Posted this link.
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001826.html
“The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.” - Humphrey Bogart
BurnMeUp,
Yep, sure did. It’s not a life I would recommend. Unless you are where I was at the time. No education to speak of, 18 years old with no life at all ( my husband had just killed himself after we were married for four months) nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. Then I guess it beats living under a bridge, but not by much.
It is a whole diffrent type of life, but I can say that for the most part carneys stik together. If the weather is good and your boss is decent you can sleep under a ride or in your “joint” ( game tent, concession stand, whatever ). If not it’s not unusual to find up to 10 people sharing a double room in a cheap motel. If a room is rented everyone chips in with the cost,(the pay sucks, and sometimes your boss takes out a fee for “getting you over the road,” (transportation) even if they don’t do that) and you can get a friend to let you shower there, otherwise it’s a old hose bath on the lot , not fun !
Am I sorry I did it ? Nope.
Would I do it again ? Only if I were starving to death, and even then only if I had a car and a camper !
Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread.
Ayesha - Lioness
You sound reasonable. Must be time to up my medication.
My sixth grade science lab was doing an experiment to show that mixing baking soda with hydrochloric acid would create an explosive gas. After the two indrediants were added into the beaker, we placed a burning piece of wood into the beaker with forecepts.
Well, nothing happened with my beaker, so I looked down the opening to see…well, I’m not sure what the fuck I was hoping to see.
I’m lucky I can see now.
I can also tell you that burnt nose hairs smell really, really bad.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
Okay, a number of years ago, I am not going to tell you how many. I was going to fire up the gas grill for a cookout. I did not want to clean the rack so I decided to put aluminum foil on it and cook on that. Now I knew that after the grill was lit that putting the foil on would be difficult due to the heat, so I put it on first. Then I turned the gas on a proceeded to try and light the grill with the starter.
The starter did not light right away and by the time it did there was a considerable amount of gas that had built up. When it did ignite, a fire ball shot out from under the foil and burnt my hair, eyebrows, and mustache. They did not catch fire, just singed them.
Then I had to go in the house and try not to let others see what had happened. The smell alone would likely give it away. I went to the bathroom and washed off all the singed hair and tried to clean it up as best I could.
Never trap the gas with anything and then light it.
Jeffery
I think one of the most stupid things I’ve ever done would have be getting stuck on the roof at 6 AM, in drizzle and near freezing weather. It took two hours before my family heard my pathetic cries for help. No one has allowed me to forget it.
I’m sure there are more painfully stupid things I have done, but I seem to have blocked them from my memory.
-Lanna
StrTrkr777:
I did the singed hair with an oven. We had to light it with a match taped to a stick. Some gas had built up. Singed arm and eyebrows.
trusted someone I really shouldnt have with something very precious to me. I learned though
Me?? an asshole?? You better believe it!
Heather Lee
XheatherleeX@aol.com
Lanna, I almost hate to ask, but… what were you doing on the roof? At 6 AM?? In the freezing rain???
Sorry, but… inquiring minds have to know!
Oh, and by the way, I’m a sophomor in high school, so that was Chem 1, not AP or University.
SanibelMan
“A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.”
– Henry David Thoreau
And I do know how to spell sophomore.
STUPID MISTAKE #1
One time a person posted a question in GQ asking for information about a particular company. I knew most of the answers to his OP and I replied. I also posted a link to the company, telling the OP that he could go there for more information. Ends up that I pissed off the moderator because he doesn’t like the company and he deleted my entire post.
STUPID MISTAKE #2
One time after being chastized and having my post deleted for posting a link to a company, I reposted the post with the company name (12 letters) x’ed out between the www and the .com
Low and behold, it just happened to be a valid link to some kinda porn site which gave someone who hates me anyway a reason to ban me.
Stupid mistake on my part.
Martyr #7
Funny story that… Of course, I mean “funny” in the God-I-am-such-a-dolt sort sense, though I suppose my oh-so-suave ways may provide amusement for some. Just not me.
