# People Never Fail To Amaze Me (in a bad way) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 2, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177 "2012-08-02T15:13:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sally\_Mander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/21 "2012-08-04T14:28:47Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > … > Manager: Oh, good. Not my problem. > > WTF? Did she say that because she’s a woman and wont be using the men’s room? Or… WHAT THE HECK DID SHE MEAN BY THAT?! > > Anyway, I managed to clinch it til I got home. As someone who once had to clean up messy bathrooms as part of my job, I’m thinking she was relieved it was in the men’s room; that way she could have a male co-worker go clean it up. If it had been in the women’s room, \*she \*would have had to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/22 "2012-08-04T14:39:30Z")
My flat is a 1958 vintage, a 3rd floor walk-up (4th for those people with no ground floors). Like every tenement in Spain, the common areas are maintained by the HOA; works done in common areas and paid by the HOA, such as adding a lift, need a simple majority of all vote-holders (not just of those present at the meeting, people who can’t go in person need to delegate their vote on someone else). Since there’s 12 of us, that means we needed 7 votes in favor of the lift. It ended up 6 to 6, so it’s a no-go and won’t be put on the table again for a couple of years. Three of the noes include: Two separate people who “can’t afford a raise to dues”, because “I’m already paying too much in mortgages!” Oh sure, we can see how having this flat you got from your parents, 0% inheritance tax because the deceased was over 65 and you’re a child, which you’re renting out (and for which you don’t owe any more money that those dues you don’t want to pay in full) the still-mortgaged flat where you live, the still-mortgaged apartment at the beach, which you rent in Easter and in the summer, the mortgaged flat you bought thinking you’d make a killing on selling it, which has been sitting empty for several years (in one case, one of these; in the other, two) must be a horrible hardship. Just don’t expect us to cry if the bank ever takes any of the mortgaged ones out of your hands, ok? Another vote was an elderly woman who lives on the first (2nd) floor, whose husband has left the house twice in ten years, both times on a stretcher: he’s mobile, but can’t navigate the stairs. When we’re feeling generous, those of us who voted aye think she doesn’t expect him to be able to leave the house anyway (there’s banks just outside, where the elderly of the area sit to enjoy the sun). When we’re not, we figure that she thinks he’s much easier to control if he can’t leave the house. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/23 "2012-08-04T15:22:26Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Where. in. the. hell. do. you. live? FWIW, I first encountered this at ComiCon in San Diego in the '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/24 "2012-08-04T16:06:31Z")
> [@grude](#): > > The shit nozzles that defecate on the floor and walls, or cover the ceiling in wads of wet toilet paper in public toilets. I mean fucking hell, what an amazing use of a human mind and life, shitting on the walls so a minimum wage slave has to clean it up. > > Bravo sir/or madam, you have surely landed a decisive blow against the empire. Years ago the company I worked for had a major client on site with our CEO in our building. I walked into the one men’s restroom in the building to find shit all over the place - smeared on walls, large chunks on the toilet seats, etc. The best part is that I tried to alert the custodian only to get blown off because he was “too busy” (sitting at his desk with his feet up while saying it), then when I tried to alert higher ups that they might need to speak to the custodian and/or steer the client over to the next building, I got warned that I (a project leader) wasn’t high enough up the food chain to attempt to contact a VP directly and I should never do it again. :rolleyes: So People Fail all around. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/25 "2012-08-04T19:45:22Z")
Seen on the local news this week… Woman being interviewed: I can’t believe she (14 year-old daughter) would do something like that (lead police on a high-speed car chase). I’ve been teaching her to drive since she was 3! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/26 "2012-08-04T21:52:50Z")
> [@Sally\_Mander](#): > > As someone who once had to clean up messy bathrooms as part of my job, I’m thinking she was relieved it was in the men’s room; that way she could have a male co-worker go clean it up. If it had been in the women’s room, \*she \*would have had to do it. Ok I have to break out the shit bomb story. My wife was a postal clerk, she had a small corner of a small grocery(local post office was trying to cut back on costs by renting kiosks in existing businesses) when a prominent locally lawyer came in and asked to use the toilet to the owner of the grocery. A while after she left the owner went to the toilet and let out a shout which my wife and the other employees went to check out. …she said it looked like a ball of shit was somehow suspended in mid air in the stall and then exploded… :eek: The owner paid a homeless guy who hung out outside the grocery to clean it up, he took one look at the stall and refused to do any work without protection. They cut up garbage bags and he went in looking like a garbage bag astronaut. The lawyer who was formerly a regular customer never returned, unknown if she had a vendetta or what. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/27 "2012-08-05T02:03:15Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > One time I was on a crowded bus. There’s a seat near the front of the bus reserved for handicapped or pregnant people. A young able-bodied woman about my age was sitting in the seat, and a pregnant woman asked her politely if she (the pregnant woman) could sit there. So the young woman did give the pregnant woman her seat, but then the young woman, now standing, spent the rest of the bus ride bitching to a friend on her cell phone that she had to give up her seat. My MIL used to tell this story about her experience: She was 8 months pregnant with cwSpouse. She’d had a store order her some specialty wallpaper for the impending baby’s nursery, and had gone downtown to get it from the store when it came in (this is in the days before online shopping, kids!). She got on the bus homeward, hugely pregnant and loaded down with wallpaper. A woman noticed her and offered her seat, which MIL gratefully accepted. At that point, a standing man yelled at the other woman, “You can’t give her that seat! _I_ gave \*you \*that seat!” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/28 "2012-08-05T02:23:21Z")
