# Mean is... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 9, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903 "2005-01-09T17:25:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/1 "2005-01-09T17:25:00Z")
Making a big sign that says: **TENT SALE** and puting it in front of the local women’s plus size store ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/2 "2005-01-09T17:50:59Z")
Well, yesterday, I saw a thread called **I need a sewing pattern for a very large bra** next to one called **Who pays the artist Christo for his projects?** Just an unfortunate coincidence, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/3 "2005-01-09T17:52:55Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > Making a big sign that says: > **TENT SALE** > and puting it in front of the local women’s plus size store Oh, cripes. :smack: That’s awful. BAAAHahahahaha! ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/4 "2005-01-09T17:54:42Z")
Mean is _also_: Laughing at old people. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/5 "2005-01-09T18:17:02Z")
Pulling up to a lawncare business at 4:00pm when they’re winding down for the day, getting out of the car, and shouting, **“INS!! Everybody freeze!”** Watch the employees scatter. Now _that_ is mean. 😉 (Of course, the INS is now the USCIS, but how many of them know that?) Adam ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/6 "2005-01-09T18:22:49Z")
From memory- a recent add in our local newspaper classified (The State, Columbia SC) Jack got lazy. Jack got fired. Want Jack’s job? Call ### #### ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/7 "2005-01-09T23:15:43Z")
Several years ago on a raily day a few days before Christams. My friend and I were hangeng out in the parking lot of a shopping certer. There seemed to be more cars looking for parking spaces than there were spaces. So my freind and I started walking around the parking lot jingling our keys, tossing them in the air and making like we were headed to our car. We were very amused at how many cars followed us and for how long. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/8 "2005-01-10T04:48:53Z")
**Mean is …** … placing a load of two-by-fours and a load of kittens into the path of a tornado. … sewing cell phones inside of movie seats and calling them all during the movie. … telling the telemarketer who woke you up that you will hunt him down and murder his children. (At least, he seemed to think it was mean.) ---
**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:** [January 10, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/9 "2005-01-10T06:39:03Z")
…locking my kitten in my room at night and then going to sleep in my sister’s room, knowing said kitten is lonely and wants to cuddle. (But she tracked shit all over my carpet!!!) …wearing my old Kmart vest and nametag to a Kmart out of town and when people ask me for help tell them to fuck off. …telling my little sister that my parents had been perfectly happy only having one child and that she was a huge mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/10 "2005-01-10T06:56:10Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > …wearing my old Kmart vest and nametag to a Kmart out of town and when people ask me for help tell them to fuck off. Yup. That’s. Pretty. Low. But it’s beautiful. **Guin** =hero 😃 Anyone got a Sears vest I can borrow? I’ve got a hyoooge MFin’ beef with them. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/11 "2005-01-10T12:03:16Z")
Mean is a number that typifies a set of numbers or the average value in a set of numbers. C’mon, this is the Straight Dope, you knew it had to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/12 "2005-01-10T15:43:45Z")
…Visiting the retirement home, pretending to be a relative of all the individuals you can get to believe you, telling them that their grandkids are coming to visit in a few days and then leaving for good. …telling a child that their dog died because they were bad. …leaving opened condom wrappers in your room mates bedroom just before their SO gets back from a month-long family trip. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/13 "2005-01-10T15:54:01Z")
Calling someone and claim to be from the coroner’s office. You want them to come in and identify a body that may be a family member. Leaving a sandwich in a refrigerator at work that you have spit in and left the remnants from a recent nose blowing. Yes, someone was stealing sandwiches. The victim threatened to call the police but he would then have to admit stealing something that did not belong to him. ---
**Author:** ![DWToml815](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DWToml815](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWToml815)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/14 "2005-01-10T16:01:51Z")
> [@Roadwalker](#): > > So my freind and I started walking around the parking lot jingling our keys, tossing them in the air and making like we were headed to our car. We were very amused at how many cars followed us and for how long. I love it when I actually get a good parking space, then I sit there in the car and act like I’m backing out. Sometimes I’ll even back half-way out and then pull back into the space, get out of the car and start towards the store. People look kindof like this.–\> :mad: ---
**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:** [January 11, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/15 "2005-01-11T04:30:44Z")
> [@Cinnamon Girl](#): > > Yup. That’s. Pretty. Low. > But it’s beautiful. **Guin** =hero 😃 > Anyone got a Sears vest I can borrow? I’ve got a hyoooge MFin’ beef with them. Well, I haven’t actually _done_ it yet, but it’s always been a fantasy of mine. But the others? Yeah, guilty. Oh-once a bunch of my friends and I got in a fight with another friend, and I came up with the “brilliant” idea to write her a really, REALLY nasty letter. And on the outside we put things like “friends!” to make it look like we wanted to make up…but inside. Oh man, was it fucking nasty. And once I tied my sister to a chair because she wouldn’t leave me alone. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/16 "2005-01-11T13:38:20Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Calling someone and claim to be from the coroner’s office. You want them to come in and identify a body that may be a family member. That happened to my uncle. His son John had a slightly serious fender bender in the little town near their home. So the cops took John inside the nearest building, a funeral home, to calm down. The cops called my uncle and said that his boy was in a car wreck and needed to be picked up at the funeral home. That’s how they phrased it. So uncle was shaking pretty hard when he got there. As he walked in, the funeral director greeted him with a friendly smile, “Hey, Ronnie! how ya doin? Your boy? Oh, we put him over there in the side room.” So uncle walks in and there’s his boy sitting with his head in his hands saying that daddy was going to kill him. ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/17 "2005-01-11T14:04:42Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And once I tied my sister to a chair because she wouldn’t leave me alone. My brother and I once tied my sister to a chair and then stuffed the whole shebang into a closet. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/18 "2005-01-11T16:02:57Z")
**Mean is…** …taking a library security tag and attaching it into your roomie’s backpack causing the alarms to go off everytime he goes in and out of the library. (A friend of mine did that to his roomie). ---
**Author:** ![sciguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@sciguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciguy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/19 "2005-01-11T18:19:46Z")
**Mean is…** Deciding that the amount of abuse and pain you’ve been put through by college dorm-mate over the course of the year is enough to justify selling back their textbooks to the bookstore… … …the week _before_ finals. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903/20 "2005-01-11T20:53:54Z")
Not to be outdone (salt in a fresh wound): Throwing a New Wave party to benefit the victims of the Tsunami [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mean-is/283903.md?page=2)