It was about 5 AM, and I hadn’t slept for over 30 hours. Realizing there was no point in sleep at that hour, and finding nothing to do inside, I decided to go wander about in the backyard. Once I was out there, I noticed one of our cats on the roof of our guesthouse. That led to thinking about what a great view I would have of the sunrise from there, and that thought led to, “Hey! Why don’t I get up on the roof?” With my book in tow, I set up our old, rickety wooden ladder and climbed on up.
(You would think that I would at least have used the sturdy metal one, but well, I didn’t. I tend not to think things through, if I really think about them at all…)
Once up on the roof, I realized two things: 1) Wow, I really do have a great view! and 2) Fuck. I positioned the ladder in such a way that I can’t use it to climb back down.
Then it started to drizzle. Twenty minutes later, I had lost all sensation in my fingers and toes. However, I did NOT want to call for help just then. So, I stuck it out another 40 minutes. By six though, I had come to terms with the fact that there was no way in hell I’d be able to get down, and even though everyone would tease me, I should probably bellow for help. And bellow I did. For two hours. My parents, in the house a good 100 feet away, and on the second story, couldn’t hear my pathetic whimpering, nor my more frantic, louder pleas.
Only when my dad woke up to put another cat out did her hear some little voice saying, “Mom…? Daddy…? Mo-om? Dad? Help… I’m stuck… One the roof… Guys? C’mon… it’s cold… Help… Mom…” and because only I could get myself in such a predicament, he looked out the window. There I was. He just stood there and laughed for a few minutes before coming out to help me.
So there you have it. The long-winded story of how I managed to get stuck on the roof… High quality reading, I’m sure.
-Lanna
Actually, it was pretty funny 
Dreary story, but the most life-threateningly stupid thing I ever did was a couple of years ago, waiting and waiting and waiting to call an ambulance during an asthma attack until – after it finally got into my hypoxic little brain that I’d better do something – by the time the paramedics arrived I was ready to go into respiratory arrest, which I did shortly thereafter. I woke up in intensive care five days later.
Ordinary day-to-day stupid? Driving around on a suspended license in a car with two-year-old tags. Also going out a second time with the guy who abandoned me on the first date to take a long walk on the beach with another girl (I was young, romantic and an idiot.)
Catrandom
I got up with a headache. MTV was ok for 5 minutes, but these last two posts have been entertaining. Still have headache. Will drink tea.Go back to bed. Lay awake.
And what’s the stupidest thingyou’ve ever done, sunbear?
Hmmmmmm?
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
Way back a LONG time ago, in my very first martial arts class I kicked myself in the face splitting open my lip. Required a visit to the hospital and several stitches.
How is this possible you ask? Come on, go ahead ask …
Well since you asked, being a youngin’ I was flexible and being a green martial artist I didn’t know not to tuck my head forward while doing a front kick. All you MAs out there know what I am talking about.
What more could you expect from somebody who lets people kick him to the head?
Wait I have another one.
When I was in my teens living in the frozen wasteland of Canada our front door was frozen shut. Being the clever little doobie I decided to put my shoulder up against it and push it open.
Well, that’s not so dumb … except the door was made of glass. UGH … me have purty scar on shoulder where me put a rather nasty gash (another trip to the hospital).
Wait I have another one.
I once actually tried to break a sheet of iron (2 years ago in fact). It was 1/8" x 16" x 12". It did not break. It did bend somewhat (maybe a inch or so). It did severely injure my hand (another trip to the hospital).
Wait, I have another one.
I once told my instructor that he couldn’t really choke me out. I was wrong. Didn’t have to go to the hospital though. Yay!!!
Important safety tip (thanks, Egon):
If you are, hypothetically speaking, trapped in a car waiting for someone running an errand, and a giant eyelash falls in your eye and removal of your contact lens is imperative, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT attempt to rinse the lens with 7-UP and put it back in your eye.
Save this thread!Do something stupid, report back!
The stupid things I have done are…legion. There are far too many to pick from, but here is a particular favorite: I went looking for the outdoor pool on the roof of a hotel, saw it was CLOSED for the season, and discovered to my utter horror the door leading to the roof was self-locking and had slammed shut behind me. I was locked out, alone on the roof of a 15 story building, at night. I nearly shat, luckily family members had followed me and opened the f***ing door.
Of course, zipping yourself inside a bean bag chair at age 3 also counts.