# The "Real People"?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 16, 2003, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349 "2003-12-16T17:42:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/21 "2003-12-18T00:15:10Z")
Every time she insinuates she is a real person, just pinch her arm, if she squeels say ‘Yep, you are a real person’ and carry on. The only real people live on farms in a subsistance lifestyle, all the rest of us are just faking it. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/22 "2003-12-18T11:54:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PhiloVance \* > \*\*😉 thought this was a rant about Real Player. > 'scuse me. \*\* And I thought it was about that ridiculous late-70s show on NBC(?). ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/23 "2003-12-18T14:29:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by racinchikki \* > \*\*I didn’t even realize Albany _had_ cabs. I’ve never seen one. \*\* You can call for one-- a dispatcher who makes Louie from _Taxi_ sound like one of the Happy Little Elves will grunt and hang up on you. The cab will arrive a ridiculously long time after the call. Late at night they are so rare and valuable that the dispatcher will laugh, tell you to flag one, and hang up. The drivers try to extort you. Although fares are posted right there in the cab, one told us he would only take us back to our hotel if we paid double. We got out in a huff. The next cab we flagged (and as a concert was getting out, there was some competition) only charged us $2.25 over the posted fare, apparently adding on his tip. It was the most terrifying cab ride of my life-- this driver took a different route back to the hotel than the cabbie who took us into town (that first cabbie was very friendly and honest). As he silently sped along a highway and what seemed like back country roads and grunted unintellegably to our questions, my friend and I–two women alone in a strange city–were pretty sure he was gonna pull over, don a hood, and pull out an icepick. I had my cell phone in my hand, 9 and 1 dialed; I had Bill Kurtis’s voice in my head narrating our deaths–how we were last seen hailing a cab outside a Phish show. I saw Diane Sawyer interviewing our grief-striken husbands. But either we weren’t his ideal sacrifice type or he was just avoiding the concert traffic. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Elenia25_ > **Part of my point is that Albany is a “little big town”, in that it’s got some of the attributes of the big city but a lot of people still know each other, etc.** That’s what I liked about it. I do plan on going back one day. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/24 "2003-12-18T15:48:28Z")
Sorry, but the women in downtown Albany aren’t “real” unless they’re at least a size 14. ---
**Author:** ![county](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/25 "2003-12-19T06:36:45Z")
What about some of the people who post on here? How do I know if they are real? ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/26 "2003-12-19T14:26:04Z")
You don’t. I, for example, am in fact nothing but a cunningly-written AI residing on numerous servers of major ISPs. **Elenia** ’s cow-orker, OTOH, seems to be a good example of an Artificial Stupidity System. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/27 "2003-12-19T15:44:50Z")
Artificial Stupidity System? Haha! That’s great! What does OTOH mean? I thought I was up to speed on most of the web abbreviations, having been on the web for more than ten years! (not consecutively of course)! got it. On The Other Hand, right? ---
**Author:** ![Sacrip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Sacrip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sacrip)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/28 "2003-12-19T17:12:27Z")
well, Elenia, I grew up in Clifton Park, and I consider myself real. OTOH means on the other hand, btw. ---
**Author:** ![county](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349/29 "2003-12-19T17:23:01Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Sacrip \* \*\*well, Elenia, I grew up in Clifton Park, and I consider myself real. Sure, everybody thinks they are real, but how do you know for sure? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-real-people/219349.md?page=1)