# Obnoxious, Paranoid Bitch Sues Neighborhood Kids For Bringing Her Cookies...Wins **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 4, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405 "2005-02-04T18:33:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [February 5, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/121 "2005-02-05T05:46:30Z")
Hmmm, now, I’m of Polish-Slovak descent on Mom’s side and we always referred to the _studa baba_, basically any little old lady wearing a _babushka_. I could be wrong, though. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/122 "2005-02-05T05:48:53Z")
For the $64K question, what ever happened to “Just fucking get over it!”? What’s next-sue Taco Bell because you tried to sneak a cheek after a double burrito lunch and soiled your silk knickers? The Bard was right. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/123 "2005-02-05T05:57:28Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > wtf? Did I stutter? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/124 "2005-02-05T10:57:54Z")
At least they didn’t knock on this guy’s door: [http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/C30576/](http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/C30576/) It’s hard to argue against mandatory gun-owner training and licensing with nutjobs like that having guns. (Please don’t further my slight hijack on this topic) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/125 "2005-02-05T11:18:34Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Um, isn’t that [taking a devil’s advocate position when there is an overwhelming consensus and the opposing position is tenable] dangerously close to trolling? Possibly so, if it’s done sloppily and for the purpose of stirring up shit. But when there are two meritorious points of view, and one of them is being acclaimed as the sole legitimate interpretation, it is the duty of any fighter of ignorance to point out the merits of the opposing interpretation. As I explained some time ago, I am in many ways further left than the leftists on this board, but because it is so overwhelmingly one-sided in its demographic, I am prone to join the discussions in which I am further right than the rightists. Anybody can do the me too stuff; I enjoy the challenge of taking the less popular view. And it has been edifying for me. Quite often, I have been presented with compelling arguments that have changed my mind. But in this case, I see no merit whatsoever in the lawsuit brought by this callous woman. It is one thing to experience anxiety, but quite another to make someone else suffer it vicariously. ---
**Author:** ![hill\_o\_beans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4491bb/32.png) [@hill\_o\_beans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hill_o_beans)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/126 "2005-02-05T13:47:10Z")
> [@Tenar](#): > > This kind of goes along with the fact that medical doctors who express sorrow at a bad outcome (regardless of whether it was actually their fault) are much less likely to be sued, while most of them are afraid to say they are sorry because it implies an admission of fault. A sad and vicious circle. Our local paper had an article about this a couple of weeks ago. It looks like (thankfully) this is changing somewhat. Although there are still plenty of medical lawsuits, “‘There is some data that shows the more truthful and open you are with families, the less likely they are to sue,’ said Dr. Kenneth Kizer, president of a patient-safety group called the National Quality Forum in Washington, D.C.” > **[The latest from the StarTribune](https://www.startribune.com/)** > > Follow the StarTribune for the news, photos and videos from the Twin Cities and beyond. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/127 "2005-02-05T15:23:29Z")
Just like to note that the UPS guy delivered a package here this morning. He put the package on the porch, rang the doorbell, and immediately hurried back to his waiting truck. How much do you think think I can get for this outrageous act on UPS’s part? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/128 "2005-02-05T15:25:36Z")
That happened to me the other day with DHL. I yelled out a hello to him. If only I’d known… ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/129 "2005-02-05T15:48:33Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Just like to note that the UPS guy delivered a package here this morning. He put the package on the porch, rang the doorbell, and immediately hurried back to his waiting truck. > > How much do you think think I can get for this outrageous act on UPS’s part? I am appalled! Appalled, I tell you! It could be a bomb! Or anthrax! Surely the driver suspects as much, as he was clearly trying to vacate the area before you opened the package. I think you should be good for much more than $900. UPS has deep pockets, after all. