# 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:** 4
### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/61 "2011-12-29T05:42:23Z")
> [@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.
Well, she might have been thinking the sequel would be done by Rankin/Bass.
---
### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/62 "2011-12-29T06:30:10Z")
My all-time favorite was from when I worked for the humane society. We gave out vouchers to low-income folks to get their pets sterilized. I had a conversation that went something like this:
> [@](#):
>
> Caller: Now, I’m gonna tell you what I’m gonna do, and you’re not gonna like it.
> Me: Okay, what’s that?
> C: I’m gonna get a voucher, but first I’m gonna breed my cat one time, and you can’t talk me out of it.
> M: We advise against that, but if you have your mind made up, give me a call when you’re ready for a voucher.
> C: And I gotta question for you.
> M: Sure, what’s that?
> C: My cat is a mutt. She’s half persian and half siamese. So I’m gonna breed her to her brother. And that way, half of the kittens will be purebred persians, and the other half will be purebred siamese. That right?
My mind exploded, and I stammered out some answer. Later I thought of how I should have explained it to her: if you had a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice and you poured them into a big pitcher, you couldn’t pour two smaller glasses of the mixture and hope one was pure OJ and the other pure milk.
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/63 "2011-12-29T08:07:37Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I had a conversation that went something like this…
That is beyond stupid. That borders on horrifying, and potentially cruelty to animals. I not naive, I’m sure plenty of inbreeding goes on in the wild/feral population, but to intentionally force it when most cognizant people know it’s a BAD IDEA? Appalling.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/64 "2011-12-29T08:30:24Z")
“Hey, did you guys know that storks are real?”
Uh…yes?
“I always assumed they were made up, like unicorns, but when I was in France last week I saw some!”
😕
* * *
::coworker looking puzzled in the shampoo aisle as a bunch of us faced the shelves to get it over with late one night::
2nd coworker “What’s wrong?”
:: points at a bottle of shampoo:: “I don’t understand why there’s a picture of a black person on this bottle.”
“Why wouldn’t there be?”
“Black people don’t have to wash their hair.”
everyone else “WHAT??”
“When their hair is dirty it falls out and is replaced by new, clean hair.”
“Where on earth did you get that idea? It’s not true.”
“Well…someone told me that.”
“And you were stupid enough to believe them?!”
---
### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/65 "2011-12-29T09:57:51Z")
> [@voguevixen](#):
>
> That is beyond stupid. That borders on horrifying, and potentially cruelty to animals. I not naive, I’m sure plenty of inbreeding goes on in the wild/feral population, but to intentionally force it when most cognizant people know it’s a BAD IDEA? Appalling.
Is this your contribution to the thread?
---
### Author:  [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/66 "2011-12-29T10:27:07Z")
> [@Chimera](#):
>
> German tourist at Mesa Verde: “Where are all the people?”
>
> She genuinely didn’t understand that we have vast open spaces in this country with very few people living in them.
Definitely not stupid: I was on a short leg of a car trip across US with a Buddhist head monk from Asia. He said, “Ah, so that’s where people live!”, seeing a small cluster of houses through some corn fields and woods; he couldn’t figure out why he saw so few houses from interstate highways… he thought people live behind woods hiding.
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### Author:  [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/67 "2011-12-29T10:50:13Z")
I have been living behind woods hiding since 1997, brittekland.
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### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/68 "2011-12-29T11:08:22Z")
> [@Duke](#):
>
> Why was an arctic fox in the bear enclosure?
> [@Tess](#):
>
> Bears gotta eat something.
True.
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/69 "2011-12-29T11:47:55Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#):
>
> Reminds me of the time someone “asked Doctor Science” if snakes have tails. DS replied (correctly): “Snakes don’t have tails. Snakes are tails.”
> .
Doctor Science’s statement is not correct. Snakes have tails. Externally, the tail can be discerned as beginning at the external vent of the cloaca. Internally, the tail vertebrae have no ribs, while body vertebrae have ribs.
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/70 "2011-12-29T12:04:09Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#):
>
> I’ve come across this myth a few times. The people weren’t stupid, just not very zoologically knowledgeable. They found it pretty interesting when I explained how snakes can have all those bones while being so twisty.
If she’d said something along the lines of ‘Really? I didn’t think they had bones!’ I wouldn’t have really noticed, animal ignorance is pretty common- but angrily telling your 8-year-old he’s being stupid and wrong for noticing? Especially as the place was laid out in evolutionary sequence, and they’d just gone into the labelled ‘Animals with Backbones’ section.
That’s dumb.
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/71 "2011-12-29T12:17:01Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#):
>
> Reminds me of the time someone “asked Doctor Science” if snakes have tails. DS replied (correctly): “Snakes don’t have tails. Snakes are tails.”
😕 :dubious:
Sorry, but that’s total rubbish.
If you look closely at a snake, there is a definite noticeable ‘body’ and ‘tail’ section. It’s even more obvious if you look internally; the organs are all found in the main body, encased by ribs, and ending in a cloaca- the genital/anal opening; in pythons and boas the body even ends with mini hips, and what looks very like a single lizardy toe on each side, which are used in mating; the tail is noticeably narrower, tapering, and has a backbone only, no ribs.
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### Author:  [@JessMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessMagic)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/72 "2011-12-29T12:39:38Z")
> [@kferr](#):
>
> Another was a guy also in his 20’s who thought the ‘i before e’ rule was absolute so had been spelling his middle name “Kieth”.
Brilliant! This is my favourite so far.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/73 "2011-12-29T12:49:19Z")
> [@Tess](#):
>
> Bears gotta eat something.
I always wondered if their keepers occasionally toss live chickens into the big predator cages when there aren’t people around just to keep the critters from being totally bored all the time.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/74 "2011-12-29T12:57:45Z")
My all time favorite (which I heard on the radio):
A woman had phoned her local public services department and asked them to move a deer crossing sign to another location. It was too near her property, she felt, and she did not want all the deer crossing the road so close to her home.
mmm
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### Author:  [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UFC_Is_Sux)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/75 "2011-12-29T13:34:12Z")
_“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq’s neighbors and against Iraq’s people.”_
George W. Bush, 17 March 2003
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/76 "2011-12-29T14:56:03Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, **UFC Is Sux**.
I’m sure you have already read the [registration agreement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=423183)carefully, so let me point you to our [rules](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=384736).
We ask that you stay on topic in threads. Dragging in a political attack that you obviously didn’t “overhear” is really inappropriate. If you wish to embark on yet another round of Bush-bashing, please start a new thread in either Great Debates or the Pit.
Again, welcome.
**twickster** , MPSIMS moderator
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/77 "2011-12-29T15:10:57Z")
I suspect the Arctic fox was in the bear enclosure because many zoos are trying to make their exhibits more like “natural” habitats for the benefit of both animals and visitors. That being said, the fox might well have been in its own protected area of the bear exhibit and not at risk of predation.
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### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/78 "2011-12-29T15:18:05Z")
No, it was walking around together with the bears. I suppose they were quite accustomed to each other.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/79 "2011-12-29T15:22:46Z")
Maybe the fox was the bears’ pet??
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-stupid-things-overheard/607599/80 "2011-12-29T15:34:36Z")
> [@Floater](#):
>
> No, it was walking around together with the bears. I suppose they were quite accustomed to each other.
And properly-chosen, well-fed predators probably don’t have any reason to bother each other in this situation.
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