People who believe that sexual harassment is vanishingly rare, almost never receive the complaints from people who have been sexually harassed. Especially the “not really rape” crowd.
In the company I joined 20 years ago I faced a lot of ridicule for being “One Heineken Mouse” at the more-or-less-obligatory Thursday afternoon happy hour (women were exempt of course, because they had to go home and take care of their families’ dinners)
Nowadays that simply doesn’t happen. It’s the same company but the Irish-American dominance of the corporate workforce has been diluted, and many of the younger people (some now in their 40s!) are not into the traditional after work drinks session.
But my brother who has also been with the same company for 25 years reports that there is still a lot of pressure for into the drinking culture.
I’ll second people’s claiming to pay far less for various services than I do; and the claim usually comes after I say what I pay for something (of course).
“My electric bill is $120/month”
“Really? Mine’s never been more than $40, and it’s usually under $30”
Or it’s their insurance premium, or their internet or cell plan. "I’m with [Weird company you’ve never heard of] and I pay $7/month for free long distance and unlimited data anywhere in the world". But I can never verify the claim and even when I know exactly what the company is and talk to them about all the various options, it’s simply not possible people get what they say. Still though, probably 7/10 people I talk to claim to pay way less for common services than I do.
I witnessed myself throwing things many times - the last was when a clapped-out station refused to yield a diseased carburetor; I slammed a screwdriver to the ground, it bounced off a rock, and penetrated the radiator. So, no car to take it to the shop in town.
Last known tool toss.
Dan
People spitting on military personnel in uniform* to show opposition to government policy.
One time as we were leaving a restaurant I complemented the parents of a sizable family including young children at a neighboring table, over how well behaved they were. The parents were pleased.
*who according to the legend, never retaliate but just trundle on.
I was complimented on how well behaved my kids were at a restaurant exactly once, but I’ve told the story several times, because i see it as a parable about the difference between city kids (who are taken to restaurants all the time, and need to learn to behave) and suburban kids.
A lot of these things are remarkable, and probably get mentioned more often than they happen.
But this is pretty common. I don’t do this, but i know a lot of people who do. No, they mostly don’t read chunks of the Bible at a park. They typically have a schedule and plan to read a little every day and read the whole text over a year. Sometimes, they also have a discussion group with like-minded friends. I assume they mostly read in the morning or the evening, some time they can do consistently every day.
This is another thing I’ve done once. And actually, i hurled something soft and harmless across the room, but it knocked my mug off the bureau and broke it. That cured me of the habit of throwing stuff. But i used to throw stuff as a way to release tension.
Ditto. I’ve met thousands of gay men and i can’t actually think of any who lisp.
I’ve seen mild cases of this. Nothing that got to HR, but things that caused gossip and ended up with the harasser being asked to stop. Because they did, that was the end of it
I’ve also been harassed once. That was also a borderline case.
But I’ve been fortunate to work for companies that don’t have a culture of sexual harassment. (Sexual discrimination, on the other hand…)
Fwiw, nearly every female lawyer I’ve spoken to about it says she’s been harassed. My cousin semi-retired on the proceeds of a harassment settlement.
I’ve never done this, but i believe it. Rates vary wildly by geography and by less obvious rating factors. I’m an actuary in the property-casually field. I’ve never actually set auto rates, but I’ve seen them. I’m sure you know people who pay far less than you, especially if you know people in other parts of the country.
This varies a lot by who you hang out with. I mostly hang out with light drinkers and non-drinkers. I’ve only been hassled when i was drinking something that looked alcoholic while i was pregnant. But i have been in internet chats with people who are trying to reduce their drinking, and it’s a problem that all their friends drink, and judge them for trying to stop.
I’ve never managed to see the image in one of those “Magic Eye” things.
I was complimented on my kids’ behavior many times by actual people I know. It happened with some strangers as well; e.g, a waitress at a restaurant or a flight attendant; i.e. people with a vested interest in kids’ behavior. But if a random person came up to me at a Walmart, I’d probably assume they were dealing with bad behavior elsewhere. I don’t think I even notice strangers’ well-behaved kids. It’s the other ones that stand out.
Do we have any truck drivers on this board? I’ve read (possibly unverifiable) claims that truckers get flashed a lot more often than the general public is aware.
In my experience, the age of the car matters a very great deal. My dad and I have similar driving records – and we have the same exact coverage from the same company – but he pays WAY more premium for his 2005 Hyundai than I pay for my 1995 Toyota.
That was exclusively, or very nearly so, a Vietnam-era thing.
This is more of a mental illness. “Gang stalking” is widely believed by certain people (all of them being actively gang stalked at this very minute.) It’s a delusion, one particularly impervious to reason.
I met one once. She was sure there were neighborhood kids in her attic, and she had me check. After I reported in the negative, I wonder if she thought I was one of them, too. There was someone on this board that thought the people living on the floor above were stalking them.
Maybe. It was a random older lady at the cheesecake factory. And it was shortly after we moved out of NYC. Maybe kids at other tables were annoying her, and she was trying to shame those parents.
I agree that it’s weird to notice the absence of bad behavior.
Sadly, I used to get this from my mom - it seemed to bother her that I didn’t want a glass of wine or whatever adult beverage she was mixing up. I’m not anti-alcohol. But it makes me sleepy - why would I want to get sleepy in a social situation? And especially when I had a long drive home at the end of the evening. Fortunately, she’s quit pushing me and accepts that I’m good with a glass of ice water.
My dad was a truck driver and I think that’s the sort of thing he would brag about (even to his children) if it had ever happened to him. Likewise, I spent way too many years in my twenties delivering pizzas, and never once did a customer try to seduce me. There was exactly one driver I knew who claimed to have have had that experience and he had lots of stories that pegged the BS meter.
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 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?
Probably. It frankly happened so oddly I didn’t even notice. It was a gorilla on the basketball court situation.
The only time I have seen something like this IRL – back in my college days I was working at the bookstore, and once I was helping a store manager (who had some anger management issues, to put it mildly) take some temporary cash registers back downstairs to storage after back to school rush. He bent down to pick one up, split the seat of his pants, and got so pissed off he kicked the cash register down the stairway.
Oh, and 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 promise it use to happen at Mardi Gras, can’t speak to post Katrina, but pre-Katrina, it happened.
Depends on your definition. If you mean no Christmas Pageant because it now is called a Holiday Pageant, then sure it happens. Also OMG, a Menorah in town square/circle like the Christmas Tree then sure. If you even mean Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, then sure again.
If you mean no tree allowed by evil Atheists, then yep, I’ve never seen that in the wild. So it depends on how sensitive the snowflakes are.
It is a Sailboat.
It just depends on your vision. This article says that about 5% of all people can’t see them. Incidentally, they’re called autostereograms: