# Tell us about something you've done once - and only once - and will never do again. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 3, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207 "2018-07-03T01:46:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/141 "2018-07-07T19:32:19Z")
Waxing my legs. Had to wait weeks looking like Sasquatch for the hair to be long enough, it hurt like a mutha, and the hairs the wax didn’t get were yanked out one by one with tweezers. Then 5 days later on vacation I had to go buy a razor. Stupidest $100 I’ve ever spent. One of them, anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/142 "2018-07-07T21:02:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **blondebear** : > > As a kid I shot and killed a bird with a BB gun just to see if I could. I immediately regretted it then and I feel bad thinking about it now. That seems to be a fairly common one-- My grandfather told the same story, and I’ve seen it other places, too. Every time, it seems to result in an independent learning of the lesson “never point a gun at anything you do not intend to kill”. ---
**Author:** ![DtypeJag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@DtypeJag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DtypeJag)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/143 "2018-07-07T21:15:41Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Another vote for the Grand Canyon. > Specifically–Hiking the trail down to the bottom and up again in one day. > > Now, I _love_ hiking wilderness trails in the National Parks. > But this was the STUPIDEST thing I’ve ever done in nature. > Why?–well, not just because I ended up with very painful muscles. That’s worth it sometimes; When you reach a mountain peak, you feel glorious. > > But this was stupid because I should have known before I started that it ain’t gonna be worth it. > _The view doesn’t get any more impressive as you hike down_. Many years (30?) ago a friend and I walked to the bottom of the Canyon and in the afternoon hiked back toward the rim. We were siting at a rest stop catching our breath when the red, puffy, sweating face of another tourist on his way up appeared. He looked up at the sign above our heads that read “DONKEY DRAG-OUT $20”. “They would have to pay me a helluva lot more than $20 to drag a donkey out of here!” he huffed. Kind of made the whole thing worth it. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/144 "2018-07-07T21:39:54Z")
> [@DtypeJag](#): > > Many years (30?) ago a friend and I walked to the bottom of the Canyon and in the afternoon hiked back toward the rim. We were siting at a rest stop catching our breath when the red, puffy, sweating face of another tourist on his way up appeared. He looked up at the sign above our heads that read “DONKEY DRAG-OUT $20”. “They would have to pay me a helluva lot more than $20 to drag a donkey out of here!” he huffed. Kind of made the whole thing worth it. I would pay $20 to see donkeys in dresses and make-up lip-synching to Cher, however, which is all I can think of when I see “DONKEY DRAG-OUT $20.” We went to the Grand Canyon on our honeymoon, and took the dogs with us. At one point, one of the dogs hopped nonchalantly up on the ledge around the rim, and there was a collective gasp from the people around up. The dog took no notice, and trotted along the ledge for about five feet. For people who have never been there, at many places around the rim, there is a ledge about three feet high, and on the other side a sheer drop of probably thousands of feet. However, the dog happened to pick a spot where there was a significant shelf on the other side. At any rate, it wouldn’t have done to react to her doing that and possibly spook her. Better to ignore it, and let her jump down in a few feet, and then move a little farther away, now that we knew she had it in her head to do that. She was a wonderdog. She got hit by a car once, and survived with no ill effects (she escaped when someone came to the door once), and also survived a bout with cancer when she was 12. She ended up living to 15 & 1/2, and dying peacefully in her sleep. She was a 70 lb. dog, so 15 & 1/2 was a really long life. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/145 "2018-07-07T21:44:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That seems to be a fairly common one-- My grandfather told the same story, and I’ve seen it other places, too. Every time, it seems to result in an independent learning of the lesson “never point a gun at anything you do not intend to kill”. And don’t kill anything unless it’s in defense of something, and/or you plan to eat it or feed it to another animal. Do people have the same feeling about fish they caught but didn’t eat or throw back? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/146 "2018-07-08T00:54:54Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > As a kid I shot and killed a bird with a BB gun just to see if I could. I immediately regretted it then and I feel bad thinking about it now. > [@Chronos](#): > > That seems to be a fairly common one-- My grandfather told the same story, and I’ve seen it other places, too. Every time, it seems to result in an independent learning of the lesson “never point a gun at anything you do not intend to kill”. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And don’t kill anything unless it’s in defense of something, and/or you plan to eat it or feed it to another animal. > > Do people have the same feeling about fish they caught but didn’t eat or throw back? That’s rather the whole plot of this [Simpsons episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJzATy027D4). One of those that show that Bart, who is mean to his sister, Milhouse, Homer, his teachers, even sometimes to Marge, really has a heart of gold. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/147 "2018-07-08T01:37:12Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Sailing in a small boat off the coast of North Carolina, getting blown east and over the horizon, and seriously wondering if I was gonna die out there. Never again. Have you ever told this story here? [And you’re the guy who tried to save that girl off of the Michigan coast that one time IIRC] ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/148 "2018-07-08T02:53:01Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > That’s rather the whole plot of this [Simpsons episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJzATy027D4). One of those that show that Bart, who is mean to his sister, Milhouse, Homer, his teachers, even sometimes to Marge, really has a heart of gold. Also very similar to an Andy Griffith Show episode. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207/149 "2018-07-08T04:47:47Z")
> [@Moris](#): > > Watched Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Excellent movie, but once was enough. I see this was seconded. Never heard of it. I read (most of) the Wiki, but wonder, “Why?” Was it tedious, freaky or just not worth a crap? For the record, I think I’ve only seen one Russian movie. The one Akira Kurosawa did when he couldn’t get funding anywhere else. Pretty magnificent, actually. Dersu Uzala. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-something-youve-done-once-and-only-once-and-will-never-do-again/817207.md?page=7)