Years ago, I had a friend (Fred…yes, really) who would regularly crack me up by doing rather odd things. He loved to harass McDonalds, for some strange reason. As an example, he once bought an uncut sheet of $5 bills (did you know you could do that? I didn’t, at the time.) Then he went into a McD’s, ordered a Bic Mac, took out a pair of scissors and clipped off a $5 bill. The look on that poor kid’s face when he handed the bill to him is something I will always remember. Poor kid…
Anyway, we were in a Dave & Busters in Philadelphia (note: I LOVE D&B’s…they are a great franchise!! Check them out…) and were playing pool. We were trying to get a drink, but the waitress kept walking past us. A standard situation in restaurants, one that happens all the time. It didn’t seem too busy, though, and we were starting to get a little irritated (thirsty, too). What to do, what to do…well, I was about to walk over to the bar counter (maybe 20 feet away) and just ask for assistance. Fred, though, would have none of it. His position was that THEY were supposed to come to US. Which is true; but hey, what’s the diff? I wanted a beer, dammit!!! So Fred pulled out his cell phone, called information and got the number to D&B’s. Then he called the front desk; and when they answered, he said “Hey, what do we gotta do to get a drink around here?!” I was mortified. The manager was over to us in about 15 seconds, and I thought were going to get thrown out. But the manager (who was laughing) gave us a free round and stopped the time on the table! So we played pool free the rest of the night.
Buying several more rounds along the way. Fred, I truly do miss you!
My question, then, is this: what other examples of unique problem-solving can you share? Just make them of mundane, everyday-type problems. I don’t want to hear about any Middle East solutions in here…been beat to death on many other threads, anyway!
Those little button batteries…the ones in hearing aids, watches,
etc…they’re sooooo expensive and hard to get cuz they’re all
different sizes.
Recharge 'em!
Take a square 9 volt battery and a paper clip.
Place the positive side of the button on the pos terminal of the 9v.
Unbend the paper clip so one end touches the neg terminal on
the 9v, and the other paper clip end touches the neg side of the
button to complete the circuit.
Hold it till the button gets noticably warm, then let go.
Let cool down, and repeat.
When the button no longer gets warm, it’s regharged.
Notice…this won’t last as long as a brand new button battery, but
it will give you time to find a replacement.
The closest I can come to what you describe is the following:
When I was in college, I would hang out with a good friend of mine. We would often go to the local “Wendy’s” restaurant since it was close. We decided that their hamburgers would really be better if we ordered them without whipped cream. Of course when we asked for our hamburgers without whipped cream, they kind of looked at us funny and then said, “We don’t put whipped cream on our hamburgers.” We would say, “Good, because we don’t want it on them.”
Another thing we noticed was that Wendy’s always had their order tickets for their food out in the open where the public could get at them. We decided to each grab one and write them up with our orders, then just walk up to the counter, give them our order tickets and smile. They again looked at us kind of funny, but filled our orders.
My mother is the Queen of Creative Solutions (though we have a much more Politically Incorrect name for it…), but I can only think of one instance right now…
When I bought my house a couple of years ago, she would go over there and paint while I was at work. After work, I’d go over there and join her for a couple of hours.
I got over there one night after work, and she had started painting the bathroom. I walked into the loo to admire her handiwork…
…and saw mealy-looking brown goo in splotches all over the walls!
What the…?
Turned out she’d run out of spackle, and so had wet down and mushed up some of the dog’s MILK BONES to make spackle.
Eventually, however, we decided that this might give me undue bug problems, so we dug it all out and replaced it with “official” spackle.
auntie em
Unfortunately, Fred Loudner died of a heart attack about 3 years ago. He was working for the downtown Marriott in Philadelphia, supplying conventions with lighting, sound, etc. He was going to a phone to call for some more equipment when he just keeled over. He had been fighting diabeties for years, and it finally just caught up to him. He was 55, and for years was my best friend.
Here’s another solution for spackle…small holes only…toothpaste.
I’m sorry about your friend. But it sounds like he at least knew how to live… some saps walking around here might live to be 102, but won’t have nearly as much fun as Fred did in those 55 years. I know you miss him, and I would, too–but I’ll take quality over quantity any day.
I have called the store I’ve been shopping in when I get no service. I’ve done it in Home Despot, and in PC Richards. They get confused when you say you want to buy stuff, but you have some questions, and then describe a 32 year old 5’11" caucasian male in a particular location in the store. Confuses people just enough to get you fast service. (I’ve never done this to get service before other people waiting, I only do it when I’ve turned invisible to the staff)
I buy shotblasting grit or pool filter sand for the gravel in my fishtanks. 100lbs of shotblasting grit costs less than 10lbs of fishtank gravel/sand and has less dust. 50lbs of pool filter sand costs about as much as 10lbs of fishtank gravel/sand, has less dust, and is sterile. You get some odd looks when you buy the stuff, but it’s the same thing chemically. (looks just as nice too)
