# Things (good or bad) that shocked the hell out of you in 2014 **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267 "2014-12-27T05:12:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/41 "2014-12-27T23:24:37Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And his real cause of death should be classified as Lewy Body Dementia, which his autopsy revealed he had, and not suicide. No. If Michael J fox killed himself should the death be classified as Parkinson’s disease? Williams hung himself. That’s the cause of death. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/42 "2014-12-28T03:18:09Z")
Haley Osment having a viable career again. The Pirates getting, even on a wild card, a playoff spot. 'Course, they only got one game and Baumgartner the pitching machine knocked them out, but hey. Just wait till next year, Charlie Brown. And what other people said. Cuba, Robin Williams, Rolling Stone, Ferguson, the missing plane. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/43 "2014-12-28T17:38:10Z")
Bill Cosby. Robin Williams. And on a personal level, the sudden, unexpected death of one of my oldest, best friends, who was like a brother to me, and was active and vital and left this world far to fucking soon. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/44 "2014-12-28T19:11:34Z")
I think it’s really hard to top an airplane full of people DISAPPEARING. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/45 "2014-12-28T22:04:51Z")
> [@GoodOmens](#): > > I think it’s really hard to top an airplane full of people DISAPPEARING. Yes, it is. TWO airplanes full of people disappearing, and both of them in the same general area. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/46 "2014-12-28T22:27:37Z")
The good: Germany winning the World Cup. And the 7-1 thrashing of Brazil. I have been rooting for Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm for years and had sadly resigned myself to the fact that the ultimate soccer prize was never going to come for them. And then, it did. Sometimes I still can’t believe it. The bad: Oh, boy. MH370 disappearing, and then MH17 being frickin’ _shot down_. The complete abandonment of any rationality during the US Ebola crisis. The Russians, everything about them. Cuba? Meh. I’ll be shocked when the embargo is lifted. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/47 "2014-12-28T23:35:38Z")
> [@chizzuk](#): > > The complete abandonment of any rationality during the US Ebola crisis My friend’s 15-year-old daughter freaking out? Understandable. But I was one of the voices of sanity on my Facebook feed by pointing out that it’s not something that could break out here, barring massive mutation, for a multitude of reasons. A lot of people were quite surprised that the disease was discovered in 1976; they had never heard of it, nor had any prior reason to have done so. Nina Pham, one of the nurses who got it and survived, had never heard of it herself until the news broke about the missionaries - and it was big news in the DFW area, because that’s where Dr. Brantly lives when he’s not in Africa. Little did she know that she would be part of the story just weeks later. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/48 "2014-12-29T02:44:38Z")
The biggest shocks of 2014? The way this month has gone so far? I’ll talk to you on Thursday. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/49 "2014-12-29T14:41:45Z")
Do many of these things really SHOCK people? I mean, they are perhaps things you would have bet against happening in any given year, but shocking? Most of these things aren’t shocking at all. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/50 "2014-12-29T15:22:48Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > The Cliven Bundy spectacle was very strange by any measure, but the most surprising part of it was that he was able to rack up over a million dollars in unpaid grazing fees to the federal government before the feds got around to doing anything about it. > > Clive’s a wealthy man, and I haven’t heard of his paying any of the money he owes the US government yet. I wonder if he’s still illegally grazing his herd. On the subject of Cliven Bundy, I think that really stripped the fog of deniability off of racial double standards in this country. It is absurd. Cliven Bundy had supporters pointing sniper rifles at cops and Fox news was on his side, and nobody got arrested for it. But when cops shoot a black 12 year old with a toy gun that is ok. The whole Cliven Bundy vs. all the black people killed by cops has really made double standards in this nation transparent. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/51 "2014-12-29T16:21:26Z")
That the legalization of marijuana in a couple states didn’t end in MASSIVE arrests and a snide remark from the Feds, saying “What, you really believed us when we said we wouldn’t prosecute people for breaking federal law? You must be high…” ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/52 "2014-12-29T19:12:51Z")
Two soldiers in full battle gear stormed a McDonald’s and [arrested](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttlqrQI1WQ4) two _Washington Post_ journalists, ordering them to stop videotaping them. I thought such things only happened in places like Iran. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267/53 "2014-12-29T19:57:43Z")
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death surprised me. I hadn’t known he had a drug problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-good-or-bad-that-shocked-the-hell-out-of-you-in-2014/708267.md?page=2)