# harmless things that people made people mad at you **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 21, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956 "2013-01-21T23:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956/61 "2013-01-26T03:59:49Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Me to future psyco-ex, on entering a Wal-mart: “I’m gonna get a soda out of this machine. Do you want one?” > > Future psycho-ex: “No, I’ll just have a sip of yours.” > > Me: “Here, wanna sip?” > > Her: “O.K. (sips)- Yuck! Why’d you get root beer? I hate root beer! How could you do that?” I’ve had scenes almost exactly like that with my wife. She acknowledges that as “chick logic,” and recognizes it in herself while still remaining angry with me for whatever I did. So it’s not confined to psychos or exes. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956/62 "2013-01-26T07:22:07Z")
> [@campp](#): > > I apparently walk much too quietly and swiftly. I regularly freak people out when just walking around the office, like I’m some sort of wizard or something, just appearing and disappearing. This happens to me all the time too! Despite the fact that I’m taller than most of the other women at work and a good deal heavier no one hears or sees me coming. I’ve been considering wearing a bell around my neck. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956/63 "2013-01-26T22:01:41Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > When I was about 10 years old in English class the teacher wrote a sentence on the board and I asked if it should have an exclamation point at the end. She absolutely flipped out at me. I felt embarrassed and humiliated in front of the whole class. Never quite got over it. Bizarre - what was her supposed reasoning for being mad about that? ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956/64 "2013-01-26T23:45:49Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Bizarre - what was her supposed reasoning for being mad about that? Basically i think she was under the impression that I was trying to correct her (I wasn’t, I was just asking if it was a suitable place where an exclamation mark could be used), and how dare I. Well I learned one thing; you just kept your mouth shut and listened in Mrs Wright’s English class. Bitch. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956/65 "2013-01-27T01:00:57Z")
I had a similar experience with a teacher. We were reading a story which mentioned a Major Mitchell cockatoo, which, the teacher explained to the class, were the common white cockatoos with a yellow crest, that we’d all seen before. I corrected her. Quite nicely, I think, for an eight-year-old bird nerd, with a tour guide for a father. I told her, no, the white yellow-crested birds were sulphur-crested cockatoos, obviously, and that the [Major Mitchell](http://www.ozanimals.com/Bird/Major-Mitchell's-Cockatoo/Cacatua/leadbeateri.html) was the much rarer pink cockatoo, with a red, yellow and white crest. Well, of course, she was the teacher, so she was right, and no argument would convince her otherwise. I was crushed. I brought a field guide in the next day and showed her, and she did eventually admit her error - but only to me, in private, not in front of the rest of the class. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956/66 "2013-01-27T03:34:50Z")
I got tired while shopping with a friend in Beijing and sat down on the curb (it was a pedestrian-only area) to rest my feet for a minute. Sitting on the curb is apparently not allowed in Beijing, because within 5 seconds a very irritated-looking Public Security officer began striding toward me, shaking his head and gesticulating at me to get up. There might have been some kind of verbal explanation, but it was in Mandarin so I didn’t understand it. Having seen our tour bus get pulled over and the driver immediately hauled off and arrested by Beijing Public Security two days earlier for no readily apparent reason, you’d better believe I quickly complied with the officer’s order. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harmless-things-that-people-made-people-mad-at-you/647956.md?page=3)