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/130 "2005-02-05T15:50:32Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > The next day? Is a delay like that really plausible? I’ve had anxiety attacks, but they were immediately after/during the event (driving in bad weather, usually) that served as the trigger. If she suffers from anxiety attacks frequently, anything could have tiggered it the following day… or do some people have really delayed reactions like this? It’s certainly possible. What could have happened is that the whole door-knocking incident set her off, making her anxious. As time passed, she kept thinking it over, thinking it over, making herself more and more anxious until it finally just boiled over into pure panic. Also, having several hours pass between the incident and the attack itself could have made it more likely that she would associate her symptoms with a heart attack and not with the incident that actually scared her - “It’s been hours, so I can’t still be scared about the cookies, which means it has to be a heart attack!” Then off to the hospital we go. I have some sympathy for her - I mean, I have anxiety problems too, and it’s a bitch of a thing to have to deal with. I have no doubt that she was sincerely terrified by the cookie thing, because I can see how easily the same thing could happen to me. But you accept the apologies and the compensation, and you go on with your life. It’s not the girls’ fault that she’s sick. There’s probably no way of knowing whether she’s in some sort of treatment for her anxiety or not, but I get the feeling she probably isn’t. And that’s sad. There’s no reason to have to live in fear all the time. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/131 "2005-02-05T15:51:25Z")
Would YOU eat cookies left on your doorstep from the T and E club? The girls are young and had good intentions, but…they have a bit of growing up to do. Knocking on doors at 10:30 at night? Umm. No. Not a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/132 "2005-02-05T16:02:39Z")
I agree it’s not a good idea, but there was no need to sue them over it. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Bitch to have a doorbell. Maybe she should put up a “Don’t knock after 10:00” sign. I mean, what’s next, somebody “glares” at her the wrong way, and she goes to the emergency room, lawyer in tow? ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/133 "2005-02-05T16:09:51Z")
Of course the girls have a bit of growing up to do–they’re 17 and 18 years old! Once the woman figured it all out, anxiety or no, she should have been the grown-up here and realized that their hearts were in the right place. She could have taught those young ladies that lesson she was so concerned about by, oh, actually talking to them. Anyone remember the Eleanor Rigby episode of the Beatles cartoon? IIRC, all the neighborhood kids made fun of mean old Eleanor Rigby until the Beatles showed them that Eleanor was just mean to cover up her loneliness. Then they all threw her a surprise party, and Eleanor melted and was all happy. What was television trying to teach our children? ---
**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/134 "2005-02-05T22:13:11Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > No, I agree with **CynicalGabe**. My father (American-born, but of exclusively Czech ancestry back to at least his great-grandparents) uses _baba_ to mean, more or less, “an old, humorless, unattractive, shrewish busybody”. Not every elderly female merits the appellation, and I’ve heard it applied to women who were younger at the time than I (born in 1959) am now. When Dad tells me about a _baba_, I get a mental picture that’s probably much the same as the one **CynicalGabe** has when he ( **Gabe** ) hears the term. An old witch (in the literal sense of the phrase) would be _Baba Maritza_ (or however it’s spelled). But yeah, that Baba Yaga gets all the publicity… Seconded. My mother and grandmother (Russian-speaking, born in Ukraine) use the term to designate a cheerless harridan. They also use it in a somewhat different sense to refer to coarse and vulgar old ladies, invariably those of an agricultural extraction. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/135 "2005-02-05T22:28:31Z")
> [@sugaree](#): > > Then they all threw her a surprise party, and Eleanor melted and was all happy. What was television trying to teach our children? How to get sued? :eek: These days, no good deed shall go unpunished. ---
**Author:** ![mrunlucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/136 "2005-02-05T22:57:01Z")
Nothing screams “Please prank me!” to the entire local teenage community in this city like this woman, after all this publicity from this ridiculous lawsuit. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/137 "2005-02-05T23:17:02Z")
Is it April already? Will anyone pls. tell me this is a joke? There are no enough :rolleyes:s ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/138 "2005-02-06T01:26:11Z")
> [@sugaree](#): > > Anyone remember the Eleanor Rigby episode of the Beatles cartoon? IIRC, all the neighborhood kids made fun of mean old Eleanor Rigby until the Beatles showed them that Eleanor was just mean to cover up her loneliness. Then they all threw her a surprise party, and Eleanor melted and was all happy. What was television trying to teach our children? But…but…I’m not mean! I’m not lonely! (I do keep my face in a jar by the door, though!) 😉 What _was_ TV trying to teach us? Perhaps that fellowship and neighborliness count for much in this world…\ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/139 "2005-02-06T01:50:24Z")
What kind of cookies were they? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405/140 "2005-02-06T02:01:15Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > What kind of cookies were they? Dunno but I’d bet the next plate of cookies she gets-the chips ain’t chocolate. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obnoxious-paranoid-bitch-sues-neighborhood-kids-for-bringing-her-cookies-wins/288405.md?page=8)