quote:Originally posted by Lainie: A pint of deli salad is the same as a pound of deli salad, however.
ETA: In the US, anyhow. And I'm not sure why, because it seems to me that 16 volumetric ounces of coleslaw would not weigh the same as 16 volumetric ounces of potato salad or kidney bean salad or pasta salad. But that is, in fact, how it works.
A pint is not a pound. Pint is a measure of volume. Pound is a measure of weight. It's like saying "An inch is a minute." It doesn't make sense.
If you still doubt it, put an empty pint container on the scale. See what a pint of air weighs. Then fill it with lead shot. See what a pint of lead weighs.
The confusion (which I am constantly battling with my students) is that we often confuse "weight" with "mass". Weight is how hard gravity pulls down on something (measured by a scale) and mass is how much stuff it is made of. Here on Earth, we tend to equate the two. Go to the moon and your weight changes but your mass doesn't.
Now, since mass is intimately related to volume, people may think that weight is intimately related to volume. The problem is, density is also related to volume. Air and lead have different densities. Therefore the same volume of them has different weights. And different masses.
Everybody sufficiently confused yet?
Just because I have read so many of these, a US Pint is a US Pound of WATER at room temperatur at sea level. Because the density of such water is, by definition, 1 so 16 volume ounces of water weighs 16 weight ounces.
It just so happens the most food, if one isn't to picky about multiple decimal accuracy, is fairly close to a density of 1 on average, sort of, most of the time.
Posts: 287 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Squishy0405: My measuring cup has ounces and cups on it (i think its for liquid) and then i have the other cups. I didn't know until my last yr in high school that there was a difference in cups for dry & wet ingredients
Yes, those are "fluid ounces", which is a volume measurement, which are different then "ounces" the weight.
Posts: 287 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I’ve told this before, but it seems most appropriate for this thread.
My mother was a part time operator for a Sears store in Great Falls, MT in the late 1970’s. The operators had a list of business that people often misdialed and ended up calling the Sears number.
One of these businesses was one of the nicer hotels in town. One afternoon a gentleman called and wanted to make a reservation for a large party of people requiring several rooms. This was going to be during some event that would have most hotels in town filled. My mom answered “Hello, thank you for calling Sears.” When he asked about the room reservations she explained that he had misdialed 123-456-7890 when what we wanted was the xxx hotel at 123-456-7809. He apologized and hung up. About five minutes later he called again. My mother again explained the problem. This happened a couple more times in the next few minutes.
After that, it appeared that he had straightened out his dialing fingers. But about 45 minutes later, he called again. My mother was a distracted by another task and forgot just said “Hello” and didn’t identify Sears. Before she could, this many starts off on a raging rant about some dumb bimbo who has been jerking him around. After he was done spouting off, my mother politely took is “reservation”.
We have often wondered if managed to find rooms for his party when they came to town.
Posts: 287 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by ILS: ...many starts off on a raging rant about some dumb bimbo who has been jerking him around. After he was done spouting off, my mother politely took is “reservation”.
We have often wondered if managed to find rooms for his party when they came to town.
Well, that's just mean.
Our phone number at work is the same as some kind of cement company, but one digit in the area code is different. The amount of times I've answere "Good morning, 'company i work for'" and the caller has said "Hi, is that 'cement company who sound nothing like the name of my company' ?" So I say no, their code is 01234. We are 01243. I've had several people ring up about 5 times in a row with the wrong number. I've even had -"well I'm dialling 01243- isn't that the right one?" Er, are you getting through to the right company? No!!
Ooh, had a woman ring up a few weeks ago demanding to know who I was, because I had apparently rung her mobile. So I explained that it was a company number, was she a customer? It then went something like this:
her: No, and I don't appreciate cold-calls. me: Oh, it wouldn't have been cold-call, we don't do that. One of our staff probably dialled your number by accident. her: Well how did they get my number? me: Er, they would only have phoned if you were a customer, so I assume that, as you're not, they mis-dialled and didn't actually mean to ring you. her: I want you to stop ringing me! remove my number from your records! me: (confused) but...it was a wrong number...it shouldn't happen again. You're not *on* our records... her: I want a guarantee that your staff will not ring me again. me: er, ok. Can I take your number? (thinking that maybe we could figure out who made the mistake in ringing it) her: You already have it! I don't want you to have it! Never ring me again!
