# Things You Shouldn't Have To Tell People **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 9, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320 "2010-02-09T19:57:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/141 "2010-02-16T20:10:57Z")
If there is a person standing in front of a chair, their hands full of food, trying to make a space at a table to sit down and eat, don’t take their chair! Or at the very least, confirm whether or not they are using it before just taking it. I was blown away this weekend at that one. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/142 "2010-02-16T20:22:21Z")
If you had to leave a chair, I think we all know it wasn’t ‘your spot’. You want a spot to call your own rent one, otherwise it’s a free spot for whoever needs it. Get over yourself! ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/143 "2010-02-16T21:12:08Z")
I just told you I shoveled it out for 3 1/2 hours, how the hell is it available to anyone? Or perhaps it’s just available to the lazy and stupid. (FWIW, onstreet parking in my neighborhood is \*plentiful \*- most places have ample driveway space and parking lots, myself included. Knowing the severity of the storm, I elected to park on the street so that I’d have less to shovel out.) **jayjay** , it’s no surprise that I came back to my spot - _from a physical therapy session for my knee no less_ - to find white trash with arms full of liquor trying to scurry away from my spot ASAP. Shoes on/off are at the discretion of the owner of the place. This is just absurd. If I had a garden hose, I would have iced 'em in for good. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/144 "2010-02-16T21:51:54Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > If you had to leave a chair, I think we all know it wasn’t ‘your spot’. You want a spot to call your own rent one, otherwise it’s a free spot for whoever needs it. Get over yourself! Wait. If someone at a crowded restaurant/cafe gets up to get food/use the restroom, you would actually\* take their chair\*? Please tell me I’m being whooshed here. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/145 "2010-02-16T21:54:37Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Wait. If someone at a crowded restaurant/cafe gets up to get food/use the restroom, you would actually\* take their chair\*? Please tell me I’m being whooshed here. I believe he’s responding to **lindsaybluth** ’s post about the parking space. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/146 "2010-02-16T22:00:29Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I believe he’s responding to **lindsaybluth** ’s post about the parking space. I thought so at first glance, except he mentioned leaving a chair. Ah, which I now see means leaving a chair\* in\* a parking spot, not getting up \*from \*a chair. :smack: Sorry about that. What are the odds of those two posts right after each other both talking about chairs? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/147 "2010-02-16T22:08:38Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Wait. If someone at a crowded restaurant/cafe gets up to get food/use the restroom, you would actually\* take their chair\*? Please tell me I’m being whooshed here. Methinks you’ve mixed up two unrelated posts. **elbows** was responding to **lindsaybluth** ’s post about placing a chair in “her” shoveled parking space to reserve the space, not **melodyharmonius** ’s post about a chair at a table. But speaking of chairs and tables and eating … If you’re with a group in a restaurant, and everybody has finished their meals, but you want to stick around a bit longer to finish your drinks, it’s not a good idea for everybody at the table to get up and go to the restroom at _the same time_, while also taking every personal item with you. This makes it look like you’re done and you’ve left, and somebody is probably going to clear off your table. That happened to me at my first fast food job many years ago. A table of four - two couples - finished eating, everybody got up and put on their coats, the ladies picked up their purses, and they all disappeared. Nothing left on the table but sandwich wrappers, empty french fry packets, and partial sodas. I threw everything in the trash, and was wiping the table down when the whole group reappeared and announced that they weren’t finished with their drinks and I needed to get them new ones. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/148 "2010-02-16T22:26:53Z")
> [@](#): > > I just told you I shoveled it out for 3 1/2 hours Doesn’t make it yours. If you’re so infirm you can’t shovel snow maybe home ownership wasn’t the best choice. Christ, how hard is to understand you don’t own the parking spot in front of your house unless it says so, on the deed. How much you shovel and the condition of your knees, don’t matter a whit. I hate people who think just because they shovel or sweep or whatever they are entitled to something which was never theirs. You are trying to lay claim to something that is not yours. Period. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/149 "2010-02-16T23:48:26Z")
I thought of one yesterday while shopping; speeding around in parking lots. There are cars pulling out everywhere, cars driving everywhere, people getting out and walking, people with young kids who may or may not dart away from their parents at any time, shopping carts, sometimes ice - it’s not a freaking freeway. Yet with every passing year, people are driving faster and faster in parking lots (and, of course, talking on their cellphones while doing so). Jim and I came up with an invention for parking lots - speed sensitive speed bumps. The faster you’re going, the higher they rise up. If you’re doing the parking lot speed limit, they go right down flat to the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/150 "2010-02-17T00:09:52Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > When you work in an office of 40 people or so, and there’s a single company provided microwave, don’t wander off while you’re nuking your lunch. And when you do return a full 5 minutes after your meal finished, don’t bitch that someone dared to take it out of the oven so they could heat their own lunch. I will also add- DO NOT bring something that requires any more than 5 minutes in the micowave to prepare. More than five minutes and you are cooking and you are taking time away an unreasonable amount of time from other people who would also like to enjoy their lunch hour you know- HAVING lunch. A week ago I went into the kitchen to heat up my lunch and saw that someone had a frozen dinner that for some reason took 8 minutes. I let out an audible “You gotta be kidding me.” Turns out that it was one our VPs. Meh, I don’t work under him. