# Stuff that has happened to you that you are pretty sure that no one else has experienced. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 10, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449 "2015-01-10T00:35:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/81 "2015-01-12T21:53:00Z")
I was in a multi-vehicle accident in which my car was hit by an airborne boat. I might not be the only one, but I have to think it’s pretty rare. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/82 "2015-01-12T22:31:22Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I was attacked from behind by a Goshawk. Also, bitten by a penguin. Not in a zoo. Stung by a stingray too. Have you considered trying to develop some indoor hobbies? ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/83 "2015-01-12T22:37:26Z")
> [@glee](#): > > - had an elephant tread on my foot (it was only a baby one at a zoo and no harm done)… Back in the '70s at the zoos it was common to be able to touch and feed many of the big animals, elephants, giraffes, and such. On a kindergarten field trip when I was 5, I had my back turned to the giraffes, and one of them picked me up by the backpack, threw me to the ground, then stole my lunch out of my backpack. So “attacked by giraffe” is my contribution to the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Kane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Kane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Kane)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/84 "2015-01-12T23:51:07Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Walking down the street early in the morning with my mother and my sister, a large man was shambling down the street toward us. He was a complete stranger to all of us. As he passed me, without breaking stride, he punched me in the mouth, splitting my lip. That sounds nasty. A similar thing happened to me. But instead of punching me, he just shouted “fruit and sawdust!” It still boggles my mind to this day. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/85 "2015-01-13T00:45:17Z")
I pretty much stared down a brown bear in Yosemite that wanted my pack. 1976, summer backpack from the valley to Tuolomie Meadows. Overambitious, and we didn’t anticipate snow that late in the season. Anyway, after a long day’s pack, we stopped at one of the backpack campgrounds. A brown bear charged right up to us, unafraid and looking for handouts. My friends scattered, and I was TOO TIRED to fuck with the bear. I pretty much yelled and waved my arms like he was some angry old lady and not the meat-eating predator that I should have seen a mile away. Ah to be 18 again. Anyway, he instead stole my buddy’s backpack and ran away, with pots and clothing flinging from the pack as he ran. He finally dropped it, but it sustained a huge rip. My friends, even then, told me I was insane. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/86 "2015-01-13T01:13:56Z")
> [@campp](#): > > I pretty much stared down a brown bear in Yosemite that wanted my pack. I think you mean black bear. There aren’t any [brown bears](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_bear) in California, and haven’t been for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/87 "2015-01-13T01:37:30Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > I was in a multi-vehicle accident in which my car was hit by an airborne boat. > > I might not be the only one, but I have to think it’s pretty rare. When it hit, did it sound like [this?](http://bit.ly/1ydpY3Y)😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/88 "2015-01-13T15:20:03Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I mooned a Russian fishing trawler from the flying bridge of a Polish fishing trawler. In my defense, I’d been at sea for 60 days with a bunch of Polish fishermen, and was going a bit loopy. Sweet, a fellow fisheries observer! I was out February-April in 1989. If the timing is right I might have seen your ass! ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/89 "2015-01-13T15:24:03Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > I think you mean black bear. There aren’t any [brown bears](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_bear) in California, and haven’t been for a long time. Also, a brown bear would have ripped his face off. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/90 "2015-01-13T17:04:59Z")
I started reading this thread thinking I’d have nothing to contribute, then thought of something waaaay back in my past. It may not be entirely unique; in fact, it may be somewhat common in certain places, under certain conditions. Shortly after the original _Amityville Horror_ movie came out, my brother and I (both in our early teens) walked out of our house in mid-afternoon, entering the open 2-car carport. The ceiling and the 2 walls were painted a fairly bright white, if that matters. We also lived maybe half-a-block from a small stream (okay, a bayou). What we saw actually frightened us: flies. There had to easily have been thousands of flies, maybe even tens of thousands of flies, covering the ceiling and the walls, almost completely hiding all of the white paint. They were just sitting there, moving hardly at all. We’d wave the end of a broom near them, and a few dozen would take off and swarm around for a few seconds, but then settle right back down where they’d been. Having seem the movie recently (on HBO?), we were actually scared and called Mom at work, near screaming about the Devil trying to get us. She sounded quite exasperated and told us to turn the hose on them. It took the better part of an hour, but we finally got the flies to all depart for quieter (and drier) roosts, thus defeating Satan’s nefarious plans for us. Yay? ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/91 "2015-01-13T17:08:05Z")
