# What's up with this weird thing I do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2004, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191 "2004-10-20T07:56:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/1 "2004-10-20T07:56:48Z")
A few minutes ago, I decided that I wanted some chocolate pudding. So, I got up, went into the kitchen, opened up a can of corn, put it in a bowl, heated it up and ate it. It was good. Then, as I put the bowl into the sink, I thought this exact thought: _wait, that wasn’t chocolate pudding_. I think it’s more a sign that I need to go to bed than anything else, but it’s not the first time I’ve fixed food I didn’t want. Whether or not I actually want any food at all seems to be irrelevant. I notice it often happens when I talk to my best friend on the phone. I will make a sandwich as I’m talking to him, and then, when I’m done, it will occur to me that I have made a sandwich. If I don’t want a sandwich, I’ll put it in the fridge for later. Sometimes, if I’m actively _not_ hungry (for example, if I’ve just gotten home from the Chinese buffet), I will simply dink around with random kitchen objects that do not involve food. This was how I observed the interesting phenomenon that if you float some pepper on a glass of water, then put a droplet of Dawn on it, it sinks, and the pepper that the Dawn did not directly contact moves away from the center. Similarly, if you pour a very thin layer of oil on top of the water and then drop Dawn on that, the oil will retreat to the edge of the glass, leaving you an “oil donut”. It gets especially interesting if my level of detachment is such that I don’t remember exactly what I did to obtain this particular cool result. But I digress. So, anybody else do this? Or am I just really weird? Or both? Whaddaya think? ---
**Author:** ![Keapon\_Laffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e274bd/32.png) [@Keapon\_Laffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keapon_Laffin)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/2 "2004-10-20T08:27:36Z")
Its a woman syndrome. I hear that they can walk into the supermarket with 1 item on their list, and come out later with 50 items except the original 1. 😛 Seriously, have you been drinking a lot of beer? Scientists have proven that it contains female hormones. ---
**Author:** ![Keapon\_Laffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e274bd/32.png) [@Keapon\_Laffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keapon_Laffin)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/3 "2004-10-20T08:29:47Z")
> [@Keapon Laffin](#): > > Scientists have proven that it contains female hormones. Ahhh, don’t believe me, do you? Tell you what, the next time you see a male friend of yours drink a couple of beers, _watch him drive_. You’ll see what I’m talking about… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/4 "2004-10-20T08:48:31Z")
Don’t drink. Don’t partake of mind-altering substances of any kind whose effects are more pronounced than caffeine. I do consume…let us say _unadvisable_ quantities of Mountain Dew. Maybe it’s the Yellow 5. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/5 "2004-10-20T16:47:36Z")
Stop talking to your best friend. He’s obviously sending you subliminal messages to eat food you don’t actually want. As for wanting pudding and eating corn instead? You’re on your own. Anyone else hear a cuckoo clock? ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/6 "2004-10-20T18:27:37Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > A few minutes ago, I decided that I wanted some chocolate pudding. So, I got up, went into the kitchen, opened up a can of corn, put it in a bowl, heated it up and ate it. It was good. Then, as I put the bowl into the sink, I thought this exact thought: _wait, that wasn’t chocolate pudding_. > > I think it’s more a sign that I need to go to bed than anything else, but it’s not the first time I’ve fixed food I didn’t want. Whether or not I actually want any food at all seems to be irrelevant. I notice it often happens when I talk to my best friend on the phone. I will make a sandwich as I’m talking to him, and then, when I’m done, it will occur to me that I have made a sandwich. If I don’t want a sandwich, I’ll put it in the fridge for later. Sometimes, if I’m actively _not_ hungry (for example, if I’ve just gotten home from the Chinese buffet), I will simply dink around with random kitchen objects that do not involve food. This was how I observed the interesting phenomenon that if you float some pepper on a glass of water, then put a droplet of Dawn on it, it sinks, and the pepper that the Dawn did not directly contact moves away from the center. Similarly, if you pour a very thin layer of oil on top of the water and then drop Dawn on that, the oil will retreat to the edge of the glass, leaving you an “oil donut”. It gets especially interesting if my level of detachment is such that I don’t remember exactly what I did to obtain this particular cool result. But I digress. > > So, anybody else do this? Or am I just really weird? Or both? Whaddaya think? You are definately odd. Did you know you can fill a shallow pan with water, then float a tiny boat made out of tinfoil with a small opening cut out in the back in it, and that if you drop the soap into the small open area , the soap drop will actually propel your boat across the pan? ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/7 "2004-10-21T00:54:56Z")
It’s probably the Mountain Dew. That stuff is frightening, yet delicious. Or maybe you’re just weird, **Roland**. Gotta go. I need to go make a tinfoil boat. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/8 "2004-10-21T01:14:17Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > Did you know you can fill a shallow pan with water, then float a tiny boat made out of tinfoil with a small opening cut out in the back in it, and that if you drop the soap into the small open area , the soap drop will actually propel your boat across the pan? I think maybe **Roland** could make better use of that tinfoil by putting it on his head. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/9 "2004-10-21T04:14:06Z")
Are tinfoil boats for people who think the government’s listening in on their fishing trips? ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/10 "2004-10-21T11:02:33Z")
Well, I made the tinfoil boat. Cooooooooool. By the way, anyone want a sandwich? It’s PB&J on whole wheat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/11 "2004-10-21T11:14:35Z")
