New Semester = FRESH MEAT!

[Argabarga]

Two middle-aged women were sitting at my bar having a debate. I asked them what it was about. They were arguing about the number of full-time residents Key West has. I told them that over the years, I'd seen numbers ranging from 23,000 to 25,000, give or take. The one woman nodded, and the other shook her head, saying it was much lower. Out of curiosity I asked her how much lower. "8,000." Say WHAT?!? Since it wasn't busy, I broke out my iPad and looked it up. Every single site I found gave figures along the lines of what me and the first woman had said, numbers I had heard for my entire 15 years here. The second woman insisted that I wasn't looking in the right place, even though EVERY SITE I FOUND agreed with the higher numbers. Finally she broke out with, "Well, I just don't believe it."

To which I immediately shot back, "You not believing a fact doesn't make it any less of a fact."

This is why they're STILL doing clinical studies that food coloring will not give you cancer, and vaccinations will not give you brain damage, because, after years and years and years of finding NO evidence, there's still people that say every single scientist has it wrong, and their next door neighbor who thinks UFO's shot JFK is the one who's got it right....

I eventually had to defriend someone on FB who kept spamming me with conspiracy theories and clearly photoshopped pics and edited videos of things, (fake poisionous insect scares, fake disease scares, devices that could make your car get 100 mpg fuel economy, grainy footage of flying saucers, plots to jail everyone who owns a handgun... it went on and on and on ...) No matter how many times I (and others he was doing it to) referred him to Wikipidia/Snopes/the IRS website, etc etc etc where it was proven that whatever he was scared of/yammering about was not true/an urban legend dating back to the 90s/not what the law said, every SINGLE time he'd say...


"Well, It still COULD happen!"


Life's to short to waste time arguing with a brick wall that thinks it's aluminum siding

[sms001]

I've had beer with my breakfast at 8 am

Ditto that. Also beer or a cocktail with dinner at 7 a.m. during my graveyard years. Regular participant in a Southside pub crawl that started at 9 a.m. and generally petered out about twelve hours later. It's not when you drink, it's why you drink that makes someone "desperate."

logic, something clearly not possessed by said painters or the people who currently run the place.

Or... the logic of the planners was "Let's make those spots purposely ambiguous and rake in some extra fees." I'm cynical like that.

It drives a lot of my friend nuts that to this day I come to a complete and total stop at every stop sign!

As do I. AT the stop sign - not up in the intersection where I can see traffic clearly. (Almost failed a road test in my twenties for not doing so. Lesson learned.) Side bonus though, is that you come to your 'complete stop' much earlier than others generally do at a 4-way, so you get to go first.

it's not that odd a thing to have your building's parking be several blocks away from your actual building.

There are underground pedways in Chicago (and several Canadian cities) for just this very reason.

[mathnerd]

It drives a lot of my friend nuts that to this day I come to a complete and total stop at every stop sign!

I can verify the truth in this statement. A year or so ago Jester came up to the mainland and we went out for drinks at my favorite bar. We took my car, but he had to drive it back to my house, as I was a bit too tipsy to drive. Anyway, I lived in a rural- for-that-county area, and we had to drive down deserted farm roads at some god awful hour of the morning. These are roads I haven't seen a cop on in 20 years. Jester came to a complete stop at every freaking stop sign, making me want to shove him out if the driver's seat and finish the drive home. He did the same damn thing the following week too.

[morgana]

Life's too short to waste time arguing with a brick wall that thinks it's aluminum siding

Oh, that's priceless!

[Jester]

But--and this is important--not only did I get us home safely both times, I did not get a ticket either time.

[mathnerd]

The last time I saw a cop on that road was in the immediate aftermath if hurricane Andrew. In 1992. But yes, you did get us home safely.

[Jester]

Twice.

[mathnerd]

And there still weren't any cops. Or traffic.

[Ophbalance]

I'm with Jester on this... sorry. I almost get smacked once a month or so by someone who's just downright flabbergasted when I stop for stop signs coming up behind me. The last one was a BMW lady, texting. She followed me through the sign without ever once stopping after I initially stopped.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Will some people still think it's wrong to drink earlier in the day? Sure. But people are stupid. You of all people should know that by now. So drink up, my friend!

Like the song says, "It's five o'clock somewhere."

[Jester]

Mathnerd, as annoying as that is to you, take my perspective. One day, when you have free time (I know that's rare), take a notice of how many people don't stop at a stop sign. I'm not talking about people slowing almost to a stop and doing a rolling stop. I'm talking about people blatantly blasting through it, or slowing very little, looking around, and then blasting through it. You may be shocked to see how prevalent it is.

Hell, just at the four way stop sign at the corner by The Bar, I see it all the freakin' time. It's ridiculous.

[kmariem]

Stop signs, specifically multi-ways, almost scare me more than lights. People act as though stop signs don't even exist these days. I don't drive now. Some reasons: I take narcotics daily, the fibromyalgia has rotted my brain to where my attention span and my reaction times are crap, and random muscle spasms that cause my body to go rigid and just stop (I usually say "seize", but it's technically not a "seizure"). If I were the only person on the road? I could probably handle driving. But it's all the other idiots on the road I'm scared of. Because of them, my reaction times need to be top notch.

Hopefully, that was all coherent. The sleep meds are starting to kick in

[mathnerd]

Mathnerd, as annoying as that is to you, take my perspective. One day, when you have free time (I know that's rare), take a notice of how many people don't stop at a stop sign. I'm not talking about people slowing almost to a stop and doing a rolling stop. I'm talking about people blatantly blasting through it, or slowing very little, looking around, and then blasting through it. You may be shocked to see how prevalent it is.

Hell, just at the four way stop sign at the corner by The Bar, I see it all the freakin' time. It's ridiculous.

To be fair, I do come to a complete stop at every other stop sign in existence. It's just those three, and only traveling east/west. If I'm approaching them from north/south I do fully stop. And even with those three, I'm slow enough to actually stop if necessary, as has happened a handful of times in my entire driving life. It's just those particular stop signs that I'm bad about. Every other one in the world I'm with you.

[Mr Hero]

I eventually had to defriend someone on FB who kept spamming me with conspiracy theories

"And still the government won't admit they faked the whole moon landing.
Thought control rays psychotronic scanning
Don't mind that, I'm protected 'cause I made this hat.
From aluminum foil (foil)
Wear a hat that's foil lined
In case an alien's inclined
To probe your butt or read your mind
Looks a bit peculiar ('culiar)
Seems a little crazy
But someday I'll prove (I'll prove, I'll prove, I'll prove)
There's a big conspiracy"

[Jay 2K Winger]

I stop at every stop sign too, and I try to keep an eye out for "No Turn on Red" signs as well at traffic lights. Just because there's never been a cop on a road before doesn't mean they might not be there tomorrow, waiting to ding you for blowing through a sign.

Heck, I used to make a right turn at a traffic light on my way home from work when I wanted to go to "Mexican Gong" for fourthmeal. Then I got pulled over by a cop and found out there was a "no turn on red" sign at that light that I'd completely blanked on. I got a ticket for it.

Now you bet your ass I stop and check for the signs before I make any turns at traffic lights.