# Snow on the Roof : A Public Service Rant **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 23, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448 "2008-12-23T22:21:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/41 "2008-12-27T04:25:00Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I hit a giant mound of ice from a semi, and it broke the cowling under the bumper on the front of my car. I have thought for a long time that us Canadians really should have a word for those ice and dirt lumps - car boogers, maybe? The consensus in a thread last winter was “car poop”. (I’d link to it but I’m having trouble with Search today.) And right on to those on the “Clear your damned car off!” side of this edition of the weekly winter car clearing rant. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/42 "2008-12-27T04:34:00Z")
> [@Uvula\_Donor](#): > > Poor widdle you, unable to drive defensively, especially when it’s so much easier to scurry off to a message board and stomp your feet in impotent rage. Might wanna check your blood pressure while you’re at it. Wouldn’t want you to have to start a pit thread about your cerebral hemorrhage. I’d pit my reflexes against yours anyday. Just because you wish to be a contrary asshole doesn’t change the laws of physics. Sometimes, things like ice will fly your way while on the road, this much is true. Sometimes you can dodge it, and sometimes you cannnot. However, if you’re the person that makes zero effort to try to remove what you KNOW will turn into flying debris off your vehicle in winter weather, than you are an asshole, and trying to be one. You defending or being one of these people certainly doesn’t make you less of an asshole. Your constant mantra of “boo hoo, widdle kiddies can’t drive defensively” is a moronic meme and you know it. A deer could run out in front of Dale Earnhardt Sr’s car and he may not be able to avoid it. Wait, he’s dead. Oh yeah. He couldn’t drive defensively either. What a douchebag asshole. Maybe he shouldn’t have followed so closely. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/43 "2008-12-27T07:21:15Z")
If you have a whole lotta morons that don’t clean their cars (and we do), that’s a lot of dodging to do. I don’t know if I’d have time for any actual driving, if all I was doing was anticipating flying crap coming off of other cars. It seems to me like an easier solution would be for all drivers to clean their cars like I do. It really doesn’t take that long. ---
**Author:** ![cinehead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@cinehead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cinehead)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/44 "2008-12-27T10:17:45Z")
In Massachusetts, the State Police have begun aggressively ticketing vehicles for not clearing snow and ice. Make me wish I was a cop at this time of the year. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/45 "2008-12-27T13:35:02Z")
I still don’t know what all the rage is about. I’ve seen lots of icy cars but never been nailed with a sheet of ice. I’m either very lucky or it’s very rare. If it’s the problem people here make it out to be shouldn’t there be a cite about the dangers? Car insurance people would definitely have an interest in it. Seems a good way to settle the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/46 "2008-12-27T14:21:12Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Were you walking? Bicycling. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/47 "2008-12-27T14:23:40Z")
> [@Uvula\_Donor](#): > > Poor widdle you, unable to drive defensively, especially when it’s so much easier to scurry off to a message board and stomp your feet in impotent rage. Might wanna check your blood pressure while you’re at it. Wouldn’t want you to have to start a pit thread about your cerebral hemorrhage. You really suck at trying to justify your laziness. Just a heads up. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/48 "2008-12-27T14:24:46Z")
I’m going to apologize in advance, since Portland just got smacked with 19" of snow (breaking records all the way back to 1950!) and quite a lot of it is on top of my van–7’ off the ground. It’s iced in layers, too. I really tried to get it all off but the damned van is 6’ wide x 16’ long and I can’t get up there to get it off of the middle! Getting the cabin warm enough to melt the shit off is gonna be a treat as well, since my blower fan for the heater decided to suddenly stop working a couple days ago. This sucks. Maybe I can go out in the middle of the night to encourage the shit to drop off somewhere that other people aren’t driving. Oh, and ice is bad but I once had a pickup truck I was following lose a 12’ aluminum ladder on a freeway going about sixty mph. That huge fucker came barrelling end over end toward me and there was no place to dodge–I had a concrete barrier on one side and another vehicle on the other. I lucked out like nobody’s business, the ladder hit about a foot in front of my bumper and arced over the top of the van. Didn’t hit me anywhere, but I had to pull about a foot of upholstery out of my tightly puckered asshole afterward. Lesson for the day–bungee cords alone are insufficient to counteract the wing effect of long ladders! ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/49 "2008-12-27T15:02:24Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > I’m going to apologize in advance, since Portland just got smacked with 19" of snow (breaking records all the way back to 1950!) and quite a lot of it is on top of my van–7’ off the ground. It’s iced in layers, too. I really tried to get it all off but the damned van is 6’ wide x 16’ long and I can’t get up there to get it off of the middle! Getting the cabin warm enough to melt the shit off is gonna be a treat as well, since my blower fan for the heater decided to suddenly stop working a couple days ago. This sucks. Maybe I can go out in the middle of the night to encourage the shit to drop off somewhere that other people aren’t driving. > > Oh, and ice is bad but I once had a pickup truck I was following lose a 12’ aluminum ladder on a freeway going about sixty mph. That huge fucker came barrelling end over end toward me and there was no place to dodge–I had a concrete barrier on one side and another vehicle on the other. I lucked out like nobody’s business, the ladder hit about a foot in front of my bumper and arced over the top of the van. Didn’t hit me anywhere, but I had to pull about a foot of upholstery out of my tightly puckered asshole afterward. Lesson for the day–bungee cords alone are insufficient to counteract the wing effect of long ladders! Maybe you could try taking the van to a self-serve carwash and using the pressure washer to blast all that ice and snow off of it. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/50 "2008-12-27T15:10:32Z")
