Special Snowflake Stories

[rain]

the ?clueless?  high school student who walked in front of a moving bus - I still don't know how the driver managed to avoid hitting her

[Slartibartfast]

Charming lady today was walking in the middle of the busy road during rush hour, reading a paperback book.  At dusk wearing dark clothing.

[ajbell]

I was on my home from work tonight, when I was stopped at a light.  This particular intersection has (from left to right) a forced left-turn lane, a lane with the option to turn left or go straight, a lane that goes straight only, and a forced right-turn lane.

I was in the straight only lane, with one car in front of me, several behind me, and the lane to my left had a line of cars stopped.  All of the sudden, someone on a motorcycle comes racing towards the intersection between the lane I'm in and the lane to my left, and proceeds to pull in front of the car ahead of me.  That's bad enough, then I see them turn into a parking lot, cut through it, and turn out onto the cross street--basically the same trick they could've done if they had been willing to wait in the left-turn lane. 

[sunnygirl]

Today I learned that Franklin Delano Roosevelt orhestrated a coup which caused the Great Depression so he could become president.

And the reason that you never realized this important historical fact is because of the massive government coverup.  You know, the coverup that was so good that no shred of proof ever saw the light of day!  That's how you know there was a coverup.

My theory is that Abraham Lincoln was one of those aliens from V.  He caused the Civil War so that his fellow aliens could harvest the food animals (us!) without spooking the rest of the herd.  Hey, prove that it DIDN'T happen that way!  See the depth of the coverup?

I'm amazed he had time, what with all that vampire hunting he did.

It's true - I know - I read it in a library book. 

[KB]

Re bad driving, the TAC here in Australia has brought out two incredibly powerful new ads to warn against distracted driving. Please note that they are intended to SHOCK and UPSET you, so please don't watch if car accidents are a touchy subject, but I for one applaud them whole-heartedly:

A country-based ad

A city-based ad

If you have family members who text, take calls, etc while driving, I suggest you get them to watch these.

[magician5]

Those ads are quite enough to "shake me up"! Hope they improve such situations.

[MariaE]

Those ads are quite enough to "shake me up"! Hope they improve such situations.

I doubt they will. They'll shake up the people who'd never do such a thing anyway, but the ones who do will just shake their heads and go "But I'm smarter than that - it won't happen to me".

Generalized of course. But I've seen a ton of such "scare campaigns" and hate them.

[VorFemme]

VorSon and I were walking out to the vehicle after buying him a new pair of shoes, when the SUV we were still walking past started to back up...missing me by inches.  The driver apparently stopped to check oncoming traffic coming up behind us (and him) because he started backing up again while I stepped along a LOT faster to get out of his way!

Windows were dark with film and the woman in the passenger seat was facing him, not the passenger side of the vehicle.

It took twenty minutes to get over the adrenalin shock......and get mad at him instead of scared!  At least my body was smart enough to pick the "flight" option instead of the "fight" option.....because I would have lost a "fight"!

DH had the same thing happen to him when Elfqueen was about 2.  Car pulled up to the curb and stopped.  DH and Elfqueen stepped off the curb behind it, just as it started to back up.  He jerked Elfqueen out of the way with one hand, and yelled and banged on the trunk lid with the other hand.  No damage except to everyone's nerves.

That happened when VorSon was younger (and shorter) - he held my hand in parking lots for almost a decade "because Mommy is afraid of cars and needs someone to hold her hand to make her feel braver".  Once he was almost as tall as I am, he could quit holding my hand.  Now that he is a little taller than his mother - he just carries the heavy shopping for me!  I'm still trying to figure out how a woman of more than average height a step behind a guy who is almost as tall as the vehicle the guy was driving didn't get seen......unless they were ONLY looking for vehicular traffic on the driver's side and not pedestrians walking behind or to the passenger side of their vehicle at all.  If I hadn't had an expensive Nook HD+ in my purse - I'd have swung it at the car to make a loud noise - but I didn't want to BREAK anything.

Sheesh......I have to go back there today to pick up something, too.  I hope that that family isn't back there.....

[nutraxfornerves]

An Australian University apparently got fed up with all the people who insisted that they should not have to pay a parking fine, because their situation was speshul.

The excuses we commonly get and why they won't work

[Thipu1]

Those ads are quite enough to "shake me up"! Hope they improve such situations.

I'm not a fan of shock PSAs but these are well done. 

I would ask one question.  Why does rhe color of the  driver's shirt change from solid to plaid just before impact?  Does anyone know?

[Katana_Geldar]

An Australian University apparently got fed up with all the people who insisted that they should not have to pay a parking fine, because their situation was speshul.

The excuses we commonly get and why they won't work

Parking, so I've heard, is a valuable commodity at uni. I always took the bus. But the year I lived on campus we were right near the medicine faculty, and med students thought they were entitled to use our spaces.

This also reminds me of an episode of the west wing with the UN...

[Yarnspinner]

AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How many times, how many times MUST you be shown how to do a print preview, how to increase and decrease the size of a photo, BEFORE you send it to print and then blame our printer (once again) for making the photo so tiny/too big/B&W (because, "click the color option RIGHT HERE" seems to be beyond your understanding)?  Seriously, you have been coming here for six months and my colleagues and I have shown you how to do this half a dozen times each.  We aren't wizards at this, we just follow the directions.  You appear to be literate so why can't YOU do this? 

[Katana_Geldar]

People who snuggle alcohol in cruise ships.

Really, the drinks are cheap compared to land ($9 martinis which are usually $15 to $20) and they go to do much effort to conceal the grog with the risk of it getting found...

Why bother?

[Shalamar]

Personally, I find drinks on cruises to be unbelievably expensive, but maybe I'm just cheap.      That said, I wouldn't try to smuggle booze onboard - the risk of getting caught is just too great.

[Katana_Geldar]

The price comparison was so great that Its one of th reasons that DH and I want to go back.

What can you expect to pay in the US for a martini? Here, as I said, it's 15-20.