She then slammed the phone down. Don't you just love the general public?
Jess - don't even get me started on the man who thinks us not receiving his letters is our fault - Boo
Do you have any wine? All of this would go a lot smoother in an altered state of reality. Posts: 779 | From: Southampton, England | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by smittykins flinging rotten tomatoes:
quote:Originally posted by Elphaba- Fabala- Elphie- Fae: I was headed to a voice lesson one day and had some time to kill, so I decided to go to McDonalds and get some lunch. I placed my order at the drive through, and the voice through the speaker inquired "Is this for here or to go?" I sat there for a moment, not saying anything, waiting for her to realize her mistake. Then I said "It'll be to go", at which point she replied "Okay, please drive to the next window."
To this day, I wish I'd had the prescence of mind to say "It's for here.", just to see what would have ensued.
To the employee's credit, when I drove up to the window, she had a very sheepish look on her face...I just wondered why it had taken her even that long to realize her mistake.
Edited because drive thoughs do not exist.
I actually did that once during my tenure at Burger King(1991-2000). I bounced around from front cash to drive-thru quite frequently(often going back and forth when we were understaffed), and once I innocently asked that question. She simply replied "to go"; and when I apologized to her at the window, she said, "No problem. I'm sure you must be frazzled."
Last night, SO and I went to McDonalds... the drive through. The guy took our order, and was kind of slow about giving us our total. I started to drive around to the window, and he said 'Wait! Is that for here or to go?' SO and I just kind of looked at each other and started laughing. We could hear him go "Oh man..." over the speaker. He was really embarrassed about it and said he'd been working the front counter all day. The manager was teasing him and so were the other employees. We all got a good laugh. Poor guy.
-------------------- 'I'm the decider... I decide what's best.' Posts: 403 | From: Branson, Missouri | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
One of my friends was travelling with one of her friends, and they had a stop at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Through conversation, it became clear that this woman thought that they were stopping at the city of Minneapolis in the state of St. Paul. Posts: 264 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Mar 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Squishy0405: [QB] How do these people survive?
ONE Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen n uggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.
bout ten minutes ago...
"I'd like a number 9"
"10 or 6 piece?"
"half dozen"
"What?"
"half dozen, please"
"we only have ten and 6 piece"
Granted, he was working at McDonald's. I suppose I shouldn't have expected much.
Posts: 65 | From: Vallejo, CA | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
Do you have any wine? All of this would go a lot smoother in an altered state of reality. Posts: 779 | From: Southampton, England | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by jessboo: Don't want to sound snarky, but why, if someone asks you 'ten or six?' would you say 'half a dozen'? why not just six?
Maybe some people are painfully shy and are too embarassed to say "six" because it sounds kind of like "sex." They must hate it when you ask them the time at six o'clock.
Posts: 105 | From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by jessboo: Don't want to sound snarky, but why, if someone asks you 'ten or six?' would you say 'half a dozen'? why not just six?
Maybe some people are painfully shy and are too embarassed to say "six" because it sounds kind of like "sex." They must hate it when you ask them the time at six o'clock.
you mean at a whole past five?
-------------------- 'Hello, assorted humanoid strangers. You are standing casually in our forest. This bewilders us.' Blatherskite Posts: 950 | From: Cincinnati, Ohio | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Aptenodytes_Forsteriis:
quote:Originally posted by liebeslied:
quote:Originally posted by jessboo: Don't want to sound snarky, but why, if someone asks you 'ten or six?' would you say 'half a dozen'? why not just six?
Maybe some people are painfully shy and are too embarassed to say "six" because it sounds kind of like "sex." They must hate it when you ask them the time at six o'clock.
Do you have any wine? All of this would go a lot smoother in an altered state of reality. Posts: 779 | From: Southampton, England | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Aptenodytes_Forsteriis:
quote:Originally posted by liebeslied:
quote:Originally posted by jessboo: Don't want to sound snarky, but why, if someone asks you 'ten or six?' would you say 'half a dozen'? why not just six?
