Random thought thread!

marquac · September 2, 2018, 10:40pm

The heaviest ordnance the Canadian military has are super soakers spiked with Tabasco sauce.

Giles_Habibula · September 4, 2018, 8:06am

The history of jaywalking, including the origin of the term:

Giles_Habibula · September 4, 2018, 9:58am

In the 1930’s, the roadside “tourist camps” were getting a bad reputation.

Within only a few more years, however, such soaring Whitmanesque paeans to the charms and virtues of the American roadside had begun to be challenged by much darker and more disturbing accounts. The tourist camps that had at first been hailed as delightful expressions of American character and genius now were as likely to be viewed as hotbeds of sordidness and immorality, even as “Camps of Crime,” the title of an article appearing in the February 1940 issue of The American Magazine . This was an influential article, too, because it not only got wide exposure in a mass-circulation journal but appeared under the byline of J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Hoover’s article (written “with Courtney Ryley Cooper”) limned a truly appalling picture of the roadside generally and of tourist camps in particular.1 The latter were “a new home of crime in America,” Hoover wrote, “a new home of disease, bribery, corruption, crookedness, rape, white slavery, thievery, and murder.” A majority—and Hoover made clear that he meant nearly all—of the 35,000 tourist camps that he claimed to be then in business along the highways “threatened the peace and welfare” of their communities and the traveling public.2 Gangsters favored tourist camps as hideouts and bases of operation, he counseled; “hence the terse order that goes out daily to law-enforcement agencies when criminals are on the loose: ‘KEEP CLOSE WATCH ON TOURIST CAMPS!’” Too, Hoover disclosed, tourist camps operated in conjunction with “Dine-and-Dance” roadhouses or nightclubs that were “little more than camouflaged brothels.” At these “spots of dubious entertainment,” located on the bleak and unpoliced outskirts of hundreds of small towns and cities, illegal drugs, booze, and gambling were readily on offer; lovers carried out illicit assignations; contemptible divorce detectives sneaked about plying their miserable trade; nomadic prostitutes, hitching rides with truck drivers, arrived from afar; and local “boys and girls, often from reputable families, [went] for a night of thrills.” Until there were much tighter controls on the operation of tourist camps, Hoover warned, Americans would continue to suffer such “pestilential conditions along our highways.”

Jason_Levine · September 4, 2018, 1:18pm

This is a pretty fun read:

RichVR · September 7, 2018, 6:22pm

There’s a TV commercial for a children’s hospital here. Nemours. It opens with the camera slowly zooming out on a strawberry.

Voice over: A baby’s heart is the size of a strawberry…

Me: But not nearly as tasty.

Wife: ::SMACK::

Papageno · September 13, 2018, 5:59am

Now why in the world would Trader Joe’s discontinue their Woven Wheat crackers (think knockoff Triscuits, but with less fat)?? It’s only my favorite freaking cracker.

Nesrie · September 13, 2018, 4:58pm

Someone stole my sprinkler sometime last night. Sometimes people just suck.

divedivedive · September 13, 2018, 5:18pm

Last Christmas, we put out one of those lawn lights that shines against your house, kind of makes sparkly colorful designs on your wall? Didn’t make it through its first night, someone yoinked it. No idea why, thing was worth maybe 20 bucks.

Chappers · September 13, 2018, 5:48pm

You gave me your heart?

I don’t get things stolen from my garden (yet) but my neighbour is always causing issues.

RichVR · September 13, 2018, 6:00pm

I have one of those. I’m constantly expecting it to be stolen. One was stolen down the block from me. I guess that was the only one needed.

Nesrie · September 13, 2018, 6:06pm

Yeah I thought about getting some of those LED lights for the house for Halloween and Christmas and decided on cheap plastic pumpkins instead because I thought the kids we would steal them.

Instead, some jerk not only steals my sprinkler in the middle of the night, when my timer went off this morning, because they left the hose, it just puddle water in one spot in the middle of the yard.

schurem · September 13, 2018, 6:22pm

In .nl everybody locks their bike. Bikes get stolen anyway. Even if you put three locks on it. Even if it looks rattier than the shit in the dumpster next to it. Your bike, it gets stolen.

