# Brickbacon, we're here to FIGHT ignorance. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 11, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970 "2005-03-11T04:17:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/41 "2005-03-11T18:32:13Z")
> [@Kaspar Hauser](#): > > I disagree with him about the cats, but I agree with him about college students. Well, sure - keeping 5 or 6 college students as pets would be pretty odd. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/42 "2005-03-11T18:42:10Z")
**Guin** , I found your OP less than satisfactory due to the fact it contained many links without summaries of their content. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/43 "2005-03-11T18:54:49Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Too true, more than three College Students in an appartment is disgusting. Think of the smell and dirt, yuck, at least get them neutered .For pitty sake don’t take in any more stray fresh-men, they may be cure and cudly when they are small,but soon they’ll be leiving thesies all over the place and you just can’t keep them clean. Oh, bugger. Not only did you get in my brain, you got in there before me. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/44 "2005-03-11T20:00:51Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Thank you, **bodypoet**. Once again, I apologize for my shitty OP. I’m just really annoyed with this guy who comes striding in to declare his opinion, then INSISTS that he’s correct, with no evidence to back it up. It’s not so much WHAT he says, but HOW he says it. No evidence? If I say Paris Hilron isn’t ugly, what type of evidence do you want me to provide? I provided links to pictures and sites outlining her modeling career. Do you want me to link to sites contending that beauty is often an appraisal of facial symmetry and measurements of Paris’ face? > [@Guinastasia](#): > > I don’t care if he finds Paris Hilton to be the sexiest thing ever, or if he thinks Michael Jackson is innocent. I don’t care if he thinks people with so many pets are crazy. BUT, perhaps he shouldn’t say, “You all are just haters! Paris is beautiful-are you blind? Hating her style doesn’t make her ugly!!!” Please show me where I said anyone was a hater in any thread other than the plagiarism one? Did you read the Jacko thread? I laid out an argument (with cites) explaining why I think I is innocent this time. > [@Guinastasia](#): > > Plus, I have a knee-jerk aversion to the word “hater”. It just sounds so incredibly fucking stupid. Aren’t we ALL “haters”, about something or another? You probably think this because you are arrogant and out of touch with hip-hop slang. Trying to pretend like the word “hater” is less valid is based in ignorance. Besides “hater” is proper English. As I said in the thread about this: _there is no good argument why hip-hop/black slang is more disruptive, discordant, or unintelligible than any other colloquial language. This is not a matter of linguistic interference, it a matter of arrogance and prejudice. If you have a problem with the way the term “hater” was applied, I can understand that. What I don’t understand is the repudiation of anything one might consider “black slang”. For a group of supposedly tolerant people, many of you can be surprisingly narrow minded and bigoted._ Get over it. If you think the word hater is “incredibly fucking stupid”, then you are the one with the problem. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/45 "2005-03-11T20:18:42Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > 1. People with 4+ plus cats do have issues. I don’t know many people who don’t raise their eyebrows when they see somebody with a dozen cats in their house. That is odd behavior that is typically a sign of deeper issues at work. It’s not 100%, but it’s pretty reliable. Doesn’t mean you’re crazy or that you are a bad person. But, you should realize having a pet collection isn’t normal. Get over it. Oh, my, who chose you to be the arbiter of how many cats/dogs/pets is normal? TroubleAgain, Cohabiting with a husband, 3 cats and 2 dogs (and until recently it was 4 cats and 3 dogs). ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/46 "2005-03-11T20:23:10Z")
I also agree that the number of animals one owns is _not_ an indicator of a person’s mental health, as long as they’re well cared for, etc. I also believe the animal’s size matters. For example, I have 3 anole lizards, 3 rats, and 2 fish. That’s 8 animals. So if I came out and said I had 8 pets, would somebody think I was crazy? I sure don’t think there’s anything excessive there, since they are all relatively small animals, they are all contained (fish in aquarium, rats in cage, lizards in terrarrium), and they’re quiet, not very smelly, and well cared for (probably a bit spoiled, in fact). So there’s several factors that go into determining how many animals is too many. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/47 "2005-03-11T20:29:59Z")
