# Fact IS stranger than fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 30, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282 "2004-08-30T18:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/21 "2004-08-31T19:40:17Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > And some day, I hope to be a part of that majority… Then, and only then, will you be able to fully enjoy “Miller Time”. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/22 "2004-08-31T19:46:22Z")
> [@](#): > > How could he be sufficiently drunk not to notice what had happened, but still able to drive and find his way home? Ah, the standard alcoholic answer to this question is: The car knows the way home. Seriously. I’ve heard that said by many recovering drunks of my acquaintance. Now excuse me while I go send them this link, to further scare the newly sober into thinking maybe, just maybe, they need to try this “no alcohol” thing for a ittle while. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/23 "2004-08-31T21:39:47Z")
There was a similar story a few years ago. I don’t remember a lot of the details (like exactly where and when) but apparently this guy and his gf had been drinking. She leaned her head out the window to puke, and apparently bashed her head against a telephone pole. She wasn’t decapitated, but she was killed. He later said that he thought he had just hit a pothole, and her lack of movement was just due to the fact that she had passed out from the drinking. ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/24 "2004-08-31T23:06:42Z")
Blackouts are funny, but you’re lucky if you can laugh about it after you’ve had one. One time when I was a lowly SrA\* stationed in Germany, I had to work a late shift and then went to a party where there was plenty of adult beverage available. I hadn’t had anything to eat that day, and when I arrived at the party they were just breaking out the tequila. All I could remember for a few days afterwards was saying: “Tequila? I _love_ tequila!” Everyone who had been to the party would chuckle whenever they met me and remark “Chopper\*\*, the things you did! You are \*such \* a party animal!” My response: “What’d I do? No, really, I don’t remember!” And then they would laugh some more. It was several weeks before I could recall telling the lovely, buxom and blonde first lieutenant from our squadron that if she ever wanted to model nude, I could do her portrait (I fancied myself to be a competent sketch artist at the time). I also recalled a lot of other things that would be uproariusly funny if someone else did them, but are embarrassing to admit even now, more than 20 years later\*\*\*. Fortunately, none of those things were illegal or performed with unwilling parties. Still, that one blackout convinced me that[list=a] [li]I’d always better eat something before I drank;[/li][li]I’d better not drink nearly as much as I did that night; and[/li][li]Whenever the tequila comes out, I shut up and go have a beer instead.[/li][/list] –SSgtBaloo \*Senior Airman \*\*My nick at the time. Short story of how I got it: “Why not?” \*\*\*No. I won’t say. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/25 "2004-08-31T23:15:51Z")
> [@SSgtBaloo](#): > > lovely, buxom and blonde first lieutenant I don’t suppose you have a picture? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/26 "2004-09-01T00:38:15Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > Then, and only then, will you be able to fully enjoy “Miller Time”. I just hope it happens before I run out of friends. ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/27 "2004-09-01T04:41:53Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > I don’t suppose you have a picture? 😃 Alas, no\*. –SSgtBaloo \*I’m pretty sure she ignored the offer to do her portrait and I never got a photo. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/28 "2004-09-01T06:47:59Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > How could he be sufficiently drunk not to notice what had happened, but still able to drive and find his way home? I mean, I know there’s this thing about drunks having homing instincts, but it seems rather odd that he’d actually manage to (more or less successfully) operate a motor vehicle if he was so wasted that he failed to notice his friend’s decapitated body spraying blood all over him. Well, it doesn’t sound any stranger than that woman who drove home with that guy’s body sticking out of her windshield. Of course, he died then because she left him to die in her garage, not because she passed out without noticing he was dead. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/29 "2004-09-01T06:59:52Z")
> [@Mama Tiger](#): > > Ah, the standard alcoholic answer to this question is: The car knows the way home. Alas, sad but repeated often. My worst experience with this was an alcoholic girl I knew who once ran over a drunk man walking in the middle of the highway. He was drunk, she was drunk, and didn’t even know she hit something until the deputies showed her the blood, guts and hair in her grill the next day. I’m sure he never saw it coming. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/30 "2004-09-03T16:40:57Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > You do realise the vast majority of humanity manages to enjoy a few drinks without decapitating their friends? Yes, I do, but a large number of drinkers does manage to kill people other ways every day. I have had nothing but bad experiences with alcohol, and I don’t drink. Everyone I know that drinks alcohol doesn’t do it casually or socially. They do it to get embarrassingly drunk. And they think they are having fun when they can’t remember anything from the last eight hours when they didn’t even sleep. Good times. :rolleyes: As far as I am concerned, nothing good comes from consuming copious amounts of alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/31 "2004-09-03T17:00:07Z")
