# Weird, strange or impressive things you've done **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 12, 2015, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972 "2015-09-12T23:23:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/61 "2015-09-18T07:35:49Z")
I ‘pegged’ the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test - the top possible score is/was noted as simply ‘160+’. Which explained my complete boredom. Since then, it’s all been downhill… ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/62 "2015-09-18T15:09:21Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Isn’t mutilation of corpses a crime in most jurisdictions? It certainly is in some. Prosecution is also at the discretion of authorities. The local authorities in this particular case were fully in favor of what was done considering it a placebo that would defuse a potential disastrous situation (there had been a lot of livestock deaths recently). ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/63 "2015-09-18T16:07:43Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > It certainly is in some. Prosecution is also at the discretion of authorities. The local authorities in this particular case were fully in favor of what was done considering it a placebo that would defuse a potential disastrous situation (there had been a lot of livestock deaths recently). Did a fortune teller, or “wise woman” if you will, tell the authorities that vampires had been mutilating cattle? ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/64 "2015-09-18T17:08:57Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Did a fortune teller, or “wise woman” if you will, tell the authorities that vampires had been mutilating cattle? No, the local authorities came up with the idea of a vampire to deter the lynch mob mentality that was forming among a lot of very superstitious, very poor people who were looking for something to blame for recent goat losses. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/65 "2015-09-18T18:27:17Z")
I experienced the biggest earthquake to ever strike North America (Anchorage, 1964). I was part of a team that provided site security for the [crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_625) of American Airlines 625 in St. Thomas, VI, 1976. Not long after the above, I was sent as part of a team to provide assistance in the aftermath of the [Guatemala earthquake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Guatemala_earthquake) in that same year. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/66 "2015-09-18T18:31:30Z")
As a young adult I learned an African language that has fewer than 100,000 speakers and almost no written literature. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/67 "2015-09-18T20:10:33Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > 1. I’ve rode in the Goodyear blimp. Me too… about 1975 or so, out of the Spring, TX blimp base. I was 3-4 years old and fairly terrified by the whole thing. **ZPG Zealot** , what crazy place were you in where the locals were so benighted that you had to dig up a corpse and stake it like a vampire to assuage their fears about livestock deaths? That sounds oddly like something that would have happened in the medieval era. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/68 "2015-09-18T21:15:25Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > No, the local authorities came up with the idea of a vampire to deter the lynch mob mentality that was forming among a lot of very superstitious, very poor people who were looking for something to blame for recent goat losses. Jinkies! ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/69 "2015-09-18T21:47:47Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Me too… about 1975 or so, out of the Spring, TX blimp base. I was 3-4 years old and fairly terrified by the whole thing. > **ZPG Zealot** , what crazy place were you in where the locals were so benighted that you had to dig up a corpse and stake it like a vampire to assuage their fears about livestock deaths? > > That sounds oddly like something that would have happened in the medieval era. rural Mexico ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/70 "2015-09-19T02:01:52Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > rural Mexico Could you be a little more specific? ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/71 "2015-09-19T03:06:34Z")
> [@CBEscapee](#): > > Could you be a little more specific? [An artist’s impression.](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MNEl9m7BY_E/VOKKZn3cuCI/AAAAAAAAA0M/3UOCB1ERS2s/s1600/bring_me_the_vampire_poster_01.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/72 "2015-09-19T03:27:25Z")
Another perfect game here, this one Kenny Rogers in 1994. The tickets were a birthday gift from a kid who work for me, his season tickets for that evening…I felt kind of bad about that, but not _too_ bad. ---
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/73 "2015-09-19T18:20:14Z")
All over the proverbial map with this one… 1. I came up with the idea of [The Restricted Area](http://www.sportingcharts.com/dictionary/nba/restricted-area.aspx) for the NBA and it’s now used on all NCAA basketball floors as well. 2. Directed Kate Beckinsale… in a Bar Mitzvah Video. 3. Came in 2nd place in a college bodybuilding contest (great abs, no legs) and dunked a volleyball the next day (I’m 5’8"). 4. Had a letter I wrote to _The Sporting News_ reprinted in another publication hailing it as one of the three best letters of the decade (1980’s). But honestly, it wasn’t that good. 5. Lost my virginity to an engaged woman (she seduced me!) and then had sex with her **one night** after she got married. 6. Once held my breath for 4 minutes, 16 seconds. 7. Bartended Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s wedding. Briefly met (and shook the hand of) Bill Clinton (while he was Prez) at another party I bartended, and talked to Steven Spielberg at another. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/74 "2015-09-19T18:42:22Z")