Doesn’t anyone know about ctrl-f. follow link, ctrl-f, type ‘brick’ send. **brickbacon** We had 12 cats once. Before that we had 3. We had three because me and my brothers were the type of kids who brought in the odd friendly stray and said “awwww can we keep it!” and our mother was soft at heart so we kept them. We then had 12 bacause two of the original 3 had kittens. We kept the 12 because we’re not the type to put them in a binbag and dump them in the canal. We gave most of them away eventually. We kept two of the kittens (because we knew we could cope with a house of five cats easily) We were a big family, we had no issues, we liked cats. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/48 "2005-03-11T20:33:01Z")
Everyone on here is always the exception to the rule. Y’all need to drink some Haterade or something. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/49 "2005-03-11T20:39:40Z")
> [@Indygrrl](#): > > Everyone on here is always the exception to the rule. Hey, wow, you’re right! It’s almost enough to make me think the rule is crap. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/50 "2005-03-11T20:42:04Z")
What did he do wrong in the Michael Jackson thread? I can’t understand why he was pitted for it. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/51 "2005-03-11T20:43:07Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Doesn’t anyone know about ctrl-f. follow link, ctrl-f, type ‘brick’ send. > > **brickbacon** We had 12 cats once. Before that we had 3. We had three because me and my brothers were the type of kids who brought in the odd friendly stray and said “awwww can we keep it!” and our mother was soft at heart so we kept them. We then had 12 bacause two of the original 3 had kittens. > > We kept the 12 because we’re not the type to put them in a binbag and dump them in the canal. > > We gave most of them away eventually. We kept two of the kittens (because we knew we could cope with a house of five cats easily) > > We were a big family, we had no issues, we liked cats. Yeah, but you’re from the Isle of Man 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/52 "2005-03-11T20:45:32Z")
Oh puhleeze people… > [@](#): > > **gatopescado** - Where is this “Shangri-La” you speak of? Do the chocalate bunnies shit raisens? Is every day Christmas and 4th of July combined? > [@](#): > > **threemae** - Second: He’s right. They are freaks. > [@](#): > > **Indygrrl** -We’re talking about someone who has seven cats in a three bedroom apartment. I’ve seen examples of this, and it’s never once been pretty. It’s dirty, it smells, and it’s been an indicator that the people were less than stable. This is just my experience, maybe 10 examples that I can think of over the years. I’ve never know anyone with more than two cats whose house didn’t smell like a litterbox. > > I’m not saying it’s impossible to keep a clean home with a large number of animals, but I can’t imagine it unless all you do is stay home and take care of the cats. Get over your collective selves. I have been in houses that had large number of cats, **Indygrrl** that smelled just fine because the owners were meticulous about policing the litter boxes and making sure that the cats didn’t spray. And they managed to somehow clean up poop a couple of times a day and still hold down jobs. Maybe they preferred taking care of their cats to plopping down and watching Reality TV for hours on end or going out to the bars. That doesn’t make them mental feaks with issues in my book-just people with a different set of priorities. And **threemae** -I may well be a freak but not necessarily because I have what you define as a large number of animals. I prefer to think that my freak label is a result of my deviant sexual practices and habits. 🙂 And **gatopescado** -you are cordially invited to bite me. All my dogs and cats and horses are properly vaccinated and well fed. Once again, it’s my money and my choice as to how I spend my discretionary income. If I prefer to spend it on my animals, why in the hell do you care. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/53 "2005-03-11T20:50:28Z")
> [@+MDI](#): > > Yeah, but you’re from the Isle of Man 😃 Ironically, since moving to the IOM we haven’t had a single cat. Just a dog (Border Collie) The 12 cat days were back in Accrington. I’d love to have one or 4+ cats. But I’ll have to wait til I have a place of my own for that ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/54 "2005-03-11T20:54:30Z")