> [@The Great Zamboni](#): > > I have had nothing but bad experiences with alcohol, and I don’t drink. Everyone I know that drinks alcohol doesn’t do it casually or socially. They do it to get embarrassingly drunk. Well, not to be insulting, but there’s something up if _every_ experience in your life makes you immediately assume alcohol = alcoholism. For my 18th birthday I went to the pub with my mates, had a few to drink and we went home and talked and played music through the night. It was great. For my friend’s 18th birthday he got tanked on tequila and spirits and ended up passed out throwing up on the bathroom floor all night with us, his bro and his GF taking turns to make sure he didn’t die. Alcohol isn’t a death sentence, just a mixed blessing. > [@Guinastasia](#): > > Well, it doesn’t sound any stranger than that woman who drove home with that guy’s body sticking out of her windshield. Of course, he died then because she left him to die in her garage, not because she passed out without noticing he was dead. That was a CSI episode, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/32 "2004-09-03T17:50:27Z")
> [@nocturnal\_tick](#): > > Well, not to be insulting, but there’s something up if _every_ experience in your life makes you immediately assume alcohol = alcoholism. I don’t assume that alcohol=alcoholism, it’s just that every drinker I know can’t seem to keep a modicum of self control. It won’t keep me away from trying alcohol when I’m of legal age. I just don’t see the pleasure of a buzz or being smashed, while others do. What do you mean _something’s_ up? > [@nocturnal\_tick](#): > > That was a CSI episode, wasn’t it? Yes, but it’s based on a true story. [http://www.detnews.com/2002/nation/0203/08/a05-435658.htm](http://www.detnews.com/2002/nation/0203/08/a05-435658.htm) ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/33 "2004-09-03T17:58:42Z")
> [@The Great Zamboni](#): > > What do you mean something’s up? I’m just saying that if the people who hang around with are all so irresponsible as to drink recklessly maybe you’re hanging with the wrong crowd, is all. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/34 "2004-09-03T18:34:46Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I just hope it happens before I run out of friends. I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ll get a head of the game eventually. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/35 "2004-09-05T18:20:38Z")
> [@nocturnal\_tick](#): > > I’m just saying that if the people who hang around with are all so irresponsible as to drink recklessly maybe you’re hanging with the wrong crowd, is all. First of all, the “wrong crowd” is mostly my (extended) family, which I won’t stop hanging out with, except for a few that I don’t like for other good reasons. Second, it’s not reckless in the sense that they drink from funnels and crap in their pants. The lack of self-control I mean is they make total asses of themselves before passing out and being ridiculed for it. They think it’s fun, but if that is the best way they can find to have fun, and many enthusiastically admit it is, then what kind of life do they lead? I don’t want that for myself. In the heat of argument, I exaggerated, which makes me a bad Doper :o . I do know some drinkers who know when to stop and when not to drink at all. I respect that. Still many more I know don’t seem to have a limit. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/36 "2004-09-05T22:16:54Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ll get a head of the game eventually. I think the entire problem is getting way too many heads out of the game. ---
**Author:** ![MikeCollins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbce88/32.png) [@MikeCollins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeCollins)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/37 "2004-09-05T22:44:29Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I just hope it happens before I run out of friends. Don’t worry. If you run out, there’s plenty of them that I can lend ya. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/38 "2004-09-07T01:21:59Z")
A bunch of us were just talking about this the other day… ick! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/39 "2004-09-07T02:11:06Z")
Yeah, this story has legs it if it doesn’t have a head. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282/40 "2004-09-07T04:25:10Z")
> [@The Great Zamboni](#): > > First of all, the “wrong crowd” is mostly my (extended) family, which I won’t stop hanging out with, except for a few that I don’t like for other good reasons. Second, it’s not reckless in the sense that they drink from funnels and crap in their pants. The lack of self-control I mean is they make total asses of themselves before passing out and being ridiculed for it. They think it’s fun, but if that is the best way they can find to have fun, and many enthusiastically admit it is, then what kind of life do they lead? I don’t want that for myself. > > In the heat of argument, I exaggerated, which makes me a bad Doper :o . I do know some drinkers who know when to stop and when not to drink at all. I respect that. Still many more I know don’t seem to have a limit. I think this is a great attitude, especially given that you’re still underage. Many young people who have alcoholism in their families have a completely negative impression of alcohol in general, and while that may put some of us social drinkers on the defensive, it’s far better than adopting the attitude of the drunks around you. There’s plenty of fun to be had without alcohol. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-is-stranger-than-fiction/262282.md?page=3)