# What's something that people claim happens a lot, but you have rarely, or never, witnessed it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 13, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965 "2022-03-13T00:27:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/61 "2022-03-13T15:49:15Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It just depends on your vision. This article says that about 5% of all people can’t see them. Incidentally, they’re called autostereograms: Thanks! I wonder if part of the problem has been that I expect too much—a full color, detailed shark rather than the basic outline of one, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/62 "2022-03-13T16:06:59Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > It is a Sailboat. It’s a Schooner… > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It just depends on your vision. This article says that about 5% of all people can’t see them. Incidentally, they’re called autostereograms: My problem is that it’s way easier for me to see them ‘inside out’ or as a hole instead of a 3-d pop-out. I think it has to do with your eyes focusing in front of the image rather than behind. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/63 "2022-03-13T16:12:22Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > My problem is that it’s way easier for me to see them ‘inside out’ or as a hole instead of a 3-d pop-out. I think it has to do with your eyes focusing in front of the image rather than behind. Yes, as the article points out, some people can see an image in a wall-eyed way. Some can see an image in a cross-eyed way. Some can do both. Some can do neither. Vision (and that included both what’s going on in the eyes and what’s going on in the brain) works differently in different people. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/64 "2022-03-13T16:34:36Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I was around in that era and never saw it happen, or encountered a documented episode of it happening. From the stories that got passed around, you’d think that returning servicemen were forced to run gauntlets of spitters. I wasn’t around in that era, but my current impression of the situation was that it maybe happened once or twice at most, but there were also big pro-war sectors of society that really wanted to portray anti-war people as barbaric, and repeated/invented/exaggerated those incidents to the point where they became folklore. Nowadays the anti-Vietnam-war people have “won” the history books, but little tidbits like that are leftover from the pro-war people. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/65 "2022-03-13T16:56:23Z")
I’ve had that happen. If a kid has just been given a cookie at the mall or is eating french fries at a restaurant, he’s going to be pretty well-behaved (how he was behaving while waiting might have been a different story), and something about vivid red hair on a toddler really attracts comments. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/66 "2022-03-13T17:00:39Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I’ve only heard a few people claim it, but it happens in media portrayals all the time - an angry person throwing something (a cup, a plate, a phone) hard enough to break it. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve never witnessed anyone throw something in anger. My gf could probably stand some anger management counseling. I once found an odd piece of plastic on the basement floor. I figured out it was part of a clock radio, like the one my gf had, then when I went to confirm this the clock radio was gone. When I asked where her clock radio was, she told me it broke so she threw it away. Further questioning led me to discover that “it broke” when she threw it as hard as she could to the basement floor. She was “springing forward”, kept having difficulties, so she took it downstairs. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/67 "2022-03-13T17:05:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Further questioning led me to discover that “it broke” when she threw it as hard as she could to the basement floor. She was “springing forward”, kept having difficulties, so she took it downstairs. It may not actually happen a lot, but I suspect there are a lot of people who can at least empathize with _wanting_ to break something because it frustrates you. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/N9wsjroVlu8/maxresdefault.jpg "Office Space - Printer Scene (UNCENSORED)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9wsjroVlu8) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/68 "2022-03-13T17:09:30Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I promise it use to happen at Mardi Gras, can’t speak to post Katrina, but pre-Katrina, it happened. I promise it happened post-Katrina, and at times other than Mardi Gras. We also saw a drunk guy in a kilt sitting on the curb, then he passed out. A woman walked over and flipped his kilt up, getting cheers from revelers. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/69 "2022-03-13T17:18:31Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Second one, not sure if this counts or not, but I dragged a couch to the balcony and dropped it on a car belonging to a cheating lying asshole of an obviously now ex boyfriend. From this point forward, i shall claim that this happens all the time just so that it does count! Nice one ! ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/70 "2022-03-13T17:24:12Z")
Women _do_ routinely take their tops off, not during Mardi Gras, at the beach (there are also nude beaches, of course). ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/71 "2022-03-13T17:38:45Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Yes, as the article points out, some people can see an image in a wall-eyed way. I can sometimes sort of de-focus, and if I’m reading M-E I perceive it as E-M. But maybe the E is at 10 o’clock and the M is at 4 o’clock. That doesn’t work either for perceiving these images however. Ever see this? > **[camouflage | GIF | PrimoGIF](https://www.primogif.com/p/NokEdpRoqtWrm)** > > camouflage. A gif on PrimoGIF I can’t find the one where he blended in with the stone column. [Some of this page may be slightly NSFW because models may be nude (but painted). It’s a bunch of them so preview outside work may be advisable.](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/164170348894349099/) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/72 "2022-03-13T17:38:47Z")
