An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People

[DottyG]

What? Of course mail to Europe costs more than mail inside the US. Who told you it would cost the same?

LOL!  Well, let's see.  The post office when I put it in the mail, the recipient who received it and didn't have to pay anything upon receipt (so no more was necessary for it to arrive safely)......

ETA:  I suppose something could have happened in the way things are done in the past year, though.  It's been about that long since I've mailed anything over there.  But, until then, I had no problems with a regular stamp.
 
 

[Dazi]

That's poison ivy/oak/sumac.  An alarming number of people have no idea what it looks like.

Count me as one.  Poison Ivy sure, leaves of 3, let it be.

Actually the same applies to poison oak.  It has three leaflets.  Poison sumac is trickier and it can get HUGE.  Sumac it by far, the worst of the three.

I have a ton of allergies both food and airborne, but am a rare one in that I don't have any reaction to poison ivy, oak or sumac.



Speaking of allergies...I cannot count the number of adults who are convinced they have some mutant cold or flu when what they actually have is seasonal allergies.  They are always so shocked when the doctor confirms it.

[QueenfaninCA]

Sorry, but no way a 30 or 40 something cent stamp gets mail to Europe. If yours got through, someone was just really nice. Airmailing a letter or postcard to Europe cost more than 50 cents when I moved to the US 15 years ago and hasn't become cheaper since.

[jedikaiti]

What? Of course mail to Europe costs more than mail inside the US. Who told you it would cost the same?

LOL!  Well, let's see.  The post office when I put it in the mail, the recipient who received it and didn't have to pay anything upon receipt (so no more was necessary for it to arrive safely)......

ETA:  I suppose something could have happened in the way things are done in the past year, though.  It's been about that long since I've mailed anything over there.  But, until then, I had no problems with a regular stamp.

I have ALWAYS had to pay more to mail anything to any other country. Postcards, letters, packages, etc. I think a regular small postcard within the US is $0.33 (more for the bigger postcards), but to England it's more like $1.10. Something close to those amounts - I know this because several months ago, we sent out postcard save-the-dates for our wedding, including 1 to England, and another to New Zealand. Same price to both countries, but still significantly more than the ones staying in the US. Same deal different amounts for the actual invitations.

Is it possible that the post office just told you that it was Y amount to send your item, not mentioning that Y is rather more than X, the current domestic mail rate?

[Shalamar]

I cannot count the number of adults who are convinced they have some mutant cold or flu when what they actually have is seasonal allergies.

That was me when I was 18.  I thought I had a cold that wouldn't go away, and it was driving me nuts.  Meanwhile, my mother was convinced that I was blowing my nose constantly just to be annoying.  ('Kay ...)  I'm not sure who was more surprised when the doctor confirmed that I had allergies, her or me.

[Thipu1]

A classic from a cruise ship.

'Passengers are reminded that it is forbidden to fish or crab from any balcony or open deck'. 

On the ship in question, the lowest open deck or balcony accessible to passengers was a good fifty feet above the water line. How could you possibly hope to catch anything from that height?   

It's scary to think that this had to go into the passenger handbook because someone, somewhere along the line tried it. 

[Kariachi]

That's poison ivy/oak/sumac.  An alarming number of people have no idea what it looks like.

Count me as one.  Poison Ivy sure, leaves of 3, let it be.

Actually the same applies to poison oak.  It has three leaflets.  Poison sumac is trickier and it can get HUGE.  Sumac it by far, the worst of the three.

I have a ton of allergies both food and airborne, but am a rare one in that I don't have any reaction to poison ivy, oak or sumac.

I grew up visiting relatives that have a pond on their property during the summer. That pond is shielded from the road by a huge row of poison sumac. One day, when I was about seven, I, knowing nothing, gathered up the flowers to bring in for the table. My aunt lost her mind.

To this day I've still never had a reaction to poison sumac, and I hope to someday have a row of it. Still think it's one of the prettiest plants.

[artk2002]

Every semester an email goes out to all faculty, staff and students at my university.  It reads:

Please remember that the squirrels that can be seen on campus are wild animals.  Please do not try to pet, hold, or pick up the squirrels.  Please do not try to feed them by hand.  If you want to provide treats for the squirrels, please scatter food on the lawns.  Squirrels are rodents and can inflict serious bite wounds requiring medical attention.  Squirrels may also carry rabies.

Every year I keep thinking:  these are grown people.  Do we really need to tell them to leave squirrels alone? 

What crazy things (that should be common sense) have you had to tell people.

