# You go around forming unhealthy attachments, don't you? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 23, 2005, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885 "2005-03-23T15:04:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/41 "2005-03-24T05:05:55Z")
P.S. I was of course joking. [sub]stapler infractions only merit torture :D[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/42 "2005-03-24T12:52:48Z")
[How To Be Annoying](http://www.hellskitchen.com/annoy.htm) —Drum on every available surface. —Stand over someone’s shoulder, mumbling, as they read. —Change your name to John Aaaaasmith for the great glory of being first in the phone book. Claim it’s a Hawaiian name, and demand that people pronounce each A. — **Staple papers in the middle of the page.** ---
**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:** [March 24, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/43 "2005-03-24T16:22:56Z")
In our defense, **Maxx** , a lot of people are drawn to office work because they are organized and neat people (note how I pointedly did _not_ call us anal). ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/44 "2005-03-24T17:53:57Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > Just so you know, I’d have to kill you. Man Killed in Retaliation for Egregious Stapling Infraction Film at eleven. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/45 "2005-03-24T18:23:59Z")
> [@miller](#): > > People like you will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes. I’m with you, **miller** and, just between you and me, the revolution can’t come soon enough. ---
**Author:** ![NotMrKnowItAll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6bbea6/32.png) [@NotMrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotMrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/46 "2005-03-24T19:05:36Z")
It’s coming up on 20 years, so I think I can talk about it. I worked for a defense contractor back during the good old SDI days. We had this secretary that was a bitter, bitter woman. Apparently her English skills were not sufficiently appreciated by the staff (Physicists, Electrical Engineers, and Pharmacodynamicists (/[sup]sp?[/sup])). Anyway, she felt it was her duty to let us all know what a bunch of illiterates we were. She made these tiny little flags out of slips of paper that said things like “sp.”, “c.f.”, “r.o.” and the like. She would pour over your memo, /[sup]c.f.[/sup] and for each problem she found, she’d pinch up the paper, slip it in one side of the stapler, and slip one of her flags in the other side. Upon stapling, and smoothing the paper out, the flag would stick up vertically about 3/4 of an inch. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/47 "2005-03-24T19:17:30Z")
> [@NotMrKnowItAll](#): > > . Apparently her English skills were not sufficiently appreciated by the staff (Physicists, Electrical Engineers, and Pharmacodynamicists ([sup]sp?[/sup])). Anyway, she felt it was her duty to let us all know what a bunch of illiterates we were. She made these tiny little flags out of slips of paper that said things like “sp.”, “c.f.”, “r.o.” and the like. She would pour over your memo,[sup]c.f.[/sup] and for each problem she found, she’d pinch up the paper, slip it in one side of the stapler, and slip one of her flags in the other side. Upon stapling, and smoothing the paper out, the flag would stick up vertically about 3/4 of an inch. What did you do with her body after you smothered her with duct tape? I know, the same thing you did with MrKnowItAll. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/48 "2005-03-24T19:24:36Z")
> [@milquetoast](#): > > Wrong! My cat has mastered rolling down the front of the roll with his paw. Toilet paper placed this way leads to a pile of TP on the floor hanging from the last couple of glued on squares. > > Exactly! My cat has not yet mastered rolling up the front of the roll with his paw. Toilet paper placed this way = no pile of toilet paper on the bathroom floor. Your cat hasn’t figured out how to snag the end and pull it down against the wall? Good grief, our cat is so dense she once spent a couple weeks with the inlaws and couldn’t find her way around the apartment when she came back, and even _she_ can manage that one. And the only proper way to hang toilet paper is loose end over, so that the little printed or quilted pattern is right side up. ---
**Author:** ![Corii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Corii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corii)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/49 "2005-03-25T00:10:15Z")
One thing about my workplace that drives me batshit crazy is when people staple two or three pieces of paper together with 4-5 staples. This is especially maddening when I have to make copies, because even with a staple remover, I still get a lot of rips. Argh! ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/50 "2005-03-25T01:15:58Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Unless there is some sort of huge paper malfunction, there is but one way to staple papers together: 1 staple in the upper left-hand corner. The upper right-hand corner is wrong but acceptable as is upper middle. > > Not acceptable: [ol][li]Half-way down the page, left hand margin.[_]Three times down the left-hand margin, book-like. [_]Once half-way down the left hand **margine** and once half-way down the right hand margin.[_]One quarter of the way in from any paper edge.[_]Stapling together papers that have already been stapled together in some random pattern.[\*]Under penalty of paper cuts to the tips fo all your fingers and tongue-- never, ever, **ever** take the last page of a bunch of randomly stapled pages and staple that to the first page of a bunch of randomly staple pages.[/ol][/li] > I’m thinking of buying a ticket to Croyden, Pennsylvania and beating you about the head and chest with a Swingline, Ms. Mann. Why would you mail, to a place of business, papers stapled together in every fashion mentioned above EXCEPT upper right hand corner? I think it is because you want me to hunt you down. I have a staple gun and I know how to use it! There you go again! You left the “a” out of “margarine”. ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/51 "2005-03-25T14:51:23Z")
> [@lee](#): > > So what about a staple in the correct corner but upside down so prongs go out the front and not back? Is that ok? It’s probably not _technically_ wrong, but it does reflect a certain deficiency of character. > [@Miss Bianca](#): > > Don’t tell anyone because this makes me feel completely insane, but sometimes the document is in such bad shape that I print out a brand-new copy, staple it neatly, and then reproduce her copious highlighting and move her Post-It notes to the crispy new version. I totally understand this. It took a long time for me to smother this kind of urge. Reminding myself of my hourly rate of pay helped. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/52 "2005-03-25T15:45:28Z")
Hey **Lux** , where you been? ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/53 "2005-03-25T15:52:27Z")
When I need to restaple or add items to a packet, I carefully take the staple out, add what is needed, jog all pages into alignment, and them carefully staple through the preexisting staple holes in the top sheet. If the holes are in an inappropriate location, a cover page is in order. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/54 "2005-03-25T15:53:40Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Not acceptable: \ Once half-way down the left hand margine and once half-way down the right hand margin. Uh…how the hell is anyone supposed to read a document stapled THIS way? Who DOES this? ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/55 "2005-03-25T15:57:23Z")
> [@lee](#): > > When I need to restaple or add items to a packet, I carefully take the staple out, add what is needed, jog all pages into alignment, and them carefully staple through the preexisting staple holes in the top sheet. If the holes are in an inappropriate location, a cover page is in order. Removing the old staple and restapling is fine, admirable even, but that fussy lining up the holes or covering “inappropriate” holes strikes me as over the top. ---
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/56 "2005-03-25T16:11:29Z")
I’m willing to make a deal with all you office types: You can tell me how you want documents delivered to you, but you will not even _think_ clean and neat work area at me. My paper and book covered desk is to remain in its state of perpetual dissarray. Oh, and toilet paper goes down the wall, heathens. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885/57 "2005-03-25T20:59:53Z")
> [@Lux Fiat](#): > > \<\ So what about a staple in the correct corner but upside down so prongs go out the front and not back? Is that ok? \>\> > It’s probably not _technically_ wrong, but it does reflect a certain deficiency of character. As does using the “have the staple prongs point away from the staple middle” setting on the stapler. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-go-around-forming-unhealthy-attachments-dont-you/295885.md?page=2)