# When people just don't get it **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 27, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377 "2009-10-27T23:54:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/121 "2010-01-30T17:15:55Z")
There are people that send in requests for medical records, with an authorization that releases records to a completely different company, and don’t seem to get that we can’t do that! Give us a letter of representation from that company, or a new authorization with YOUR name on it, and we’ll help you out, but until then we have no way of knowing that you really are a valid representative. What kills me are the companies that repeatedly do this. How many notices do you need from us explaining this before you get it through your damn thick skulls? Even better are the lawyers who have their own authorizations that aren’t HIPAA-compliant (but always have letters saying they’re providing a compliant auth), and won’t CHANGE IT, no matter how many times we send them letters saying it isn’t good enough, and why. Only ONCE have I ever seen a law office change what they send us. One office, out of the 2000+ requesters we have. It’s not complicated! Your shit isn’t good enough, it’s never good enough, we’ll never accept what you send us. Fix it and stop wasting time. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/122 "2010-01-30T17:33:28Z")
**AHunter3** , when I’ve had that happen at a job I was almost finished (usually phrased as, “Make sure you get X, Y, and Z done before you’re finished here”), I just agree and smile, do as much as I feel like (which, to be honest, is usually still a pretty job, since I have a good work ethic), and walk away. What are they gonna do, fire you? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sehmket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Sehmket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sehmket)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/123 "2010-01-30T18:14:53Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > This was almost certainly a language issue, but still funny: > > A friend’s boss, a Chinese man, went with my friend to a diner and saw that eggs were offered Any Style. When asked how he wanted the eggs, he kept saying he wanted them Any Style. The server asked which style. “Any!” (Apparently, he thought this was a style, not unlike Poached, Over Medium, Scrambled, etc.) > It was a Who’s On First variation. > > I wonder what he ended up getting. You know, I’ve been on the other end of this. I don’t have that stong of an opinion on how I want my eggs, so I’ll often tell the server something like, “Chef’s Choice.” Every once in a while, they’ll get utterly befuddled at that. ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/124 "2010-01-30T19:52:35Z")
There was that time I had to take my cuckoo clock back into the shop because the sound was too loud. I kept trying and trying to explain to the repair guys that the volume was too high and I needed it turned down. They wouldn’t turn it down. I explained that when I take a nap in the afternoon I can’t have the little birdie screaming loud enough to wake the dead. They still wouldn’t do anything. I said look, isn’t there like a volume control knob inside the clock somewhere? They wouldn’t even look. How frustrating, they sell you a clock and then they won’t fix it when it’s not set properly! I ended up having to take my clock across the street to the cheap ass repair shop and have them adjust the volume. No, not really. ---
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/125 "2010-01-30T21:44:29Z")
Woman walks into the vet surgery to speak to our receptionist. Woman: How do you know if your cat is male or female? Receptionist: Errrm, male cats have testicles. Woman: Our cat got really fat. Then he went away and got really thin, and now he’s brought kittens home and he is milking them. Receptionist: Well, then it’s a female cat. Woman: IS HE?? Me and receptionist: Yes, definitely. Woman (now close to tears): Is he really? Are you sure? Us: Yes. You can have him neutered once he weans his kittens. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/126 "2010-01-31T00:57:55Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Me: That’s a cool car > > Car Salesman: Sir, that’s a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 > > Me: It’s so cool! > > CS: Yes Sir > > Me: Can I drive it? > > CS: Sir, can you read the DO NOT TOUCH sign? > > Me: Why, is it expensive? > > CS: (who was selling Bentleys, Astons, Lotus etc.) It would cost more than our two most expensive cars put together. > > Me: Shiny! Shoulda rubbed your junk on it! yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/127 "2010-01-31T06:15:06Z")