Didja know if your break 5 toothpicks almost, but not quite, in half and lay them on a plate in an asterisk shape and then drip water on the bent and almost broken bits in the center of the plate, they’ll move around and form a star? Jeez, it’s almost impossible to explain without a diagram. But it’s really cool! And hey, whaddaya know, [I love Google](http://www.csiro.au/helix/experiments/dhexpstar.shtml). Oh, the food thing? Stop that. You’re young and cute now, but in ten years you’ll be fat. Trust me. Been there, done that. If what you want is chocolate pudding, corn won’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/12 "2004-10-21T14:40:33Z")
I can’t believe you ate a whole can of corn … ick. I mean it’s okay as a side dish but a whole can? The soap changes the surface tension of the water. It’s a trick we do in veterinary medicine if we’re combing fleas off something that is too weak to bath or use flea products on. If you dropped fleas in plain water they’d just skim along the top and hop back out. If you put soap in the water (but don’t make it foamy) they can’t skim along the top and they sink to the bottom and drown. Very fun if you enjoy murdering fleas. Maybe you could put some fleas in the boat next time. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/13 "2004-10-21T15:15:27Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > Don’t drink. Don’t partake of mind-altering substances of any kind whose effects are more pronounced than caffeine. I do consume…let us say _unadvisable_ quantities of Mountain Dew. > > Maybe it’s the Yellow 5. 😃 **Roland** , if you should ever want to kill yourself, I present to you: [The Mountain Dew Death Calculator](http://www.linkydinky.com/dewkiller.shtml) It comes up with an approximate number of how many cans of Mountain Dew it would take to bring about your untimely demise. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/14 "2004-10-21T15:27:53Z")
**Roland O**., you’re a queer duck, but things could definitely be worse. I used to know a guy who, when he used to get very drunk in the evening, would sleepwalk and take a piss in the fridge, thinking it was the toilet. :eek: 😕 :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/15 "2004-10-21T15:40:28Z")
> [@Wile E](#): > > I can’t believe you ate a whole can of corn … ick. I mean it’s okay as a side dish but a whole can? > > The soap changes the surface tension of the water. It’s a trick we do in veterinary medicine if we’re combing fleas off something that is too weak to bath or use flea products on. If you dropped fleas in plain water they’d just skim along the top and hop back out. If you put soap in the water (but don’t make it foamy) they can’t skim along the top and they sink to the bottom and drown. Very fun if you enjoy murdering fleas. Maybe you could put some fleas in the boat next time. How would that work on say…umm…a rabbit? The flea thing, not the can of corn. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Means\_Go](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cc9497/32.png) [@Green\_Means\_Go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Means_Go)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/16 "2004-10-21T15:59:14Z")
I have never done the food thing, but just last night I did something similar. I finished up watching one of my new Stargate-SG1 Season 7 DVD’s (I mention this merely because I love the series, it has no other bearing whatsoever) and looked around at the mess in my livingroom. My cell phone and GPS receiver were on the floor along with some leftover sodas and I thought to myself “I better dump those sodas out so they don’t spill and then come back and get the expensive electronics off the floor”. So, I picked up the sodas, dumped them out, walked back to get the GPS and cell phone and put them on the table, and then went to use the bathroom. I finished up in the bathroom, walked back into the livingroom, and was startled and amazed to find the GPS and cell phone still on the floor! How the heck did that happen??? I went and looked on the table where I’d set everything, and there were the TV and DVD remotes. Somehow my addled brain had grabbed them instead of the stuff I wanted it to. :smack: I have also found the remote in the refridgerator more than once as well. ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/17 "2004-10-21T16:48:23Z")
> [@Amazon Floozy Goddess](#): > > **Roland** , if you should ever want to kill yourself, I present to you: [The Mountain Dew Death Calculator](http://www.linkydinky.com/dewkiller.shtml) > > It comes up with an approximate number of how many cans of Mountain Dew it would take to bring about your untimely demise. _quickly puts down 145th can of Mountain Dew_ Thanks - you saved my life! Susan ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/18 "2004-10-21T17:56:05Z")
> [@LastCall](#): > > I went and looked on the table where I’d set everything, and there were the TV and DVD remotes. Somehow my addled brain had grabbed them instead of the stuff I wanted it to. :smack: When I worked at a CPA firm, I was at a client’s office working on an audit with a couple of the other accountants (R and G, to protect the innocent). We each had our calculators and cell phones on the conference table and R hit a couple of buttons on his cell phone, before realizing it wasn’t his calculator. We all had a good laugh at his expense. Later on, he asked us if we’d seen his calculator and G said “Why, do you want to order a pizza?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/19 "2004-10-21T20:03:22Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > A few minutes ago, I decided that I wanted some chocolate pudding. So, I got up, went into the kitchen, opened up a can of corn, put it in a bowl, heated it up and ate it. It was good. Then, as I put the bowl into the sink, I thought this exact thought: _wait, that wasn’t chocolate pudding_. The really weird part is the implication you normally eat chocolate pudding hot. Ewu! ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191/20 "2004-10-21T21:07:04Z")
Nah, it wasn’t that I originally thought the corn was pudding. The process was something like. 1. I want pudding. Maybe I have some pudding. 2. \ Interesting thread we have going on the Pit…I wonder if I ought to post to it… 3. Ah, corn. I like corn. 4. \ Hey, that wasn’t chocolate pudding. 5. \ The thing is, when I unintentionally cook food, I almost never end up eating it. The only reason I did so this time was because my original intention was to get some food, albeit of a different sort. Usually my sandwiches, by far the most common item I make unintentionally while on the phone, sit in the fridge for a day or two until I either get the munchies or throw them out. Really, I ought to just quit having food in the house; I eat one meal a day and it’s usually at work (I work in a restaurant). Incidentally, that’s some cool stuff you guys are suggesting, but knock it off…now I’m gonna start doing this _intentionally_… 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-weird-thing-i-do/270191.md?page=2)