# Discussion thread for the "Polls only" thread (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2024, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636 "2024-02-16T02:56:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 180
**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:** [September 26, 2024, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3582 "2024-09-26T17:03:10Z")
Dagummit. I didn’t think about that. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3583 "2024-09-26T17:26:53Z")
Engaged / married is a really difficult question to answer for a long-term gay relationship. Even the date of our legal marriage varies a bit: some countries recognize the California Domestic Partnership as equal to marriage, some (for example the USA) do not, some still do not recognize gay marriage at all, so how long we’ve been married depends on where we are at the time. That makes engagement hard to calculate, too: exchange of rings back when gay marriage was not a possibility? Moving in together? Deciding to do a domestic partnership? Deciding to legally marry? I usually just count the marriage and the relationship as being coterminous less a day. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3584 "2024-09-26T17:31:54Z")
Also no option for those of us who are widow(er)s. Or those of us who need an “Other” option for “How did you meet?” ---
**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:** [September 26, 2024, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3585 "2024-09-26T17:49:34Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Engaged / married is a really difficult question to answer for a long-term gay relationship. > [@silenus](#): > > Also no option for those of us who are widow(er)s. > Or those of us who need an “Other” option for “How did you meet?” This is what I get for banging out a poll while pretending to listen to a meeting. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3586 "2024-09-26T18:00:09Z")
Meeting slacking? I can respect that. I’ll call off the hit squad. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3587 "2024-09-26T18:37:33Z")
No “online” option for how did you meet? Left that one blank. I chose answers that fit my second (and current) marriage. All of the answers would be different if it was about my first marriage. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3588 "2024-09-26T18:43:52Z")
I don’t remember when I last shopped at Sears; except that it was quite a while ago. And do they still have a catalog? I thought they’d stopped doing it. Maybe they just stopped having very much in it? – Google thinks they discontinued the catalog in 1993; which is a good bit over the 15-year maximum time in the poll. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3589 "2024-09-26T18:54:55Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > I totally forgot about the Rainbow Bridge. You crossed over into Pet Heaven??? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3590 "2024-09-26T19:09:43Z")
There was a standalone Sears across the street from FedEx Field for many years after the surrounding mall had been torn down because they owned the land their store sat on. There was another standalone Sears in White Oak up the road from the old Naval Surface Warfare Center (now the FDA). They both closed years ago. One of those would have been the last one I’d shopped at. I bought a lawnmower, I believe. Which I still have and use. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3591 "2024-09-26T20:28:10Z")
I chose “work,” but we met before that at a professional conference, and didn’t get together while we were then working together. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3592 "2024-09-26T20:43:21Z")
Met at a bar. No option for that, either. mmm ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3593 "2024-09-26T20:55:59Z")
Yeah, tough timing for Sears - Amazon founded in 1994. Sears already had the catalog and could have transitioned to online sales, I would suspect, fairly easily. But I guess their financial problems at that time weakened them too much and they did not have the foresight to see how the shopping world was about to change. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3594 "2024-09-26T21:58:19Z")
Crazy as a loon, dumb as an ox. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3595 "2024-09-26T22:09:09Z")
Smart as a whip, or as some other inanimate object. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3596 "2024-09-26T22:34:59Z")
I like to imagine myself “smart as a whip”. That is probably wishful thinking. My eyes require glasses with strong prescriptions, but I like to imagine myself as “eagle-eyed”, in the sense of “perceptive”, or “wise”. That is probably wishful thinking. I am overweight, out of shape, and eat many things that the health mavens disapprove of. Nonetheless, I rarely get sick, and when I do, it is rarely serious. So, in a weird way, “healthy as a horse” might be the least dishonest metaphor I could apply to myself. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2024, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3597 "2024-09-26T22:46:34Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Yeah, tough timing for Sears - Amazon founded in 1994. Sears already had the catalog and could have transitioned to online sales, I would suspect, fairly easily. But I guess their financial problems at that time weakened them too much and they did not have the foresight to see how the shopping world was about to change. Which is interesting; because they had changed it themselves, originally. You used to be able to get _anything_ from Sears. Up to and including your entire house, and everything you’d need to put in it, except maybe the eggs and milk – though you could get chicks to start your laying flock. People who lived where the local stores were too small to carry much of anything, people who couldn’t get served at their local stores – Sears was a lifechanger, when they first got big. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3598 "2024-09-26T23:14:10Z")
My spouse and I met at a bar - no option for that. We dated for a while and moved in together about six months later. As a gay couple there was no ‘marriage date’, so we always counted the day we started living together as our anniversary date. When gay marriage became a thing we went to the county courthouse and filled out a statement of common law marriage. That document officially claims that our ‘marriage’ started when we first presented ourselves as ‘married’. We put down our started-living-together anniversary date and, by the magic of bureaucracy, we had suddenly (and legally) been married for twenty-five years. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3599 "2024-09-27T02:11:52Z")
I say I am “smarter than the average bear” but my Doctor says my health is excellent, given my age. Arthritis in my knees, and pain from it can be bad, but otherwise not bad at all. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3600 "2024-09-27T02:38:38Z")
Met my future wife the fall of my junior year of college, on a semester abroad in London. Started dating the following spring. Had a long-distance romance (she in Vermont, me in Ohio) for over two years. Started living together the fall of my first year of law school; popped the question on her birthday early the following spring, and got married that summer, just under five months later. Last month we had our 34th anniversary. I’m a very lucky man. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2024, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/3601 "2024-09-27T11:09:31Z")
I bet I’m the only one who selected Eagle-Eyed in one poll and Blind as a Bat in the other. (Eagle: distance, Bat: near vision) mmm [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636.md?page=179) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636.md?page=181)