# 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:** 8
**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:** [December 21, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/141 "2020-12-21T16:11:54Z")
This was back in the 80s when I used to run printing presses. Our department was in the basement of a heavy equipment dealer, and one of the salesmen would come down to chat with my boss on occasion. They were both southern gentlemen in their 60s, and Jesse Helms was our senator at the time. You can see where this is going. They were in my boss’s office talking about golf courses. I ran the press for a while, and when I stopped, I heard the salesman say to my boss, “Ah heard they were going to start letting some _Jews_ in theyuh.” I laughed out loud. They looked at me like I was a crazy person. I turned the press back on so they could go back to their Jew hating. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/142 "2020-12-21T18:40:34Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > The theatre world has a fund of “overheards from the audience”. I heard a Doozie at The Shakespeare Festival, but recent board culture prohibits me from repeating it. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/143 "2020-12-21T18:43:00Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I heard a Doozie at The Shakespeare Festival, but recent board culture prohibits me from repeating it. Isn’t that what The Pit is for? Please don’t leave us wondering…our nights are long and dark. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/144 "2020-12-22T06:20:51Z")
PM me if you are not easily offended. You were warned… ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/145 "2020-12-26T21:30:03Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Perhaps someone had told him that was what you _must_ do in Paris, like so many other tired old clichés. When my aged relative was first taken to the opera in Chicago (1940s), part of what made it attractive was the Italian contingent in the standing room at the back, cheering and rooting for the performers. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/146 "2020-12-26T22:29:36Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Neither “el segundo de nada” nor “el segundo a nada” is proper Spanish, it is bad literal word for word translation of second to none that does not make sense in Spanish. Nada means nothing, not none. Just saying. Google Translate likes “insuperable”. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/147 "2020-12-26T22:50:20Z")
[Deepl](https://www.deepl.com/translator#en/es/second%20to%20none) is better than Google Translate. If you want to translate “second to none” it suggests “sin parangón”. I am happy with that. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/148 "2020-12-27T11:59:43Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Neither “el segundo de nada” nor “el segundo a nada” is proper Spanish, it is bad literal word for word translation of second to none that does not make sense in Spanish. We assume those that came up with the name actually knew Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/149 "2020-12-27T13:04:56Z")
I am sure they did know Spanish, never contested that. But the name was not _El Segundo de Nada_ or _El Segundo a Nada_, the name was just _El Segundo_: The Second One, not Second to None. **carrps** wrote so too, the “alternate history” you suggested in your answer to him Dec. 14 does not stand to scrutiny when you know Spanish (as the founders of the place surely did, as you say so yourself, and as I do too, Spanish being my mother tongue). That is all I am saying. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/150 "2020-12-27T18:20:06Z")
from [https://www.elsegundochamber.com/el-segundo-history](https://www.elsegundochamber.com/el-segundo-history) – > _Mr. and Mrs. Gunn sold their beachfront property to Standard Oil of California in 1911._ > _This new site needed a name. Richard Hanna’s wife, Virginia, deemed this expanse as “La Segunda”, Spanish for “the second one”. The name was eventually changed to El Segundo as the site was to be Standard Oil’s second oil refinery in California._ ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/151 "2021-01-06T00:14:00Z")
Heard a couple overlooking a scenic vista and commenting how picture-skew it was. presumably they meant picturesque ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/152 "2021-01-06T01:34:45Z")
“_Heard a couple overlooking a scenic vista and commenting how picture-skew it was._” Good one! ( Still chuckling heartily ) Years ago, well decades, I was fishing in the Adirondacks with my father and this one guy we ran into said that he was a very “vivid” ( avid ) fisherman. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/153 "2021-01-06T12:14:25Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > “ _Heard a couple overlooking a scenic vista and commenting how picture-skew it was._ ” > > Good one! ( Still chuckling heartily ) > > Years ago, well decades, I was fishing in the Adirondacks with my father and this one guy we ran into said that he was a very “vivid” ( avid ) fisherman. This reminds me of people who speak of being “risk-adverse.” ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/154 "2021-01-06T12:34:00Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Man: What’s the difference? I know, how dumb! Everyone knows Irish butter is green! My brother tried to tell me it was because I left it out while I was out of town on vacation. How ridiculous is that?! ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/155 "2021-01-06T13:24:59Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > I was fishing in the Adirondacks with my father and this one guy we ran into said that he was a very “vivid” ( avid ) fisherman. In New Orleans, I heard a couple of old gals talking about the paddlewheel boat ride on the Mississippi. One of them said, ‘they had a kaleidoscope and everything!’ (She meant calliope.) ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/156 "2021-01-15T21:15:57Z")
Almost twenty years ago I was in Mountain View, Arkansas in the town square listening to two old men come to an agreement that eminent domain was communism. My wife was with me and she laughed as my face kept contorting itself as we listened to them speaking. I kind of wanted to turn to them and ask if they were aware of what the Constitution said about taking land for the public good. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/157 "2021-01-16T00:49:01Z")
Not sure if they count as “stupid” per se, but a bit unexpected, are two conversations I overheard. The first was when I was walking from a bus to an office in Tunney’s Pasture (Ottawans will know where it is). I passed two women walking in the opposite direction and one of them was saying “…I had bra issues this morning…”. Twelve years later, on a commuter train in Montreal I was standing in the aisle in front of two young women sitting on the inward facing bench seat looking at photos (prom photos or something of that ilk) when one of them asked the other “can you see my nipples in this one?” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/158 "2021-01-16T23:22:59Z")
Mountain House, California, is a community that was built from the ground up, starting in 2001, in an area with windmill generators on the hills around the town. The Public Works Department in Mountain House got to work about three years before the first residents moved in. A few years later, as the town was filling up, there was a very windy day. Public Works got a call from a woman telling them to turn the windmills off because it was obviously already windy enough without them. ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/159 "2021-01-16T23:33:43Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Almost twenty years ago I was in Mountain View, Arkansas in the town square listening to two old men come to an agreement that eminent domain was communism. My wife was with me and she laughed as my face kept contorting itself as we listened to them speaking. I kind of wanted to turn to them and ask if they were aware of what the Constitution said about taking land for the public good. Depends on the definition of “public good”. A neighbor’s house a few blocks from me is overlooks a river and he owns several lots along the river. Is his house in prefect condition, no. Does he have “stuff” sitting around, yes. He has lived there for 40+ years and his it was his grandparent’s house before he got it. Several “nicer” houses have been built in the area. Talking to him last summer it sound like the city wants to use eminent domain to take his house/land and sell it to a developer who will build high end condos overlooking the river in the name of “public good” due to the increase in property taxes it will bring in. Lots of people have lost their houses/land in the name of “public good” just so some developer can build his/her pet project. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858/160 "2021-01-17T00:07:18Z")
> [@a6ka97](#): > > Lots of people have lost their houses/land in the name of “public good” just so some developer can build his/her pet project. That doesn’t make it communism though. I understand the controversy, this issue went before the Supreme Court a few years back and they basically said, “Public good isn’t really defined and this is something the legislature should do.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-stupid-overheard-conversations/926858.md?page=9)