# Does anyone, ever, in real life....... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948 "2016-09-14T17:34:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/41 "2016-09-15T04:13:36Z")
I’ve thrown things, slammed doors, and slammed my hand down on tables (once leaving a bruise on my hand for a few days). Never swept stuff off a desk, though. BTW, counseling and anti depressants helped my anger management issues. My idiot brother punched a hole in the wall when he was maybe 20. In a separate incident around that time, my dad grabbed my idiot brother by the shirt, lifted him off the floor, pinned him to the wall with his feet dangling, and screamed at him. Didn’t help. Brother was an idiot then and is still an idiot more than 30 years later. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/42 "2016-09-15T04:53:17Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#): > > I saw a young couple in the supermarket once, who were apparently having an argument. The woman was calm and speaking normally so that I could not hear her. But the man could be heard from many aisles away, and he was shouting and randomly smacking stuff off the grocery shelves. He didn’t clear a whole shelf though. > > I was torn between getting the hell away from them, or offering the woman safe haven. Spoiler alert: I’m a wuss. If I witnessed something like this, I’d call the police. I’m surprised the management didn’t throw him out for damaging merchandise - or did they? There used to be a small African grocery in my town, owned by a woman of Nigerian descent, that stocked a few items you couldn’t get at any other grocery store around here. She gave a presentation a while back about life where she came from, and how some of the new immigrants don’t understand that We Do Not Abuse Women And Get Away With It In This Country. One story I remember was how a man drove his wife to the store to get groceries, which included a 50-pound bag of rice, and then refused to help her carry them to the car, because in their culture, men didn’t involve themselves with food preparation on any level except maybe transportation because she wasn’t allowed to drive. She wanted to call the police on him because of the way he was talking to her, but she knew that if word got out in the local African immigrant community that she did that, she would lose their business, and saw someone out on the sidewalk who did it anyway. p.s. I replied that unfortunately, I had witnessed men who were obviously American (regardless of race) acting this way, more than once. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/43 "2016-09-15T06:28:17Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > . . . my dad grabbed my idiot brother by the shirt, lifted him off the floor, pinned him to the wall with his feet dangling, and screamed at him. . . . I picked my dad up, held him over my head, spun him around a few times…and lowered him gently to the grass. I started out mad, but after only a second or two, it turned funny. (He’d just startled me very severely!) By the time it ended we were both on the grass, laughing our lungs out. One of the best “saves” I’ve ever had in my entire life. It started out horribly badly…and turned completely okay in the end! ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/44 "2016-09-15T11:27:14Z")
I had a neighbor who went off his medication and wrecked his house in a fit of rage. He broke almost every window, threw furniture into the yard, and smashed his truck into the garage door until the door buckled. Domestic disputes have a lot of this stuff. Taking bats to cars, throwing possessions on the lawn, punching holes in walls, that sorta thing. Never heard of a table clear exactly, unless you count flipping a table. I’ve known gamers who got so frustrated they threw the controller on the ground and broke it. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/45 "2016-09-15T12:40:31Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Yes, it happens. I had a boss who would lose his temper fairly often. Sweep things off the desk, throw things at the wall, yell death threats. Good times, good times. I had a boss once with anger management issues. One time he had a couple of cash registers sitting at the top of the stairway going down to the basement. When he bent down to pick up one of the registers he split his pants, which pissed him off so much he kicked the cash register down the stairs. And a friend of mine once related a story about a fight with his soon-to-be ex wife, which he called “the bikini/Coke glass debacle”, where she started throwing his collection of classic Coke glasses at him. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/46 "2016-09-15T12:48:35Z")
The one that always gets me is the thrown cell phone upon the receipt of bad news or a rejection. They would have to be one of the more expensive easily destroyed personal possessions but I have never seen one thrown in real life. I have seen plenty of other tantrums though including sweeping things off tables and shelves. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/47 "2016-09-15T13:30:31Z")
A friend of my parents’, whom I’ve known all my life, used to have anger issues when he was young. When I was a little kid I remember him getting mad, but I didn’t witness the outrageous stuff. I’m told that he and his wife had a low-hanging chandelier in their bedroom (no idea why, except it was the '70s). He hit his head on it one too many times, and he grabbed the fixture and yanked the entire thing out of the ceiling. Wound up being a costly repair. Another time, he was trying to make some repair under the kitchen sink, and kept banging his head on the underside of the sink. He finally went into a rage, and took his pipe wrench and beat the sink so severely it couldn’t be used. Another costly repair. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/48 "2016-09-15T14:15:05Z")
