Okay, I shouldn’t have said at the poles. To be clear, they occur in large ellipses called the “auroral ovals” centered on the poles. The exact position of the ovals at any given time depends on solar winds, as I understand it.
I will leave out all of the actual crazy questions I get and just list two I get regularly:
[ol]
[li]How do I join the military? *Well, if you Google “How do i join the CAF?” What comes up? *[/li][li](in the summer)“Isn’t it hot working outside in that uniform and boots?” Well, yeah. I mean, I am not a machine, and it’s 30C in the shade, but I have gotten used to it, it’s not like I could opt for the camo flip-flops and bikini anyway[/li]
[/ol]
They do? 
No, I’m being dead serious. My co-worker had been talking about her belief in astrology for a while, so I asked her, based on what she knew of my personality, what she thought my sign was.
She did a lot of “well, you’re like a… maybe not a…” halfway statements, but I resolved to say nothing until she made a direct guess, and to do my best to not show any reaction to her rattling off the various signs.
Through a combination of bad luck and not being very good at keeping track of her previous guesses. It took her 14 tries. “It is mathematically impossible to be that wrong!” became a running joke in the office for a while.
‘Can I ask you a question…’
Well, I’m an astronomer too. I imagine he was joking.
Driving along with my daughter in the car. I’m singing along to the song on the radio. She asked me if I knew the song. I just looked at her and said, “no, I’m just a REALLY good guesser”
Which of course, joking aside, is a reasonable request.
It’s intended (and taken) to mean something like “May I bother you with a difficult question?” where that initial question is not considered a difficult one.
Maybe he was thinking it was a biodegradable plastic pot, like these but less obvious.
No, that would be “May I ask you a question?”
“Can I ask you a question?” is self-answering.
Approaching this as a descriptivist, “Can I…?” is simply a less formal phrasing of “May I…?” - at least that is how it’s used where I live.
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I avoid the casual and eschew the snobby formal by saying “I have a question”. To which folks say, “that’s nice, dear” and keep on about their business.
Cashier in a party supply store: " Are you having a baby shower?"
Me: “Yes, my friend is having twins. A boy and a girl.”
Cashier" Are they identical?"
Me"Uh…no."
I’ve heard that one of the most common questions asked on Google is “How do you Google something?”
Why, yes, of course I had to try that when I first heard that story. 
Got another one from yesterday. I’m a 49yo woman; having this asked once wouldn’t count as stupid, specially if it had been phrased better, but it wasn’t just once. Also, I happen to prefer gaming headsets because I simply find them more comfortable: skype conversations with my mother can last over one hour.
Me, to four guys working in the gaming section of a big store which dedicates about 1/3 of its floor space to computer and console gaming: “hi, I’m looking for a gaming headset and I think I know which one I’d like but I can’t find the right box, can you help me?”
Them: “gaming? You want a gaming headset?”
Me: “yes.”
Them: “but, gaming?”
Me: “yes, it’s for raiding. Gaming. It’s for hearing my raid leader when she yells ‘to the right you FUCKSTICKS!’”
Them: “You want a gaming headset?”
Me: :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
At that point the brightest of them finally laughed, said sorry and came to show me the sets, provide recommendations and check which ones were actually in stock.
I wouldn’t call the question stupid, exactly as much as I’d call it an asshole-ish question. Potato/pitato I guess. 
When they’re stacked*, railroad color light signals have red on the bottom and green on top. This is so the red (most restrictive) lamp can be at eye height and the other two higher rather than lower. This has been referred to informally as the “Irish system.”
*Some are arranged in a triangle.
This exchange happened numerous times in my life:
(interlocutor just learned circumstantially that I don’t eat meat, asks befuddled, but patronizingly sympathetic):
“So you’re a vegetarian?”
“Yeah.”
“For ethical or health reasons?”
“:smack:”
Color me confused. Why is this a stupid question? I feel like I’m missing a “Duhh!” aspect here.
Well, that question is so stupid on many regards. First, there are numerous more grounds for avoiding meat than just those two options, and believe it or not, most vegetarians have multiple reasons for their choice of diet. But it’s ALWAYS “ethical or health?”…