Things people do that baffle you 2

Surely most people don't only eat cornflakes, though? They're just a little starter before you plough headlong into the good stuff like there's no tomorrow?!

Broke people who have lots of pets then can’t look after them properly and have to give them up.

Anyone who buys one of those poor flat faced disabled dogs or inbred struggling animals in general.

I can eat cheese at any time of the day.

Re cornflakes…
I love eating the food of the country when I’m on holiday, but often one arrives tired after the stress of the airport, it’s a different time zone so one’s body clock thinks it’s 7 am, one’s in a hot, crowded restaurant and the concept of olives and interesting cheese for breakfast is a bit anathema. 🤣

Quite agree with your theories too (although I wasn't suggesting that this OP had behaved badly previously), particularly regarding bullying.

... is like the online equivalent of walking a different way home from school where you won't get beaten up.

Fantastic analogy! I like it!

@BrickBiscuit Thanks - that's a helpful explanation.

I think it's analogous to the situation with tube escalators. You're asked to stand on the right, and energetic people in a hurry can then race up on the left. I always comply.

But apparently the fastest way to get a large number of people up an tube escalator is if everyone stood on both sides, two to a step. It's obvious, really - you'd get nearly double the number up at a time.

But that would only work if everyone agreed to do it, and I think it's a similar situation with the merge in turn issue. People who get in lane early naturally resent the whizzers down the left-hand lane and don't always let them in...

I think I'll see if there's a YouTube driving instructor video!

Merge-in-turn is easier than lane-emptying when done properly, in my experience. The theory is that it uses all the available road space and shortens the queue. This is of course obvious, but the longer the stretch of road the bigger the difference. A shorter queue might avoid blocking a junction upstream, if one is close enough.

Say you have a 1/2 mile warning of lane closure on a congested two-lane carriageway. Bumper-to-bumper that's about 150 cars per lane. Keeping one lane empty fills up an extra 1/4 mile of road before the warning, adding 150 cars to the congestion there.

The UK Highway Code, as usual, is a bit vague on it. It says [my square brackets]:
"You should follow the signs and road markings and get into the lane as directed [OK if the sign says 'merge in turn' but what, as you've hinted, is 'lane closing in 400yds' directing you to do?]. In congested road conditions do not change lanes unnecessarily. Merging in turn is recommended but only if safe and appropriate [and] when vehicles are travelling at a very low speed [fair enough], e.g. when approaching road works [but you can safely approach roadworks at speed in the right conditions] or a road traffic incident. It is not recommended at high speed [what about medium speed?]"

So normal lane changing should work in flowing traffic. You still don't need a lane empty for this. Zipper-merging is for slow, queuing traffic and you don't need an empty lane at all.

Yes, a bell is a neutral sound that carries well. Using normal volume to say "Excuse me, please" won't be heard until it's too late; and shouting sounds unnecessarily aggressive.

It also doesn't work very well to communicate a message - unless it's maybe one clear, familiar syllable such as "Fire!!!" - as you see time and again with the idiots who shout insults from fast-moving cars, and don't possess the basic knowledge of physics to realise that their victim will only hear a sharp burst of random unintelligible noise whilst they are giggling away like the pathetic cowards they are inside the vehicle.

Sorry to re-ignite the 'merge in turn' debate, but what I don't get is, if ultimately there is only one useful lane and everyone's going to have to squeeze into it, how can it be better for there to be two lanes full at the point where it becomes one lane and you have to merge? I tend to obey signs once I've seen them - is that wrong? Genuine question. I think of myself as a good, savvy driver, but this discussion has worried me!

I've been thinking about this (due to comments upthread) and I asked a petrolhead friend. He was actually critical of drivers who leave it till the last minute, swoop down the left lane and then expect to be let in by those patiently queueing. He's by no means a dim, dozy driver.

I just don't see how it makes any difference to the overall congestion whether everyone gets into lane more or less as soon as the sign instructs them to, or waits until the last minute - we're all going to have to squeeze into one lane in the end???

Oh, and I think 'Merge in turn' is not easy to interpret. It would be clearer if it said 'Take turns to merge'.

Whilst those two reasons can often be the case - and I don't see any issues with the first one in any case - they're far from the only ones.

It's frequently just to take the wind out of the sails of the boorish/stalky self-superior people who see a username they don't recall, then they AS the name, and say "Interesting first post, OP........" in a clear way to suggest that they're a troll or a WUM.

Of course, the people could indeed be trolls - but on the other hand, posters do frequently genuinely use MN for the very first time, and may well want to discuss an embarrassing or awkward problem that they don't feel able to raise with family or friends as their catalyst to becoming a regular.