> [@melodyharmonius](#): > > that’s how she met her 3rd and current (at the time) husband - he was her plastic surgeon. > > So I got to spend the next 2 hours trying to help her buy the right fax machine and listen to her life story. Imagine how her husband feels. That doctor evidently has a lot of **patients**! ba-dum CSH! > [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > The first time I ever stepped up to a real life roulette wheel, some dingus pipes up with “26 hasn’t come up in a long time. It’s due!”. And now I see that the casinos are encouraging this kind of idiocy by having an LED board showing the last thirty or so numbers, so dumbasses can look for “patterns”. Well, you got a better strategy? I’m not seeing any evidence that you’re any brighter than this guy. After all, you _both_ decided to play Roulette. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/128 "2010-01-31T11:17:29Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Stop using ellipses as punctuation. Just stop. You clearly don’t know how to use them, and it makes everything you write sound either ominous or sarcastic. And for the love of fucking god, an ellipsis is three dots. Three. Not two, not four, not five, not a string of however many you get after holding down the key for three whole seconds, as you apparently sometimes are wont to do. **Three**. I want to shot one of my teachers for, among other things, not knowing the difference between an adverb and a preposition, and not knowing how many dots an ellipsis has. Sadly, shooting idiots is illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/129 "2010-01-31T14:51:41Z")
> [@enigmatic](#): > > The [Martingale system](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_%28betting_system%29) Oh yes. I used to play kingdomofloathing and that has a “casino” where you can bet on coin-flipping against some other player (using in-game currency; or meat). Giving you 50% chance of receiving 190% or so of your stake (the casino kept a percentage, of course - the whole point of the thing was to reduce the amount of in-game currency after all). Anyway, when that was introduced there were so many people who were convinced the Martingale system “worked” it was just rediculous. I made a few simulations to show just how quickly you’d actually lose all your “money”, I pointed out that Wiki page, there were plenty of people who lost stupid amounts, but the morons just kept coming. I should start a casino. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/130 "2010-01-31T15:00:46Z")
My late mother was no dummy, but the older she got, she kept getting confused about certain things . . . like the difference between a drivers license and a car’s registration. Every single time she had to renew one of them we’d have the same discussion. No, you don’t need to get the car inspected to renew your license. And no, you don’t have to pass a vision test to renew the car’s registration. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/131 "2010-01-31T16:42:30Z")
> [@Thrash\_the\_Almighty](#): > > I had a similar issue with a former boss. He couldn’t get a machine to work and was asking me to help. He kept insisting that he was right and it was wrong. Finally I just said “Yeah, well this machine here is calling you a liar… I’d kick its ass” He actually seemed to consider it before he realized that I was making fun of him. One of my favorite sayings when things with PCs are going badly … My computer beat me at chess (or regedit or networking or whatever). But it was no match for me in kick-boxing. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/132 "2010-01-31T21:56:37Z")
**AHunter3** , your boss wasn’t a guy named Bill Lumbergh, was he? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/133 "2010-01-31T22:26:00Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > **AHunter3** , your boss wasn’t a guy named Bill Lumbergh, was he? In all fairness to my boss, it wasn’t _her_ fault that the downstairs people had sat on the stupid report until my last day, and I suppose that even though I’d previously described this one as The Report From Hell, she may not have realized that it wasn’t the sort of report where whatever effort I _did_ have time to put into it would represent at least partial progress towards a solution. But it wasn’t. To start editing formulas and scripts would most likely mean it would first go from being a report that worked “sort of” to being a report that did not work at all, at which point I’d be out the door and they’d inherit mixed-mode chaos. [QUOTE=Cat Whisperer] do as much as I feel like (which, to be honest, is usually still a pretty job, since I have a good work ethic) [/quote] Usually describes my attitude also. But again, in this case that just didn’t make sense. It would be like starting to dismantle your car engine because the main bearings are in bad shape, only to leave you with a nonworking car and engine parts on top of old newspapers all over the garage floor. Won’t be coming back, have fun picking up where I left off. ---
**Author:** ![dragoncat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6a8cbe/32.png) [@dragoncat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragoncat)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/134 "2010-02-01T01:04:24Z")
As a teacher of deaf students I get several variations of myths about sign language that go something like this: Isn’t it great that deaf people all over the world can communicate with each other whereas hearing people are separated from each other by all our different languages! Signs are like the universal language! (or) I’ve heard that it’s