# Things I Wonder about **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 10, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011 "2014-02-10T22:41:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/21 "2014-02-13T16:30:44Z")
Where did barn swallows sit before there were wires and houses? Really, I’ve never seen one sitting on a natural object. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/22 "2014-02-13T20:06:39Z")
> [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](#): > > How does someone stand in line for five minutes or more at a fast food joint, then upon reaching the register still have no idea what they want to order? > > 😕 Or movie lines. A group of kids stands around talking, finally get to the front of the line. And **now** they start discussing which movie so see. What the ??? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/23 "2014-02-14T15:16:17Z")
I wonder why there are only 2 types of bad weather driver (excluding me, of course): 1. drives way too slow, causing accidents to pile up behind them 2. drives red shift fast, getting in an accident themselves 'Tis truly lonesome being perfect… ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/24 "2014-02-14T23:24:07Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Except - if vanilla beans and vanilla flavoring are brown, why is vanilla ice cream white? Because sugar and cream are white and there’s more of them than there is of vanilla. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/25 "2014-02-15T03:36:35Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Except - if vanilla beans and vanilla flavoring are brown, why is vanilla ice cream white? It’s because real life is irrational. Peppermint is green, but most mint candy is red and white. Mustard seeds are brown, but most mustard condiment is yellow. Hotties are nearly all 98.6 degrees F. The next big thing has already happened.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/26 "2014-02-15T11:39:00Z")
> [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](#): > > How does someone stand in line for five minutes or more at a fast food joint, then upon reaching the register still have no idea what they want to order? > > 😕 How does someone stand in line at the grocery store for ten minutes or more and put all their stuff on the conveyor belt, watch while the checker totals it all up, and then and only then pulls out his wallet, or better still, fishes in her purse for her checkbook and pen. Didn’t they know they were going to have to PAY for this shit when they got to the end of the process? They act like it’s a big surprise. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/27 "2014-02-15T14:05:09Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > When menus disappear, where do they go _to?_🙂 They’re behind your browser. Just pick it up and turn it over and you’ll see them all folded up back there, like tearing open a page of a pop-up book. I wonder about all the great ideas I get when I am dreaming, but can’t recall a jot of after I wake, and if any were such killer ideas that they would have made me rich. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/28 "2014-02-15T15:15:08Z")
I’m looking for a movie and it’s for sale on Amazon marketplace for $10.80 plus $3.99 for shipping. But I notice the seller is a store here in the same city I’m in. So I call them and confirm they do have the movie for sale in their store - for $14.99. Why make it cheaper for me to buy it online than for me to go to the store and pick it up? I know $3.99 is a marked-up shipping cost but it must cost them something to ship it to me. ---
**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 15, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/29 "2014-02-15T15:47:43Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Speaking of menus, why do women have to point at the menu as they order their food? It’s very rare for a guy to do this, but dirt common among the fairer sex. I’m a man, but I tend to visit a lot of ethnic restaurants. Rather than clumsily butchering the waiter’s native language, I just point. It’s so much easier on everyone that way. If I’m in an American restaurant, I’ll just order verbally, unless the place has cutesy names for their dishes. I hate that shit. In that case, I either point or just give a general description of what it really is (“The ribeye,” “The spicy chicken sandwich,” etc.). ---
**Author:** ![pyromyte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@pyromyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyromyte)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/30 "2014-02-17T15:48:23Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > If I’m in an American restaurant, I’ll just order verbally, unless the place has cutesy names for their dishes. I hate that shit. In that case, I either point or just give a general description of what it really is (“The ribeye,” “The spicy chicken sandwich,” etc.). I like George Carlin’s take on that: “Even some low-end places are pretentious. The menu can’t merely say ‘cheeseburger.’ They have to get wordy. So, go along with them. When you order your food use their language. But you must look right at the waiter; no fair reading from the menu. Look him in the eye and say, ‘I’ll have the succulent, fresh-ground, government-inspected, choice, all-beef, six-ounce patty on your own award-winning sesame-seed bun, topped with a generous slice of Wisconsin’s finest Grade-A cheddar cheese made from only premium milk and poured from large, galvanized steel cans, having originally been extracted from a big, fat, smelly, champion blue-ribbon cow with a brain disease.’” ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/31 "2014-02-17T19:05:50Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > Who put the bomp in the bomp-bah-bomp-bah-bomp? > And who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong? Who was that man? I’d like to break his hand! He made my baby fall into the well! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/32 "2014-02-17T19:08:05Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Speaking of menus, why do women have to point at the menu as they order their food? It’s very rare for a guy to do this, but dirt common among the fairer sex. Sometimes, jsut for fun and science, I try to take the menu away from my wife in that time period after she has decided but before she orders. It’s like trying to take Linus’ security blanket! > > Thanks, **Sunspace** for reminding me of something to lose sleep over tonight… I don’t know about women, but I’ve pointed at menu items when I had laryngitis and could not speak. Unless I had pen and paper and could write it down. (But that’s not a good idea to try at the _ **bank** _…:eek: ) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/33 "2014-02-17T21:22:54Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > I don’t know about women, but I’ve pointed at menu items when I had laryngitis and could not speak. Unless I had pen and paper and could write it down. (But that’s not a good idea to try at the _ **bank** _…:eek: ) Your bank has menus? Are you sure you’re not just giving all your money to the cashier at Pizza Hut? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/34 "2014-02-17T23:21:10Z")
Heh. Wish MY bank had a menu. Even better if it has pictures of everything, like at Denny’s: **points to picture of $500** I’ll take two of these, please. Dressing on the side. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/35 "2014-02-17T23:47:52Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > They’re behind your browser. Just pick it up and turn it over and you’ll see them all folded up back there, like tearing open a page of a pop-up book. Actually, you’re not that far off. One way to do dropdown menus and such is to preload their assets when you load the webpage and put them, in the code, outside your screens view. The content of the dropdown menus then teleports into view as your cursor scrolls over the menu options. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/36 "2014-02-17T23:49:40Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Heh. Wish MY bank had a menu. Even better if it has pictures of everything, like at Denny’s: > > **points to picture of $500** I’ll take two of these, please. Dressing on the side. That’ll be $1470, please. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/37 "2014-02-18T00:12:03Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Heh. Wish MY bank had a menu. Even better if it has pictures of everything, like at Denny’s: > > **points to picture of $500** I’ll take two of these, please. Dressing on the side. That’s a lotta lettuce! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/38 "2014-02-18T07:45:27Z")
:Sigh: All of you have missed my point. If you write a note at the bank, they’re going to think you’re a bank robber. I didn’t mean banks had menus. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011/39 "2014-02-18T14:03:54Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > :Sigh: All of you have missed my point. If you write a note at the bank, they’re going to think you’re a bank robber. I didn’t mean banks had menus. Nope, I got your point and repointed to another point. Point is fun to say. Point, point, point! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-wonder-about/681011.md?page=1)