She must have had quadruplets. LOTS of formula. That is why I raised my eyebrow. Not that it was anything I thought was fraud, just all those babies and of course she needed the energy drink. > [@Retzbu\_Tox](#): > > I have seen several articles about Tide detergent, baby formula, razors, and energy drinks allegedly being frequent targets of shoplifting in bulk, and then sold to a fence with the intent of using the cash to purchase drugs. Perhaps acquiring such items with food stamps would be a variation on this? Huh, that could be, but it wasn’t what I was thinking at the time. But yeah, baby formula is easy to sell without taking a huge discount. Maybe?? > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It just depends on your vision. This article says that about 5% of all people can’t see them. Incidentally, they’re called autostereograms: I can but it takes a while and sometimes I get a headache, so I don’t bother. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/73 "2022-03-13T17:43:22Z")
I know this is something that happens a _lot_. But I have only witnessed it a couple times in my life: illegal drug use. I remember being at a party in the 1980s where someone snorted a line of cocaine. Was also at a couple parties in the 80s where people were smoking pot. And… that’s all I can recall. I must live in a bubble. 😶 ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/74 "2022-03-13T17:48:08Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I must live in a bubble. Or you go to the wrong parties. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/75 "2022-03-13T17:55:24Z")
You probably do live in a bubble. I rarely saw coke; but pot, acid, hash and shrooms were pretty common. Then I got older and stopped seeing any of it. Now pot is back but it is also legal in more states than not. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/76 "2022-03-13T17:58:25Z")
At the animal shelter, I’ve never once seen someone try to come in to adopt a black cat in order to torture or sacrifice them around Halloween. I’ve also never seen one come in having been the victim of any halloween-related torture, never seen anything like a pattern of people’s inside/outside pet black cats going missing, never seen people bringing black cats in right after Halloween because they got them as decoration, or any other black cat/Halloween-related shenanigans. So no, we don’t restrict adoptions on black cats around Halloween because it’s really not necessary. We do get lots of people acting like fools around Christmastime (pets make terrible gifts and REALLY terrible last-minute gifts) but we don’t really get a big surge of people wanting to give up their Christmas puppies/kittens in January. We do have people all year round who want to get rid of their 5-to-12-month-old pups for reasons that amount to “they got bigger and teenage puppies are a lot of work” but there’s not a surge that corresponds with Christmas. Ditto the whole “getting rid of the old dog to make room for the Christmas puppy” thing. We get those all year round, but not noticeably more at Christmas. However, there IS a big surge of people calling us to try to give up rabbits (which we don’t take) about a month after Easter every year. In unrelated-to-animals world, I’ve never, especially not when I was a kid, had a stranger come up to me in a public place and pressure me to do drugs. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/77 "2022-03-13T18:16:43Z")
> [@Bootb](#): > > > [@Jackmannii](#): > > > > People spitting on military personnel in uniform\* to show opposition to government policy. > > That was exclusively, or very nearly so, a Vietnam-era thing. I never saw it then, either. > [@Shoeless](#): > > there was the college roommate who once threw his cat against the wall after it bit him. But cats are made of rubber so it wasn’t damaged. I really hope that last line was supposed to be sarcastic. > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I know this is something that happens a _lot_ . But I have only witnessed it a couple times in my life: illegal drug use. I remember being at a party in the 1980s where someone snorted a line of cocaine. Was also at a couple parties in the 80s where people were smoking pot. > > And… that’s all I can recall. I must live in a bubble. Different bubble than mine, clearly! Cocaine I’ve only seen a couple of times, years ago. Marijuana, I’ve seen quite a lot of, and also assorted acid/ psilocybin/etc, or at least things that were supposed to be; all of them more rarely since I got out of my 20’s. There’s also underage alcohol, though you may not have been thinking of that. > [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > I’ve never, especially not when I was a kid, had a stranger come up to me in a public place and pressure me to do drugs. Me neither. Actually I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone, stranger or not, pressure me to do drugs. Offer, yes. Pressure, no. (And the offering wasn’t by strangers in random public places; it was either friends, or people I didn’t know but in a situation in which lots of people were getting stoned – concerts or parties, that sort of thing.) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/78 "2022-03-13T18:25:34Z")
My brother delivered pizzas in his youth, and the closest he ever came to encountering anything like this was a woman who answered the door wearing nothing but a sweatshirt. She reached around the door to hand him the money and take the pizza, and there was a big mirror on the opposite wall, which was how he knew this. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/79 "2022-03-13T18:29:32Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Shoeless](#): > > > > there was the college roommate who once threw his cat against the wall after it bit him. But cats are made of rubber so it wasn’t damaged. > > I really hope that last line was supposed to be sarcastic. It kind of makes me think that the cat had a good reason to bite him. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/80 "2022-03-13T18:37:21Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Now pot is back but it is also legal in more states than not. It’s legal in 18 states (and in the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam) to use it recreationally, which isn’t quite a majority. You can look up the populations of all 21 and add them together to see if that adds up to a majority of the population. Also, there are other states, etc. where it’s legal to use it for medical uses: > **[Legality of cannabis by U.S. jurisdiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_U.S._jurisdiction)** > > In the United States, cannabis is legal in 38 of 50 states for medical use and 24 states for recreational use. At the federal level, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, determined to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, prohibiting its use for any purpose. Despite this prohibition, federal law is generally not enforced against the possession, cultivation, or intrastate distribution of cannabis in states where such activity ha... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965.md?page=5)