school. I didn’t read it, or most of the other books assigned during middle school and high school, the only two of which I remember being \*The Education of Little Tree \*and _Fahreinheit 451_. > > I just took the hits on homework, and scored well on tests by paying attention in class. > > I like reading, but didn’t care for the books assigned. Oh, good, I wasn’t the only one. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/254 "2012-01-05T04:07:54Z")
> [@Ephemera](#): > > Neither of those were assigned reading when I was in school ('97 to '00), though _A Wrinkle in Time_ was assigned reading in elementary school. I didn’t read it, or most of the other books assigned during middle school and high school, the only two of which I remember being \*The Education of Little Tree \*and _Fahreinheit 451_. They weren’t assigned reading when I was in high school , either. And that was '77 -'81. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/255 "2012-01-05T04:21:19Z")
[quote=“voguevixen, post:37, topic:607599”] Not a stupid thing overheard, but very very strange. A guy on the commuter train said: “Yeah, I know how chicken be tho.” QUOTE] > [@GuanoLad](#): > > “Yeah, I know how _she can_ be, though.” Oh dear God , how I lol’ed. This is so totally how I might have heard that! I have a long history of misinterpreting other’s speech. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/256 "2012-01-05T06:02:57Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Non-fat milk will last at least 2 weeks past its sell-by date - at least in my house. Just Monday I dumped the last mouthful of a bottle dated Dec 19 - it was \*just \*starting to smell funky. > > I had a friend eons ago who used to make up a quart with dry milk, then mix it with whole milk. As long as it was really cold, it tasted OK, and it was cheaper than buying a half-gallon of milk. Guess that’s what you do when you have a bunch of kids… My mother had six kids and we only ever drank powdered milk, it was much cheaper. Well, in the 70s anyway. It was fine as long as it was mixed up well. Nothing worse than getting to the bottom of a glass and finding oogy milk sludge. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/257 "2012-01-05T09:30:21Z")
I was on my way to Slovakia in 1994. Lots and lots of people confuse Slovakia with Serbia - ask any Slovakian - and the war had been over for a while then, but was still quite recent. So I could forgive someone thinking that I might be flying into a warzone. But this… ‘Be careful! There’s a war in Suburbia.’ …Was made even more priceless by the refusal to acknowledge that Serbia and Suburbia are not the same thing. > [@AuntPam](#): > > Many years before 9/11, flying into New York at night, I was listening to the guy with the Texas accent behind me explaining the geography to his daughter: > “Yep, that’s the Hudson River down there…” (Not exactly, it’s Long Island Sound) > “…and those twin towers over there–that’s the National Trade Center!” (WORLD Trade Center! Sheesh!) > > Of course, a dear friend of mine who grew up in Brooklyn was finally allowed by his folks to take the subway into Manhattan when he was about fourteen. He and his friends got off at what they hoped was the correct stop and asked the first guy they saw “Um, can you tell us where Manhattan is?” > “(Raised eyebrow) You’re standing in it.” > “Uh, thanks, can you tell us where 34th Street is?” > “(Raise other eyebrow) You’re standing ON it.” > “Oh, then how about the Empire State Building?” > “(Disgusted sigh) Look up.” I’ve done the latter and my daughter has done the former. We were trying to find the Empire State Building and asked a doorman where it was, and he said ‘here.’ He was one of the doormen to the Empire State Building. :smack: 😃 In our defence, at ground level it looks like nothing much, just a hotel entrance or something - I was expecting a big outside entrance and an outside queue to get in. I even looked up when he said it, and still couldn’t recognise it, because it really is so damn tall and the lower levels are nondescript. The upper bit in all the photos isn’t really visible from right in front of the building. Perhaps if I’d craned my head further back, I’d have seen what building it was, but that means you have to stop still and lean way back on a very crowded pavement. My daughter took some convincing that Long Island Sound wasn’t the sea. She does the same with any really big rivers - even at the estuary of the Thames. I don’t think that’s entirely stupid, since she does believe you when you correct her and estuaries do lead right into seas. ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/258 "2012-01-05T10:36:14Z")
Fact: potatoes grow on trees. This from high school students. The dirt on them comes from falling on the ground. ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/259 "2012-01-05T11:16:22Z")
We went to Crystal Caves in Bermuda several years ago and there was a woman, who upon grabbing a stalacite (after being told not to) marvelled that it wasn’t melting in the heat :-/ ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/260 "2012-01-05T11:40:51Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > My daughter took some convincing that Long Island Sound wasn’t the sea. She does the same with any really big rivers - even at the estuary of the Thames. I don’t think that’s entirely stupid, since she does believe you when you correct her and estuaries do lead right into seas. I’d certainly count Long Island Sound as “the sea”, looking at a map. It’s not the estuary of a single river, just a narrow arm of the sea into which lots of rivers flow. This supposed fact came up before in a thread about [Connecticut having no coastline](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=608395). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599.md?page=14)