Also, it's not necessarily something bad/outrageous that the OP has said or done. You do get bullies on here who fixate on and set about somebody for no good reason; so name-changing is like the online equivalent of walking a different way home from school where you won't get beaten up.

The point is that identifying an unfamiliar username without any history is no proof whatsoever of a time-waster, fantasist or troll and isn't the automatic gotcha that some people assume.

Because people will be a bit suspicious of a first time poster Vs an established one. But I understand the desire for privacy for certain topics.

A bell is much better. As a pedestrian, I know that bell=cyclist so it's just way more effective as communication. I might not hear the specific words if they spoke.

@Grammarninja and @JudgeJ my DH does the phone and wallet dance every time we leave the house, and particularly in the car. It consists of violently patting himself down several times, in a manner similar to the German slapping dance (Schuhplattler) to check that he has his phone and his wallet. EVERY TIME!

If you shout some of us won't take notice. I don't understand why people don't use bells and then just moan at us for not moving

Dress head to toe in black and expect everyone to see them, usually cyclists

• Reels with cake makers telling stories about entitled customers. Seen so many similar ones.

And the cakes look vile - all thick butter cream and artificial colours. I don't know what I did to deserve these things.

Joining a long queue for the ladies toilets only to get close enough to the front to check a few cubicles and find half of them are empty. Why are people just stood there like lemons, forming a huge queue having not even bothered to check them?!

That would be exhausting and you'd have to really shout to get people's attention. Surely that's exactly what the bell is for?
Maybe it's done differently in the UK, I live in Germany and everyone rings the bells if people are walking in the bike lane or if they're sharing the lane and they need to overtake. It's not considered rude here whereas shouting would be.

Say excuse me please?

I've been collecting things that people do that baffle/annoy me for a while, here's some:

• People who make specific requests for low value small ads items instead of just giving them away for free or asking for a euro. They ask for magnum mini ice creams, haribo, specific brands of coffee. That's much more effort than cash.

• People who bring children to spas, even if they're quiet.

• Mumblers. They must know they do it.

• People who make obvious suggestions about how to identify murder victims from Interpol posts, as if the police hadn't thought of doing that already. "Check the serial number on the ring". Calm down, Sherlock.

• People gifting voucher gifts like 1x Babysitting or 1x romantic cooked meal.

• People who wear matching Christmas pyjamas or any clothes and don't wash them first.

• People who say "You'll be speaking to my lawyer" about minor inconveniences. You know they don't have a lawyer and aren't intimidating anyone.

• People who offer dodgy financial courses directed towards multiple audiences at once, advice like "stop living paycheck to paycheck" and then "buy rental property". Huh?

• People who comment on social media about AI destroying the planet and then have photos of either meat or their multiple short and long haul trips on their profile.

• Older people who complain about the behaviour of "kids nowadays". We're one generation away from beating kids into submission at school and home, it might take time to adjust.

• People who say they "dont watch TV" to sound superior but stream for hours. No one watches TV like it's the 90s, you're better than no-one.

• People who have feather pillows on their sofa with the feathers poking out and stabbing you in the arm. Get new ones or stop inviting me to your house.

• People who say price point instead of price.

• People who post long ChatGPT answers to questions on social media, like they're doing a public service.

• People who comment on recipes and and about the weirdest substitutes, courgettes for sugar? NO, obviously fucking not Janet.

• People who say "picky bits" for food.

• People who suggest donating book hoards to local libraries, no one wants ancient dusty moldy books.

• People who are precious about paperbacks and treating books in a particular way. It doesn't make you an intellectual.

• People who dont have a simple prepared answer to "what do you do?" and explain that it's "complicated". I dont care what you do Marcus, it's small talk.

• People who write or read business self help books.

• People who say "making memories" about days out with their children.

• People who say "forever home" and "cost of living crisis".

• People who challenge people using disabled parking spaces, especially if they're not disabled themselves.

• People who say to POC "your English/what language is really good" when they are clearly native speakers or near enough. Also, when you point out it's not a compliment, they get defensive.

• People who say "don't you die on me" in films and tv, such lazy scriptwriting.

• Reels with cake makers telling stories about entitled customers. Seen so many similar ones.

I'm trying to get my head around this one, how else would you get someone's attention? Would you prefer they shout to announce they're overtaking or need you to move? 😅

I have two theories 📧

• They have said things previously on threads that may possible identify them.
• They may have behaved outrageously on previous threads and don't want their credabilty to be affected.

Cynic? Me? !!

people who say ‘name change for privacy’ before posting.. what’s that about? Why do we need to know you changed username?