Maybe some people are painfully shy and are too embarassed to say "six" because it sounds kind of like "sex." They must hate it when you ask them the time at six o'clock.
you mean at a whole past five?
No, an hour to seven
You English with your forward looking time telling. Good Honest God Fearing Americans (GHGFAs) know that you can only reference the next hour once you hit the three-quarter mark.
-------------------- 'Hello, assorted humanoid strangers. You are standing casually in our forest. This bewilders us.' Blatherskite Posts: 950 | From: Cincinnati, Ohio | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
This "Stupid person Story" happened to me last summer. I worked in the office of a grocery store and often had to help carry out groceries when it got busy. (that store still carries out groceries for customers)
So, I was bagging groceries for a woman and filled up one of the carrying carts. I only had 2 or 3 bags left, but I can handle two carts easily, so I put them on a second cart. The woman sees this and says "you don't need to use a second cart, we'll carry them". Ok, fine, nice of her to offer, so we proceed out the door, me with the cart and her with the 2 or 3 bags that wouldn't fit.
On the way out to her car, she turns to me and says, "Yeah, I saw you loading up the second cart and I just don't think I have enough room in my car for 2 carts of groceries. So I had to carry them!"
O_O Sometimes people scare me. And she had kids too...
Posts: 41 | From: Baxter, MN | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Maybe some people are painfully shy and are too embarassed to say "six" because it sounds kind of like "sex." They must hate it when you ask them the time at six o'clock.
quote:you mean at a whole past five?
quote:No, an hour to seven
quote:You English with your forward looking time telling. Good Honest God Fearing Americans (GHGFAs) know that you can only reference the next hour once you hit the three-quarter mark.
Heh- my nan always says 'five and twenty to' if it's 35 past the hour. It annoys me on so many levels.
Oh and French time-telling always annoyed me as well. 5 o'clock minus 15? what?
ETA: I can't manage to remove posts without mucking up the bold...
Do you have any wine? All of this would go a lot smoother in an altered state of reality. Posts: 779 | From: Southampton, England | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
A friend of mine once told me it was quarter to 11:30. That took a second to sink in, I never let her live it down.
Posts: 41 | From: Baxter, MN | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
Do you have any wine? All of this would go a lot smoother in an altered state of reality. Posts: 779 | From: Southampton, England | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I seriously don't think my mom has ever gotten a new television...but I sure know she had the thing long before I was born. I assume after so many years of ownership, she'd know how to use it. This happened quite a long time ago...we just got back from a video rental store and my mom popped the cassette into the VCR and played it normally. All she saw was static. She played with every control on the VCR and the television, used the video head cleaner five times with excess cleaning fluid each time, pulled the cassette out and put it back in countless times, and just eventually resorted to pounding on the VCR with her fists. Finally she screamed to me "Come here and fix this ****ing TV!" I came in, looked at the television, and set it to channel 3, which is the only way the video will show. Mom had it on channel 4. I was four years old at the time.
This story is a bad on my part, but I still laugh about it. This happened during my senior year in gym class one day. It was that time of the year when we got to splash around in the pool for class. One of my few friends was in my class and we usually swam beside one another during the laps. In one class, she swam ahead of me and while kicking, she splashed me square in the face. I stopped in the middle of the stroke and wiped my face and screamed, "Ashley! You got me wet!" Then I realized I was in the pool and I quietly finished my laps with a red face.
Posts: 39 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jul 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by jessboo: Don't want to sound snarky, but why, if someone asks you 'ten or six?' would you say 'half a dozen'? why not just six?
I just did it to test the first post of this thread in a controlled experiment.
SUCCESS!
It's the same reason I leave wal-mart without letting them check my reciepts too.
And why I ask telemarketers if they wouldn't mind participating in a quick survey.
I'm a bad, bad man.
Posts: 65 | From: Vallejo, CA | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
A variant on the "six vs half-dozen" thing happened to me today at work. We get a massage therapist who comes in once a fortnight, and you can book 15 minute or 30 minute sessions. I told the booking guy I wanted a half-hour massage and he e-mails back "15 or 30?"
