# Weird Laws **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 29, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663 "2008-08-29T12:24:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [September 4, 2008, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/21 "2008-09-04T07:36:52Z")
> [@Gfactor](#): > > I think that’s right. These same statutes cover Sudafed and some other items that one might possess for innocent reasons. OK, then scratch that one off the list ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2008, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/22 "2008-09-04T08:37:19Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > The sad part is there are many weird laws that do exist. > …Georgia: You must be a registered voter to hold elected office. (The Georgia State Constitution Article II Section II Paragraph III gives the disqualifications for holding a state office. The FIRST disqualification (even before being a convicted felon) is not being a registered voter.) This doesn’t sound so weird. When I was in college there was a prevalent belief that it was illegal to drive barefoot. I did my own weird law research for an alternative newspaper I wrote for and found that, despite this widespread belief, in no state was it illegal to drive barefoot. (Painstaking, and without benefit of the internet.) But it was illegal to do some other rather surprising things barefoot. Go into a restaurant, for instance–not too surprising. But at least one state (I’m thinking Texas) extended this to any kind of eating, including in your car at a Sonic-style restaurant, or maybe that was just one way the law could be interpreted based on how it was written. This, of course, would apply to the driver and passengers alike. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/23 "2008-09-04T19:18:02Z")
Ohio law requires public officials to be “qualified electors,” which IIRC has always been interpreted to mean registered voters. Doesn’t seem so weird to me - wouldn’t you want officeholders to be interested enough in the political system to actually be able to vote (for themselves, if for no one else)? Ohio law referred to “idiots” and “imbeciles” rather than the “mentally disabled” until just a few years ago, when it was changed to be P.C. (and more in keeping with contemporary theories of mental health). ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/24 "2008-09-04T19:20:13Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > “Historical sex law books”? you have a collection of them? Ok. A search turned up nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/25 "2008-09-07T01:01:15Z")
> [@Gfactor](#): > > Ok. A search turned up nothing. All the more reason to write your own! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/26 "2008-09-08T16:33:57Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > IKentucky: If you want to sell fowl under two months of age, you must sell a minimum of 6. (Kentucky Revised Statutes 436.600 in the “Offenses Against Morality” section) Chicks, ducklings, or other fowl or rabbits, actually. The same law prohibits dying or coloring them. It’s a “protect the Easter pets” law…people have been known to give chicks, ducklings, and young rabbits as gifts for Easter. The recipients are usually unable to care for an adult chicken, duck, or rabbit, and so the animal usually ends up killed or abandoned when it’s not “cute” anymore. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/27 "2008-09-08T22:05:02Z")
Buffalo, New York has an outdated municipal code with a lot of cruft that built up through the years. Some strange laws I found, with cites: 98-8 - It’s illegal to give a shoeshine on Sunday after 1:00 PM. 352-1 - Steam locomotives cannot cross street level crossings faster than 6 MPH. 378-5 - All businesses, factories, theaters, railroad depots and other public gathering places must provide public spitoons. Spitoons must be cleaned and disinfected every day. 378-6 - It’s illegal for restaurants to give their patrons a straw without a wrapper. 501-3 - A ton of coal weighs 2,000 pounds (no duh!) Don’t believe me? [Look it up](http://gcp.esub.net/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=218082&infobase=buffalo.nfo&softpage=Browse_Frame_Pg42). > [@](#): > > [/font] **§ 378-5. Prohibited acts; posting of notices.** > > ``` > D. Every corporation, proprietor or other person owning, operating or controlling any store, factory, theater or other building or room which is used in common by the public or any depot or railroad station shall provide a sufficient number of nonabsorbent receptacles for expectoration and shall provide for the thorough cleansing and disinfection thereof at least once in twenty-four (24) hours. > > ``` Some more of my favorite old-timey laws still on the books in Buffalo: > [@](#): > > § 352-6. Discharging or opening cylinder cocks. > > It shall not be lawful for any person in the employ of any railroad company operating within the limits of the city to cause or permit the cylinder cocks of the locomotive under his control to be discharged or opened upon any street crossing in the city. Any person violating the provisions of this section and the company owning the locomotive, the cylinder cocks of which shall be so discharged, shall each pay a penalty as provided in Chapter 1, General Provisions, Article III, General Penalty, of this Code. > [@](#): > > § 3-18. Ordinance Powers. > > (9)To prevent and abate nuisances; to prohibit or regulate the blowing of steam whistles or the ringing of bells; to prevent the emission of dense smoke, soot or dust; to regulate or prohibit the use of public pumps, wells, hydrants or reservoirs; to regulate the construction of public and private sewers, sinks and privies; to locate, regulate and remove slaughterhouses, butchers’ stalls, fish stands, livery stables, tanneries and unwholesome or noisome buildings or places and to compel the cleansing of same. > [@](#): > > 158.13 No person shall visit or enter any house wherein is any person sick with small pox or varioloid, except the persons who, at the time said patient was taken sick, were residents of said house, the nurse or nurses employed in the care of such patient and such regularly attending physicians as may be called; nor shall any person who is in constant attendance upon such sick person leave or depart from said house during the time when such sick person remains therein, and not thereafter until the wearing apparel which he or she has worn while in attendance upon such sick person shall have been replaced by clothing which has not been worn in such sickroom, and then only upon a written permit from the Health Commissioner. It shall be the duty of the Health Department to put up and maintain in a conspicuous place at the front entrance of any building, and also at any other entrance thereof, in which there shall be any person sick or infected with smallpox, varioloid, scarlet fever or diphtheria (or croup in any form) a card or sign on