# 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:** 5
**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, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/81 "2022-03-13T18:43:26Z")
**This discussion is off-topic.** Feel free to start a new thread. But do not continue this here. See [here for the guidelines](https://disa.com/map-of-marijuana-legality-by-state) the SDMB uses for this. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/82 "2022-03-13T18:45:10Z")
Is the “Pandemic Adoption and Return Later” thing real though? I remember seeing a ton of new stories about people who adopted a pet right at the start of the pandemic when they got laid off or had to work from home, only to try to return the animals after they went back to work. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/83 "2022-03-13T18:47:34Z")
Men standing in the parking lot of Home Depot in order to get hired for day jobs. If this happens, it happens a lot more in Southern California than in Upstate New York. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/84 "2022-03-13T18:49:03Z")
This definitely happens at local Home Depots. I see them every time I shop there. This is in the SF Bay Area. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/85 "2022-03-13T18:49:10Z")
Absolutely true in the shelter I work with (as a fundraiser) ---
**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, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/86 "2022-03-13T18:50:03Z")
I’ve seen it at convenience store parking lots, not Home Depot or Lowes. Central Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/87 "2022-03-13T19:27:51Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Men standing in the parking lot of Home Depot in order to get hired for day jobs. Absolutely normal in Chicago. ---
**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, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/88 "2022-03-13T19:34:05Z")
I went to some parties in the Hollywood hills in the 70’s . Bowls of Quaalude, lines of coke, etc. Not to mention Porn stars. In the Grateful Dead concerts, weed was very common. > [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > 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. I have had people offer me a toke on quite a few occasions, but when politely declined, they just passed it on. No pressure. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > If this happens, it happens a lot more in Southern California than in Upstate New York. Indeed it do in CA. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/89 "2022-03-13T19:36:03Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > > [@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. Well, I probably made it sound worse than it was. It’s not like he deliberately threw the cat full-force against the wall. And it was totally the cat’s fault. Roommate was sitting on the couch watching TV with the cat on his lap. The movie “Mister Roberts” was on, and there was a scene with that high-pitched whistle they used on Navy ships. The sound apparently freaked out the cat, which sank its teeth into his hand. So he kind of jumped up off the couch and flung the cat off of his lap. Honestly I think roommate took more damage than the cat did. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/90 "2022-03-13T19:49:51Z")
I’ve never been able to see them, and wonder if it’s related to my inability to focus my eyes on anything for more than a few seconds without it becoming physically uncomfortable. I know it creeps some people out, but I just can’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/91 "2022-03-13T19:52:57Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I’ve never managed to see the image in one of those “Magic Eye” things. > > [https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/can-you-find-the-hidden-images-in-these-15-magic-eye-photos](https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/can-you-find-the-hidden-images-in-these-15-magic-eye-photos) I couldn’t at first. But then I was at a party when the books were really popular, and someone told me a trick. Then, I could see the images, but it wasn’t something that was easy and automatic for me. I’d always have to do a “relaxed concentration” sort of thing that I wasn’t always able to do. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/92 "2022-03-13T20:04:22Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > 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. I was in San Francisco back in the very early 70s with my sisters and some friends. We had been shopping at Macy’s and were walking by the St. Francis. There was a demonstration going on – nothing too raucous but lots of people milling around – and some guy sidled up to my younger (very naive) sister and asked her if she wanted to buy some dope. She hadn’t quite heard him and stopped to say “What?” I told her to keep moving, but she kept asking why this guy was trying to sell her donuts. ---
**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, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/93 "2022-03-13T20:22:22Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Well, I probably made it sound worse than it was. It’s not like he deliberately threw the cat full-force against the wall. And it was totally the cat’s fault. > > Roommate was sitting on the couch watching TV with the cat on his lap. The movie “Mister Roberts” was on, and there was a scene with that high-pitched whistle they used on Navy ships. The sound apparently freaked out the cat, which sank its teeth into his hand. So he kind of jumped up off the couch and flung the cat off of his lap. Honestly I think roommate took more damage than the cat did. Thanks for clarification. That reads more like a reflex action than like anything deliberate. And depending on how hard the “fling” was the cat may indeed have been OK, even psychologically (though I’d avoid repeating that whistle!) ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/94 "2022-03-13T20:39:19Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Men standing in the parking lot of Home Depot in order to get hired for day jobs. [Los Angeles day laborers allege discrimination and threats at some Home Depots](https://abc7.com/home-depot-la-locations-day-laborers-los-angeles/3306720/) “The city of Los Angeles requires Home Depot parking lots designate a site for day laborers in its parking lots. The sites are funded by the city and operated by nonprofit organizations.” ---
**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, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/95 "2022-03-13T20:39:53Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I’ve seen it at convenience store parking lots, not Home Depot or Lowes. > Central Jersey. QuikTrip in Dallas area. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/96 "2022-03-13T20:45:29Z")
I believe this is a difficult question, because it covers such a wide range of things. Here are examples: UFO’s and alien abductions. Claims - yes. Never seen it - yes. (OF COURSE, commonplace explanations exist.) A cup of water, microwaved, that afterwards suddenly bursts into boiling. People say that it can even boil to the point of emptying the cup. I’ve seen microwaved water burst into boiling (when I added a teabag) - but never to the point where it all boils away. Ball lightning. There are enough reports that I wouldn’t classify this with UFO’s, - although I don’t know the latest research into this. Then there is the daily news. For one example, I’ve never personally seen a car wrapped around a tree or driven into a house. But according to the news it happens often enough to quality for the OP. ---
**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, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/97 "2022-03-13T20:50:09Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > UFO’s and alien abductions. Claims - yes. Never seen it - yes. (OF COURSE, commonplace explanations exist.) I saw a UFO once. Bright ball of light, it was tracking my truck thru a forest. I finally stopped to look. It was Venus. But damn it looked like it was tracking me, and boy was it bright that dark, moonless night. _The Proof is Out There_ debunks many such UFOs but does say some are truly unidentified. > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > For one example, I’ve never personally seen a car wrapped around a tree or driven into a house. I have seen both. But yeah, it is not as common to see as the news would suggest. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/98 "2022-03-13T20:58:22Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > People who claim to feel an immense amount of social pressure to drink alcohol and large amounts of social judgement from being alcohol free in a social environment. So, what you describe… no. Not since college, at least, and not even then. At least I didn’t experience an ‘immense amount of social pressure’ because I don’t drink. I figure I had some times where some asshole one night was like “what, you don’t drink? What’s wrong with you, man?”, but I wouldn’t call that ‘immense’. Same thing with ‘large amounts of social judgment’ from being alcohol-free. However… and this is really First World Problem stuff on the scheme of things… I can recount a list of instances my ex-wife (also a non-drinker (until _after_ the divorce, apparently)) and I were ‘shunned’, for want of a better word, by people who wanted to drink specifically because we didn’t drink. “Lisa and Carl met last night.” “Why didn’t they ask us?” (knowing the answer.) “They didn’t think we would have fun, they just wanted to go drink.” “OK” See, @Shalmanese, you’re welcome when you don’t drink because you do drink. But if you never drank, and your friends want to go drinking, they rarely will ask you (unless they need a driver, and now in the age of Uber, not even then). And you just kind of have to accept that. And when you are with a group of people and the conversation turns to something like wine, or favorite bourbons, well, you also just have to accept a 10, 20 minute stretch where you have nothing to add to the conversation. Like I said, First World Problems. But for a _complete_ teetotaller… and I’ve made it through 55 years of America completely sober… this social disconnect, while in no way ‘immense’, is still there, even at my age (55). ---
**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, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/99 "2022-03-13T21:39:11Z")
I can see some of those 3-D images, if I cross my eyes a certain way, and the image must be flat. Another thing I have really not witnessed: Middle-aged or older men leaving their wives for younger women. Oh, sure, I’ve known men who got divorced, or were widowed, and happened to marry someone younger, or a woman who married an older man, but that wasn’t WHY they got married. On a related note, men who leave their wives when they get breast cancer. My mother is a survivor of almost 40 years, I’m one too, I worked in health care for many years, and I have never heard of ANYONE doing that. Again, oh, sure, some people got divorced, but they were going to do that anyway. For that matter, men abandoning their disabled children. The one case I can think of involved a couple who separated because of issues between them, and she met a new man and from what I heard, it was a case of “You have a new daddy, so you don’t need the old one any more” and I will admit that he did sign his rights away, although it may have been under duress. Don’t know any more than that, beyond that the mother did have quite a dysfunctional upbringing herself. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-that-people-claim-happens-a-lot-but-you-have-rarely-or-never-witnessed-it/960965/100 "2022-03-13T22:13:30Z")
Guys talking about other guys dicks in the public showers. This is a common trope in fiction and I’ve seen people mention it online, but in all my decades of nude showering in high school, the Army, college, and finally at the gym, I’ve never heard of some guy talk about somebody else’s penis in the shower. It just felt like that was the one time that kind of stuff stayed in the locker room. The only time I ever heard somebody talk about another man’s penis was if he exposed it outside of the shower or they regularly talked about it themselves. [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=4) [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=6)