Special Snowflake Stories

[ladyknight1]

However, I spotted a woman, barrelling through the crowd with her bags, loudly saying "[City] WOULD BE SO MUCH NICER WITHOUT ALL THESE ******* PEOPLE EVERY ******* WHERE!!!"

At 11am, with kids everywhere. Wow. I understand being frustrated with the crowds, but was there any need for that? I also saw her pushing people (quite hard) out of the way at a market stall, so that she could see the goods on offer.

Snip

I live in a townhouse complex, with buildings that have 6 units per side. Each unit is 3 stories. Across and down from us is a unit with a very interesting group of tenants. There are two bedrooms in this unit, but at least 6 cars are there in rotation. The woman we primarily see coming and going from there has 3 children, from 8-15. We aren't sure why, but regularly, they post signs with the foulest of language on the tree at their corner concerning dogs and their deposits.

Yesterday, we noticed the tenants of that unit are either washing their car in their closed garage or they have their laundry water draining out into the street (instead of being in the utility closet on the third floor), so we will be calling the management about that.

[Shea]

Today the circulations supervisor (we'll call him Pascal) at my library told me a fabulous story that belongs on this thread. I present: The Story of the Special Snowflake Student and How He Got His Comeuppance.

So my library (one of the libraries of a large university) has textbooks for many of the classes offered by the university, but has only a few copies of each, usually between 2 and 4. Students are allowed to check them out for a maximum of 48 hours (in some of the libraries it's only 3 hours). So they're in great demand and students often come in looking for copies when they're all checked out. Naturally, this leads to some Very Special students hiding the textbooks or checking them out and simply refusing to return them, $30/day fines be damned.

The student in question had checked out a textbook and had not returned it, days past the due date. Other students in the class were constantly coming in for the book, and were mightily frustrated to be told that it was still unavailable. Finally, Pascal looked the kid's information up in the library records and called him to tell him that the book was way overdue, and he needed to return it so other students could use it. His response (according to Pascal, this is a direct quote) was, "I don't give a [expletive redacted] about the other students, I need the book!" So Pascal, knowing that showing up at the kid's place of residence and retrieving the book at gunpoint was against library policy, did the next best thing he could think of: he called up the kid's professor and told him what was up.

At the next class, the professor apparently began the class by asking the lecture hall, "Is [Very Special Student] here? Would you stand up, please?" VSS did so, and the professor proceeded to inform the class that VSS was the reason none of them could access the library's copy of the textbook, since he "did not give a [expletive redacted]" about the other students.

While a spontaneous, Life of Brian-style stoning with notebooks, binders and calculators did not, I regret to say, ensue, the Very Special Student apparently left the lecture hall, and returned the book several days later. And he had a fine of upwards of $350. Ah, karma.

[Amara]

And he had a fine of upwards of $350.

Probably would have been cheaper to buy the book. But then he wouldn't have gotten to be a special snowflake if he'd done that.

[Elfmama]

While a spontaneous, Life of Brian-style stoning with notebooks, binders and calculators did not, I regret to say, ensue, the Very Special Student apparently left the lecture hall, and returned the book several days later. And he had a fine of upwards of $350. Ah, karma.

Would it not have been cheaper if he went to Amazon and bought his very own copy of the needful book? 

[magicdomino]

While a spontaneous, Life of Brian-style stoning with notebooks, binders and calculators did not, I regret to say, ensue, the Very Special Student apparently left the lecture hall, and returned the book several days later. And he had a fine of upwards of $350. Ah, karma.

Dang.  I know textbooks are outrageously expensive, but surely he could have gotten a used textbook for less than that. 

[Lorelei_Evil]

He was probably planning to sell the library's copy back to the bookstore and pocket the money.

[Shea]

Yep, while textbooks (especially science textbooks, like this one) are often over $100, it would definitely have been cheaper to just buy the book. I suspect, as he was so Special, he thought he'd be able to weasel out of the fine somehow. I am sure he did not manage it, as with that level of fine, students are blocked from registering for classes, checking anything out from the library, and will have their diploma withheld upon graduation.

He was probably planning to sell the library's copy back to the bookstore and pocket the money.

Fortunately he wouldn't be able to do that, since the bookstore would notice that it was a library book (discards are clearly marked as such) and would call the library to report it.

[LadyClaire]

We've often joked that our little Toyota Echo is an accident magnet.  We've had at least five accidents since we bought it in 2006, and none of them have been our fault.

