# Amazingly stupid things overheard
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599
**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:** 2
### Author:  [@Dr.Righteous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Righteous)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/21 "2011-12-28T18:02:59Z")
1995, coming out of a movie theater right after seeing _Apollo 13_:
“That was the best science fiction movie I’ve ever seen!”
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/22 "2011-12-28T18:17:36Z")
I’ve mentioned this in other threads. A second cousin of mine, a woman in her 50s, thinks that all dogs are male and all cats are female. When asked where puppies and kittens come from, she explains “The dog impregnates the cat, and the cat gives birth to a litter of puppies and kittens.”
She also thinks that Alaska and Hawaii are right off the California coast, because they’re shown there in some U.S. maps (to save space).
And also, you can’t have a phone conversation with someone in a different time zone. So if someone on the east coast calls someone on the west coast, the sound doesn’t reach them for 3 hours. I’m afraid to ask her about calls that are west-to-east. Presumably, it’s possible to hear someone 3 hours before they speak.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/23 "2011-12-28T18:30:37Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> I’ve mentioned this in other threads. A second cousin of mine, a woman in her 50s, thinks that all dogs are male and all cats are female. When asked where puppies and kittens come from, she explains “The dog impregnates the cat, and the cat gives birth to a litter of puppies and kittens.”
>
> She also thinks that Alaska and Hawaii are right off the California coast, because they’re shown there in some U.S. maps (to save space).
>
> And also, you can’t have a phone conversation with someone in a different time zone. So if someone on the east coast calls someone on the west coast, the sound doesn’t reach them for 3 hours. I’m afraid to ask her about calls that are west-to-east. Presumably, it’s possible to hear someone 3 hours before they speak.
I don’t have a story to add. I just wanted to come in here to say that that’s some seriously fucked up shit.
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### Author:  [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/24 "2011-12-28T18:37:21Z")
Wow, some doosies.
I had a German tourist ask me about the Saguaro cactii that grow here in the desert Southwest. “Are those planted for the tourists or do they actually grow naturally here?”
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### Author:  [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/25 "2011-12-28T18:46:45Z")
> [@jz78817](#):
>
> “If it weren’t for my horse…”
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/26 "2011-12-28T18:47:14Z")
> [@campp](#):
>
> Wow, some doosies.
>
> I had a German tourist ask me about the Saguaro cactii that grow here in the desert Southwest. “Are those planted for the tourists or do they actually grow naturally here?”
Similar, except it was a Canadian tourist asking about the cypress lake next to the airport in my case. The same lady was horrified that alligators inhabited that bit of wetland: “Somebody should remove those! People might get hurt!”
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/27 "2011-12-28T18:49:02Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> And also, you can’t have a phone conversation with someone in a different time zone. So if someone on the east coast calls someone on the west coast, the sound doesn’t reach them for 3 hours. I’m afraid to ask her about calls that are west-to-east. Presumably, it’s possible to hear someone 3 hours before they speak.
Cool.
We can work something out about horse racing…
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/28 "2011-12-28T19:03:30Z")
> [@slm2955](#):
>
> Hmmm, something “stupid” I overheard was while I was out shopping and this woman goes up to one of the sales associates and asks: “what store is this?” how do you not no what store you are shopping at:confused:?
Perhaps she had just gotten off the highway, was checking her Iphone for some of the stores’ info online, and wanted to know what locality it was. Like, “is this the Home Depot of Greenville, or the Home Depot of Blueborough”?
In most of these threads, I can come up with reasons why the questions don’t need to be that stupid. Asking questions is not something really stupid people do. Or if they do ask questions, they don’t remain stupid long. 🙂
Assertions, on the other hand, can reveal a great deal of almost willfull ignorance.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/29 "2011-12-28T19:08:50Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#):
>
> I was on the subway. Sitting near me was a middle-aged women and a child about 10 years old. The child seemed physically unwell in a serious way.
>
> The woman put her arms around the child and says – " It’s going to be Ok, honey. They say when this lady prays for you her hands bleed like Jesus’s."
>
> It wasn’t funny though, it was incredibly sad.
Often, when a loved one is sick and docters can’t do much or can’t help quickly enough, people become desperate and try the alternative circuit. The prayer healers, the woo-woo, anything alternative. As long as they don’t do anything medically harmful, doctors don’t mind because you never know what good a placebo effect might do.