I can only go by my own experiences, and I have seen many a dirty/weird house with a bunch of cats running around. I’ve seen one house with three cats that was immaculate, but other than that, I still think the house is going to smell bad if a person has a dozen cats. I have one cat in a two-bedroom apt. and I have to scoop his shitbox every day or I can smell it in the living room. And I keep a clean home, it’s just that he must go a lot or something. I cannot imagine keeping the odor out if I had more cats. And no one said they cared how you spend your time and money. A thread opened up asking people’s opinions. We gave 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/55 "2005-03-11T21:06:59Z")
In my eyes, if a household has thirty cats, it’s entirely possible the owner was simply financially hard up to begin with, and not the most organised people in the world, and so their small collection of cats breed. Eventually the breeding gets out of control and the owner is tired, stressed, overworked to the point of being unable to keep on top of the mess of so many cats. It’s just as possibly that underneath all the stress and strain, and lack of original foresight, that owner is completely stable mentally, and has no ‘issues’. ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/56 "2005-03-11T21:09:37Z")
> [@](#): > > **Indygrrl** -And no one said they cared how you spend your time and money. A thread opened up asking people’s opinions. We gave 'em. While I’m not interested in getting into a pissing match with you on this issue, your opinion is that it is nearly impossible to keep a clean house with more than one or two cats. And my opinion and experience is that it is,\* if\* you’re willing to invest the time to clean up after them properly. If your cat’s poop is that stinky,maybe you should reconsider whatever it is your feeding your animal. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/57 "2005-03-11T21:15:08Z")
> [@jlzania](#): > > And they managed to somehow clean up poop a couple of times a day and still hold down jobs. > Maybe they preferred taking care of their cats to plopping down and watching Reality TV for hours on end or going out to the bars. > That doesn’t make them mental feaks with issues in my book-just people with a different set of priorities. That’s how I see it too. I guess we all do this sometimes. I’m not saying that I’m not guilty of it myself occasionally. We think to ourselves, “_ **I** _ could never handle [whatever it is], therefore, it is _ **inconceivable** _ that anyone else could either.” (When mentally reading “_inconceivable_,” channel Wallace Shawn from _The Princess Bride_, if you would.) Look, people. Just because it’s not something you get, just because _you_ couldn’t/wouldn’t handle it well, it _doesn’t mean that nobody else could_. Someone is not automatically a freak or in denial about something, merely because: 1) They like doing it and you don’t. 2) They can handle it well and you couldn’t (or would be unwilling to do so). 3) They think it’s worthwhile and important and you don’t. Indygrrl: Is it _inconceivable_ to you that perhaps some people have a lot of cats _and_ are bad housekeepers? Sometimes people can be both. They can be unwilling to keep the house up, and they’d be just as unwilling to keep the house up if there were no pets in the house. Also, just because _you_ couldn’t handle more than one cat, doesn’t mean that others can’t. Other people are also willing to pay for important medical treatment for their cats too—spending amounts of money that you have previously claimed you would **never** spend on your cat. Their willingness to spend that money means that they value different things than you, and have different priorities. That’s all it means. It means that they are _different_ from you, and feel _differently_ about how to care for their pets than you do. Also, some cats react badly to certain types of food—sometimes to cheap food. Or to a food that has an ingredient to which they are allergic. (I am not any authority to this, only I know of a cat who produces the most foul shit when he consumes certain types of food.) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/58 "2005-03-11T23:25:19Z")
> [@Boldface Type](#): > > Bugger. > > [Parallel](Read Between) worlds collide! I click on one of those links, & I got kicked right offline! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Boldface\_Type](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@Boldface\_Type](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boldface_Type)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/59 "2005-03-11T23:33:17Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > I click on one of those links, & I got kicked right offline! > :mad: Funky! I wonder why? ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970/60 "2005-03-12T00:31:52Z")
Dammit. Everybody beat me to the bit about dirty smelly college students 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brickbacon-were-here-to-fight-ignorance/293970.md?page=4)