Overpriced? Overpriced? For taking care of 2,219,789 acres of wilderness, maintaining roads, bridges, trails, boardwalks, warm-up shacks, and visitor centers? For paying the salaries of rangers, interpretive staff, firefighters, security staff, maintenance people, janitors, and naturalists? For providing free campfire talks, brochures, newspapers, and maps? Every time I buy my annual pass, I wonder how they can do it so cheaply–especially when I know there are people like you scamming the system and making everybody else’s passes cost more.
Yeah, I run into people like this all the time. They just don’t understand that the critters in YNP are wild animals. They don’t realize that more people are killed and injured by bison every year than all the large predators (wolves, bison, mountain lions…) combined. A full-grown bull bison weighs around a ton and can move up to 35mph, and jump a 4-foot fence with ease.
Also, if all she was considering right then was the worry about pregnancy, she might not have been thinking about the safety issue. There are other contraceptives than condoms. If she can’t conceive she doesn’t have to worry about them.
True, but in the context of the discussion we were having she was just glad it made it easier for her to sleep around. Even more so considering that (later in the story) it turned out she’d been diagnosed incorrectly and she got pregnant having a random fling. :smack: :smack:
Scene: My office.
Players: Me. Barb, a friend coming by to pick me after work. Ashley, our new receptionist.
Barb, sitting in our lobby: Oh, wow. These chairs are incredibly comfortable.
Me: They ought to be. They cost over 900 bucks each.
Barb: 900 bucks? Yikes. Spendy.
Me: Well, keep in mind the guy that owns us is a multi-millionaire.
Ashley: Owns us? Like, as people?
(stunned silence)
Yes, Ashley, we are slaves. Bought and sold.
Oh, and whistlepig? The guy from NC wasn’t stupid. He just thought you were being a cheapskate d-bag. Not quite the same thing.
A whack of those fees often cover emergency services too, in case you bust and ankle while strolling around and need to be rescued. I’m always amazed at how small those fees are when I think of all the expenses and have no qualms with paying up.
They did some survey when I was a university student. It was somethign crazy like more than half of final year students did not know that the birth control pill does NOT protect women from STDs. I’ll have to look up a cite. It was published in local newspapers, but that was a long time ago. I jsut remember my mom being so aghast that so many “educated” women actually thought that the pill meant there was no need for condom use even for STD protection.
How many people have argued with me, struggling to convince me that Velcro was invented by NASA? They do NOT want to hear the truth: that George de Mestral invented it in 1948.
The roommate had been complaining of a cold. I expressed sympathy in the morning and gave general health suggestions about chicken soup, etc. Then we parted ways until I came home that evening around…let’s say 9? Late evening. It was dark. It was fall, and kind of chilly outside. I walked in the apartment to find:
Roommate in the living room floor, working on a laptop. Said roommate was:
Wrapped in a down comforter.
Snuggled next to her boyfriend, who was warming her with a back rub.
Next to our wall air conditioning unit, set on the highest setting.
Down the hall, the heat is set on 75 degrees F
I responded to this as any sane person would: “What the fuck are you doing?” I turned off the air conditioner and suggested that instead, they turn off the heat first and, if necessary, crack a window instead of using the air conditioner, since it was only 50 outside. I then turned the heat down to 70. This exchange followed, and if I exaggerate a word, may I die in my sleep:
Roommate: “I was sick, so I turned on the heat. Then I got too hot, so I turned on the air. Then I got cold, so I got a blanket.”
Me: ???
[dramatic pause]
Me: “Why didn’t you choose one? Why both? Why not take the blanket off? Or maybe–turn the heat off? Why turn the air on at all? Why not turn the heat off and crack a window?”
Roommate: “But I think I have a fever and it’s bad for you to open a window when you get a fever.”
Me: “That’s because you need to stay warm! You’ve had a fever before? You feel chills. But you’re the one who insists on cool air, and you were just as cold in front of the air conditioner as you would have been beside the window.”
Roommate: “But it’s bad for you to open a window when you have a cold!”
Me: “Anyway, why didn’t you turn the heat off when you got hot, or turn the air conditioning off when you got cold? Having the heat and the air both on is wasteful and they’re probably just going to balance out! And for that matter, if you’re sick with a fever, why don’t you take a shower and go to bed under lots of blankets?”
Roommate: “What? But I have a fever! I’m already too hot!”
Me: “But you were just under a blanket!”
Roommate: “Because the air conditioner made me cold!”
Given my sinus infection, it caused me a bit of pain to hold the mouthful of Coke in while laughing at this, but it was well worth it.
The dumbest thing I’ve heard lately is in a promo for a news series on No Child Left Behind, featuring a sound bite of the president introducing the program in 2002:
How many people have argued with me, struggling to convince me that Velcro was invented by NASA? They do NOT want to hear the truth: that George de Mestral invented it in 1948.
I am making copies of a multi-page property highlight sheet, with many color photos. The last page is a plot plan with the property area highlighted in yellow.
Agent:After you are done copying, don’t forget to color in the map.
Stunned Silence. Finally:
Me: See the photographs? I’m making color copies.
You guys know what contraception * means, right?
The woman was quite correct that she wouldn’t need contraception, given that she was barren.
She was told she couldn’t conceive, and therefore didn’t need contraception*.
Protection against STDs is a whole different matter.
Wonderful thread. Returning to the subject of the chickens on Page Two, the Mesopotanians did not invent the chicken. The modern chicken was invented by Henry A Wallace.
