# What's the deal with all of those hubcaps leaning up agianst telephone poles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2022, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521 "2022-09-13T22:59:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/61 "2022-09-18T19:52:22Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Yes, we threw our gym sneakers onto the wires at the end of the school year. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/62 "2022-09-18T22:19:47Z")
I once owned a car that had previously belonged to the Metropolitan Police. It was a V8 Rover and in pretty good condition except that the front seats were well worn and there was a hole in the middle of the roof plugged with a rubber grommet. There were also several screw holes on the dashboard. When I collected the car from the auction, the hub caps were all in the boot and looked brand new. Apparently, it was their standard thing to take them off because, under severe cornering, the steel wheels distorted so much that they would fly off, with the risk of injuring someone. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2022, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/63 "2022-09-18T23:42:39Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Are these things you see leaning against the poles “wheel covers”? A wheel cover is a plastic insert fully as large as the steel wheel behind it, usually styled to look like a more expensive alloy wheel. To clarify my earlier post about my lousy hubcaps, they could more accurately be called “wheel covers” and they just snapped in place. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/64 "2022-09-19T01:59:43Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Not really. [The master covered it in 1994.](https://www.straightdope.com/21342130/can-some-people-extinguish-streetlamps-by-means-of-their-bodily-emanations) > > I can’t believe this has been here 2 days without someone actually quoting Cecil. Good work! 👍 > [@VOW](#): > > The lamp sometimes overheats, and to prevent it from destroying itself, it shuts off. When the lamp cools enough, the light will come back on. Yes, there is one outside my front door that does this. You can sit on the porch and watch it go off every so often. More and more as the bulb gets older it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/65 "2022-09-19T14:30:41Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Yes, we threw our gym sneakers onto the wires at the end of the school year. Did you go barefoot all summer? (not that there’s anything wrong with that) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/66 "2022-09-19T16:03:34Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Did you go barefoot all summer? I suspect it was “the sneakers we had specifically for gym class.” When I was in high school, I had a pair of sneakers which lived in my gym bag, along with my gym clothes; I had a different pair of sneakers for everyday wear. (I went to a Catholic boys high school, where we had to wear jacket, tie, and non-sneaker shoes to class, so i wasn’t wearing my “everyday” sneakers to school.) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/67 "2022-09-19T16:17:25Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > (I went to a Catholic boys high school, where we had to wear jacket, tie, and non-sneaker shoes to class, so i wasn’t wearing my “everyday” sneakers to school.) I didn’t go to Catholic school, but I went to school long enough ago that sneakers were forbidden by the dress code. This was before the rise of “athletic” shoes. All sneakers were canvas. Quite a few of us marked our gym shoes with our initials to keep them from being mixed up in the locker room. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/68 "2022-09-19T16:50:02Z")
Why would we? We had other sneakers and shoes to wear, we usually had out grown our gym sneakers over the year, and they stunk to high heaven after sitting in our gym lockers all year ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/69 "2022-09-19T16:55:04Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > We had other sneakers and shoes to wear I was half joking. But as a kid, I never had more than one pair of tennis shoes (which we called sneakers) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/70 "2022-09-19T19:46:46Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > tennis shoes (which we called sneakers) We called ours “daps”. I have no idea why. Google says > Why are daps called daps? > > This **likely stems from the fact that the Dunlop Athletic Plimsoles (DAP) factory was based in Bristol**; it’s possible that the general term daps emerged from this brand name. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Varn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michael_varn/32/14411_2.png) [@Michael\_Varn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Varn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/71 "2023-06-29T16:23:30Z")
> **Puzzlegal: I have hidden a long irrelevant post** > > Here is another Urban mystery, and it is a weird one. > > Who was going around poking holes in school windows? > > This rabbit hole is a little deep, so bear with me. > > I went to school in the late 1970’s throughout the 1980’s before I went to college. > > And on numerous occasions over these twelve years, I would frequently notice holes in my school’s windows. > > These were windows in the class rooms, as well as on entry and exit doors at the end of the hallways. > > Upon first inspections of these holes, I would assume like everyone else, that it was simply a random projectile that smacked the glass causing the damage. > > Like a gust of wind that lifts a small rock off the ground, or an acorn falling from a tree that was directed to the window by a gust of wind. > > But upon closer inspection of these holes, I determined that they had to be man made. > > If a random projectile from outside damages glass, it has to come from an angle, and the damage from these random projectiles would clearly indicate that, which means that these random projectiles cannot have caused the holes I have seen. > > The holes I have seen are perfect circles, and they were created by a projectile from strait on! > > These holes have to be man made. > > These holes are also surrounded be the familiar cracked webbing pattern that is circular like the hole. > > What these holes look like to me are bullet holes, but they are not, because the bullet or BB would have been found inside the classroom or in the hallway when I went looking for them. > > So someone, at least at my schools, was going around poking holes in windows either from the outside, or the inside, which means the culprit could have been a classmate. > > The question is why? > > Now, any concept of school shootings did not enter the public consciousness until Columbine in 1999. > > I don’t know if this phenomenon is still going on today, but whoever was poking holes in my school windows nay have wanted us to think they were bullet or BB holes. > > Now this phenomenon may not be as widespread as lets say, street light interference. > > I have had only one person who went to a different school in a different state when I went to school that told me that he remembers seeing similar patterns of these holes. > > Perhaps whoever was punching holes in these windows saw his action as some form of deeply subversive and encrypted graffiti. > > He wanted these holes to be percieved as gunshots. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/72 "2023-06-29T16:26:45Z")
Ever heard of BB guns? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/73 "2023-06-29T16:30:59Z")
Moderating: @Michael_Varn , this post is totally off-topic, and is very long. I’m going to hide it so it doesn’t annoy people trying to read the thread. You should try to post on-topic. ---
**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:** [June 29, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/74 "2023-06-29T16:43:57Z")
Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Varn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michael_varn/32/14411_2.png) [@Michael\_Varn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Varn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/75 "2023-06-29T16:59:30Z")
Possibly, but these holes varied in size. There is no way all of them were caused by BB guns. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/76 "2023-06-29T17:00:41Z")
Ever heard of pellet guns? Or rocks? ---
**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:** [June 29, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/77 "2023-06-29T17:09:54Z")
Moderating: > [@kayaker](#): > > Exactly! Please stop responding to the hijack. ---
**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:** [June 29, 2023, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/78 "2023-06-29T17:11:23Z")
Moderating: > [@Michael\_Varn](#): > > Possibly, but these holes varied in size. > > There is no way all of them were caused by BB guns. This is a formal warning for failing to heed moderator instructions. You’re already on thin ice. I suggest you start paying attention to rules and moderator directives. ---
**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:** [June 29, 2023, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521/79 "2023-06-29T17:11:25Z")
nm, no reply. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-all-of-those-hubcaps-leaning-up-agianst-telephone-poles/971521.md?page=3)