# Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2022, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380 "2022-09-28T11:33:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 78
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1542 "2023-01-17T12:40:48Z")
I buzzed through the list choosing those items I’d likely purchase. ETA: I could have sworn I’d replied to mmm. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1543 "2023-01-17T16:17:24Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > It is impossible to design a poll that doesn’t provoke petulent replies from people who think they are so special, they defy categorization such no poll ever applies to them. Or that “I don’t remember my dreams” isn’t entirely accurate, even though I don’t remember specifically whether I’ve been asleep inside a dream. For the lucid dreams poll, I answered yes to part one, but couldn’t answer part two, as my true response is somewhere in between. When I lucid dream, I am aware I’m dreaming and can control many aspects of the dream (therefore not “merely” aware). But things still happen unpredictability and often against my wishes, so I feel that falls short of “taking control” of the dream. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1544 "2023-01-17T16:21:07Z")
I’ve been aware I’m dreaming many, many times, but each time, my body takes that as a cue to wake up before I have a chance to do anything cool. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1545 "2023-01-17T16:23:55Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > When I lucid dream, I am aware I’m dreaming and can control many aspects of the dream (therefore not “merely” aware). But things still happen unpredictability and often against my wishes, so I feel that falls short of “taking control” of the dream Huh. I’d totally count that as “taking control” if you can direct the dream in any way at all. When I used to lucid dream in elementary school, I’d come to my senses in the dream, know I could change things, and leap into the air and fly around. BUT, gravity would try to argue with me and try to bring me back to earth. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t directing some of the dream. I guess I should have added wiggle room: I took _some_ control of the dream ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1546 "2023-01-17T16:34:57Z")
Okay, if that is your meaning, I’ll answer that way. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1547 "2023-01-17T19:01:56Z")
For a while I was in the habit of getting up at 6am every morning, even weekends, to go for a run, but an endless stream of viral illnesses has had me crawling out of bed at the latest time possible. Every time I start to get back on track, I get sick again. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1548 "2023-01-17T19:09:55Z")
The shopping list poll was intended to highlight products commonly found in well-stocked American supermarkets that you might notice on the shelves but rarely buy. At least I don’t. What if your shopping list consisted of only those things? Who buys frozen loafs of baked bread? Why would they sell frozen bread anyway? Yet there it is, so someone must be buying it. Also, I just think some of those things are funny. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1549 "2023-01-17T19:14:19Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Who buys frozen loafs of baked bread? You buy it, put it in your freezer, and pop it in the oven when you want it. > [@Hatchie](#): > > The shopping list poll was intended to highlight products commonly found in well-stocked American supermarkets that you might notice on the shelves but rarely buy. With all due respect, why not give _some_ indication in your poll that this is what you’re looking for? ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1550 "2023-01-17T19:17:20Z")
> [@saje](#): > > Sure there is. > > Add in Don’t Care/Doesn’t Apply/Other option(s). But oftentimes a bunch of “don’t care/not applicable/other” responses aren’t helpful in answering the question the pool creator is trying to answer. Real example: Back on Halloween I was curious about how many pieces of candy is a “normal” amount to give to each trick-or-treater among people who give out candy. So I started a poll. I included an “I don’t give out candy” option pretty much only because some people insist on voting in every single poll, and get upset if there isn’t an option that applies to them. “I don’t give out candy” turned out to be the top response. The problem is that knowing that 33% of people who responded don’t give out candy doesn’t help me answer my question. So as far as I’m concerned, the people who picked that answer don’t count. The top _real_ response in that poll is 2. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1551 "2023-01-17T19:19:05Z")
I’m more interested in the visceral response to such a list. How will you respond when confronted with it - amused, baffled, nonplussed? Better not to attach a meaning to it - let’s just see what poll-responders make of it. I will do it again sometime. What would you like to see in the next one? Laundry bluing might be one thing. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1552 "2023-01-17T19:30:23Z")
Since you said “this is your shopping list”, I treated it like a virtual shopping list. I made an imaginary shopping trip, and checked of each item as I put it in my imaginary cart, until I checked off all the items. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1553 "2023-01-17T19:31:41Z")