much easier to learn sign language because it’s not a “real” (or spoken) language. Is that true? Were you able just to pick it up as you taught your students? The other thing I’ve encountered stupidity about is being Jewish. I once endured the following conversation with a minister: Him: What church do you go to? Me: I don’t go to church; I’m Jewish. Him: But being Jewish and being Christian are basically the same thing, you just use a different name for your churches. Me: No, actually, the two religions are quite different. Him: The names are different, but the faiths and the beliefs are essentially the same. After all, we both use the same bible! Me: Well … we don’t use the New Testament… Him: But the principles are basically the same, so you can call Jews another form of Christians, basically. Me: Our beliefs vary a lot actually. (etc.) Him: The basic scriptures and church service are the same though. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/135 "2010-02-01T01:22:28Z")
At least its an improvement over them thinking you have horns and make matzoh out of Christian baby’s blood. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/136 "2010-02-01T05:52:53Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > The first time I ever stepped up to a real life roulette wheel, some dingus pipes up with “26 hasn’t come up in a long time. It’s due!”. And now I see that the casinos are encouraging this kind of idiocy by having an LED board showing the last thirty or so numbers, so dumbasses can look for “patterns”. Heh. I deal cards for a living and someone asked me, “So are you guys worried about that movie **21** coming out?” Are you serious? Our income is going to SKYROCKET as people that don’t know what the hell they’re doing come in and try. My story was from playing some 3/6 Holdem. This poor old guy was just used to house games. Had NO IDEA about rules or betting procedure, he was just a mess. Dealer was calmly walking him through everything, but he just wasn’t having any of it. Guy check raised him (he raised every hand, every street) he stood up and started yelling “HE CAN’T DO THAT, THAT’S B\*LLSHIT POKER!” Much to our entertainment. Anyway, he eventually picks up a hand and flops three jacks. Unfortunatly his Jack-Three lost to another guy’s Ace-Jack. Dealer pushes A-J the pot. Him: Hey! I won that! Dealer: No sir. He won that pot. Him: BULLSHIT! I had three jacks! Dealer: He had three jacks too. He had a better hand. Him: YOU GUYS CHEAT! I HAD THREE JACKS. Dealer: Yes, but he had three jacks with an Ace. HIM: HOW MANY F\*CKING JACKS ARE IN THIS DECK!?!?! On and on and on…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/137 "2010-02-01T08:16:38Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Well, you got a better strategy? I’m not seeing any evidence that you’re any brighter than this guy. After all, you _both_ decided to play Roulette. Nothing wrong with that, if you limit yourself to what you can afford and consider the money lost, spent as an entertainment expense, from the moment you sit down to play. Viewed that way, it’s no more a loss than spending it on a ticket for the ball game or a restaurant dinner. The dim bulb is the one who thinks that a magic gambling strategy can possibly offset the house edge. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/138 "2010-02-01T10:21:53Z")
> [@dragoncat](#): > > The other thing I’ve encountered stupidity about is being Jewish. I once endured the following conversation with a minister: > > Him: What church do you go to? > Me: I don’t go to church; I’m Jewish. > Him: But being Jewish and being Christian are basically the same thing, you just use a different name for your churches. > Me: No, actually, the two religions are quite different. > Him: The names are different, but the faiths and the beliefs are essentially the same. After all, we both use the same bible! > Me: Well … we don’t use the New Testament… > Him: But the principles are basically the same, so you can call Jews another form of Christians, basically. > Me: Our beliefs vary a lot actually. (etc.) > Him: The basic scriptures and church service are the same though. This sounds less like “people” and more like “individual moron”. Are there really that many people who genuinely think that Judaism is just another denomination of Christianity? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/139 "2010-02-01T10:37:01Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > This sounds less like “people” and more like “individual moron”. Are there really that many people who genuinely think that Judaism is just another denomination of Christianity? actually it is the reverse, christianity is an extension of judaisim … we claim that Jesus was a rabbi.:rolleyes: he purportedly came to clarify not to change [it was the idiot apostles that changed] ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377/140 "2010-02-01T11:26:04Z")
To be fair that makes far more sense than the other way around 🙂 It’s still pretty weak though, you might as well say Bhuddism is just another sect of Hinduism. Doesn’t wash, sorry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-people-just-dont-get-it/515377.md?page=8)