# Sometimes people don't get the bloody obvious **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 26, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562 "2010-08-26T17:57:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/21 "2010-08-26T19:16:21Z")
> [@Haunted\_Pasta](#): > > Well, you shouldn’t have made it so they can type in ranges. A patient can’t have a temperature of 9-8 degrees, you know. I was in Alaska last week. I beg to differ. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/22 "2010-08-26T19:16:42Z")
**Hounted Pasta** , that’s hilarious. It reminds me of someone who wanted to do a sales call with me. We e-mailed back and forth a few times trying to negotiate a time when she could call me. I said “Any time during the day is fine, except between 2 and 4pm.” She replied “OK, I’ll call you at 2.” (It turned out OK, I was pretty flexible, but sheesh.) > [@Folly](#): > > To be fair, after reading that, I’m confused why you bothered to let them put a dash in at all if they’re not supposed to enter negative values. They’re not supposed to enter negative values in most fields on that particular form, but the validation function gets used in many fields on many forms. In some cases negatives are perfectly valid. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/23 "2010-08-26T19:25:38Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > They’re not supposed to enter negative values in most fields on that particular form, but the validation function gets used in many fields on many forms. In some cases negatives are perfectly valid. But what about negative ranges? Ha, ha. Just beating a 3-week old gelatinous horse corpse. I’m with you now. In real life, whenever I overhear two people arguing back and forth like this it’s usually pretty obvious that one person is frustrated because the concept is so simple. The other person is clarifying and re-clarifying because they refuse to accept that point is as simple as it is and that they must be missing something. As it goes on, it just gets worse, because if the point was so simple, why has there been a 5 minute discussion about it already? And as a bystander who can easily see what is going on, it is really difficult to step in and explain, because it’s hard to do without insulting the intelligence of one of the participants. That being said, you’re boss just sounds dense. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/24 "2010-08-26T19:39:07Z")
Yeah, sometimes the concept is not all that simple, but the explainer thinks it is. Sometimes the explainee really is that dense. I remember having a discussion about something musical with Mr. Superdense when I was in music school. I was trying to explain something that was an accepted fact and not open to iterpretation. Like the key of E-flat has three flats or that common time has 4 beats per measure. He countered with “Well that’s not the way I see it.” _headdesk_ ---
**Author:** ![elninost0rm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@elninost0rm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elninost0rm)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/25 "2010-08-26T19:41:17Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > > [@elninost0rm](#): > > > > We have a winner. > > I wouldn’t think of anyone married to my office manager as being a winner. Of the thread, of course. I don’t know…I enjoyed that quip for sure 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/26 "2010-08-26T19:59:28Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Wait. Just hold on. You say gave them the ability to put in negative numbers? But only when it is also part of a range. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/27 "2010-08-26T20:20:42Z")
A couple of years ago a woman came into the restaurant I wait tables at. We had, at the time, a fried chicken salad on the menu. It was pretty big, so she wondered if she could get a smaller version of it, all the same stuff, but only as big as a side salad. I knew it would be tricky to do in the computer system, but I said yes. So I rang in just a small salad for her, and in the system you can type in messages for the cooks, so I just wrote it “make it just like the fried chicken salad, but smaller.” I then had to figure out how to charge her for it…if she had gotten it without the chicken, I wouldn’t have done anything else, but she still wanted chicken, but only half as much… Well, the computer system has a “add extra 6 oz chicken” button, but two problems: 1. She only wanted a half order of chicken 2. That button would only work if ordering a BIG salad and the person wanted more, not on the small salad. The only “up-charges” I could do on a small salad was an “add bacon” button, which was $1, or a $2 charge to make it a “big salad.” Since the add chicken button was like $4.50, I figured the “big salad” button was the best to do, since it was close enough to half. The problem came when I gave her the check…the receipt prints out the up-charges, so she saw that she had a small salad that was up-charged to a big salad. Now, when I dropped it off, I explained to her the situation: Me: Here’s you bill…you’ll see that I added the big salad charge…I know you had a small salad, but that’s just what I used to charge you for the chicken. Her…But I didn’t have a big salad, I had a small salad! Me: I know, but I needed a way to charge you for the chicken on the salad. The regular small salad price doesn’t include chicken. Her: So why did I get charged for a big one? Me: That’s just the button I hit to charge an appropriate amount for the chicken…I’m not charging you $2 for a big salad, I’m charging you $2 for chicken. Her: So if you’re not charging for for a big salad, why is the price there? Me: …:smack: The salad you ordered isn’t a regular menu item, it’s normally only available as a big version. You got a small version, I know that, but you also got it with chicken, which the small salads don’t normally come with. The $2 is just to charge you for the chicken on the salad. She still wouldn’t get it…it was back a forth a few more times, her just insisting she didn’t get a big salad, so why did she get charged for one, and me just trying to explain that I KNOW she had a small salad, but the regular small salad price doesn’t include chicken, and the computer has no way of adding a charge for chicken to a small salad, so I had to charge her for a big salad. She eventually paid, though I still don’t think she understood why…I hope her friend explained it to her after they left better than I was trying to. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/28 "2010-08-26T20:30:52Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > the computer has no way of adding a charge for chicken to a small salad, . If I’d programmed that computer, you could have charged her for the big salad with chicken, and add a negative amount of chicken. But it would have to have been free range chicken. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/29 "2010-08-26T20:36:18Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > Ha, ha. Just beating a 3-week old gelatinous horse corpse. Is the horse on the range? Does a negative horse mean a deceased horse? Why did you kill a horse? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/30 "2010-08-26T20:39:55Z")
I’ll have the big salad, only small, with the horse meat. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/31 "2010-08-26T20:43:13Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > [Is the horse on the range? Does a negative horse mean a deceased horse? Why did you kill a horse? Error: SQL error. (Conversion of string to datatype ranged integer horsey) ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/32 "2010-08-26T20:48:34Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > > [@bouv](#): > > > > the computer has no way of adding a charge for chicken to a small salad, . > > If I’d programmed that computer, you could have charged her for the big salad with chicken, and add a negative amount of chicken. Why are you charging me for more chicken AND a big salad?! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/33 "2010-08-26T20:50:03Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > > [@tdn](#): > > > > If I’d programmed that computer, you could have charged her for the big salad with chicken, and add a negative amount of chicken. > > Why are you charging me for more chicken AND a big salad?! No,no. He’s negatively charging you for a large chicken that you did not have. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/34 "2010-08-26T20:53:40Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > > [@bouv](#): > > > > the computer has no way of adding a charge for chicken to a small salad, . > > If I’d programmed that computer, you could have charged her for the big salad with chicken, and add a negative amount of chicken. > > But it would have to have been free range chicken. Most rational thing said here so far. Thank gawd she didnt order pie. But perhaps she was at an eatery? Or did I just imagine that part? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/35 "2010-08-26T20:53:51Z")
Yeah, I took off 98- cents. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/36 "2010-08-26T21:06:22Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Most rational thing said here so far. > > Thank gawd she didnt order pie. > > But perhaps she was at an eatery? Or did I just imagine that part? But if she ordered pi, you’d have to multiply the bill by 3.1415926535897932384626433… and that would be totally irrational. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/37 "2010-08-26T21:56:44Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > [@Smeghead](#): > > > > Why are you charging me for more chicken AND a big salad?! > > No,no. He’s negatively charging you for a large chicken that you did not have. Well, I didn’t have the steak, either, so don’t you owe me $24.95? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/38 "2010-08-26T22:38:36Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > > No,no. He’s negatively charging you for a large chicken that you did not have. > > Well, I didn’t have the steak, either, so don’t you owe me $24.95? NO, sorry, I billed you for the steak you didn’t have twice at $24.95, then negatively charged you for the steak, so you will still end up paying $24.95. However, if you also don’t eat the chicken that does not come with the small salad, and instead have the large salad with only a portion of the chicken, then we’ll have to charge you a double negative for that portion of the large salad (with or without chicken) that you chose not to have. Just give me your visa card. I’ll work it out for you and add the tip. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/39 "2010-08-26T23:37:16Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > [@billfish678](#): > > > > Most rational thing said here so far. > > > > Thank gawd she didnt order pie. > > > > But perhaps she was at an eatery? Or did I just imagine that part? > > But if she ordered pi, you’d have to multiply the bill by 3.1415926535897932384626433… > > and that would be totally irrational. No no, if she’d ordered pi(e) that would be (whips out scientific calculator)… 8.5397342226735670654635508695466 approximately that is. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562/40 "2010-08-26T23:44:33Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > > [@Folly](#): > > > > Ha, ha. Just beating a 3-week old gelatinous horse corpse. > > Is the horse on the range? Does a negative horse mean a deceased horse? Why did you kill a horse? How come you put in a range of three to week? I thought ranges weren’t allowed anymore and that the dash could only be at the front? I don’t think you fixed what you think you fixed, or the SQL wouldn’t have accepted this post… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-people-dont-get-the-bloody-obvious/551562.md?page=3)