# "Pieces" of You Others Can See **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998 "2004-11-16T03:26:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/1 "2004-11-16T03:26:38Z")
Someone did a thread on this on another board I visit, and it generated some pretty interesting responses, so I thought I’d post it here. Nearly everyone of us who has a job has to interact with other people, but many times the things we make, or the services we provide are something that nearly everyone could see at some point in their life. For example, I’m a machinist, and while I work for a small foundry, we supply parts for a lot of defense contractors, so anytime you see footage of a soldier in Iraq, there’s a good chance that I made some of the gear he/she’s carrying. I’ve worked on parts for Apache helicopters, and the Patriot Missile System, so if you’ve seen one of those, you’ve seen something I’ve had a hand in. I’m sure that there’s other Dopers out there who in their work do things which some of us might have encountered, but not known that there was a Doper behind it. So pull back the curtain a bit and give us an idea. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/2 "2004-11-16T05:26:32Z")
Hey, I like this! For a lot of you, If you popped the case on your computer you might see a piece of me (actually, if there was a piece of me there, your computer wouldn’t work. :rolleyes: ) ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/3 "2004-11-16T05:30:02Z")
If you live in Northern California and had your cat to the vet recently, there are probably pieces of me lodged under its toenails or between its teeth. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/4 "2004-11-16T05:49:37Z")
> [@Pullet](#): > > If you live in Northern California and had your cat to the vet recently, there are probably pieces of me lodged under its toenails or between its teeth. Yeah, sorry about that–my friend’s cat _does_ have a bit of a temper, doesn’t it? 🙂 I work at a large software company based in Redmond. _Lots_ of people have seen stuff I’ve worked on. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/5 "2004-11-16T06:54:05Z")
Hmm, I don’t have much to contribute here, but… If you’ve eaten at Freddy’s or Texas Steakhouse in Roanoke, VA in the past couple years, I may have served you. If you ate at Freddy’s and had a steak, there’s about a 50% chance that I cooked it, since I was one of two people in the restaurant who could do it correctly (and I wasn’t a cook). If you were a varsity high school debater in Virginia in 2000-2002, odds are excellent that we’ve debated. Outside of VA, it’s still possible, as my team has gone to three regional tournaments and two nationals, but the chances are significantly decreased. If you’ve recently been in the Roanoke area, pulled up to a stoplight next to a green Ford Focus, and saw the driver headbanging to what sounded (going by the bass) like “Shout”…yeah, that was me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/6 "2004-11-16T07:00:50Z")
Cool thread! What a great idea. Um…if you’ve called a certain southwestern Louisiana university in the past year and a half, I may have connected you to the proper extension or given you a phone number. A few years before that, I worked in a department store and I may have sold you pantyhose. I hope they fit. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/7 "2004-11-16T07:02:15Z")
PR pieces on the Web, web site content, and watch ads in Hong Kong. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/8 "2004-11-16T08:06:17Z")
If anyone has ever eaten Brunswick sardines, or Beach Cliff, General, PortSide, Port Clyde, King Oscar, No Frills, Millionaires, and more I’m sure I can’t think of… I’ve piled, or checked, or wrapped, or personally boxed off… well, seven years of an individual person’s work worth of those cans, from the year 1996 until 2003. My mother has personally counted each and every one of those cans. My father has ordered each can shipped to wherever it is now. And just recently, add to the list Clover Leaf and Bumblebee brand products. I don’t work there anymore, so I haven’t dealt with anything besides sardines. But as for the rest - my mother counts 'em, my father tells them where to go. I _hate_ sardines. (aka Herring, aka Sild, aka Sardynki, aka Sardinas, etc, etc, etc - we ship \*all over \* the world. I don’t know _why_. But next time you’re in a grocery store, look for me!) ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/9 "2004-11-16T08:31:41Z")
If you own a cell phone there is a 33.33% chance that I help make it. Anything with DLP[sup]tm[/sup] technology I help make. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/10 "2004-11-16T08:43:32Z")
If you happened to hear heavy metal music while randomly going through the HF band, there’s a good chance that it was me. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/11 "2004-11-16T09:33:18Z")
If you watched ABC soaps, NBC’s “passions”, ESPN’s “cheap seats”, “Family Feud”, “Hollywood Squares”, “Who wants to be a millionaire,” or almost anything on ESPN classic with the captioning on anytime over the past two years, chances are I did them. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/12 "2004-11-16T09:40:03Z")
If you’ve ever listened to NPR and heard some gypsy swing playing at station breaks, you’ve heard one of my acts. Hell, if you know what Gypsy Swing is, you’ve heard or heard of my act. If you’ve been to a jamband festival in Wisconsin, I was most likely producing or running it. ---
**Author:** ![MidnightRadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@MidnightRadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightRadio)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/13 "2004-11-16T10:48:54Z")
If, between May 22, 2000, and August 30, 2002, you used VarTec long distance and called customer service for whatever reason, there’s a chance you spoke to me. If, when you called, you asked to speak to a supervisor, there’s an even better chance that you spoke to me. I also took calls for Cricket Wireless from mid-December of 2002 through mid-September of 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/14 "2004-11-16T11:12:53Z")
If you were traveling through Missouri on I-70 between 1998-2001, and you exited at Kingdom City and stopped at Gasper’s truck stop and bought a belt buckle the size of your head and a polyresin pig on a polyresin motorcycle, and the cashier had to stop correcting the grammar and spelling in the religious tracts the born-again janitor kept putting in the bathrooms long enough to ring you up and take your money… …that was me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/15 "2004-11-16T11:13:51Z")
If you played two fairly popular computer adventure games from the late 90’s, or a more recent city simulation game, then you saw something I worked on. ---
**Author:** ![AsecretK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ab992/32.png) [@AsecretK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AsecretK)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/16 "2004-11-16T13:08:16Z")
If you have had a prescription filled at a Military base then I am one among many that routes that claim transmission. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/17 "2004-11-16T13:13:42Z")
If you’ve bought a puzzle magazine from a major publisher, the odds are better than 50% that my name is on the masthead. ---
**Author:** ![AnnaLucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e95f7d/32.png) [@AnnaLucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnnaLucretia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/18 "2004-11-16T13:16:37Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > If anyone has ever eaten Brunswick sardines, or […], **Port** **Clyde** , […] and more I’m sure I can’t think of… I’ve piled, or checked, or wrapped, or personally boxed off… Only barely on topic, but if you’ve ever actually been to Port Clyde, you’ve seen my Grandmother’s summer house - we used to pick sardine cans up off the beach all the time (mostly mangled, as the factory burned down years ago). Actually on topic, if you’ve ever listened to one of the satellite radio services, you have a 50% chance of getting a Hidden Piece of Me. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/19 "2004-11-16T13:19:11Z")
I used to desgin sye-sublimated pro-hockey and lacrosse jerseys (inline hockey too). So you’d see one of my designs on TV, or if you were in the stands wearing a fan jersey, it might have been my work. (I’ve still seen some of my work in sports stores, but it’s starting to die out as teams have changed their look). ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998/20 "2004-11-16T13:20:28Z")
Oo, typo! That should have been “dye-sublimated”. (Who put the “d” and the “s” right next to each other?) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pieces-of-you-others-can-see/274998.md?page=2)