# What's wrong with some people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549 "2014-10-17T00:29:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/161 "2014-10-28T01:45:01Z")
Here’s one that I saw this evening. I was driving home, and as I was coming to a stop at a red light I heard a siren behind me. I looked in my mirror and saw an ambulance with its lights on. I squeezed into the lane next to mine to give the ambulance room to get through. As soon as I did this, a driver behind me drove her car into the space I had just vacated. She stayed at the red light and blocked the ambulance. Eventually a space opened up in the left turn lane, and the ambulance was able to use that to get through the intersection. The light changed immediately after that, so the ambulance blocker was able to go. She tailgated the ambulance until the next intersection, at which point she was stopped by another red light - this time with the ambulance in front of her (fortunately). Some people just don’t get that they’re supposed to clear the way for emergency vehicles. Either that, or they just aren’t aware of what’s going on around them. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/162 "2014-10-28T04:18:33Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I get most frustrated about situations where the real problem is lack of support for the caregivers, which this seems to have been. I used to work in community living support, so I get it. I really do. Honestly, I have a lot of experience with disabled people, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t like people with disabilities being lumped in with people who are comatose and vegetative, because it clouds the issue. > [@](#): > > The thing is, both medical personnel and people who are able-bodied consistently rate the quality of life of the disabled worse than the disabled themselves do. I know this. I have given up trying to explain to hearing people why not every Deaf person in the world want a cochlear implant. > [@](#): > > There are also cultural aspects to this - one reason people with ALS/Lou Gehrig’s/motor-neuron disease live longer in the UK is that the British seem more tolerate of living dependent on a ventilator than Americans do. I wonder why that’s so? > > I’ve met a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. He had come to terms with needing the machines. It’s amazing what a person can adjust to. I didn’t personally say that machine-dependent living wasn’t worth it-- I just said that this was probably what the mother implied and that the prosecutor was concurring with. I think we mostly agree. I just didn’t know much about SMA because I made assumptions based on one case, and then you jumped on that a little quick. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/163 "2014-10-28T04:43:16Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I’ve been known to just stand in front of the car and glare at them for two or three minutes. Well you’re in the right thread. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/164 "2014-10-28T10:29:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I think we mostly agree. I just didn’t know much about SMA because I made assumptions based on one case, and then you jumped on that a little quick. Yes, I did, and I’m a bit sorry for that. It’s a bit of hot button at my house from so many people having assumed my spouse is retarded over the years because he has a problem involving his central nervous system (although not SMA), he “walks funny”, and _some_ people with the more extreme form of his birth defect have their brains affected. Yep, I went straight for the quick-draw, apologies. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/165 "2014-10-28T12:28:36Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Yes, I did, and I’m a bit sorry for that. It’s a bit of hot button at my house from so many people having assumed my spouse is retarded over the years because he has a problem involving his central nervous system (although not SMA), he “walks funny”, and _some_ people with the more extreme form of his birth defect have their brains affected. Yep, I went straight for the quick-draw, apologies. Accepted. I was at Gallaudet when we kicked out the president, and I’ve been involved in disability rights ever since, to the point of taking to the streets. I got a little annoyed during the Terry Schiavo case when some people tried to frame her cause as one of “disability” rights, and that came to my mind when I saw the article about the mother. But I’ll say one more time, if Schiavo’s husband had simply walked into her room with a shotgun, he would have been wrong, wrong, wrong. Moving her from maintenance to palliative care was, IMO, right, and the autopsy backed him up (her braincase was full of fluid, and quite a lot of grey matter was just gone). I think it does a disservice to disabled people to try to lump cases like the Schiavo one in with genuine disability rights issues. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/166 "2014-10-28T16:07:28Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I’ve been known to just stand in front of the car and glare at them for two or three minutes. This is very foolish, as some drivers have been known to get road rage, and you’re not even in a car. Why tempt death? ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/167 "2014-10-28T19:26:49Z")
