# What makes you so different? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658 "2006-09-06T16:48:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/1 "2006-09-06T16:48:48Z")
Reading through some of these threads, most notably the polyamourous[polyamorous](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=386760) one out there right now, I see how different everyone is. Throughout my travels, I thought I have seen it all, and nothing is abnormal for me. But for all of you, you have something that might be considered ‘taboo’ by some, or ‘off-the-wall’ by others, but for you it is totally normal. So, what makes you so different? It could be something as simple as you are addicted to reading, or you are a huge Star Trek fan, or whatever. What is it? As most of you know from my threads, I am addicted to sex, in all forms, in doing everything that I could possibly do prior to getting ‘old’. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/2 "2006-09-06T16:57:04Z")
Lately I’ve been doing some reading on Muslim culture. The more I read, the more I wonder why America isn’t a nation full of Islams instead of Christians. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/3 "2006-09-06T17:08:09Z")
_Sexual Spoonerisms_. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/4 "2006-09-06T17:11:07Z")
Let’s see I’m white, English speaking, middle aged, married, 2 kids, sit in a cubicle all day, prefer news and sports to anything else on TV, like beer, non-smoker, … hmmm… I’m not very different at all. In fact I’m the male that just about everyone in advertising is targeting. But I’m also a cynic and not an impulse buyer so they’ll never reach me. ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/5 "2006-09-06T17:12:03Z")
[QUOTE=Anastasaeon] _Sexual Spoonerisms_. [/QUOTE] Can you believe I actually searched for sexual spoonerisms, and there is only 1 google hit with that exact phrase: > [@](#): > > Motley found a positive correlation between the tendency to produce sexual spoonerisms and scores on the Mosher Sex Guilt Inventory. However, are all these results really a corroboration of Freud’s theory? What they seem to show is that information having nothing to do with the intended message may still interfere with that message, and that this can be explained by simple association, or, as Motley does, by spreading activation. There are certainly more parsimonious explanations than the complex account Freud proposes based on repression and dynamic aspects of the unconscious mind. ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/6 "2006-09-06T17:12:55Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] So, what makes you so different? [/QUOTE] Absolutely nothing. Except for being me. Rationally, I know I’m the same as everybody else. But to me, being me makes me special. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/7 "2006-09-06T17:26:22Z")
Hmm, some of the things about me that would be out of the ordinary… 1. I’m gay. That’s not so unusual or ‘taboo’ around the SD, but still puts me as part of a small minority. 2. I was homeschooled. I only went to Kindergarten and 1st grade in a private school and then was homeschooled through graduation. It’s becoming more common now but this was 1981 when we started when it was still virtually unheard of in the US. 3. Can’t think of anything else at the moment, but Hi Opal! (I know, lame) ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/8 "2006-09-06T17:42:37Z")
I’ve had unrelieved hives for nearly 7 years now. I have 4 indoor cats. DeHusband and I are both infertile. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/9 "2006-09-06T17:55:43Z")
I’m pretty boring. Strike that. I’m really boring. I might be boring enough to be unusually boring, or I might just be boring enough to be average in that, too. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/10 "2006-09-06T17:59:08Z")
The main thing I always think of is bening born in India, growing up here (States), and loving India and America equally. One’s my mother country, the other’s my adopted country. Doesn’t make me dreadfully unusual, but kind of unusual amongst the Dope! Too few ex-patriate Indians here (I think). ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/11 "2006-09-06T18:12:26Z")
> [@](#): > > **Antinor01** Hmm, some of the things about me that would be out of the ordinary… > I’m gay. That’s not so unusual or ‘taboo’ around the SD, but still puts me as part of a small minority > I was homeschooled. I only went to Kindergarten and 1st grade in a private school and then was homeschooled through graduation. It’s becoming more common now but this was 1981 when we started when it was still virtually unheard of in the US. See, this is ‘different’ to me, as I have never really interacted with someone who was openly gay. The homeschool thing does make you different, because it is still not a norm of our society. > [@](#): > > **DeVena** I’ve had unrelieved hives for nearly 7 years now. > I have 4 indoor cats. > DeHusband and I are both infertile. The insight of a hive-having infertile catwoman, how interesting. > [@](#): > > **jsgoddess** I’m pretty boring. Strike that. I’m really boring. I might be boring enough to be unusually boring, or I might just be boring enough to be average in that, too. I read a book once called _‘Invisible’_, or at least I think that is the name about people who were so boring they were totally ignored by society. It was not written greatly, but it definitely got me thinking about my life and how I was viewed by others. > [@](#): > > **Anaamika** The main thing I always think of is bening born in India, growing up here (States), and loving India and America equally. One’s my mother country, the other’s my adopted country. It definitely makes you different, or at least in America it does. Do you get a lot of people mistaking you for other nationalities? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/12 "2006-09-06T18:16:02Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] It definitely makes you different, or at least in America it does. Do you get a lot of people mistaking you for other nationalities? [/QUOTE] _laughs_ Hell yeah. Mostly Puerto Rican. I took Spanish in HS and sometimes when I saw some Indians staring at me - as the elder generation is wont to do - I often would start speaking in Spanish. I often see that very faint blink when people I’ve dealt with on the phone for a long time see me for the first time and realize I’m not white. Nearly everyone in my organization is, and I have no trace of an accent and initially most people generally assume others are the same race as them anyway. ---