I saw Secretariat win the Triple Crown at Belmont in 1973. Only horse race I’ve ever been to. I walked down an NYC street with Christopher Reeve. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/75 "2015-09-19T20:17:18Z")
I’ve been interrogated twice by FBI agents for two separate incidents. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/76 "2015-09-19T21:09:14Z")
I’ve ridden an elephant in India and a camel in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![HeXen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@HeXen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeXen)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/77 "2015-09-19T22:16:19Z")
Weird: A truck driven by a texting pregnant woman ran off the road, heading straight towards me. I was facing another direction, talking to my foreman. All I remember is hearing a co worker from the distance scream "Look ou…!!!. Next thing I know I’m standing some 10-12 feet away, next to my foreman, facing the opposite direction I was in, he looked twice at where I was and where I went and in disbelief, my hard hat laying on the ground. All witnesses swore the truck hit me but never so much as brushed air against me. You could see where the tracks in the snow went right over where I was standing. Everyone was freaking out except me, I felt as calm as a good nights rest. It was like I was in a Matrix movie or something. No one, not even I knew how I got from standing in a shallow hole, facing south, to standing next to my foreman facing north some 10ft away within the fraction of a second. Impressive: I remember in school one time, a kid went to throw a punch at me and I caught his fist with my hand. I impressed myself with that one. Strange: A few months ago, I somehow managed to swing a door wide open without touching it, I was maybe 4 feet away…so either a ghost opened it or my brain did but no one else was in the house. I did hear the door knob as if someone grabbed it just before it swung open so something of energy purposefully did it. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/78 "2015-09-20T11:01:48Z")
Not as impressive as **Gus N Spot’s** list, but I’ve flown a B-17 bomber. In the weird category, I was an ambulance EMT for awhile. Handled lots of dead bodies, gave CPR, delivered a baby, and helped remove bodies after an airplane crash (we found the shoes of one victim over 50 feet away in the grass, still tied and undamaged). In the random category: [Tanya Tucker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Tucker) once gave me a ride to school. This was in 1975 near the height of her popularity, so it was a big deal. Unknown to me, a friend grew up with her and knew her very well. He arranged it as a joke (he was supposed to pick me up). For the youngsters, this would be roughly equivalent to Faith Hill showing up at your door today. For the gearheads: she was driving a [Jensen Interceptor](http://www.greatescapecars.co.uk/images/library/files/Jensen_Interceptor04sml.jpg) (google image). ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972/79 "2015-09-21T16:59:49Z")
Other than the blimp ride I mentioned in post 67 above, the other really odd thing that I can think of that’s happened to me is that I had a nice little social chat with Ross Perot once at a party. It was an engagement party for one of my wife’s law school friends, who was marrying the nanny to a very wealthy couple here in Dallas. The couple had decided to throw a party for their nanny’s engagement, so they invited their friends, her friends, and his friends to their palatial mansion somewhere in Highland Park. (by palatial mansion, I mean 18,000 sq. feet, with a 6 car garage, tennis courts, pool, etc…) Wife and I were eating and hanging out, not really knowing many people, and we see a trim little gentleman in a light blue shirt and khakis pop into the room, look around, and leave that room. I blink, and say to her “That looked like Ross Perot!” She says “Come on… what would HE be doing at \'s party?” I say “Yeah, you’re right, that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”. Later on, we’re wandering around the party, which seemed to take up about 9000 of the 18000 sq feet of the house, and my wife spots her buddy’s sister talking to someone in a side room, who she was also friends with. She busts into the room with a “\! How are you! It’s been ages since I’ve seen you!” and essentially interrupts the conversation. I come into the room trailing behind her, and see who her friend’s sister had been talking to- the same short fellow who looks like Ross Perot that I saw earlier, next to a little old lady who I assumed was his wife. I hold out my hand and introduce myself, and the guy says “Hello I’m Ross Perot, and this is my wife Margot.” We chatted for a few minutes- turns out he was a neighbor, and knew the nanny in passing. Nice fellow- he’s in tremendously good shape for his age, and his ears aren’t big at all in person. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-strange-or-impressive-things-youve-done/730972.md?page=3)