# 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:** 408
**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:** [August 21, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8142 "2025-08-21T17:13:05Z")
Back about 45 years ago, my work supervisor’s license plate was 4TRAN4. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2025, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8143 "2025-08-22T04:05:41Z")
I forgot to include “pink” in the lint poll. I have a feeling it would have ranked highly. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2025, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8144 "2025-08-24T00:31:50Z")
All life is built out of death. Soil’s fertile because so many things have died in it. And life is continually being produced out of death. I don’t find this horrific; though some methods of death certainly are. (And we’re not at the top of the food chain, however much we like to think we are. We’re in the middle of it, like everything else. There are lots of things that eat humans, sooner or later; it’s just that most of them are tiny.) ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8145 "2025-08-24T12:03:44Z")
The “food chain” is not horrific, it’s just Life. Man has turned the basic instinct to live (which is much more about passing on genetics than anything else) into something nature never really intended. Life should be enjoyed, while we can, but death is not the great evil. Everything dies, some just more unpleasantly than others. Mother Nature is not kind, for the most part. Animals have an advantage over humans in living in the present - they worry about death only when it appears imminent. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8146 "2025-08-24T13:38:47Z")
Our glasses are tapered so every other one is stored upside down so they kind of nest together taking up less space in the cupboard. [![](https://assets.katomcdn.com/q_auto,f_auto/v1666023374/products/075/075-77422/075-77422.jpg) ](https://assets.katomcdn.com/q_auto,f_auto/v1666023374/products/075/075-77422/075-77422.jpg) ---
**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:** [August 24, 2025, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8147 "2025-08-24T13:41:48Z")
Interesting. I included an “other” option in the poll even though I could not think of what that might entail. Now I know. mmm ---
**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:** [August 24, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8148 "2025-08-24T13:42:55Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Our glasses are tapered so every other one is stored upside down so they kind of nest together taking up less space in the cupboard. > [https://assets.katomcdn.com/q\_auto,f\_auto/v1666023374/products/075/075-77422/075-77422.jpg](https://assets.katomcdn.com/q_auto,f_auto/v1666023374/products/075/075-77422/075-77422.jpg) Voted other because I do the same thing. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8149 "2025-08-24T14:03:25Z")
I store most of my drinkware open side up, and considered voting that. But i have a few glasses that are similarly tapered, and store them alternating up and down. So i voted that it depends on the drinkware. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8150 "2025-08-24T14:04:03Z")
Thank you for that “other”. Other is such a useful option, even though it wasn’t my choice this time. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8151 "2025-08-24T15:17:15Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Other is such a useful option, even though it wasn’t my choice this time. Indeed, Other is often so useful. As for glassware, we sometimes get bursts of pantry moths, so we put them open side down. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8152 "2025-08-24T19:04:19Z")
> [@saje](#): > > The “food chain” is not horrific, it’s just Life. Right. It is the “Circle of Life” so there were no good answers to the polls. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8153 "2025-08-24T19:56:40Z")
The Circle of Death, also. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8154 "2025-08-24T21:41:59Z")
I have striven to put in my prototypical NOTA option in almost all of my more recent polls, but there are some topics where there _is_ no wriggle room. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8155 "2025-08-24T22:08:55Z")
There have been a lot of polls that needed an other, but there is the occasional poll where it wouldn’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8156 "2025-08-24T23:37:01Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > The Circle of Death, also. Ture, I cant argue there. Sometimes “other” is a good choice” but not always. Especially if the poll is badly designed or just silly, ---
**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:** [August 24, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8157 "2025-08-24T23:51:37Z")
If the poll is poorly designed or just silly, that seems to me to be an ‘other’ answer. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8158 "2025-08-25T00:06:33Z")
I mean, a poll asking if you still beat your children is either “yes” or “no”. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8159 "2025-08-25T00:43:44Z")
That’s definitely an ‘other’. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8160 "2025-08-25T00:45:43Z")
I rarely include Other because it dilutes the outcome. If you don’t eat cheese, why would you vote in a cheese poll? ---
**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:** [August 25, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636/8161 "2025-08-25T02:53:52Z")
Well, what if you asked about people’s favorite cheese, and you left out the types of cheese that cheese lovers liked the most? Because that’s the typical problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636.md?page=407) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-thread-for-the-polls-only-thread-part-2/997636.md?page=409)