# Very stupid overheard conversations **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 30, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858 "2020-11-30T21:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/341 "2021-02-18T19:43:51Z")
Jeez, way to set up an interesting story and then kill it. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/342 "2021-02-18T20:15:05Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I can’t remember what they were saying but it bordered on conspiracy theory. It was real. > **[D.C. sniper attacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks)** > > The D.C. sniper attacks (also known as the Beltway sniper attacks) were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, and preliminary shootings, that consisted of murders and robberies in several states, and lasted for six months starting in February 2002. Seven people were killed, and seven others were injured in the preliminary shootings, and ten pe... ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/343 "2021-02-18T20:16:50Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > It was real. That’s why he linked to a story of the snipers in his post. I’m sure what he was saying is that the people he was overhearing were saying crazy things about it. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/344 "2021-02-18T20:17:23Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > That’s why he linked to a story of the snipers in his post. Same one, even. > [@Munch](#): > > I’m sure what he was saying is that the people he was overhearing were saying crazy things about it. Exactly. I’ve lived in Northern Virginia since July of '88 and those people were saying crazy stupid things about the snipers; pretty sure one of 'em used the phrase “false flag”. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/345 "2021-02-19T04:08:55Z")
When I was growing up, it was “slew” in Missouri, and I thought it was a southern-ism. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/346 "2021-02-19T12:36:27Z")
I know “slough” as both the Slough of Despond (in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress), and the town of Slough, which has the kind of reputation that makes it no surprise that they’re pronounced the same (as in “ouch”) - but also as slough (pronounced sluff) as in a snake sloughing off its skin. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/347 "2021-02-19T15:40:42Z")
\*Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now, There isn’t grass to graze a cow. Swarm over, Death! Come, bombs and blow to smithereens Those air -conditioned, bright canteens, Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans, Tinned minds, tinned breath. Mess up the mess they call a town- A house for ninety-seven down And once a week a half a crown For twenty years.\* John Betjeman. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/348 "2021-02-19T15:45:36Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > A house for ninety-seven down > And once a week a half a crown > For twenty years. If only… ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/349 "2021-02-19T17:37:14Z")
Oh, I remember that one! Hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/350 "2021-02-19T18:19:43Z")
I believe the civic authorities are sensitive about it still. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/351 "2021-03-03T11:10:07Z")
> [@Steve\_McQwark](#): > > > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > > > Oh, I screwed up a ton of pronunciations in my youth. It was a function of getting my vocabulary entirely from the written word. > > > > I think the funniest one was pronouncing epitome as ep-i-TOME. I got a lot of ribbing for that one from my college friends. > > > > Oh, and decipher. Clearly pronounced DES-I-fur. > > Forty years later and I can still hear my mother and my then girlfriend (\*) bonding together by laughing at me saying ep-i-TOME. > > (\*) Just to be crystal clear - those are two different women. When longtime University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson died one of the news channels talked to some chum of his and did a prerecorded piece where they talked to old chum. The reporter finished by saying that “old chum called Lute the epitome of [something I can’t remember]”. Yep. Ep-ih-tome. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/352 "2021-03-09T01:30:03Z")
I remember a local newscaster breathlessly describing a “HEE-in-us” crime. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/353 "2021-03-09T02:03:27Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Oh, I screwed up a ton of pronunciations in my youth. It was a function of getting my vocabulary entirely from the written word. I listen to so many books. More books than I read, so I sometimes have the opposite problem. Only one I can think of is the kid with a little red wagon named Ralph Oider… near the end of the book, he’s feeling bad that his “wagon is backwards”, and I finally figured it out: The wagon had REYLF OIDAR painted on the side, because a worker had stenciled “RADIO FLYER” on backwards. In print, I would’ve understood. But since it sounded like a real name in audio, I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/354 "2021-03-09T03:08:05Z")
I think I’ve mentioned this story before. My family was going for a drive out in the country, and we stopped at a shop that sold frozen custard. By the entrance was a sign listing the available flavors, among which was pistachio. I was 7, and studying phonics in school. In an effort to show off my reading ability, I asked “What’s pis-ta-KYE-o?” After all these years, I can still hear my father calling me “pis-ta-KYE-o Pete.” That lasted several years. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/355 "2021-03-09T03:13:50Z")
Pistachio, Pinnochio; who cares how it’s said? Italian is weird 😉 Your Dad was being mean. Maybe with a twinkle in his eye, but that was mean. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/356 "2021-03-09T03:56:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Pistachio, Pinnochio; who cares how it’s said? Great, I’m not only saying “pis-ta-KYE-o" forever, but “pinno-CHEE-oh” too. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/357 "2021-03-09T04:48:10Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > I remember a local newscaster breathlessly describing a “HEE-in-us” crime. Not “high-anus”? [😉](https://y.yarn.co/e3cd9f5d-e7b5-4eec-8e18-f33766290b67_screenshot.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/358 "2021-03-09T05:09:46Z")
That’s assuming the police got to the bottom of it. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/359 "2021-03-10T22:14:01Z")
A relevant 30 second portion of _Kentucky Fried Movie_ (NSFW in the sense it shows a dildo): [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cToud822938/maxresdefault.jpg "Heinous") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cToud822938) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2021, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/360 "2021-03-11T00:12:28Z")
Overheard at Zion National Park’s Angel Landing trailhead. Very old male tourist: What’s this trail rated? Female Ranger: Strenuous. VOMT: I mean, for a man. A tad perturbed FR: (deadpan) Strenuous. Pause… VOMT: What about for a German man? Longer pause… FR: strenuous. For reference: [Angels Landing Survival Guide: Things to Know Before You Go – Earth Trekkers](https://www.earthtrekkers.com/hiking-angels-landing-zion-survival-guide/) I did it, the switchbacks are brutal. I was praying for her to downgrade it for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858.md?page=19)