I could very well imagine this child was in such a situation.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/30 "2011-12-28T19:11:28Z")
> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> Perhaps she had just gotten off the highway, was checking her Iphone for some of the stores’ info online, and wanted to know what locality it was. Like, “is this the Home Depot of Greenville, or the Home Depot of Blueborough”?
When I lose track of which store in which I finally found a three sided widget I’ve been known to ask as I made out the check, “Where am I?”
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/31 "2011-12-28T19:17:00Z")
There was an article some years ago about the dumb questions from tourists in Alaska. The one that tickled me was:
Tourist (in Juneau, AK): How far above sea level is Juneau?
Guide: At low tide or at high tide?
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/32 "2011-12-28T19:47:25Z")
As the lights came up in the theater at the end of _Fellowship of the Ring_, a grown woman behind me says to her friend, “I bet they make a sequel.”
Although that’s just ignorance rather than stupidity, it made this Old School Geek give the ol’ eyeroll.
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### Author:  [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/33 "2011-12-28T19:52:10Z")
> [@Dr.Righteous](#):
>
> 1995, coming out of a movie theater right after seeing _Apollo 13_:
>
> “That was the best science fiction movie I’ve ever seen!”
I was in the movie theatre on the last night of the run of The Madness of King George.
The teenagers sitting behind me thought they were going to be able to complete an assignment on Shakespeare by watching it.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/34 "2011-12-28T19:54:30Z")
> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> Asking questions is not something really stupid people do. Or if they do ask questions, they don’t remain stupid long. 🙂
I find this charming but it does not match my experience. 🙂
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### Author:  [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/35 "2011-12-28T20:02:14Z")
While on a horseback riding expidition on Maui, a tourist pointed to a guava bush and asked if it was a “pineapple tree”. Both the guide and I told him what it was and that pineapples don’t grow on trees. He refused to believe us, saying that "of course they grow on trees, that’s why they call them pineAPPLES’ and that “we were just trying to make fun of him because he was a tourist”.
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### Author:  [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/36 "2011-12-28T20:18:09Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#):
>
> As the lights came up in the theater at the end of _Fellowship of the Ring_, a grown woman behind me says to her friend, “I bet they make a sequel.”
>
> Although that’s just ignorance rather than stupidity, it made this Old School Geek give the ol’ eyeroll.
Didn’t happen to me, this was overheard by my cousin while watching the movie Troy. They are rolling the big horse up to the gate and some girl leans over to her friend and says, “I bet there are people inside.”
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/37 "2011-12-28T20:51:26Z")
On a trip to France with my High School French class we were walking through downtown Paris and a girl from another school asked our tour guide “So do people, like, live here?” He replied “No, this entire city’s full of empty buildings.”
Not a stupid thing overheard, but very very strange. A guy on the commuter train said: “Yeah, I know how chicken be tho.”
Another wild one: I was at the grocery store behind these two guys. They were buying about 25 cans of Red Bull and a block of cheese. The younger of the two said “I’m going to get more cheese.” and turned around. The older guy shouted after him: “DAMMIT! NOT MORE CHEESE!”
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### Author:  [@cards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cards)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/38 "2011-12-28T21:11:29Z")
From a conversation with a tour guide: “What time does the 9:00 bus leave?”
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### Author:  [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/39 "2011-12-28T23:55:09Z")
> [@slm2955](#):
>
> Hmmm, something “stupid” I overheard was while I was out shopping and this woman goes up to one of the sales associates and asks: “what store is this?” how do you not no what store you are shopping at:confused:?
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> When I lose track of which store in which I finally found a three sided widget I’ve been known to ask as I made out the check, “Where am I?”
I worked at a department store in a mall during Christmas. It was common for people to ask what store they were in.
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/40 "2011-12-29T00:03:02Z")
> [@cards](#):
>
> From a conversation with a tour guide: “What time does the 9:00 bus leave?”
Actually, having ridden in a fair number of busses and trains, I can safely say that just because a bus or train is CALLED the 9:00, doesn’t mean that it will leave at 9. It might arrive at nine and depart at ten after, for instance, or it might be known for running late. Or it might have been cancelled.
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