Now go forth and make it happen! ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1554 "2023-01-17T19:53:00Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I read it as “which of these would you buy?” I read it as “which of these items do you at least occasionally actually buy?” > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > > I must passive-aggressively answer this in a non-useful way! > > Ain’t that the truth! Well, for that one what I meant was “I can’t remember whether I’ve ever fallen asleep within my dreams. I remember some of my dreams, but not all of them; and I don’t necessarily remember them forever, any more than I remember for sure whether I’ve ever had a particular brand of oatmeal for breakfast or been to X store that I don’t go to routinely.” When I realize while dreaming that I’m dreaming, I wake up. I can sometimes, but rarely, get back into a dream I’ve woken up from (not necessarily because of realizing that I was dreaming) and head it in a different direction; but it doesn’t feel like I’m consciously directing it; it’s more that, when I wake up the second time, I may think 'huh, the back of my head must not have liked the way that dream was going, so it woke me back up and then re-wrote it." I couldn’t figure out how to fit either portion of that into the polls. > [@Hatchie](#): > > Who buys frozen loafs of baked bread? Why would they sell frozen bread anyway? Ezekiel bread was recommended to me by a friend when I grumbled about being unable to find multigrain whole grain bread that didn’t have flax in it. I tried a loaf, and liked it. In the winter I bake my bread, and put a loaf or two of each batch in the freezers as the produce comes out, and eat mostly that during the active outdoors farm season; but I sometimes run low, and Ezekiel bread is one of the things I might buy again if running low. I think it’s sold in the freezer case because of a combination of relatively short (if thawed) storage life and relatively slow sales. I might be wrong. > [@WildaBeast](#): > > But oftentimes a bunch of “don’t care/not applicable/other” responses aren’t helpful in answering the question the pool creator is trying to answer. Neither are a batch of inaccurate responses, because people were trying to jam their actual behavior into the poll. And I would take a high percentage of “other” answers to mean “a lot of people are doing this, but in some fashion other than was allowed for in the poll.” I wouldn’t take it as “a lot of people aren’t doing this, but just want to vote in all the polls”; probably a few people do vote like that, but I wouldn’t assume that this accounts for most of the answers. If it’s something I don’t do at all, or have no preference about, and those aren’t among the choices, I just don’t vote. For that specific Halloween candy example: I would just have headed that “For those of you who give out candy on Halloween (those who don’t, please don’t vote)” and then included an “other” option. > [@Hatchie](#): > > ’m more interested in the visceral response to such a list. How will you respond when confronted with it - amused, baffled, nonplussed? Better not to attach a meaning to it - let’s just see what poll-responders make of it. Mildly confused. But I don’t see how you find out what the visceral response is; at least, not from the poll itself. Were you going to do one later on that asked “how did you feel about that poll”? Or were you assuming it would be discussed here? > [@WildaBeast](#): > > Since you said “this is your shopping list”, I treated it like a virtual shopping list. I made an imaginary shopping trip, and checked of each item as I put it in my imaginary cart, until I checked off all the items Did whatever you then made for your imaginary dinner require a cleanup that involved Lava soap and hydrogen peroxide? – my train of thought doesn’t go to any of those people. And apparently, that means that either I don’t get to see the results, or if I’m going to see the results I’ll have to lie and claim that it would go to one of them. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1555 "2023-01-17T20:00:36Z")
Never mind, not worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1556 "2023-01-17T20:10:24Z")
I wonder if the rich couple doing a reverse wedding registry are Hobbits. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1557 "2023-01-17T20:15:35Z")
I had a safety deposit box for many years. But that bank branch closed, and I didn’t bother finding another one. So I moved everything to a fireproof safe I keep in our house. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1558 "2023-01-17T20:31:56Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > But I don’t see how you find out what the visceral response is; at least, not from the poll itself. Were you going to do one later on that asked “how did you feel about that poll”? Or were you assuming it would be discussed here? But the whole point of “Polls only” is mysterious. I assure you, I gleaned a great deal from those product rankings, some are surprising, and they continue to evolve. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1559 "2023-01-17T22:21:17Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Who buys frozen loafs of baked bread? Usually, it’s people who rarely eat bread or folks on a specific diet. While I will eat canned baked beans when in the U.K., here I prefer to make my own from scratch. Jiffy cornbread is just plain handy to have in the cupboard for those times when you think your meal should contain a bit more, but what can I make fast? For a fireproof box, though I once had one, I do no longer on the advice of firefighters. They say store the important stuff in a sealed plastic bag in the freezer, preferably a chest freezer because the often outlast house fires. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1560 "2023-01-17T22:26:34Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > I’m more interested in the visceral response to such a list. How will you respond when confronted with it - amused, baffled, nonplussed?.. Fair enough. Mark me down as baffled. mmm ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380/1561 "2023-01-17T22:47:51Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Who buys frozen loafs of baked bread? I don’t think I’ve purchased a pre-frozen loaf, but i routinely put the sandwich bread in the freezer as soon as i bring it home from the shop. We don’t eat sandwich bread that often, but it’s nice to have around. It keeps well in the freezer. Yes, fresh is better, but we don’t go through a loaf of sandwich bread in a week, so that’s impractical. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380.md?page=77) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-1/972380.md?page=79)