**Author:** ![tashabot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tashabot/32/6250_2.png) [@tashabot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tashabot)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/13 "2006-09-06T18:31:21Z")
I live in Nevada, and not Vegas. I write obituaries for a living. I can play ten different musical instruments with varying degrees of accuracy. I’m a cocaholic - I drink two liters or more of Coca-Cola per day. My favorite bands are The Offspring, The Transplants, and the Beatles (I just think it’s a weird combination). I have the odd distinction of being the child of an alcoholic/drug addict (he was both), and yet not doing drugs or drinking alcohol, and not being AGAINST drugs and alcohol (this is an oddity amongst children of alcoholics). I did not meet my boyfriend off of the Internet (this is becoming something of a minority, at least, amonst my friends). I really am quite average, though, because those are the only differences I can really think of, and I don’t think any of them are very striking. ~Tasha ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/14 "2006-09-06T18:35:37Z")
[QUOTE=tashabot] I write obituaries for a living. I can play ten different musical instruments with varying degrees of accuracy. I’m a cocaholic - I drink two liters or more of Coca-Cola per day. I have the odd distinction of being the child of an alcoholic/drug addict (he was both), and yet not doing drugs or drinking alcohol, and not being AGAINST drugs and alcohol (this is an oddity amongst children of alcoholics). I really am quite average, though, because those are the only differences I can really think of, and I don’t think any of them are very striking. ~Tasha [/QUOTE] Really quite average? Ten musical instruments and write obituaries for a living? Amazing to me. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/15 "2006-09-06T18:38:22Z")
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy] Can you believe I actually searched for sexual spoonerisms, and there is only 1 google hit with that exact phrase: > [@](#): > > Motley found a positive correlation between the tendency to produce sexual spoonerisms and scores on the Mosher Sex Guilt Inventory. However, are all these results really a corroboration of Freud’s theory? What they seem to show is that information having nothing to do with the intended message may still interfere with that message, and that this can be explained by simple association, or, as Motley does, by spreading activation. There are certainly more parsimonious explanations than the complex account Freud proposes based on repression and dynamic aspects of the unconscious mind. [/QUOTE] Ah, yes. I carry the heavy burden of sexual guilt. I _am_ sexually repressed. Perhaps I should talk about it more often? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/16 "2006-09-06T18:39:52Z")
I am 36 and male, but there are a lot of man stereotypes that I do not fit into at all: [ul] [li]I’m a cat lover and I’m not all that fond of dogs.[/li][li]I don’t like sports.[/li][li]I don’t hunt or fish.[/li][li]I don’t have a lick of knowledge when it comes to working on cars.[/li][li]I don’t drink beer or any alcoholic beverage for that matter.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/17 "2006-09-06T18:46:33Z")
I have 8 indoor cats, who have their own suite in a former two car garage with shop. I get lots of strange looks when people hear about it. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/18 "2006-09-06T18:47:25Z")
[QUOTE=Anastasaeon] _Sexual Spoonerisms_. [/QUOTE] Fothermucker? I don’t feel at home anywhere. I can’t settle down. I only want to travel and do nothing else. I’m 39 and have no interest in having kids. I get more excited about new baking techniques than sports. I cry at chick flicks and poetry. In fact I’m the most stereotypically “gay” straight man I know. I’d make a great boyfriend for someone, if it weren’t for the fact that I love titties and beer. ---
**Author:** ![FormerMarineGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/65b543/32.png) [@FormerMarineGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FormerMarineGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/19 "2006-09-06T18:50:08Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Fothermucker? I don’t feel at home anywhere. I can’t settle down. I only want to travel and do nothing else. I’m 39 and have no interest in having kids. I get more excited about new baking techniques than sports. I cry at chick flicks and poetry. In fact I’m the most stereotypically “gay” straight man I know. I’d make a great boyfriend for someone, if it weren’t for the fact that I love titties and beer. [/QUOTE] And you go out of your way to help people, don’t forget that. Anyways…funny as shit. Damn, you make me want to do you, and I like boobs and beer, too. F_ck it, let’s go for it_. \*joking, everyone, joking! ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658/20 "2006-09-06T18:57:50Z")
I am utterly indifferrent to my living quarters. Without exaggeration, I could live in a tent and be happy, assuming the neighbors were at all tolerable. My current flop is a two-bedroom apartment in a crumbling slum, and all the furniture is worn-out junk. Does this bother me? Not in the least. I was once an ardent beer lover; beer was the nectar of the gods to me. Literally overnight, I completely lost my taste for beer. One Friday night, I said good night to some friends after a lovely evening of beer, pizza, and cheesy horror movies, and went to bed. The next evening when I cracked open a can and took a sip, the taste was repulsive. Beer never tasted good to me again. I have no idea why or how this happened. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-you-so-different/371658.md?page=2)