Tell Me Something Weird (Life's Funny)

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Is it weird that I enjoy drinking a beverage that is half regular Coke and half milk?

One friend of mine let me tried it out as a dare, ended up enjoying it.

[Redz]

Well?

Guess there aren't that many of us weirdos out there 

(or maybe there all just lurking - where's that lurker thread?)

[ACF]

Well?

Guess there aren't that many of us weirdos out there 

(or maybe there all just lurking - where's that lurker thread?)

Speaking of, what's the animal in your avi called? A shall? A gurk maybe? 

[wiley]

I saw two people driving with their coffee on top of their car within an hour of each other.  I successfully stopped both of them before their coffees spilled. 

Key point:  within an hour...


Other than that.  I once had to put a roadside rock in my mouth for two minutes because the friend I was walking home from school with correctly guessed that I was thinking of the the number 63 out of numbers 1-100. 

Because of that I never forgot the number 63 and occasionally asked others to guess.  I've probably asked about 30 people to try and guess the number 63 out of one hundred.  Of the first 20, all years ago, I'd say 5 guessed right, including a small girl in a group tennis lesson I was teaching, and a woman I was on a first date with.  Eventually the high frequency of right guessers began to decrease and so I don't ask hardly ever anymore. 

[ACF]

I saw two people driving with their coffee on top of their car within an hour of each other.  I successfully stopped both of them before their coffees spilled. 

Key point:  within an hour...


Other than that.  I once had to put a roadside rock in my mouth for two minutes because the friend I was walking home from school with correctly guessed that I was thinking of the the number 63 out of numbers 1-100. 

Because of that I never forgot the number 63 and occasionally asked others to guess.  I've probably asked about 30 people to try and guess the number 63 out of one hundred.  Of the first 20, all years ago, I'd say 5 guessed right, including a small girl in a group tennis lesson I was teaching, and a woman I was on a first date with.  Eventually the high frequency of right guessers began to decrease and so I don't ask hardly ever anymore.

TP.

[Roy H.]

My wife and I were just talking about this one.  A couple of months ago, we held a yard sale, and my wife put out a book of paint chips, sort of like this:



My reaction was "nobody is going to want to buy that".  Still, we stuck it out there with $1 on it.  A few hours later, a mom came by with her little girl.  The girl had some semi-severe intellectual and physical handicaps, but she saw the book of paint chips and her face lit up.  Apparently, according to her mother, paint chips / samples are her favorite thing in the world. 

I mean, what are the chances, right?

[GreenFaith1819]

I'll tell you all something funny.

Imagine trying to explain to your wife (or significant other), the concept of "Tommy Points" for the first time.

That happened not too long after I joined the blog back in Oct09.

[FatKidsDad]

Here’s my first of two:

Many years ago, I was a member of Civil Air Patrol and participated in the International Air Cadet Exchange.  As the name implies, this is an annual summertime event where young people go in groups to visit cadet programs in other countries.  In my case, I went with a group of Americans, Canadians, Brits and Israelis to Sweden, where we were hosted by the Swedish Air Force.  Our guides were a young cadet, and officer and an NCO.

We travelled around the country in a Swedish Air Force C-47, which was a military DC-3.  The Swedes had acquired this rather old WWII vintage airplane from the US Air Force.

On one particularly long flight I went up to the cockpit to get a change of scenery and chat with the crew.

While I was there, I was looking at the Army Air Corp (precursor of the US Air Force) aircraft data plate, which showed the serial number and other information about the airplane.  The co-pilot noticed me looking at it and offered an interesting story.

Twenty years earlier, this Swedish Air Force officer had been a cadet also participating in the International Air Cadet Exchange, when he visited Florida.  One of the highlights of his trip was a ride in an Air Force C-47, when he was briefly allowed to fly the plane.  He kept a detailed diary of his trip, and noted the aircraft serial number in his journal.

Yep.  Same airplane.

[ACF]

Here’s my first of two:

Many years ago, I was a member of Civil Air Patrol and participated in the International Air Cadet Exchange.  As the name implies, this is an annual summertime event where young people go in groups to visit cadet programs in other countries.  In my case, I went with a group of Americans, Canadians, Brits and Israelis to Sweden, where we were hosted by the Swedish Air Force.  Our guides were a young cadet, and officer and an NCO.

We travelled around the country in a Swedish Air Force C-47, which was a military DC-3.  The Swedes had acquired this rather old WWII vintage airplane from the US Air Force.

On one particularly long flight I went up to the cockpit to get a change of scenery and chat with the crew.