which shall be written or printed in English and German, Italian or Polish the words designating the infectious disease with which such sick person is affected and to keep the same so posted during all the time when such sick or infected person shall remain in said building. In any cases mentioned in this section, it shall be unlawful to remove or cause to be removed any such placard or notification of warning so placed by the Health Department; and in cases of diphtheria, such placard shall not be removed until bacteriological examinations shall have shown that no further danger from contagion exists; and no person shall, without the permission of the Health Commissioner, remove any such sign or placard so placed on any building. In case any such sign shall have been removed, either by accident or design, it shall be the duty of the person or persons occupying said building to notify the Department of Health thereof forthwith. It shall be the duty of the Health Commissioner to have printed in English, German, Polish and Italian circulars and other literature pertaining to all the infectious diseases specified in § 158-1 of this chapter and to cause said circulars and literature to be distributed for the information of the public. In the case of tuberculosis, he shall have printed, in addition, suitable signs or placards explaining the danger of indiscriminate expectoration. This is still on the books in Oakland, Florida, a suburb of Orlando. > [@](#): > > Sec. 50-20. Vagrants. > > (a) The following shall be deemed vagrants: > > (1) Rogues, vagabonds, idle or dissolute persons who go about begging; > (2) Common gamblers; > (3) Persons who use juggling or unlawful games or plays; > (4) Common pipers and fiddlers; > (5) Common drunkards; > (6) Common night walkers; > (7) Thieves, pilferers, traders in stolen property; > (8) Lewd, wanton and lascivious persons; > (9) Keepers of gambling places; > (10) Common railers and brawlers; > (11) Persons who neglect their calling or employment or are without reasonable continuous employment or regular income and who have not sufficient property to sustain themselves and misspend what they earn without providing for themselves or for the support of their families; > (12) Persons wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object, habitual loafers, idle and disorderly persons; > (13) Persons neglecting all lawful business and habitually spending their time by frequenting houses of ill fame, gaming houses or tippling shops; > (14) Persons able to work but habitually living upon the earnings of their wives or minor children; and > (15) All ablebodied persons over the age of 18 years who are without means of support and remain in idleness. In short, 1. Go away, Opal. 😃 Basically, don’t juggle, fiddle, pipe or _flâneur_ in Oakland. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/28 "2008-09-09T06:10:59Z")
/QUOTE]New Mexico: Idiots are not allowed to vote. (State Constitution Article VII Section 1, written in 1911 when “Idiot” denoted someone with an IQ of less than 20./QUOTE] > [@Gfactor](#): > > What part of this is weird? That the State Constitution uses the word “idiot”? That New Mexico hasn’t amended it? Or that they don’t let the severely retarded vote? Minnesota law used to say something like this, but now it just says that you cannot vote if you are under court-ordered guardianship or have been ruled legally incompetent by a court. I don’t see what’s weird about that at all. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/29 "2008-09-09T15:23:42Z")
It’s weird when you hear idiots are not allowed to vote. It’s less weird when idiots is defined. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/30 "2008-09-09T15:31:19Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > It’s weird when you hear idiots are not allowed to vote. It’s less weird when idiots is defined. Right. In the last century, the law included several politically incorrect terms, some of which still remain on the books in some places. Idiots, Infants (used to describe those under the age of majority), and Bastards are all discussed in statutes and cases. ---
**Author:** ![BritinUS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@BritinUS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BritinUS)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/31 "2008-09-09T18:56:05Z")
Britain, too, had its blue laws -there are still counties where the bars don’t open and you can’t buy petrol (gas) on a Sunday. For years the Sunday closing laws were heavily protect by the “Lord’s Day Observance Society” and the shopworkers unions. A few years back (60’s?) the law was relaxed to allow the sale of perishables. Perishables was quite broadly defined, and the famous anomoly that it created was that on a Sunday you could buy a Playboy magazine but not a Bible. Magazines were considered perishable, but books were not. On the subject of defining a ton of coal as 2000 lbs - that is not as strange as it may seem. Many parts of the world use the English ton, which is 2400 lbs, others use the metric ton which is 1000kilos or 2,205 lbs. Also different but with the same name is the liquid measure: in the US a pint is 16ozs, but in the UK it is 20 ozs, so a quart in the US is 32 ozs but in the UK it is 40 ozs, and a US gallon is 128ozs and a UK gallon is 160ozs. So before you compare the cost of gas to the cost of petrol you have to do a measures adjustment too! Incidentally, a UK ounce is 0.960759936343 of a US ounce… And heat is mostly measured in BTUs - British Thermal Units! ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663/32 "2008-09-10T02:32:00Z")
> [@BritinUS](#): > > For years the Sunday closing laws were heavily protect by the “Lord’s Day Observance Society” Ah yes! The same folks who protested against the life of Christ being broadcast on the BBC back in the 40s, 'cos, y’know, if people started thinking of Jesus as a “really real” person, who knows what might happen next!.. > [@](#): > > On the subject of defining a ton of coal as 2000 lbs - that is not as strange as it may seem. Many parts of the world use the English ton, which is 2400 lbs, 'Tisn’t. The Imperial (or “long”) ton is 20 Imperial (or “long”) hundredweights (112 pounds), or 160 stone (14 pounds), which is 2240 pounds. > [@](#): > > Also different but with the same name is the liquid measure: in the US a pint is 16ozs, but in the UK it is 20 ozs, so a quart in the US is 32 ozs but in the UK it is 40 ozs, and a US gallon is 128ozs and a UK gallon is 160ozs. So before you compare the cost of gas to the cost of petrol you have to do a measures adjustment too! > > Incidentally, a UK ounce is 0.960759936343 of a US ounce… In all of that, substitute “fluid ounces” (a unit of volume) for “ounces” (a unit of weight). And on the US “pints” and “quarts”, make that “liquid pints” and “liquid quarts”; the US also has “dry pints” and “dry quarts”, which are different. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-laws/461663.md?page=1)