People who come to court dressed as if they were going to a NASCAR race. People who blare their car radios loud enough to be heard down the block. Litterbugs. Drivers who don’t acknowledge when you do a favor for them, like letting them cut into line, with so much as a little wave. Grrrr. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/29 "2012-08-05T02:44:55Z")
I have a friend who brings his girlfriend to a stripclub…the same stripclub where he met his current wife. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/30 "2012-08-05T03:55:17Z")
My husband’s brother is a nasty piece of work. His elderly dad’s AC unit stopped working. His, (Mr. Nasty) mom had died recently and the insurance hadn’t been settled. My FIL, who has always been helpful when any of us needs money, was broke. Mr. Nasty was the only one who could afford the loan. He needed a week to think about it. But, he decided to replace the whole unit. NOT to help his ailing, broke dad. He thought it would be a great benefit to himself, to help keep the house in good shape. Because it would be his to sell one day. He actually told my FIL “You’ll probably die within the next couple of years. I consider this an investment.” ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/31 "2012-08-05T04:21:19Z")
Years ago I worked in a bookstore that was located below about ten stories of lawyer offices. So we got quite a few of them passing through. One night, one of them was looking over some books and bent over to look at something and in doing so brushed his rear against an adjacent display. Somehow (I still don’t know how), the edge of the display ripped a very small hole in his pants. He came to me to inform me of the ‘danger’ of such a display and I apologized and figured he’d be on his way. No. He wanted us to pay for his pants. Three hundred dollars. Long story short, in the end he got his money. I was so angry over that, that it still sticks with me today. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/32 "2012-08-05T18:36:31Z")
The son of one of my best friends never fails to amaze and irritate me. She is on disability and mostly just manages to get by. Sonny not only doesn’t help her, he adds burdens. For example, there have been times when she has had to move, and the people helping her were me and another friend who is also not in especially good physical shape. Three middle-aged half-crippled ladies are shoving furniture around while a perfectly healthy young man is off somewhere doing god knows what but certainly not helping his mother. My friend spent the following week barely able to care for herself, but Sonny is nowhere to be found. He has had the unmitigated gall to ask her for money. He and his girlfriend had an apartment that didn’t allow pets, but they brought in a puppy. They were eventually discovered, so he drops off the dog with his mom. She really didn’t need the added responsibility of housebreaking a puppy. Just recently, he told her he had a brand-new mattress and box spring set, still in the wrapping, and did anyone want it. It so happens we do have one room we are about to set up as a guest bedroom, so we said sure. I should have known better. I was away when he arrived with a USED mattress set that has a strip of leftover plastic around the edge, and told my husband it was originally bought in 2007, used for a few years by various people and was most recently in storage. This after it was already brought into the house. I told this to my friend, and Sonny said he’d come by yesterday and pick it up and take it away. Needless to say he never arrived, so now we have the burden of having to find out how to dispose of it. My friend is desperately trying to clean out her late father’s house so she can sell it. Sonny has half the back yard, most of the garage, and two rooms of the house filled with his “stuff.” He’s generally too busy to deal with it although he continually promises her he’ll see to it “soon.” He is far from lacking in intelligence, but uses it mostly to manipulate others. ---
**Author:** ![richarddean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/97f17d/32.png) [@richarddean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richarddean)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/33 "2012-08-06T06:08:33Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Derf, cartoonist who draws the weekly strip “[The City](http://www.derfcity.com/newstuff/newmain.html)” periodically does a strip labeled “True Story”, in which he portrays somebody, allegedly seen IRL, acting stupid and/or obnoxious. > > He just so happens to have [one such strip up this week](http://www.derfcity.com/newstuff/newtoon.html). Check it out quick, though, as he changes the strip more-or-less weekly (on whatever day he seems to get around to it). The link isn’t a permalink. He does strips like this from time to time. Technically this doesn’t rise to the level of assholery but it is one of my pet peeves and the cartoon you linked to reminded me of it. When there a long wait in line at the supermarket and finally the person ahead of you gets to the cashier, all of her items have been rung up, the cashier has told her the total, AND THEN she goes fumbling through her purse looking for her wallet. I just want to scream “Were you thinking you wouldn’t have to pay today? Didn’t you have to pay the last time? Or the time before that? Or every time before that? Were you thinking that today was free grocery day for you? Couldn’t you have taken time out from ‘The Enquirer’ to have looked for your wallet while we were waiting on line?” In case you couldn’t guess from my reaction this has happened to me more than once. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/34 "2012-08-06T12:59:24Z")
The great thing about having dysfunctional families, you never run out of topics. Let’s see, should we start off with my aunt, who decided a couple of years ago to buy a house above her price range. When her sister asked how she could afford it, she said she couldn’t but the balloon payment was a number of years down the road, and grandma would die before then. Or, one of my sisters. She and her partner live on disability, and they never pay for anything. They’ll meet some new friend and if the friends suggests they go out for lunch or something, will agree to go, and then expect the other person to pay. Then there is my younger brother who thinks that everyone should be supporting him so he doesn’t have to even be bothered applying for disability. He mooched off of mother for years. I confronted him once about how he was treating her badly, and he said he knew but it was her fault for giving in. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/35 "2012-08-06T15:01:47Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > One time I was on a crowded bus. There’s a seat near the front of the bus reserved for handicapped or pregnant people. A young able-bodied woman about my age was sitting in the seat, and a pregnant woman asked her politely if she (the pregnant woman) could sit there. So the young woman did give the pregnant woman her seat, but then the young woman, now standing, spent the rest of the bus ride bitching to a friend on her cell phone that she had to give up her seat. > > I’d also post about what I’ve seen in public bathrooms, but it’s not pretty. I have a handicapped bus pass, but I will give up a front seat for anyone elderly, pregnant or more handicapped than me. When I was wearing a full arm cast, I went into a public bathroom only to discover the handicapped bathroom stall was being used by a person walking back and forth while talking on her cell phone.:eek: I had to tell her “That’s a handicapped bathroom, not your personal phone booth.” ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/36 "2012-08-06T17:52:18Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > Somehow (I still don’t know how), the edge of the display ripped a very small hole in his pants. He came to me to inform me of the ‘danger’ of such a display and I apologized and figured he’d be on his way. No. He wanted us to pay for his pants. Three hundred dollars. Long story short, in the end he got his money. I was so angry over that, that it still sticks with me today. I hate to break it to you, but if a customer damages their clothing due to a condition of your store it is normal procedure that the store will pay for the repairs/replacement. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/37 "2012-08-06T18:38:38Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Or, one of my sisters. She and her partner live on disability, and they never pay for anything. They’ll meet some new friend and if the friends suggests they go out for lunch or something, will agree to go, and then expect the other person to pay. Used to know a guy who would invite people to go places, or accept invitations from others, knowing full well that he had no money, and not saying a word about it to anyone else. I can’t tell you how many times we’d go to a fast food restaurant, everyone else would order and pay, then he’d walk up, order a ton of food, wait for them to tell him how much it was, then turn around and inform us that he had no money. I never paid for him, but other friends did all the time. He asked me to help him move once, promising me gas money. We drove 30 miles out into the country to drop his stuff off, drive back, stop at the gas station, both fill our cars, and then the bastard announced that he had no money for it. I paid for mine, bitched him out and drove off. Amazingly, he was able to come up with the money, so he was fucking lying about not having any. But I’ll also note he promised to pay for my gas up front as a condition of my help and then he pulled this stunt. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/38 "2012-08-06T21:07:53Z")
Recently we took a trip out west and spent a day at Arches National Park in Utah. We (and at least a hundred other people) walked a long way up bare rocks in the blazing hot sun to see Delicate Arch. When we got there, we saw most people climbing into the arch, taking pictures, looking around, then (and this is key) getting down again so the next batch could check it out. However, there were four twentysomethings there that day who climbed into the arch and lay down for a nap! They stayed in the arch for at least half an hour while dozens of other hot, tired tourists milled around waiting their turn. Generally I’m a pretty mellow person and my husband’s the hothead, but for some reason this didn’t bother him half as much as it did me. I said a whole lot of rude things about those kids in that half hour in hopes that my husband would go move them, but he didn’t, and I didn’t, and neither did anyone else (although I heard some other people commenting on the situation as well). I wish I was more confrontational, because I boiled about it long after the entitled little turds had gone. Somehow, the part that bothered me most of all was that it apparently never even occurred to the kids that all these other people had hiked up the trail in the blazing sun for some _reason_. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/39 "2012-08-06T21:18:49Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Where’s that thread about the guy who managed to poop on the ceiling, again? This one? [Another bathroom etiquette memo: Do you have a prehensile rectum?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=80957) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177/40 "2012-08-07T15:27:25Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I can’t tell you how many times we’d go to a fast food restaurant, everyone else would order and pay, then he’d walk up, order a ton of food, wait for them to tell him how much it was, then turn around and inform us that he had no money. I never paid for him, but other friends did all the time. That reminds me of this guy I knew a while back. We would go out for drinks and to eat sometimes. One day, he told me that he didn’t have any cash. That was OK, the place we were going was pretty cheap, and he said he’d pick up the next one. Then he proceeds to get sloppy drunk and tells me how he gets out of paying for things with women by pretending to not have any money, forgetting he was doing that with me that night. I debated just dropping the friendship, but decided to go out once more. Just in case, I left my wallet at home. And, being the dick I am, I made sure we went to a much more expensive place. Then I stopped returning calls. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-never-fail-to-amaze-me-in-a-bad-way/630177.md?page=3)