What color is it? I knew of someone who had an accident-magnet car; the color sort of blended with the pavement so that it was hard for other drivers to see it. She started driving with headlights on all the time, and the number of close calls dropped dramatically.

Is it Moonshadow Metallic? That's the color of my 2004 Toyota Corolla - kind of a dark grey. Never buy a car the color of the road; I've been rear-ended 5 times.

There was a study done on daylight headlight use and the impressive reduction in accident rate. My car's taillights also come on with the headlight so I always use them when driving my graphite colored car. No accidents in 10 years *knocks on wood.*

http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/drl.aspx

I always drive with my headlights on. My car is a color called Cypress Green.  It's a color that seems to blend really well with shaded roads and such. I can't tell you how many times I've almost been hit in that car, and that's even with the headlights on. I would say I'm going to get a RED car next time around, but my previous car was red and it got hit 3 times and nearly hit I don't know how many.

[silvercelt]

Never buy a car the color of the road; I've been rear-ended 5 times.

I have to respectfully disagree, my Mustang is dark gray, I've had it 11 years and have never been struck by another driver.

I have never had as many almost-accidents as when my husband and I rented a car and got one that was bright yellow.  You'd think that there was no way that people could miss a bright yellow car, but it's almost as if the color made it into a target.

[humbleonion]

Today the circulations supervisor (we'll call him Pascal) at my library told me a fabulous story that belongs on this thread. I present: The Story of the Special Snowflake Student and How He Got His Comeuppance.

So my library (one of the libraries of a large university) has textbooks for many of the classes offered by the university, but has only a few copies of each, usually between 2 and 4. Students are allowed to check them out for a maximum of 48 hours (in some of the libraries it's only 3 hours). So they're in great demand and students often come in looking for copies when they're all checked out. Naturally, this leads to some Very Special students hiding the textbooks or checking them out and simply refusing to return them, $30/day fines be damned.

The student in question had checked out a textbook and had not returned it, days past the due date. Other students in the class were constantly coming in for the book, and were mightily frustrated to be told that it was still unavailable. Finally, Pascal looked the kid's information up in the library records and called him to tell him that the book was way overdue, and he needed to return it so other students could use it. His response (according to Pascal, this is a direct quote) was, "I don't give a [expletive redacted] about the other students, I need the book!" So Pascal, knowing that showing up at the kid's place of residence and retrieving the book at gunpoint was against library policy, did the next best thing he could think of: he called up the kid's professor and told him what was up.

At the next class, the professor apparently began the class by asking the lecture hall, "Is [Very Special Student] here? Would you stand up, please?" VSS did so, and the professor proceeded to inform the class that VSS was the reason none of them could access the library's copy of the textbook, since he "did not give a [expletive redacted]" about the other students.

While a spontaneous, Life of Brian-style stoning with notebooks, binders and calculators did not, I regret to say, ensue, the Very Special Student apparently left the lecture hall, and returned the book several days later. And he had a fine of upwards of $350. Ah, karma.

The student was indeed a Snowflake, but that's a pretty serious privacy violation on Pascal's part. In my state, it's actually illegal to disclose information about who's checked out what book. At a minimum, it's extremely unethical. As a librarian, I take that sort of thing very seriously. This would be a fire-able offense anywhere I've worked.

[mmswm]

Today the circulations supervisor (we'll call him Pascal) at my library told me a fabulous story that belongs on this thread. I present: The Story of the Special Snowflake Student and How He Got His Comeuppance.

So my library (one of the libraries of a large university) has textbooks for many of the classes offered by the university, but has only a few copies of each, usually between 2 and 4. Students are allowed to check them out for a maximum of 48 hours (in some of the libraries it's only 3 hours). So they're in great demand and students often come in looking for copies when they're all checked out. Naturally, this leads to some Very Special students hiding the textbooks or checking them out and simply refusing to return them, $30/day fines be damned.

The student in question had checked out a textbook and had not returned it, days past the due date. Other students in the class were constantly coming in for the book, and were mightily frustrated to be told that it was still unavailable. Finally, Pascal looked the kid's information up in the library records and called him to tell him that the book was way overdue, and he needed to return it so other students could use it. His response (according to Pascal, this is a direct quote) was, "I don't give a [expletive redacted] about the other students, I need the book!" So Pascal, knowing that showing up at the kid's place of residence and retrieving the book at gunpoint was against library policy, did the next best thing he could think of: he called up the kid's professor and told him what was up.