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/151 "2010-02-17T02:11:46Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Doesn’t make it yours. If you’re so infirm you can’t shovel snow maybe home ownership wasn’t the best choice. > > Christ, how hard is to understand you don’t own the parking spot in front of your house unless it says so, on the deed. How much you shovel and the condition of your knees, don’t matter a whit. I hate people who think just because they shovel or sweep or whatever they are entitled to something which was never theirs. > > You are trying to lay claim to something that is not yours. Period. > [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I just told you I shoveled it out for 3 1/2 hours, how the hell is it available to anyone? Or perhaps it’s just available to the lazy and stupid. > > (FWIW, onstreet parking in my neighborhood is \*plentiful \*- most places have ample driveway space and parking lots, myself included. Knowing the severity of the storm, I elected to park on the street so that I’d have less to shovel out.) You know what I hate? Illiteracy. To review, I said that 1) most places have driveway space and parking lots, 2) including myself. Which means there’s nary a single family home in sight. I also said that 3) there are ample of street spots available - _because most people have driveways and parking lots_. My landlord is spotty about shoveling/snowblowing the lot, which is fine, cause he charges 20% under market rate. Congrats on demonstrating a lack of skills that first grader usually possesses. For further reference (perhaps you could have others read to you) simply google “pittsburgh parking chairs”. They have a storied history. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/152 "2010-02-17T02:14:57Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > You know what I hate? Illiteracy. To review, I said that 1) most places have driveway space and parking lots, 2) including myself. Which means there’s nary a single family home in sight. I also said that 3) there are ample of street spots available - _because most people have driveways and parking lots_. My landlord is spotty about shoveling/snowblowing the lot, which is fine, cause he charges 20% under market rate. Congrats on demonstrating a lack of skills that first grader usually possesses. > > For further reference (perhaps you could have others read to you) simply google “pittsburgh parking chairs”. They have a storied history. It’s not going to do any good. This has been argued around and around and around for the last 11 years here. There are two camps, chair and anti-chair, and they are in perpetual war over this issue. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/153 "2010-02-17T03:20:51Z")
I think the point is really that if it was, in fact, ‘your’ spot it would be assigned to you and you wouldn’t need a chair. It clearly isn’t your assigned spot, whether on the street or in a lot. Get it? You think it should be yours because you shoveled it? Not the case, sorry. And a chair doesn’t make it so. Don’t like it? Move to a place with assigned spots, until then you got nothing to complain about in my book. Congratulations on trying to take ownership of a spot in an open access lot because you shoveled it. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/154 "2010-02-17T03:31:07Z")
Sorry…duplicate. ---
**Author:** ![wolf-alice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9e8a1a/32.png) [@wolf-alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf-alice)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/155 "2010-02-17T10:34:44Z")
If you confirm that you and your plus one are coming to our wedding, and we budget to feed you and provide you with drinks, _it is not okay to then not come to our wedding_. Seriously, ten people must have done this. I really don’t know if I have done something terrible to ten unrelated people who previously indicated that we were on good terms, or if they were just raised by wolves in a van, or what, _but this is not okay_. If you RSVP to _Pol Pot_’s wedding, okay, _you freaking come to his wedding_. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/156 "2010-02-17T11:27:17Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Jim and I came up with an invention for parking lots - speed sensitive speed bumps. The faster you’re going, the higher they rise up. If you’re doing the parking lot speed limit, they go right down flat to the ground. You’d better lawyer up, because they’re already [in](http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/16/intelligent-speed-bumps-collapse-to-reward-slow-pokes-cut-down/) [the works](http://www.coated.com/intelligent-speed-bumps-auto-gadgets/). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/157 "2010-02-17T19:44:21Z")
> [@wolf-alice](#): > > If you confirm that you and your plus one are coming to our wedding, and we budget to feed you and provide you with drinks, _it is not okay to then not come to our wedding_. > > Seriously, ten people must have done this. I really don’t know if I have done something terrible to ten unrelated people who previously indicated that we were on good terms, or if they were just raised by wolves in a van, or what, _but this is not okay_. Did they tell you they could no longer attend, or just not show up? ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/158 "2010-02-17T19:48:24Z")
Guys, what is with the spitting? No spitting! Especially in the winter when the air is dry and I have to hear the dreaded _snawk_ _ptoo!_ sounds and know that I will be looking at your frozen spit on my daily round to and from work until spring. Errrgghh. Thanks a lot, fellas. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/159 "2010-02-17T19:59:25Z")
> [@wolf-alice](#): > > If you RSVP to _Pol Pot_’s wedding, okay, _you freaking come to his wedding_. You betcha ! I hear the fondue was to die for. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320/160 "2010-02-17T20:09:50Z")
**jayjay** speaks the truth: > [@jayjay](#): > > It’s not going to do any good. This has been argued around and around and around for the last 11 years here. There are two camps, chair and anti-chair, and they are in perpetual war over this issue. If y’all want to get testy with each other on this, feel free to start a Pit thread for round eleventy billion and one – but in the current thread, which is about things that there should be no argument about, a little less hostility would be appreciated. Thanks, twickster, MPSIMS moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-shouldnt-have-to-tell-people/528320.md?page=9)