A couple years ago I was working at the grocery store one Saturday afternoon when all of a sudden there was a very loud bang and the front wall and the row of freezers along it just sort of blew up. Turns out some lady was pulling into the parking lot and, according to her, her leg stiffened up on the gas pedal and she couldn’t stop. So she comes in the store and grabs a cart and starts shopping like nothing happened. Didn’t say anything to anybody about what she had just done. She even had the gall to step over everything that had spilled out of the freezers onto the floor to grab an item to buy. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/168 "2014-10-28T19:35:19Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > What about the drivers who think they have the right to take over half or even more of the pedestrian crosswalk? You’re trying to cross and this car inching toward you? Getting two feet closer makes a big difference. > > I’ve been known to just stand in front of the car and glare at them for two or three minutes. Does the red light last that long? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/169 "2014-10-28T19:40:01Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Does the red light last that long? Given that, at least in many situations, a pedestrian in a crosswalk has right-of-way, I wonder if said pedestrian can legally prevent a car from going simply by staying in the crosswalk indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/170 "2014-10-28T20:11:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Given that, at least in many situations, a pedestrian in a crosswalk has right-of-way, I wonder if said pedestrian can legally prevent a car from going simply by staying in the crosswalk indefinitely. That’s not what the pedestrian having “right-of-way” means. What it means (at least, according to the driver’s manual when I was learning to drive) was that when several people wanted to go the same way, the pedestrian gets to go _first_. Well-- actually, emergency vehicles and funeral processions have the right-of-way over pedestrians, but pedestrians have right-of-way over any ordinary vehicle. It’s like when two cars meet at a 2-way stop, and one wants to go left while the other wants to go right. The one turning right has the right-of-way. However, the right-turning car cannot turn halfway, and stop, holding up the second car. Whether a car or a pedestrian does it, it probably violates some kind of traffic obstruction ordinance, for which you can be fined. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/171 "2014-10-29T04:31:00Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Given that, at least in many situations, a pedestrian in a crosswalk has right-of-way, I wonder if said pedestrian can legally prevent a car from going simply by staying in the crosswalk indefinitely. From the California vehicle code: [QUOTE=29150(b)] No pedestrian may unnecessarily stop or delay traffic while in a marked or unmarked crosswalk. [/QUOTE] I’d guess that other states have similar laws. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/172 "2014-10-29T04:34:06Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > A couple years ago I was working at the grocery store one Saturday afternoon when all of a sudden there was a very loud bang and the front wall and the row of freezers along it just sort of blew up. Turns out some lady was pulling into the parking lot and, according to her, her leg stiffened up on the gas pedal and she couldn’t stop. So she comes in the store and grabs a cart and starts shopping like nothing happened. Didn’t say anything to anybody about what she had just done. She even had the gall to step over everything that had spilled out of the freezers onto the floor to grab an item to buy. That sounds like a stroke kinda. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/173 "2014-10-29T18:14:26Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Does the red light last that long? No. And there is no way I believe that she actually stands there “for two to three minutes.” Stop right now and do nothing for 2-3 minutes. It’s a _long_ time. If she ever has actually done this, I doubt it was for more than 30 seconds. (Though this thread can be filled with tales of her exploits over the years.) ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/174 "2014-10-29T18:54:13Z")
Waste is a terrible thing to mind ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/175 "2014-10-29T19:22:22Z")
> [@grude](#): > > That sounds like a stroke kinda. Or like someone’s insurance got screwed up, and she couldn’t get her Haldol. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/176 "2014-10-31T08:33:26Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Here’s one that I saw this evening. I was driving home, and as I was coming to a stop at a red light I heard a siren behind me. I looked in my mirror and saw an ambulance with its lights on. I squeezed into the lane next to mine to give the ambulance room to get through. As soon as I did this, a driver behind me drove her car into the space I had just vacated. She stayed at the red light and blocked the ambulance. Eventually a space opened up in the left turn lane, and the ambulance was able to use that to get through the intersection. The light changed immediately after that, so the ambulance blocker was able to go. She tailgated the ambulance until the next intersection, at which point she was stopped by another red light - this time with the ambulance in front of her (fortunately). I was doing a ride-along in a police vehicle when there was a Fire/EMT emergency call (which police also hear) so we headed for the location. But on the way another police car reported in as much closer. Then we heard a radio call from the Fire/EMT vehicle that a vehicle had refused to yield, and held them up for a bit as they were trying to turn, and they described the red pickup with license plate xxx. Since another police car was near the scene, our car stayed on that road and within a mile or so we spotted that pickup (easily; the guy was driving like a jerk). So we lit him up, pulled him over, and he got a ticket for ‘obstructing an emergency vehicle’ (an expensive ticket, the cop said). Then the cop noted that he was driving on an expired license, and had a bench warrant for failure to appear, couldn’t show proof of insurance on the car, and hadn’t transferred the title on the car (despite having bought it some months earlier). So he ended up going to jail, the car got towed to the impound lot, and he had some more tickets & fines to face. Not yielding to that emergency vehicle cost him quite a bit (and deservedly so). ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/177 "2014-10-31T19:36:14Z")
> [@Calatin](#): > > This is a generic one, but I’ve never understood people who will put the petal to the metal once the light goes green, only to have to stop a block away, at the next red light. Congratulations on traveling 150 feet faster than the rest of us. I love this when there are multiple lanes. I stay to the right and obey the speed limit, so naturally, everyone is in a big line in the left lane to pass the “slowpoke.” They all rush to the next red light, and get to see me practically coasting right back ahead of them all as the light turns green shortly before I get to the stop line. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/178 "2014-10-31T21:36:11Z")
I buy thrift store towels and blankets for the rescue critters. I look for the stained ones because they are going to get ruined shortly anyhow. I like to leave the nice ones for people who are going to use them for people needs. Over the weekend, I was doing what I do, looking at the towels, refolding the ones I didn’t want and kinda tossing the ones I wanted in a basket at my feet. Suddenly another shopper came over and started screaming at me about how I was disrespecting the poor overworked volunteers by throwing things on the floor and how I was an evil person who deserved to be kicked out and banned. I was honestly so shocked that I didn’t say a word, I just stood there and gaped at her. She stormed off, I gathered up the towels I wanted and went to pay for them. I guess she didn’t say anything to the volunteer at the cash register because she didn’t say anything about it to me. Seriously, who does that? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/179 "2014-11-01T00:26:00Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I buy thrift store towels and blankets for the rescue critters. I look for the stained ones because they are going to get ruined shortly anyhow. I like to leave the nice ones for people who are going to use them for people needs. Over the weekend, I was doing what I do, looking at the towels, refolding the ones I didn’t want and kinda tossing the ones I wanted in a basket at my feet. > > Suddenly another shopper came over and started screaming at me about how I was disrespecting the poor overworked volunteers by throwing things on the floor and how I was an evil person who deserved to be kicked out and banned. I was honestly so shocked that I didn’t say a word, I just stood there and gaped at her. > > She stormed off, I gathered up the towels I wanted and went to pay for them. I guess she didn’t say anything to the volunteer at the cash register because she didn’t say anything about it to me. > > Seriously, who does that? busybodies who literally have nothing better to do with their time. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549/180 "2014-11-01T02:52:54Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > We used to be friends with a couple. They had a 10 year old daughter. The wife believed her daughter would die if she inhaled one peanut molecule. > > I remember the first time they came over to our house. Before she came over, she called the local emergency response team to alert them that they will be in the area, and to “be ready” in case their daughter was exposed to peanuts. (I am not making this up.) When they arrived to our home she spent half an hour tearing through our refrigerator and cabinets looking for any food products that might contain peanuts. She finally found something in the refrigerator with a label that said, “This product may contain peanut residue.” She then made a big show of putting this item in the back of a top cupboard. > > We later decided to order some pizzas for delivery. It was then we learned the wife was “allergic to tomatoes,” and she requested one of the pizzas to have sour cream in place of tomato sauce. Over the phone, she instructed the restaurant employee on how to wash their spoons and ladles to prevent her pizza from becoming contaminated with tomato paste. > > After the pizzas arrived, she took a couple bites of her special sour cream pizza, and then abruptly stopped eating it. I asked her why. She said saw someone eat a slice of regular (tomato) pizza, and _then_ eat a piece of the sour cream pizza, thereby contaminating her pizza. > > As we got to know this couple better, we concluded the wife was very… strange. She seemed to thrive on attention. We later concluded she was batshit insane, and the peanut and tomato thing was nothing more than a way for her to gain attention. I think I would’ve used the expression “Get out!” well before the pizza dilemma. “Don’t ever come back” may very well have made an appearance, also. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-some-people/701549.md?page=10)