I rode my motorcycle alone from Miami to Panama City Panama a trip of more than 7000 miles and 23 days. I paid cash for a triple bypass surgery in Barrenquilla Colombia. That was 9 years ago and they told me I had a 50 50 chance of living 5 years afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/92 "2015-01-13T17:19:20Z")
How about my brother? Does he count? he ain’t here, but at 15 years old he was riding his bicycle down a hill and hit a telephone pole and being a “Girls bike” folded up and caught his testicles between the two parts of the bike. Took an hour for a doctor and a daddy to get him out. He thought he’d never have kids, but he later did one of each kind. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/93 "2015-01-13T17:27:56Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > I think you mean black bear. There aren’t any [brown bears](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_bear) in California, and haven’t been for a long time. Oh, duh. Oops. :o thx ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/94 "2015-01-14T14:04:56Z")
Oh I’ve got one. I’ve been engaged to a woman before we ever went out on a date - and no not a mail-order bride or a night in Vegas. So what Cad, I’m sure that’s happened to SOMEBODY before so why are you unique? I’ve done it twice. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/95 "2015-01-14T15:31:39Z")
I was working 2 blocks away from his mosque in Jersey City in 1995 when it was announced that Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman had plotted to blow up the Holland Tunnel. I was a little put off by this. At lunch time, I walked over to Kennedy Blvd and saw the media circus going on in front of the mosque. A spokesman was out in front of the mosque, hamming it up for cameras & giving interviews to reporters. I was a little put off by this as well. I went into the Wendys on the corner, bought my lunch to go and I ordered a chocolate frosty. I then went back outside and started to walk around the block in a way that took me right by the front of the mosque. Three feet from the front door, and not far from where the interview was being given was a large yellow metal-mesh trash bin. As I got close to it, I took a sip of the frosty, and with a look of disgust, threw it into the trash yelling, “ **…this shake _Sucks!_** ” Instantly, undercovers were all over me, looking to see if they should arrest me. I merely informed them that it was a chocolate frosty, that I didn’t like the taste, and I disposed of it in a trash can instead of littering. A few cops and many reporters started to laugh at this point, but to be honest the mosque spokesman was very cross with me and he continued to shout rapidly at my back in Farsi as I walked away and went back to work. #SoHowWasYourLunch ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/96 "2015-01-14T16:35:56Z")
> [@glee](#): > > - as a player in front of hundreds of spectators at a National Roleplaying Final I told Gary Gygax (the guest DM) he was wrong :eek: (well, he was - but perhaps I shouldn’t have…) Did you win the argument? I’ve told DM’s they were wrong many times but never won. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/97 "2015-01-14T17:52:36Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > My old GF and I were once walking on a trail by a creek - when a tree fell. Audio or it didn’t happen. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/98 "2015-01-14T17:58:35Z")
In 2007 I pulled three quarters out of my pocket. They were dated 1976, 1977, and 1978. I’m sure that ranks up there in the “very improbable” as opposed to the “no one else has ever experienced this”, but it’s what came to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/99 "2015-01-14T18:20:55Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Audio or it didn’t happen. > > Regards, > Shodan golf clap ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449/100 "2015-01-14T18:30:39Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I can think of plenty of things that would be unusual for a general audience to have experienced, but things that absolutely nobody else has experienced? That takes work. > > I was rumored to be carrying a curse by a prominent Cameroonian Sultan, who unbeknownst to me was known for cursing people who shook his hand. I did, indeed, experience a streak of mild bad lucj. Years later, I was in Kathmandu. In a dusty bookshop, I picked up a quirky little tome full of self-guided walking tours around some of the city’s more eclectic sites. One of those sites was a small, unassuming temple on a side road that was apparently famous for being able to remove any curse just by walking around it. > > Unfortunately, it was closed when I went there. > > I’d eat my hat if anyone else had ever been thwarted at that temple from removing a curse from a Cameroonian sultan. How were you thwarted? Why can’t you still walk around a closed temple? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-has-happened-to-you-that-you-are-pretty-sure-that-no-one-else-has-experienced/709449.md?page=6)