I can understand people in Portland not being ready for this. But the morons up here have no excuse whatsoever. And we’re going to get some more snow over the next couple of days. I expect to hear about a few car roofs caving in from the weight if they don’t do something quick. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/51 "2008-12-27T15:37:22Z")
My apologies for not getting back to this thread until now. But you can see that additude of the exact people I’m talking about. The people who feel they have no responsibility to anyone else on the road. The people who feel they can take a vehicle with what is basically a loaded weapon on it and then claim that it’s YOUR fault if you get blasted with it. The people who feel that they own the road and don’t have to worry about what their actions are doing to ther drivers on the road. Buncha morons. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/52 "2008-12-27T17:36:33Z")
I wonder how many of the people saying that they don’t need to clear the snow off are from places where it doesn’t snow. I’ll admit, in previous years I have been a little lax about clearing off freshly-fallen powdered snow when I’m doing city-driving. But on the highway? Non-powder snow? Ice? Come on. That’s just dangerous. I’ll never forget when a huge sheet of ice came flying off a truck into the windshield of the car my dad was driving on the highway. I thought we would die. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/53 "2008-12-27T17:59:48Z")
I can’t find the case from a couple years ago here in Minnesota where ice from a vehicle killed a man here in Minnesota, but here are plenty of other results from google searches [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22501769.html](http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22501769.html) [http://www.truveo.com/Flying-Ice-Chunk-Kills-Utah-Truck-Driver/id/4224049339](http://www.truveo.com/Flying-Ice-Chunk-Kills-Utah-Truck-Driver/id/4224049339) [http://www.northjersey.com/business/news/15151436.html](http://www.northjersey.com/business/news/15151436.html) Seems simple enough to me. Outlaw it. Ticket it. And enforce it. It is dangerous, it is killing people and it is causing accidents. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/54 "2008-12-27T18:17:01Z")
> [@Uvula\_Donor](#): > > Poor widdle you, unable to drive defensively, especially when it’s so much easier to scurry off to a message board and stomp your feet in impotent rage. Might wanna check your blood pressure while you’re at it. Wouldn’t want you to have to start a pit thread about your cerebral hemorrhage. May an airborne chunk of ice from a truck passing in the opposite direction smash your windshield. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/55 "2008-12-27T23:27:27Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I’d pit my reflexes against yours anyday. What are you, the Whack-A-Mole champion of Buttfuck Illinois or something? > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > IA deer could run out in front of Dale Earnhardt Sr’s car and he may not be able to avoid it. Wait, he’s dead. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Dale Earnhardt. Hey, you know who else could run out in front of Dale Earnhardt’s car? HITLER! _Wait, he’s dead too!_ > [@Jophiel](#): > > Now THAT’S debating! I don’t have to debate in the pit, I only have to point and laugh at the retards. > [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > May an airborne chunk of ice from a truck passing in the opposite direction smash your windshield. Well, if it does I’ll be sure and get right back here to the MOST SMARTEST BOARD ON THE INTERWEB and post about it. After all, it’ll be something I’d have been powerless to prevent, and it certainly seems like there are a lot of simpering, powerless little cunts posting in the Pit to help them feel better about their inadequacies. Cheers, pussies. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/56 "2008-12-27T23:38:22Z")
> [@Uvula\_Donor](#): > > After all, it’ll be something I’d have been powerless to prevent Aha! So you do admit that following distance may have very little to do with a situation like this! Good boy, you’re making progress! And I am pretty good at whack-a-mole, btw. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/57 "2008-12-27T23:47:48Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > I can’t find the case from a couple years ago here in Minnesota where ice from a vehicle killed a man here in Minnesota, but here are plenty of other results from google searches > > [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22501769.html](http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22501769.html) > [http://www.truveo.com/Flying-Ice-Chunk-Kills-Utah-Truck-Driver/id/4224049339](http://www.truveo.com/Flying-Ice-Chunk-Kills-Utah-Truck-Driver/id/4224049339) > [http://www.northjersey.com/business/news/15151436.html](http://www.northjersey.com/business/news/15151436.html) Aww poor fuckin pussies who clearly weren’t good drivers, at least they’re DEAD and they can’t WHINE about it. Seriously, **Uvula** , you’re being a real douche about this, for no apparent reason. What’s wrong? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/58 "2008-12-27T23:49:14Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Aww poor fuckin pussies who clearly weren’t good drivers, at least they’re DEAD and they can’t WHINE about it. > > Seriously, **Uvula** , you’re being a real douche about this, for no apparent reason. What’s wrong? Is **Uvula** normally like this? I’ve never crossed swords with him/her (or hardly anyone) before. I know it’s the Pit and all, but jeez. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/59 "2008-12-28T04:43:59Z")
> [@Uvula\_Donor](#): > > Well, if it does I’ll be sure and get right back here to the MOST SMARTEST BOARD ON THE INTERWEB and post about it. Assuming you’re still alive, asshat. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448/60 "2008-12-28T05:25:28Z")
> [@Uvula\_Donor](#): > > I don’t have to debate in the pit, I only have to point and laugh at the retards. Funny, I felt the same while I was laughing at you 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-on-the-roof-a-public-service-rant/478448.md?page=4)