Uh...
-------------------- I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains - that's why I live in Melbourne, where it always bloody rains. Posts: 632 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, this is a story that makes me look stupid, but I am man enough to post it anyway
I once swam in an open-air pool during a cloudy day. It suddenly started to rain, it was a real cloudburst. I jumped from the pool and ran to a little canopy to take cover there. Only when I stood there and watched the rain I realized what I had done and slowly walked back towards the pool, whisteling innocently....
Gavida
-------------------- "He looked bigger when I couldn't see him" - Jayne Cobb Posts: 359 | From: Essen, NRW, Germany | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I see customers all the time who I feel should not be allowed out in public without a keeper. For example, one time I was taking a cake order...
Me: What size cake would you like Her: A sheet cake *points to a quarter sheet cake* Me: That size? Her: Yes Me: Ok, a quarter sheet cake *as I circle the appropriate size on the form* Her: No, I don't want one a quarter of that size, I want one that size. Me: The largest cake we put on display is a quarter sheet. Larger ones are custom orders only, and a full sheet cake feeds 100 people. Her: oh, ok. Me: What type of cake would you like? Gold, Chocolate, Marble, or Half and Half? Her: Marble Me: What type of frosting would you like? Traditional or Whipped? Her: Traditional Me: What flavor? Vanilla or Chocolate Her: I wanted a marble cake Me: Yes, I was asking about frosting flavor. Vanilla frosting or Chocolate frosting Her: Oh. Vanilla
posted
That doesn't sound stupid to me. If you don't know that "sheet cake" is an actual size, you might think that sheet cake was any flat square cake (as opposed to round or layered). So if someone said a quarter sheet cake, you might think they mean a quarter of the "sheet cake" that you just pointed to.
And I've had people re-ask me a question that they had just asked and I answered, so I don't think it out of the realm of possibility that they thought the you were reasking what flavour of cake they wanted.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't know that sheet was a size either. Not really up on my cake terminology. I know that a) it's fun to make and b) it can taste so very yummy.
-------------------- So many spankings! It feels so good! But at the same time, I don't care about meeting your family! - I'mNotDedalus: Posts: 3216 | From: Denver, CO | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by BeachLife: I've never heard of the pint's a pound thing before. I'm pretty sure my deli actully charges by weight. When the pre-package items, like spinach dip, the prices of several identical containers are slightly different due to the weight difference.
this one dates back a ways... i believe it started as a rule of thumb for "how much does a pint of water weigh?"
um, Barbara M... have you verified that?
well, sorry, i'm new here...
two "one of them" stories from me:
i wanted a tape demagnetizer, so i whip on down to the nearest Radio Shack and buy one. it turned out that i didn't get a chance to use it for a few weeks, and when i finally tried it, it didn't work. the trigger switch was broken. rather than try to fix it myself, i took it back for an exchange. the guy behind the counter and the manager both refused the "defective" exchange because i was outside the one-week window on returns, or whatever.
so i asked if they had another unit. they said yes, and i bought it. i took it home, checked that it worked properly, put the other one back in the box and took it back as a "defective return" for which they gave me a refund with no questions asked...
hmmmmmm....
and occasionally, when i'm buying just a few groceries and the checkout clerk asks "paper or plastic" i take out my wallet, choose a credit card or cash, hold it out to them, and answer accodingly. some get it, some don't. a few see the humor.
This one happened when one of my relatives called one of those computer-support hotlines. After incessant amounts of elevator music, the guy on the other line apparantly said "Is your computer malfunctioning?" And my relative said "It won't turn on." The man said "So is it malfunctioning or not?"
posted
Thank you, Aquadude, and here's one from a good friend of mine...
I was trying to exit the D.C. Metro system and it requires a prepaid card. So of course many days traffic gets all backed up when tourists approach the exit with no clue about this "pre-paid system". So we all wait and wait until they finally decided to back up...then the entire line must put it in reverse.
