STUPID QUESTIONS?

[wierdscience]

In following the "sayings"topic I always get a kick out of some of the stuff I hear in a days time,like the other day when I ran out of gas and was walking down the side of the road carrying a gas can ,when an idiot I know pulled up and(you guessed it)asked me "what happened?did you run out of gas?"I held up the can and said no its a birth defect the delivery was rough on my mother!

[yf]

All time winner was the customer who asked:
Don't they make pipeless toilets these days?

I said "Yeah, they've been making them for thousands of years, its called a bucket".

Close second was the one who wanted a wireless outlet.

Some people never learned to think or are too lazy to do so.

I charge to think for them

[Dr. Rob]

Weekly. Makes my skin crawl every time.

I have a shop with a storefront towards a well-trafficked city street. Front room is just packed with steel, machines, tools, parts, people working, welders,...

Knock knock knock on the door. (I learned early on to keep it locked to keep passersby out) Put down tools, shut down machines, break train of thought, open the door...

"Um, hi...Wow, machines huh? What is this, like an um, workshop? Do you do work here?"

I used to have snappy answers. But after eight years, all I can do is look sad and slam the door.

[Stepside]

While at the bank a lady walks in and asks "What day is the saturday market?" Everyone in the bank was looking for the hidden"candid camera". Finally the teller says "its on Saturday" whereupon the lady says "aw Sh-t, I will be out of town" and walks out. True story--she crowded in front of me to ask the question.

[Rotate]

"Wireless outlet"

That reminds me of an environmentalist who was protesting front a nuclear power station. When asked, where will you get electricity from if the plant was shut down, he answered "from the wall".

Albert

[docsteve66]

Stepside: her question may not have been so dumb. The worlds largest flea market (per Texas info) is at Canton, Texas. Called "First monday market" or something like that. Story is, the Judge came to town first Monday of the month. The locals held sales the Saturady and sunday before the first monday- and it grew until it reached the present size. Was there attended on Sat/Sun . If I recollect right the market was in last of month.

Speaking of banks- One of my men went to "King of Prussia" Pa for a school. Wife was Florida gal who, in her fifty plus years had never been outside a 100 mile radius of Lawty Fl. Needing some money, having a govt check, she went to bank. Presented her check, and was asked for ID. She had a BIG purse, fumbled in purse, could not find ID, so she started emptying purse, amongthe itmes was a .38 revlover, which she laid to one side. found her ID, presented it and recived her money. No commment from teller, some body asked if she was with FBI or what she replied nope and left. Only when they were having dinner, did she realize what she had done. Gal carried a gun her entire life and never thought it was unusual.

As has been said before "many ways to town, all correct"- which Ithink is paraphrased from Kipling.

[wierdscience]

One of my favorites is when a customer walks in through a forrest of mills,lathes,and drill presses and says"is this a machineshop?"I usually say no!its a flower shop!can't you tell! Or better yet when I am making a cut on one of those machines and some knucle head will invariably ask"are you the machinist?"which is when I say,no,the owner lets just anyody machine parts!here wanta try #&%*!@#

[docsteve66]

Then there is the guy who asks "are you hurt?" when he sees the bloody pool on the floor with tracks mades by your brogans leading from the pool of blood.

I also think is ok to admit that it don't take long to inspect a piece of hot iron when holding it in your hand. I think it not nice to make the comment to someone else who just got burned- but then the saying would die quickly if used only by the burnees. Cause it takes not very long to learn not to pick up hot stuff thus you don't get may chances to use the saying- do you?
Steve
PS : I have had proper chance to use the "inspection" staement too many times.

[Andrew]

One of my personal favorites was when I was at school doing some blacksmithing. I had just taken a peice of steel out of the forge and it's bright orange. This guy comes up to me, looks at the metal and says "is that hot?" (it must be a sign of the end of the world when someone is this stupid) I told him "no, stick your tongue on it and see for yourself" even after that it took him a little while to figure it out.
Now another story involving the same guy. I had just finished squaring up a block of aluminum on the mill and chips are everywhere. He comes up to me, looks at the chips and says "is it broken" I told him milling machines always fall apart when you try to cut metal.
It's guys like him that are living proof evolution can go backwards.

[Andrew]

On the subject of the wireless outlet. In the future it could be a reality. I was watcing a show on TLC about future sources for energy. apparently scientists have developed a transformer which changes electricity into micro-waves (IIRC) that can be wirelessly transmitted to a reciever which then inverts them back into electricity. the idea was to have satellites with large solar panels "beam" power back to recievers on earth and since the sun is always shining in space, solar power now becomes an efficient way to generate electricity. We probably won't see wireless outlets, but the technology does exist.