Ridiculous things you believed as a child...

[billw]

Surprised nobody's mentioned the tooth fairy because that definitely made complete sense.

 

[billw]

Oh and just as aside, because of this thread I learned that horses can't vomit. I still can't cut a dovetail but my pub quiz value just keeps going up.

 

[Bm101]

Mike I can't believe you edited my post, lmfao, for spelling.

 

[MikeK]

Mike I can't believe you edited my post, lmfao, for spelling.

I'm a switched on Mod.

 

[dannyr]

Absolutely ridiculous, I know, but I used, in 2016, as a naive 8 year old, to believe that anyone who took on the job of President of a democratic country would take it seriously and behave in an adult manner (unlike us self-obsessed kids).

Now I'm a grown-up 12, Jan 2021, I realise how mistaken I was.

 

[D_W]

Absolutely ridiculous, I know, but I used, as an 8-year-old, to believe that anyone who took on the job of President of a democratic country would take it seriously and behave in an adult manner (unlike us self-obsessed kids).

Now I'm a grown-up 12, I realise how mistaken I was.

So, do you still believe that something has changed re: the past other than curation of the information that leaves political office? I think it's naive of us to believe that a job that takes an enormous amount of self interest to obtain would somehow lead to people who make decisions solely or mostly based on their value to others.

 

[Cabinetman]

So, do you still believe that something has changed re: the past other than curation of the information that leaves political office? I think it's naive of us to believe that a job that takes an enormous amount of self interest to obtain would somehow lead to people who make decisions solely or mostly based on their value to others.

So I think what you’re saying is anybody that actually wants the job should automatically be debarred from it.

 

[NickDReed]

So I think what you’re saying is anybody that actually wants the job should automatically be debarred from it.

Been saying it for years

 

[D_W]

So I think what you’re saying is anybody that actually wants the job should automatically be debarred from it.

That sounds like a trap question. I'm saying that we shouldn't expect a job that requires someone with a big ego, determination and disagreableness (at some level, even if not publicly displayed) to create a strange phase change where said person becomes an ideal.

But a smart president who is really doing the most for their ego will curate their image and control what's released, that's part of achievement in the job, which feed the ego further. Imagine it as a boxer - which boxer does better, the one who really hates their opponent and blows up and swings wildly, or the one who really hates their opponent and is determined to control their temper to take advantage of the opponent?

We probably don't have the type of boxer who is really concerned about their opponent and the crowd in the middle of the fight, though some will curate that kind of off-screen image. Negativity and fear will drive people further than virtue and contentment in most cases.

 

[Cabinetman]

Not a trick question I’ve always believed it, politicians – first up against the wall, the rot starts as soon as you start paying them, even right down at Council level in my opinion.

 

[mikej460]

So, do you still believe that something has changed re: the past other than curation of the information that leaves political office? I think it's naive of us to believe that a job that takes an enormous amount of self interest to obtain would somehow lead to people who make decisions solely or mostly based on their value to others.

ah yes I agree with you but there are degrees of self interest that bottom out at pure narcissism.

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Cakes were healthy

My mum made cakes and she wouldn't give me bad things would she?

 

[Stanleymonkey]

I was about 25 when I suddenly realised, that whilst doing "bob a job", as a cub scout aged 8 or 9, the bloke who answered the door with his knob hanging out probably had not done it by accident.
As a kid and from that point on, until the light bulb moment, I genuinely thought he had just forgotten to put it away.

No clever word play about a Job for Bob, or a little limerick? This forum is going downhill!!

 

[Fitzroy]

Every mushroom, and most other wild plants, in the wood will kill you if you eat them.

My wife is Russian and they have a foraging culture for mushrooms. When her mother visited and we were walking in the woods she had handfuls of ceps, chanterelles, and some morels. I made her throw them away and wash her hands thoroughly before we got home. THEY WILL ALL KILL YOU!

Fitz

 

[Nigel Burden]

I collected some good Ceps and Parasol Mushrooms last Autumn. I'm sure my parents would have doubted their edibility, although we used to gather field mushrooms when I was a child.

They won't all kill you, it's just knowing which ones won't.

Nigel.

 

[Boringgeoff]

My dad was a farmer, one day we had sheep in the yards and one of them had about three inches of bowel hanging out its clacker. He caught the sheep, picked it up by its hind legs and shook it like a bag of spuds, til the bowel popped back in. After marking the sheep with red raddle for future recognition, he turned to me and said " that's what can happen if you strain on the toilet". I was about nine at the time, now 72, I have never strained on the bog since receiving that sage advice.
Cheers,
Geoff.

 

[D_W]

ah yes I agree with you but there are degrees of self interest that bottom out at pure narcissism.

Call me a cynic, but if i'm right, i'll settle for a narcissist who stakes their ego on whether or not they do a good job as President.

There was an interesting special on PBS here about Reagan, who PBS probably isn't in love with. It was pretty rosy for the first 6 years. I tend to think that Reagans intentions (the assumption that it was important that he do a good job for someone else so that he could feel good about himself) worked for a while. When things didn't match his idealistic view of the world, things went sideways in the last two years. The fact that we have our claws dug in all over the world for economic and policy interests doesn't work that well when you expect nothing to clash with your ideals.

All I remember about Bush Sr. (I hate to say it, but it's true) was "read my lips..." and him falling under a table in japan. He said to read his lips, and bill clinton constantly bit his bottom lip. I guess we liked the latter better because the lip biting went on twice as long as the lip reading. Really haven't been enamored with a president since Reagan, and tend to think a lot of being enamored was based on his cool movie start assurances and soviet jokes...and the fact that I was 10 in 1986 and had no clue what was going on, anyway. I don't think any politician got people as excited as the results of the next Tyson fight, anyway.

 

[D_W]

My dad was a farmer, one day we had sheep in the yards and one of them had about three inches of bowel hanging out its clacker. He caught the sheep, picked it up by its hind legs and shook it like a bag of spuds, til the bowel popped back in. After marking the sheep with red raddle for future recognition, he turned to me and said " that's what can happen if you strain on the toilet". I was about nine at the time, now 72, I have never strained on the bog since receiving that sage advice.
Cheers,
Geoff.

HAH!!!

 

[manglitter]

I used to believe scone was pronounced scone until I learned it was in fact pronounced scone

NOPE!

Never understood the scone v scone argument, since neither of them is right and it's pronounced scone.

Finally someone who talks sense...

 

[manglitter]

Ah, the basic premise of the only practical perpetual motion device

Posit...
1. When a cat is dropped it always lands on its feet
2. When buttered toast is dropped it always lands butter side down

Therefore...
If a buttered slice of toast is strapped butter side up to a cat's back. When the cat is dropped, it will hover, continually spinning, a few inches off the ground

Science, innit! <sniff>

I once saw a theory that expanded on this, went into the stain quotient of the substance attached to the cat, and the type of surface that the cat was dropped upon.
In summary the guy theorised that trains could be sustainably powered by dropping cats with tikka masala smeared on their backs and feet onto a white wool carpet - that they just stopped and spun endlessly above the carpet...