Actually, there has never been a case of rabies being transmitted by a squirrel. http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/facts/rabies.html

That being said, people should not pet the squirrels.

How 'bout bubonic plague and Rocky Mountain spotted fever? Are those acceptable substitutes for rabies? Also, squirrels are mammals -- the fact that there's been no recorded case of transmittal, that doesn't mean that they don't carry it (they can) and that doesn't mean that they can't transmit it. Only that they haven't -- yet.

Frankly the above advice about feeding them by scattering food on the lawn is just as bad as someone trying to pet them. Squirrels fed by humans will: 1) Increase beyond the natural capacity of the location to support; 2) Become accustomed and therefore unafraid of humans; and 3) Become aggressive. Feeding squirrels, whether by hand or by scattering food is a very bad idea.

Not to mention the fact that the grey squirrel is considered an invasive species.

[MorgnsGrl]

Butter is made from MILK. (Shocking, I know.)

[ladyknight1]

DH and DS went fishing in the lake near his parents house. There were many branches in the water, so DH started pulling some out so they could keep from catching the hook. He later realized that poison oak can irritate you underwater. He had a cross hatch pattern rash for weeks on his legs.

[rose red]

Many people grow vegetables and have apple trees at suburban homes.  But I've had a few people stunned to realise you can have other kinds of fruit trees, like peach or pear or cherry trees.  It's like they think those can only grow on a farm.

[*inviteseller]

I love reading the warnings on packaging ..they are sometimes so off the wall, you laugh until you realize they had to put it on there because some dolt used a basic item wrong (preparation H is not to be used orally!) .  My recent favorite was having to tell my sister, an otherwise intelligent woman, that even though my DD wanted her to beep her horn good bye to her as she dropped her off at school after an appointment, it was inappropriate because SCHOOL WAS IN SESSION!!  Why anyone would think that repeatedly honking your horn when you are parked right in front of classrooms is a good idea, I have no idea but I just about lost it when she said ok and went to do it! 

[kherbert05]

Do not let your children play on someone else's farm property, in camo, during hunting season.


Followed by -Just because no one lives on a piece of property does not make that land public property that your kids can tear up with their atv's and play paint ball in camo on.


Then Finally - You are in Texas. If you trespass on someone's property and they shoot you, and you are fortunate enough to survive you are the one going to jail. If you die the DA will probably take the case to the grand jury just as a cya move to protect him/her from the national media. The grand jury will no bill the charges.


The zoo keeper is NOT going to let kids pet a coral snake that snake is a milk snake (red and black friend of Jack, red and yellow kill a fellow)


No you can not catch one of the wild rabbits at the zoo and take it home for a pet. (Actually grabbed a zoo employee told him what the fool was trying to do - she stopped him)


To fellow teachers
No Thomas Jefferson did NOT write the Constitution - He did rewrite the Bible. (yes I was a little ticked off and got a little catty)


AD does not mean after death and it comes before not after the year.


Fossil fuels do not come from land based dinosaurs the lived a few thousand years ago. (And technically Houston isn't even in the Bible Belt -- not like I live in Dallas  )


The full moon and the new moon have the same mass. You still have high and low tides on a new moon.




The founding fathers were not paragons of virtue - the were POLITICIANS* and just as tempted then as they are now - we just have a 24/7 news cycle and yellow tabloids are now blogs. (*I start with the assumption that all politicians are  sociopaths - but I'm a child of the Nixon era    and very much a cynic)

[alkira6]

That's poison ivy/oak/sumac.  An alarming number of people have no idea what it looks like.

Count me as one.  Poison Ivy sure, leaves of 3, let it be.

Actually the same applies to poison oak.  It has three leaflets.  Poison sumac is trickier and it can get HUGE.  Sumac it by far, the worst of the three.

I have a ton of allergies both food and airborne, but am a rare one in that I don't have any reaction to poison ivy, oak or sumac.

I grew up visiting relatives that have a pond on their property during the summer. That pond is shielded from the road by a huge row of poison sumac. One day, when I was about seven, I, knowing nothing, gathered up the flowers to bring in for the table. My aunt lost her mind.

To this day I've still never had a reaction to poison sumac, and I hope to someday have a row of it. Still think it's one of the prettiest plants.

Congratulations - you have actually found the one thing that I am not allergic to.  Just googled it and I walk through a giant patch of that every time I walk the dogs.  Never had a reaction.

[Cami]

That no, I'm not going to make an exception for you because you are not special and yes, the rules do apply to you.