So, when I finally got to the "little shack" I asked the guy "why don't you take the money from these tourists?" He said "I'm not allowed to take money" and I said "then why are you here?" and he said "to tell them I can't take their money"
A perfect example of our fearless goverment at work!
quote:Originally posted by Little Red Cervette: I've been referred to as "sir" twice by store clerks.
Heh. I've been refered to as "sir" twice by my customers- both were older men, not quite elderly but certainly retirement age.
I'm a nineteen year old who works in a farmers' market. I don't think the "sir" would be necessary from them even I were, in fact, male. As it is, I'm a rather petite girl, and I don't think I look very masculine at all.
I've also had customers refer to me as ma'am, sweetie, dear, honey, babe, baby, and kiddo.
Still, I'd rather be be called sir again than have a repeat of the guy who, as I was ringing up his cantaloupe, winked and said "You sure have nice melons."
-------------------- Someday I'll aquire wisdom, but for now, being a wise-ass will have to do. Posts: 90 | From: the Michigan/Ohio border | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Little Red Cervette: I've been referred to as "sir" twice by store clerks.
Heh. I've been refered to as "sir" twice by my customers- both were older men, not quite elderly but certainly retirement age.
I was recently referred to by a complete stranger as a "F*cking fag" and berated for wearing a pink (IMO reddish brown) jacket, because only women and "fags" wear pink. I don't think he ever realised that I fit better into the first category of authorised pink-wearers than into the second.
quote:Originally posted by Muskrat Monroe: Still, I'd rather be be called sir again than have a repeat of the guy who, as I was ringing up his cantaloupe, winked and said "You sure have nice melons."
I make jokes like that with my wife; I would never consider that comment with a clerk I do not know.
-------------------- "The large print givith, and the small print taketh away" -- Tom Waits, Step Right Up
"The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad." -- Salvador Dali Posts: 2443 | From: Illinois | Registered: Feb 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Little Red Cervette: I've been referred to as "sir" twice by store clerks.
Heh. I've been refered to as "sir" twice by my customers- both were older men, not quite elderly but certainly retirement age.
I was recently referred to by a complete stranger as a "F*cking fag" and berated for wearing a pink (IMO reddish brown) jacket, because only women and "fags" wear pink. I don't think he ever realised that I fit better into the first category of authorised pink-wearers than into the second.
I've had a couple of run-ins with mistaken gender or age. Once the police broke up a college party I was at and checked IDs. He was pulling people out of the crowd saying "him, him, her, him, etc..." He pointed to me and said "her". This I'll let slide because it was dark, I was sitting down and my hair was very long (for a guy) at the time.
The one I won't let slide was when I was about 14 and I received an invitation to participate in a teen beauty pagent. I have no idea why they thought I was a girl. I have no sisters nor do I cross-dress. I didn't even have long hair at the time. My brother is relentless about teasing me with this, even to this day.
My latest annoyance is that I keep receiving crap from AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) which is an organization for people over fifty. I'll spare you from having to check my profile and tell you that I'm 28. I guess they're trying to get us while we're young.
-------------------- "Tis too much proved that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself." - Hamlet Posts: 344 | From: Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
They're not exactly stupid customer stories, but they may fit under the "How Do These People Live?" category.
My father was once driving behind a woman in a very beat-up car. She stopped suddenly for some reason, and the drive shaft fell off her car, making a loud noise. (I assume the u-joint broke, and it came detached from the differential.) She got out to see what happened, saw the shaft, picked it up, put it in the trunk, then got in her car and started it and tried to drive off.
Last winter, I went to a large conferenced over Hanukkah on Judaism. It started on Dec. 23, and lasted until the 30th. When I was boarding my dogs, one of the vet employees asked where I was going, and I explained it was a conference on Judaism, and the sponsers got a great deal on the hotel, because apparently hotels are chronically underbooked at Christmas. She asked me a couple of questions about the conference, and I answered, explaining that more than a thousand Jews from around the world would be there. At this point, one of the other employees looked at me and said "You mean, they're away from their families at Christmas?"
Posts: 75 | From: Bloomington, IN | Registered: Jul 2006
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[dunce]](graemlins/dunce.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
