# Call me a skeptical asshole, but... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 9, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499 "2012-12-09T08:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/1 "2012-12-09T08:49:12Z")
…what are the odds that \*\*nothanks \*\*is just another \*\*umkay \*\*waiting to happen? I mean… even the usernames seem oddly similar in a fashion. When umkay was asked what her username meant, she just responded something like she couldn’t think of anything to put so just put that. And now, nothanks has said it was is way of just not coming up with a username. Also remember sezyou, or whatever it was. Perhaps I’m just a skeptical asshole but I’m starting to think that nothanks is probably not who he is claiming to be. Very similar to umkay, his story is believable enough (he’s not claiming to be the Queen of England) that it doesn’t outrightly seem impossible that such a person is posting here, but he’s interesting enough of a guy (an olympian, even one who didn’t get a medal), that he’s going to suck a lot of people in. Compounded with a recent join date and the fact that ALL of his posts have been in an “Ask the two-time olympian” thread (unless my search skills really suck), I’m thinking the probability that he is a troll is pretty high. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/2 "2012-12-09T08:56:13Z")
[Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=673934) is the obligatory link to the thread and poster I’m talking about. Sorry I missed the edit window. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/3 "2012-12-09T09:46:45Z")
**umkay** deliberately gave no details about her offline identity. We know exactly who **nothanks** is purporting to be. That’s a huge difference. Also, I don’t see the same level of emotional investment here. If he turns out to be a fraud, I doubt anyone would care that much. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/4 "2012-12-09T10:31:59Z")
Can’t see why he wouldn’t be telling the truth. There are thousands of Olympians, why wouldn’t one of them drop by here? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/5 "2012-12-09T13:58:51Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Can’t see why he wouldn’t be telling the truth. There are thousands of Olympians, why wouldn’t one of them drop by here? I don’t hang out in athletic circles, and I know at least a dozen Olympians, two of whom won gold. Not to diminish the accomplishment, but it’s not that huge a deal. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/6 "2012-12-09T14:10:45Z")
Just glanced at the thread. Olympians aren’t that rare, especially in a city and college region such as where I live. No real alarms going off here. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/7 "2012-12-09T15:49:27Z")
It’s not like he’s pretending to be Usain Bolt. Sometimes the services of a Troll-Finder General are necessary, but this doesn’t seem like such an occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/8 "2012-12-09T16:20:38Z")
Skeptical asshole. Hey! You told me to! Yeah, I have my suspicions too. None of them logical of course. So I’ll reserve judgement. Unless it comes to light that he is a fraud. Then I can say: I KNEW IT!! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/9 "2012-12-09T16:28:37Z")
An olympic medal winner dropped by my office last month - he was lost and I told him where the right building was. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/10 "2012-12-09T16:40:12Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I don’t hang out in athletic circles, and I know at least a dozen Olympians, two of whom won gold. Not to diminish the accomplishment, but it’s not that huge a deal. Come to think of it, so do I, especially when I lived in the Czech Republic. Several friends of mine were on the bobsled team, one was a coworker. Another guy I used to share an office with (in the U.S.) was a former world record holder in the pole vault. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/11 "2012-12-09T17:51:34Z")
I met Ditta Constantina, the women’s gold medalist in the Marathon in Beijing. She seemed pretty normal and approachable, though she had a distinct bursting-with-internal-energy-glow thing going on that was pretty neat-o. I run into a professional triathalete on a regular basis. She claims to drink a lot of beer. She has the glow thing going on too and is very attractive. I’m hardly a celebrity myself, and I can think of two people in my own world like this, so I guess I am saying I am another data point saying the guy’s claims are not too implausible. If you spent all your time training for sports, what kind of thread would you start if not ‘ask the Olympian’? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/12 "2012-12-09T19:05:27Z")
My deskmate in the lab competed in the Vancouver Olympics. More anecdotes!! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/13 "2012-12-09T19:35:55Z")
My sister married a guy whose daughter’s leg was splinted by the dad of an Olympic speed skater. But that’s as close as I’ve gotten… _where_ are you people running into all these Oly’s? Or do you just randomly yell out “Okay, anybody in this library been in the Olympics?” ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/14 "2012-12-09T20:00:08Z")
I wanna play! Well when I was in HR, I once had to do leave of absence stuff for a girl who was off to the Olympics. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/15 "2012-12-09T20:02:54Z")
We had an Olympic cyclist at our staff Christmas party yesterday - my husband’s company sponsored her, and there she was. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/16 "2012-12-09T21:15:48Z")
I’m related to two Olympians - it was the 1936 games and I don’t think I’ve met either of them, but it counts! And another Olympian’s mother lives next to my folks, he helped us move furniture. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/17 "2012-12-09T21:27:33Z")
Someone with the same last name as me won a gold in the Olympics. It is not a common name, so I suspect we are related somehow or other. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/18 "2012-12-09T22:06:15Z")
I was in college with an Olympic rower (he was a grad student and a coach, rather than on the school’s team). He was very quiet about it, and I’d known him for at least a year before I found out. It did make me feel better about losing every physical contest we ever engaged in (we did a lot of field work together, and there was a fair amount of sitting and waiting). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/19 "2012-12-09T22:29:02Z")
Regardless of how he came about his knowledge of the Olympics, and the rarity or lack thereof of Olympic athletes, I found myself wondering how a first-time poster even knew to start an “Ask the …” thread. He got it in the right forum on the first try and seems to be able to form sentences properly. He didn’t claim to be a longtime lurker like most people who start their first thread do, and he hasn’t posted in any other threads. Maybe I’m a skeptical asshole too, but that all looks suspicious to me. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499/20 "2012-12-09T22:33:28Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Someone with the same last name as me won a gold in the Olympics. It is not a common name, so I suspect we are related somehow or other. > > Regards, > Shodan I remember seeing him! He did this complicated dismount, landed hard, and we all thought he’d sprained an ankle. But he straightened up, saluted the stands, and let forth a hearty “Regards, Shodan!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-me-a-skeptical-asshole-but/643499.md?page=2)