Except in a village. Since I moved out of the city to a village about 10km away from it, I haven’t even used my bike lock. I am the only one in the village not locking his bike tho.

divedivedive · September 13, 2018, 6:53pm

And the very next day, you gave it away. How could you, Chappers. How could you.

RichVR · September 13, 2018, 8:00pm

Nesrie · September 13, 2018, 10:47pm

So my dad contacted me today. Sometimes he just does that out of the blue. It’s what dad’s do. So anyway of course I whined to him about my sprinkler… He sent me this.

Yeah that’s my Dad’s truck with the back window bashed in so someone could rummage through his glove box and take all his stuff. We’re lucky it was stolen. This happened a couple of days ago. My little sister was supposed to tell me, and she didn’t. Now she’s in trouble I wouldn’t have whined about my sprinkler if I knew he was dealing this is own human scum problem.

This is a different city, not where I live.

Charlatan · September 14, 2018, 11:16am

I can’t imagine any sane reason that someone would steal a sprinkler. Got to be some sort of bored teenager, right?

Timemaster_Tim · September 14, 2018, 11:44am

People will steal the strangest things. I have had moisturizing hand cream stolen from my desk at work. One of my staff had his shoes stolen. These were old b and worm and left at work for the winter. None of these things were even remotely valuable.

Nesrie · September 14, 2018, 2:37pm

This is what my friends tell me. I have a largest sort of yard, so I actually have three sprinklers out there, they took the most unusual one, and the only one that was plastic and not metal.

During the onboarding at my current site, the lead security officer told us to essentially look to our right and then our left and then to not trust that person. Employee theft is a big problem, and it’s employees stealing from each other.

At my last office, prior to work from home days, someone not only picked up my paperweight, they broke the darn thing. Everyone in the office tried to blame the cleaning crew. Well one, I’d met the cleaning crew several times because I and a few others would work so late. I knew the security code so I could arm the place. And two, the cleaning crew didn’t move things on the desk when they cleaned. If you wanted a clean desk, you needed to keep your crap orderly and not have it all over the place. They would also be the ones most fearful of losing their job since that was a contract, and they were not employees. Someone on my team screwed around with my paperweight, broke it, and then tried to blame the easiest targets they could find. I kept thinking, it probably wasn’t more than ten dollars, just admit it and replace it.

wisefool · September 14, 2018, 2:54pm

Breaking things and admitting it is a very rare thing in my experience. I can only think of one person who would always do it. Some people will admit it when you confront them. Some will half-lie, and some will full-lie.

They are worried about getting into trouble, losing their job, or plain being embarrassed for having “messed something up.”

I think it’s all down to experiences on how one was raised. I had a very strict mother with strong punishments. Another country, another era. When I broke something it was better to admit doing it than not, because you’d get punished even more for lying. This gave me an instinct towards an incredibly foolish honesty. I would admit to breaking things I never even touched, probably for fear of getting blamed for it anyway.

So I figure good liars have gotten away with it in the past, so it is an instinct to keep doing it when confronted. It is not a good thing, or a bad thing, it is just how people are.

The most petty theft I can think of is someone digging up my mom’s plant. They went home, got a shovel and took the whole thing out.

divedivedive · September 14, 2018, 3:03pm

This talk about thievery reminds me that I’ve had another experience lately, my car was broken into. There’s been a rash of these in my neighborhood, seems to happen in waves. Funny thing is my car wasn’t “broken” into, the windows and doors were intact, someone just had one of those devices that allowed them to unlock my car. The only reason I know I was broken into was all the stuff in my glove box was dumped out on the seat and picked over. I don’t keep any valuables in my car, mainly it’s a few CDs, and clearly the thief had no interest in good music. But they did take my valet key, and I don’t even really care. I kept thinking at some point, this thief would have returned and just driven off with my car. They could, anytime they want. I kind of wish they would, I’d just file the police report and deal with insurance. It’s a sixteen year old Jetta, probably not a lot of life left. Which I guess answers the question of why they wouldn’t just take it.