# WTF did I just hear? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 26, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299 "2005-03-26T01:33:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![klintypooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3da27b/32.png) [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/21 "2005-03-27T02:09:45Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > A drunk on his way home maybe? Nope, I wasn’t even near there. Or was I?? I can’t remember, I was too drun…Aaaaaaaaah ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/22 "2005-03-27T02:32:10Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > We get the second-hand possums. Have you _seen_ their possums? They’re all cute and adorable and things! They have enough fur to cover themselves decently! They have to be protected because people make coats out of them! If I ever saw somebody wearing a coat made out of American possums I’d either wet my pants in terror or die laughing. Possibly both at once. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/23 "2005-03-27T13:57:40Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Cats in heat make some ungodly creepy noises. I would definitely second that. Heck not even in heat. Last time I stayed at a mate’s house I slept on the settee in the same room as his two kittens and they made me jump a couple times late at night. I got my revenge though by making a kitten’s mewing which really freaked 'em out. hehehe. If you only heard it the once **Lobsang** could you have dreamt it? That’s happened to me before, just as I’m falling into sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/24 "2005-03-27T15:40:42Z")
My Street is riddled with cats so I know well what strange noises cats can and do make. But the noise I heard sounded distinctly human. In fact, looking back, it could almost have been vampire-like. ☹ I was sat at my computer when I heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/25 "2005-03-27T16:38:07Z")
It could be a zombie. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/26 "2005-03-27T17:12:55Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > They’re really nasty and ugly and toothy. Yeah, it distracts from their good qualities. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/27 "2005-03-28T00:17:20Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > We get the second-hand possums. Not really. The possums around my way are evil, rodent-faced rodents with immense incisors, frightening sharpened claws and blood boiling with…with…AAAIIIIEEEEE… 😃 ( **Second-Hand Possums** : band name ) Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/28 "2005-03-28T00:22:42Z")
If they were in Ireland, they’d be **o** possums. Yeah, Seamus and Molly O’Possum and all of the wee O’Possums. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/29 "2005-03-28T00:29:38Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > We get the second-hand possums. Not really. The possums around my way are evil, rodent-faced rodents with immense incisors, frightening sharpened claws and blood boiling with…with…AAAIIIIEEEEE… 😃 ( **Second-Hand Possums** : band name ) Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/30 "2005-03-28T00:39:16Z")
Thief. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/31 "2005-03-28T01:26:46Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Thief. > > 😉 Ar? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/32 "2005-03-28T07:57:31Z")
Just want to say that this thread is providing hilarity on a somewhat difficult day - thanks guys! Aussie possums are rather sweet, especially Tasmanian ones. (I have no idea why). How freaky are American possums then? Are they the Keith Richards to an aussie possum’s Ronan Keating or something? Hey, **Lobsang** , is The Keith in the Isle of Man by any chance? Could explain the sounds. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/33 "2005-03-28T08:08:13Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > It’s ten to two in the morning. I just heard an odd, creepy noise come from somewhere outside my open bedroom window. > The only factors I can use to narrow the sound are that it was human, vocal , probably male, and probably adult. > Other than that I really don’t know how to describe it. The closest I can come is that it sounded like someone being sick and saying ‘raaa’ at the same time. So, what did they see through your open window? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/34 "2005-03-28T08:08:40Z")
Only marsupial in North America, the opossum is. I flattened one with my car on the way home last night. He was foraging for food in the fast lane of a major US highway. Opossums are fearsomely dumb, and have poor eyesight. Not a good survival combination. Good thing for them they’re as prolific as flies. I used to have to walk over a bridge across Rock Creek Park in DC to get to work. I’ll never forget getting a day’s worth of amusement from all the fascinated/terrified urbanites one morning when a large, stupid possum climbed up on the bridge railing. “Oh my God! What is it?” Me: “Stay away! It’s poisonous!” 🙂 I picked it up by the tail (in an impressive Croc Hunter display) and chucked it back into the park. City folk. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/35 "2005-03-28T08:09:48Z")
[Here’s](http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/opossum.html) an American possum. Ugly little bugger, ain’t he? Do the Aussies have cuter ones? Can we set up some kind of exchange program? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/36 "2005-03-28T08:20:39Z")
I think they’re cute. Baby opossums make kittens look ugly. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/37 "2005-03-28T09:39:27Z")
Some folk eat American possums; I don’t about Antipodian possums. Are they tasty? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/38 "2005-03-28T17:17:44Z")
> [@Nicodemus2004](#): > > Time was… on the way home from a night of heavy drinking… a friend would hang his head out the window and put forth some sounds rarely heard. We referred to this as “Calling Ralph” > Raalph! RAAALLLLPPPPHHHH! When I was in Australia, my Aussie friends referred to it as “chundering”. After a fun night of beer and clams on the beach, someone would invariably have to lose a load. They would hang over the railing on the boardwalk, yell out “WATCH UNDER!” and then hurl. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/39 "2005-03-28T17:29:44Z")
Are possums and opossums like matter and anti-matter? Maybe what **Lobsang** heard was the explosion of a possum and an opossum meeting. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299/40 "2005-03-28T17:45:57Z")
> [@Sarah Woodruff](#): > > Just want to say that this thread is providing hilarity on a somewhat difficult day - thanks guys! > Aussie possums are rather sweet, especially Tasmanian ones. (I have no idea why). > How freaky are American possums then? Are they the Keith Richards to an aussie possum’s Ronan Keating or something? > Hey, **Lobsang** , is The Keith in the Isle of Man by any chance? Could explain the sounds. 😃 Mainly what we Americans see of possums is our headlights reflected in their moonpie eyes before our cars hit them. Keith Richards is undead. Possums are just oblivious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-did-i-just-hear/296299.md?page=3)