# They're always empty! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [February 12, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378 "2022-02-12T19:54:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/101 "2022-02-15T17:46:19Z")
> [@solost](#): > > ’ll have a vodka on the rocks. Reminds me of a law school function. A prof I worked for was ahead of me at the bar. He asked for a Perrier. When the bartender said they didn’t have Perrier, he said, “Then give me Stoli on the rocks!” Growing up in Chicago - we LIVED in the alleys. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/102 "2022-02-15T17:55:45Z")
An alleyway you can _drive_ down in The Village? There are private streets and mews (like, maybe 5) that I know of. And waaaay downtown by the bridge (Fulton area) there are tiny cobblestone streets, mostly closed to traffic. But a drive through alley? I’m flabbergasted! ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/103 "2022-02-15T18:46:29Z")
I think it’s less that we don’t have alleyways in NYC and more that we don’t really have have the kind other cities have. Other cities have alleys behind the buildings that are used for trash pick up, deliveries etc. but we don’t. We mostly have two kinds - the [type](https://www.google.com/maps/place/89-02+Jamaica+Ave,+Jamaica,+NY+11421/@40.6921584,-73.8553404,3a,75y,85.8h,91.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCNB_j-soxTYf3SNdPsWyAw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25de361ca864d:0x4ebe94f773652dcc!8m2!3d40.692553!4d-73.855343) that runs from the front of a property to the back when the buildings are detached and which doesn’t access any other property and the [community driveway](https://www.google.com/maps/place/78-11+Eliot+Ave,+Middle+Village,+NY+11379/@40.7240479,-73.8812485,3a,75y,324.58h,86.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1scbqYXDQAOG014og4if1Lwg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25e5c5dafdf03:0xdebf269ff0b32e1d!8m2!3d40.7244474!4d-73.8808286), which does give access to multiple properties but still isn’t what they are typically looking for in movies and TV shows. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/104 "2022-02-15T19:04:53Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > One of the available migraine meds maxalt, a sublingual tab. My blessed Zofran [nausea med] has a sublingual dissolvable tab - it can stop nausea in its tracks and not vomiting is IMHO a good thing. There are other sublingual dissolvables - I have seen people being given them in hospital. I too keep a variety of migraine meds near by. I’m at my desk, at work, and within an arm’s reach I have the typical Tylenol and Advil. I also have a small pile of Imitrex pills, Maxalt ODT (dissolvable) and Imitrex vials along with syringes. If you want a migraine to be gone 10 minutes ago, stick a needle full of imitrex in your arm. I also have a bunch of Ubrevely. Personally, I don’t find it to work very well, but it gives me another option after I’ve hit my 2 doses/24 max with the triptans. Funny timing, as I was typing this, I just got my monthly delivery of Ubrevely and Aimovig. At home I have some Zofran, but I found that while it worked for the nausea\*, it seemed to give me a rebound headache. One day I happened to notice that headaches are a common side effect, so I switched over to Reglan. Reglan can have it’s own (possibly permanent?) side effects, but not with how rarely I use them. \*Weird thing about the nausea. While I used to get the “OMG I’m gonna puke and then die from the pain if I even move my finger” type migraines every week like clockwork. Now I only get those a few times a year. However, what I get now is that food seems to stop moving threw my system. Odd, I know. What I mean by that is, that feeling you get when you ate _way_ too much food. Like, not only are you really uncomfortable, but you can hear the food sloshing around in your stomach…that. But the thing is, I’ll be really really full and hearing the food slosh around in my stomach 6+ hours after the last time I ate anything. I’ve learned to get some Zofran/Regan and Imitrex into my system when I notice that. It’s not entirely consistent, but it’s the closest thing I have to a warning that a headache is impending. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/105 "2022-02-15T21:46:08Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > We mostly have two kinds - the [type](https://www.google.com/maps/place/89-02+Jamaica+Ave,+Jamaica,+NY+11421/@40.6921584,-73.8553404,3a,75y,85.8h,91.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCNB_j-soxTYf3SNdPsWyAw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25de361ca864d:0x4ebe94f773652dcc!8m2!3d40.692553!4d-73.855343) that runs from the front of a property to the back when the buildings are detached and which doesn’t access any other property That isn’t an alley. That’s my side yard! ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/106 "2022-02-15T21:56:11Z")
I guess that depends on where you live - in my part of Queens the narrow ones are alleys. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/107 "2022-02-15T22:12:09Z")
Look, I’m so desperate for space, I put potted plants on my porch roof and call it my garden (I don’t really). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/108 "2022-02-19T03:39:58Z")
Got a fresh continuity error, from episode 2x04 of _Space Force!_. Character is playing weirdly with his Chicken McNuggets, which draws your attention to them in the scene. So you think they would pay attention to the fact that the length of the toothpick keeps changing from angle to angle. I sure did. [![](https://i.imgur.com/eDxHWPV.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/eDxHWPV.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/109 "2022-02-19T08:57:52Z")