In the distant past before everything was done on digital devices, I would occasionally catch student workers playing games or working on class assignments when they were supposed to be doing actual work. For first offenses I usually just swept everything off the table so they would have a mess to clean and ordered them back to work. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveroptic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiveroptic/32/8257_2.png) [@Fiveroptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveroptic)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/49 "2016-09-15T14:52:42Z")
Really? And I would have immediately gone to HR to report you for intimidation and physical harassment, both greater offenses than slacking on the job. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/50 "2016-09-15T17:41:14Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > The one that always gets me is the thrown cell phone upon the receipt of bad news or a rejection. They would have to be one of the more expensive easily destroyed personal possessions but I have never seen one thrown in real life. I have seen plenty of other tantrums though including sweeping things off tables and shelves. I have. Back in the days of flip phones being a fairly new thing, I was at a gas station, and a guy in the parking lot screamed some very bad words and then slammed the phone to the ground, where it shattered. He then said, in so many words, “My $%^&ing wife!” :dubious: :eek::mad: Time to get divorced, regardless of what happened. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/51 "2016-09-15T22:02:48Z")
> [@Fiveroptic](#): > > Really? And I would have immediately gone to HR to report you for intimidation and physical harassment, both greater offenses than slacking on the job. Really, you would prefer I exercise my supervisor’s right (at will work state) and fired you immediately for playing on the job rather than pick up some scattered Settlers of Catan cards? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/52 "2016-09-15T22:59:44Z")
> [@OffByOne](#): > > Or sweep everything off of a desk so that impatient sex may begin. Or lock eyes and immediately grab one another in a fiery embrace?! Or look at a gun that has run out of ammo and thrown it away – this thing is useless! ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/53 "2016-09-16T01:15:32Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Really, you would prefer I exercise my supervisor’s right (at will work state) and fired you immediately for playing on the job rather than pick up some scattered Settlers of Catan cards? In your state/organization, are managers allowed a range of disciplinary tactics, or are the only options immediate termination and puerile tantrum? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/54 "2016-09-16T01:29:36Z")
Recently I came home and tossed a small bag of trash into my garbage can, the noise startling one of the neighboring cats who was behind it into running away. Oddly, he did so in silence, without the indignant _MREE-REEOOW!!!_ that years of film and television had led me to expect. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/55 "2016-09-16T03:55:08Z")
When I was really little, my parents had this ugly brown wall clock that always reminded me of a sun because it had plastic rays coming off it; imagine [this](http://thumbs3.picclick.com/d/w1600/pict/231998938630_/Junghans-Starburst-brass-wall-clock-electronic-ATO-MAT-S.jpg) in all brown plastic. My childhood best friends’ (two brothers) parents had one just like it too - until their mom yanked it off the wall and threw it at their dad. My mom said their mom used to throw things at their dad all the time. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/56 "2016-09-16T13:33:09Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > In your state/organization, are managers allowed a range of disciplinary tactics, or are the only options immediate termination and puerile tantrum? A full range of disciplinary tactics are available (many of which involve losses of pay). Over the years I’ve discovered that dumping the board games or books on the floor along with a stern, “When there’s work to be done, we expect you to do your jobs,” is actually the most effective. There’s something about the physical act of picking up all the scattered cards that seems to leave a more lasting impression on late adolescent/early twenties males. Maybe it’s an alpha dog thing? Maybe it reminds them of their mothers making them clean their rooms? But I rarely have to do it twice or resort to further disciplinary actions. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/57 "2016-09-16T13:56:25Z")
We once had an employee in a fit a rage turn over the Boss’s desk onto the Boss. Then he went to his desk and started working like nothing happened. I had to call the cops to get him out of the office, and an ambulance to take the Boss to the hospital. Full day, that. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/58 "2016-09-16T14:08:19Z")
Does anyone ever really laugh diabolically as they throw the switch or otherwise set the wheels of a slow, torturous death into motion? ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/59 "2016-09-16T14:30:59Z")
I knew someone who used throwing things as a parenting method. If her daughter was slow putting her clean clothes away, for example, the mom would trash the girl’s room. She’d sweep everything off flat surfaces and dump all the drawers onto the floor, then she’d make her daughter clean up the mess. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948/60 "2016-09-16T15:28:16Z")
> [@jehan](#): > > Or sit bolt upright in bed when waking from a nightmare? My husband did this once. Scared the crap outta me! He had a very realistic dream that his dad had died, and it took everything I had to persuade him not to call his dad till morning. His dad is still alive and kicking at 86. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-ever-in-real-life/765948.md?page=4)