While I was there, I was looking at the Army Air Corp (precursor of the US Air Force) aircraft data plate, which showed the serial number and other information about the airplane.  The co-pilot noticed me looking at it and offered an interesting story.

Twenty years earlier, this Swedish Air Force officer had been a cadet also participating in the International Air Cadet Exchange, when he visited Florida.  One of the highlights of his trip was a ride in an Air Force C-47, when he was briefly allowed to fly the plane.  He kept a detailed diary of his trip, and noted the aircraft serial number in his journal.

Yep.  Same airplane.

Pretty cool. TP.

[FatKidsDad]

Here’s another:

A few years back I went to a work group meeting of Federal Managers which was hosted at the Federal Records Center in Waltham. When we finished our business, the woman hosting the event offered a tour of the facility.

The vast warehouse in the back had floor-to-ceiling racks of boxes upon boxes of all manner of archived materials, ranging from tax returns to license applications to court records to FBI files to overflow from the JFK library.

Our tour guide was the Senior Archivist, who looked like he could have been ordered up from central casting.  Older, distinguished gent, slightly stooped over, walked with a shuffle, horn-rimmed half glasses, wearing a tweed suit and a bow tie.

At one point, we were gathered around a table to see some interesting old photographs, when I looked to the right and saw shelves full of index-card-sized boxes. At eye level, one of the boxes was labeled with the first four letters of my last name, and a range of years. I asked our guide what these boxes were, and he explained that it was the index of citizenship records.  Based on the label, I said it was possible that my grandfather’s record was in that box.

“Well let’s take a look,” he said.

We went through the box and found three cards that could potentially be my grandfather, based on name, dates and city of residence.

The archivist took me around the corner to a stack of old binders and, using the information from the index, selected one.  We brought it back to the table where he laid it down and literally blew the dust off of it.  He flipped through the large pages until he came to an ornate Certificate of Citizenship.  This man had been granted citizenship at Camp Devens, MA when he enlisted in the Army to fight in World War I.

At the bottom was my grandfather's very distinctive signature , which I recognized.

It was a strange, unexpected connection to the past.

[ACF]

That's another TP!

[AB_Celtic]

A few years back my father and I went on a ski trip in Colorado for a week. Over the first few days of the trip, we had developed a habit of hanging out in a comfortable little lounge area in the hotel after skiing. There was a widescreen TV, and on the fourth day of the trip, we watched the Patriots play in the playoffs.

On that fourth day, we headed down to the lounge and parked ourselves near the TV and the fire. The game had already started, and we had missed roughly half of the first quarter; a result of our insistance to get our money's worth from the resort. The only other people seated there was a couple, she in her 40s and he in his 50s.

As it often goes with me and my father, we start talking to them, asking them where they're from, and so on. Their answers are nothing particularly special, and we just assume they're any old couple here for a getaway ski week, though at some point my father must have figured it out. Eventually, she asks us about a call in the football game, sparking a long conversation about the way the game is played (she was not particularly learned on the subject of football, and neither was he).

Around the end of the third quarter, she gets up to get a drink. My father turns to him and asks (to my surprise, as I hadn't thought anything of her) "Your wife looks very familiar. Would I know her for some reason?" He says, as calmly as can be, "Yeah, she's Shania Twain." We had been talking to her and her then-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange, the producer, and teaching them about football. For the majority of the conversation, I had no idea who they were, and it took a long time for my father to catch on.

It's an interesting story, one I tell every now and then. The biggest thing I took away from it is that most celebrities really don't want to be celebrities, and are perfectly content with talking to an oblivious father and his oblivious son about something like American football.

[pp34isthe1]

About 15 years ago my grandmother and grandfather went to an old antique shop north of our town in southern Indiana. They looked around until they spotted an old, small, school desk, similar to the one my grandfather had as a child. My grandfather joked that it was probably the exact same one, with his intitals RAD, still inscribed inside of the first drawer. He opened the drawer and there it was, his initials RAD. The desk now sits in my house and is always a reminder of how life is so strange.

[ACF]

Cool stories, TPs paid.

[Redz]

The other day I had a random thought process about CB posters who have faded into our memories and no longer.  I was thinking of a great scene from the movie Life (where Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy are reminiscing about all of their fellow inmates they've outlived).  I was doing a YouTube search for that scene but I couldn't find it, then my train of thought moved on elsewhere. 

Anyhow I was mulling over how strange it is that some CB members who we might consider friends at some level could have actually died and we'd never know - and that is a strange limitation of the nature of our community.

Then yesterday Roy posted an obit for a member.  (which was a poignant story if you have not read it)

http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=59502.0