At the next class, the professor apparently began the class by asking the lecture hall, "Is [Very Special Student] here? Would you stand up, please?" VSS did so, and the professor proceeded to inform the class that VSS was the reason none of them could access the library's copy of the textbook, since he "did not give a [expletive redacted]" about the other students.

While a spontaneous, Life of Brian-style stoning with notebooks, binders and calculators did not, I regret to say, ensue, the Very Special Student apparently left the lecture hall, and returned the book several days later. And he had a fine of upwards of $350. Ah, karma.

The student was indeed a Snowflake, but that's a pretty serious privacy violation on Pascal's part. In my state, it's actually illegal to disclose information about who's checked out what book. At a minimum, it's extremely unethical. As a librarian, I take that sort of thing very seriously. This would be a fire-able offense anywhere I've worked.

I was curious about that myself, so I called a friend who's a college librarian.  She told me she's allowed to inform a professor that a textbook is checked out and past due, or that the book is not in the library for whatever reason, but she is not allowed to give them personal information such as the name of the person who checked it out or anything beyond the fact that the book is not there.

[eltf177]

I was curious about that myself, so I called a friend who's a college librarian.  She told me she's allowed to inform a professor that a textbook is checked out and past due, or that the book is not in the library for whatever reason, but she is not allowed to give them personal information such as the name of the person who checked it out or anything beyond the fact that the book is not there.

I would agree with this, but it sounds like this was the _sole_ copy of the book and SS was keeping it from many classmates. Not to mention their total contempt for their fellow students. In this case I would give the Librarian a "naughty, naughty; don't do it again" lecture with a wink!

[LadyJaneinMD]

Red seems to be a bad colour for cars.  Even though it would be more noticeable, red cars seem to have more collisions.  Maybe because people are looking at it and steer towards it unconsciously?  Red cars are often more noticeable to police, too, when identifying a car to pull over.  A buddy of my brother's drove an old beater.  He bought a new, red, sporty number.  Didn't change how he drove but he suddenly started getting all these tickets.

And there was a study done in the UK that showed red cars get nailed by birds more often than other colours, too.

Sure, this all mostly anecdotal but it has convinced me that I won't be buying a red car any time soon.

Not true.  I have had two red cars (I love red cars), and those are the cars I had the fewest collisions/tickets in.
The insurance isn't any higher, either.  (An oddly common misconception)

[Queen of Clubs]

Could the car colour discussion be given its own thread?

SS - my (thankfully ex) neighbour.  Among her other exploits, she gave out my phone number to some guy she knew as she hadn't had her phone connected yet and this was before mobile phones were so common.  The first I knew about it was when he rang up and gave me a message for her.  When I told her "don't do that again", she tried to say it was just for emergencies.  That message hadn't been an emergency and I wasn't running a message service for her.

Another time, she rang me at 7 in the morning because she'd come out in spots and thought it was chickenpox.  No, I'm not a doctor, nurse, EMT, or any other medical professional, so what she wanted me to do was a mystery.  In any case, it turned out to be a reaction to the illegal drugs she'd taken the night before. 

ETA: When housesitting for a mutual friend, she invited her one night stand back to the house and used friend's bed for the activities.  She was never asked to housesit again.

[athersgeo]

Red seems to be a bad colour for cars.  Even though it would be more noticeable, red cars seem to have more collisions.  Maybe because people are looking at it and steer towards it unconsciously?  Red cars are often more noticeable to police, too, when identifying a car to pull over.  A buddy of my brother's drove an old beater.  He bought a new, red, sporty number.  Didn't change how he drove but he suddenly started getting all these tickets.

And there was a study done in the UK that showed red cars get nailed by birds more often than other colours, too.

Sure, this all mostly anecdotal but it has convinced me that I won't be buying a red car any time soon.

Not true.  I have had two red cars (I love red cars), and those are the cars I had the fewest collisions/tickets in.
The insurance isn't any higher, either.  (An oddly common misconception)

I think what all this talk of coloured cars goes to prove is that at least half the driving population don't actually pay proper attention to where they're going and it doesn't matter WHAT colour of car you drive.

(For the record, I've owned or driven cars in white, powder blue, grey and red and while I've probably had more close shaves in the red one [and it's also the only one that's actually been involved in a collision*] that's only because I've owned it longer - eight years vs three years (white) vs eighteen months (powder blue))



* It was a collision caused by a special snowflake driver two cars ahead of me in morning rush hour who randomly decided to stop to let someone out of a turning. I managed (albeit just) not to hit the guy in front of me; poor bloke behind me had no chance of not hitting me. Fortunately, it was all fairly low speed so there was no serious damage done.