On a drive when I was ten, I asked my dad why the tall, skeletal towers had blinking lights. He said so planes wouldn’t crash into them. So I asked what the towers were for, and he said to hold up the lights.
I was crossing the street with my mom once and the crosswalk beeped indicating it was safe to cross. She asked, “Why does it beep like that?” I said, “It’s for the deaf people.” We crossed and then she started laughing. She said, “You asshole.”.
I used to work in a hardware store. One day a guy came in looking for a skyhook.
After we called his boss to confirm the situation (this was well before cell phones), we all had a good laugh. I think the boss was shocked he fell for it.
At school in Scotland, one art teacher would send the kids to see the other art teacher to ask if they had any tartan paint left. Alternatively, he would send them to go and ask for a long stand.
When I was a starting line cook, they told me to recirculate the air in the freezer. I said “what?” They said “recirculate the air in the freezer.” while handing me one of those giant black trash bags. I opened the door to the freezer, opened up the bag fully, and then went “wait a minute…” they had a laugh, and I started eyeing all of their requests through the lens of “is this bullshit?”
Later on, at more professional jobs, they have the same sort of requests. Not ones that are hazing jokes, but just actual bullshit assignments that mean very little, are looked at by nobody, and that accomplishes nothing. Except now those assignments are like 90% of the job. Hooray office work among middle management!
If they’re yelling/aggressive about it, it’s not as funny. People are just going to feel pressured which is lame compared to someone subtly making a ridiculous request that has every right to be questioned
Never really see those around here anymore. I have a few in old tractors, but most of them have been lost by now and replaced with box end wrenches of single sizes.
On work experience the guy sent me to get a long weight and I was like to myself ‘fine ill go look for something that doesn’t exist and have my lunch too. If you want a long wait…’ I go back and he gets off his ladder exasperated, goes to the van and gets a long string plumb line.
I think he was using it to align a speaker so that the cable drop would be vertical to the hole where the cable came out. It was something like that, it was about 25 years ago so details as hazy.
Was a guide in a youth movement, had one child that was way too disruptive when I tried to make camp for the group.
Sent him to the supply room to bring a straight rope. 30 minutes latter he comes, dragging along a straight rope, taking every turn very slowly, taking a fuckton of leaves with it. Camp was built.
When I was in charge of the supply room I saw many funny requests, and some that thought the very real device they were asked to bring was a prank. My favourite pranks are electricity powered and trees straightner.
My high school chemistry teacher told me that when he was in university, they’d send the frosh chem majors down to the depot to get a “bucket of mercury”. The depot guys would be in on it and fill up a bucket and laugh at them while they struggle to move it. Even a small bucket would weigh something like 200 lbs.
Not long ago they didn’t care so much about that. He also talked about how they’d play with it with their bare hands. He’s not dead because mercury is only toxic when ingested.
Edit: in retrospect, he is dead. I forgot that cancer got him a few years back and that high school was 30 years ago…
He’s not dead because he absorbed so much chemicals over the years it all cancelled out. Those tech room uni workers are supermutants. That’s why you are so scared of them instinctively when meeting one for the first time.
Yes, but every liquid has a vapor pressure because some moleciles always evaporate - else anything wet would never dry unless heated to water’s boiling point.
For mercury it’s fairly low at room temperatures but because it accumulates in the body, frequent exposure to unsealed mercury is harmful.
I’m not an expert, but from what little I remember: mercury doesn’t immediately kill you like other poisons. What it does do is build up in your body until it hits a tipping point and starts causing problems. Your body has no way to process or get rid of it. Which was why accumulations of it in seafood was a big deal because eat enough of it, even in tiny amounts over a long time, and it starts to mess you up. The amount of mercury that you would be exposed to by breathing near an open source would be minimal I imagine. Or something like that. Like I said. Not an expert. Better to just stay away from it entirely, I’m sure.
Imagine the nurse goes in on it and gave them something. That would be somebody who ends up on “Tell me something someone convinced you was true but you realize later in life was bullshit”
Actually, we need a bunch of people to do that. Start seeding future content. In like 20 years it’ll pay off.
His dad sends him to the shop to ask for red and white striped paint, which doesn’t really exist as the paint would mostly mix together in the tin and make some badly mixed pink paint. The employee in the shop sees this is a gag and asks a follow up question: would he like the paint to be striped vertically or horizontally? So they are on the way back and only *then the realisation dawns on them that this is a massive wind up, which sparks a rage large enough to break the door.
I read the post feeling tired, so somehow, I was thinking that the red and white paint are in each separate tin bucket and the white paint is somehow striped so I didn’t get the joke.
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