Same with food. People order a meal in a restaurant, then decide they need to leave for no urgent reason, and get up and walk out leaving the food untouched. Who can afford to do that nowadays! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/110 "2022-02-19T17:38:34Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > My addition to the thread is magic fast-acting pills. I understand that a nitroglycerine can be an immediate life-saver for heart events, but I’m not aware of any other prescription meds you can carry around in a bottle and take with your shaky hands the moment you feel off. I’m not talking Tylenol or Tums. I’m talking plot-advancing bottles of meds that are just out of reach, falling down the kitchen drain, or taken sullenly in the moment with a swig of beer. Maybe I’m blessed to not be aware of these types of pills. But I am guessing they are more trope than typical. There are very fast acting drugs, though. I take 500 mg of Niacin because it helps a bit with keratosis pilaris alba, and you need to take the regular kind, not flush free. If I get a flush, it can happen in just 8-10 minutes. If an oral drug can work that quickly, it wouldn’t surprise me if some sublingual drugs worked much faster than that. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2022, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/111 "2022-02-27T22:33:00Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > > [@Tusculan](#): > > > > My pet peeve is when characters enter a house or a room and don’t close the door. It happens all the time. People, anyone can come in! They can hear and see you! > > I go to a yearly movie marathon and this is one of the tropes our audience hates as well. If someone goes through a door in the movie and doesn’t close it, the whole crowd yells “Shut the door!” I never understood how, in a famous Hitchcock movie, a character is placed in deadly jeopardy because the last person to leave his apartment didn’t lock the door.\* Who would ever leave a Manhattan apartment, even in the 1950s, without making sure the door was locked? \*the neighbors were rather lax about locking their windows too. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/112 "2022-02-28T00:19:00Z")
> [@Feurmann](#): > > There are three things I notice about movies and TV shows. The first is that no-one draws their blinds or curtains at night. I get that this permits exterior night-time shots looking in through the windows, showing the actors handily illuminated by the interior lighting. But why don’t the characters realise that, if they don’t draw their curtains, everyone can see them? Of all the things to complain about, you shouldn’t be complaining about this one, because it’s actually realistic. Some people actually do leave their blinds or curtains open after dark. I don’t know why, except that they clearly have no sense of privacy. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/113 "2022-02-28T00:20:56Z")
And they never actually say “Good bye”. they just hang up. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/114 "2022-02-28T00:33:51Z")
TV cops always answer the phone with just their last name. I’ve had to call a policeman several times in my life and they’ve always answered with something like, “Hello, this is [their name], [their department], what can I do for you?” You know, like an adult and professional would do. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/115 "2022-02-28T03:07:36Z")
[Ahem](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/85) . ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/116 "2022-02-28T15:35:30Z")
> [@Tusculan](#): > > My pet peeve is when characters enter a house or a room and don’t close the door. It happens all the time. People, anyone can come in! They can hear and see you! I’m not sure why that reminded me of this, but it’s another one for me. Not so much an annoyance as it tends to give away what will happen in the next few seconds. If there’s a scene with two characters and one walks off screen but the camera leaves the remaining person on the side of the screen (or keeps the shot wide), there’s a good chance someone is going to walk back into the shot. Often, it seems like it’s meant to be a surprise/jump scare, but it’s so easily spotted. It’s like knowing a car crash is about to happen because the driver is talking to the passenger, with their head fully turned, for what feels like far too long. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/117 "2022-02-28T15:48:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > > > > [@Tusculan](#): > > > > > > My pet peeve is when characters enter a house or a room and don’t close the door. It happens all the time. People, anyone can come in! They can hear and see you! > > > > I go to a yearly movie marathon and this is one of the tropes our audience hates as well. If someone goes through a door in the movie and doesn’t close it, the whole crowd yells “Shut the door!” > > I never understood how, in a famous Hitchcock movie, a character is placed in deadly jeopardy because the last person to leave his apartment didn’t lock the door.\* Of course, the plot of that movie is highly dependent on apartment tenants virtually never closing their drapes/blinds. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/118 "2022-02-28T15:49:56Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > And for god’s sake, if you find yourself having defeated a serial killer, don’t throw your weapon to the ground so that he can come back to life and attack you with it one last time. I like a character named Ulath’s perspective on this. It was to the point. “Never leave a live enemy behind you.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/119 "2022-02-28T16:41:22Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > It’s like knowing a car crash is about to happen because the driver is talking to the passenger, with their head fully turned, for what feels like far too long. I know, that always makes me nervous seeing that. Or when the camera just lingers too long on the driver driving, whether they’re with a passenger or all alone, it often means a crash is imminent-- usually by getting t-boned while going through an intersection. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/120 "2022-02-28T20:55:09Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fkvr1rTkDg0/maxresdefault.jpg "Dumb and Dumber - More likely to get killed on the way to the airport") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkvr1rTkDg0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378.md?page=7)