To wonder what stupid questions you've been asked

[backtolifebacktoreality]

Last weekend I phoned a local florists
and asked them to send some flowers to a nearby friend.

The friend lives in a relatively small cul de sac. The florist obviously asked the address for them to be delivered to. I advised they lived at No 12.

She then went on asking all sorts of questions about how she could find the house once in the street, ie what side of the road etc. She then asked questions about what would make the house recognisable to her, ie what colour front door.

I had to bite my lip but really wanted to respond "the fact that is has the number 12 on the door"!

My DS was born with very long thick eyelashes and he always get comments on them

When he was about 18mths a lady stopped gave a compliment and then asked if they were real

No, no they’re not

I wake up every morning, cobble myself together to look batshit crazy but I spend a good amount of time gluing and applying false eyelashes to my toddler

@Negligee no face blindness. He has absolutely no idea why he never put two and two together.

@MarianneFaithful , sorry to hear that, hope you are recovered now.

@Mommabear20

Have 13 months between my 2DC, DD was 4 months when I fell pregnant with DS, recently got asked their ages (19 & 6 months ) followed by 'so you got pregnant with your second before you had your first??!!' 🤦‍♀️🤔 People's lack of basic biology knowledge and simple math baffles me!

I have the same gap, give it a year and you'll be constantly asked if they are twins. Mine are 21 and 20 now. By the time they are in High school, no-one even thinks they are brothers since they are in consecutive years.

@ElephantOfRisk oh I'm prepared for the twins bit, I think my DD and nephew will be confused for twins too as they have the same surname and will be in the same year at the same school 😂 but peoples lack of common sense is baffling to me 😂

My DM bumped into her niece in the supermarket and asked how her mum (DMs sister) was. She'd been dead for 10 years

But today DH realised that two men who he knows in different contexts for more than 15 years are in fact the same person.

DH watched Property Brothers with me once. He commented "That bloke is busy!"

For those that don't watch it, it's about identical twins - one redesigns and redecorates someone's house; and the other (an estate agent) finds them another house, and sells their old house, when it's been done up!

One wears jeans and a check shirt, and the other a suit! They might be identical but there are differences like hair style!

I once got asked if I was sad that one of my twins died before they were born. I didn't even bother answering

I must confess I am someone who struggles with idiotic small talk.
"Hi, How are you?" Fine
"Are you going on holiday?" Fine
"Nice weather today" fine

"Are you going anywhere nice on holiday?" = stupid. Why would I go somewhere horrible?
"Oh, is it raining again?" whilst standing in the rain talking to me = also stupid.

Disclaimer: I am menopausal and everyone and everything annoys me, but this sort of nonsense has annoyed me since I was about 12.

Where does your red hair come from?

I have been asked this since I was a child.

My head is too chippy an answer apparently.

[quote Aroundtheworldin80moves]@Negligee no face blindness. He has absolutely no idea why he never put two and two together.[/quote]
It’s kind of fabulously mad. I was trying to think how you could use it in a crime novel, only no one would believe it!

DH: ‘No, Constable, that’s definitely not the man I saw escaping the crime scene with a bag marked ‘swag’ — it was Chalky, the immature, badly-behaved wideboy, and not Mark, quiet landlord of a sedate pub, who was in the year below me at school!’

Constable: ‘Sir…’

@Ubiquery

“What’s the author’s name?” from a bookshop employee when I asked to order The Diary Of Anne Frank.

Not sure I think this is wrong, it could just be written by someone else especially if you don't know who she was.

Not sure I think this is wrong, it could just be written by someone else especially if you don't know who she was.

I agree: there are loads of fiction books that are written in the style of the main character's diary. Anne Frank is very well-known, but not necessarily universally so. For all we know, the person might have been aware that it was her own diary and not a novel or something, but thought that there was a book analysing the diary by a different author e.g. 'The Diary Of Anne Frank: A Horror Of History' by Jennifer Brown.

Anyway, I'm off to listen to some music now - my favourite track is 'The Diary Of Horace Wimp' by the popular 70s singer Horace Wimp

Of course it’s possible that a ‘Diary of so and so’ could be written by someone else, but it’s The Diary of Anne Frank and the person asking who wrote it works in a bookshop! It’s one of the most well known books in the world!

I confess that was what I thought too, @thehippietothehiphop - it really isn't a particularly obscure book, and I would be surprised that someone working in a bookshop didn't know it.

@wentworthinmate

Someone once asked me (I worked in the emergency services) where Great Ormond Street Hospital was in London.

I don't get how thats daft? Surely they were asking for directions or how to get there/general area rather than the actual address as such?

@AlternativePerspective

Oh, I had a call once, answered it and the person at the other end said “hello, is this Joan?” (Joan not being the real name, I can’t actually remember what it was,) me: “no sorry you have the wrong number.” Him: “are you sure?” 😂.

The worst of it was that he rang back about 3 times and I eventually threatened to report him to the police if he rang again.

We had a call asking for some name such as Jordan Atkinson. No, sorry, no one of that name lives here.

Then it got silly.
'Can you take a message for Jordan?'
No, because we've no idea who he is.
'Well, can you tell him that he has three days to log onto his benefits portal before he's sanctioned?'
Umm, still no, and I really think you need to check the number...
''Can you prove that Jordan doesn't live there?'
Whaaaat?

If I shower with my hijab on? And if my husband has seen my hair? We have 4 kids. No he has seen my whole body naked and had sex with me but he's never seen my hair

Of course it’s possible that a ‘Diary of so and so’ could be written by someone else, but it’s The Diary of Anne Frank and the person asking who wrote it works in a bookshop! It’s one of the most well known books in the world!

I'd find it surprising, but it's not necessarily stupid. There are countless books that many/most people have heard of, but not everybody will know every one. Shakespeare is most probably the best-known ever author in the English language, but if you asked 100 people to name all of his plays - not a particularly large number overall - barely anybody would know all of them.

Working in a bookshop doesn't mean you know every single well-known book that's been written. In fact, the assistant might just have taken the job because that's what was available and they needed the money and thus have no particular interest in books anyway.

Introduced DTD with this is DD she's 14 then Introduced her sister this is DDs twin the person then asked how old second DD was.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Of course it’s possible that a ‘Diary of so and so’ could be written by someone else, but it’s The Diary of Anne Frank and the person asking who wrote it works in a bookshop! It’s one of the most well known books in the world!

I'd find it surprising, but it's not necessarily stupid. There are countless books that many/most people have heard of, but not everybody will know every one. Shakespeare is most probably the best-known ever author in the English language, but if you asked 100 people to name all of his plays - not a particularly large number overall - barely anybody would know all of them.

Working in a bookshop doesn't mean you know every single well-known book that's been written. In fact, the assistant might just have taken the job because that's what was available and they needed the money and thus have no particular interest in books anyway.

Asking someone to name every single one of Shakespeare’s plays and asking them who wrote The Diary of Anne Frank are hardly equivalent.

I still think it’s a pretty ignorant question from someone who works in a bookshop.

@spanieleyes

After my parents both died within a week of each other I phoned the bank to try to close their joint account. Me: I need to close the account for Mr and Mrs Eyes Him: Why are you closing the account? Me: they have both died Him: Is Mr Eyes dead Me: Yes Him: Can I speak to Mrs Eyes then please Me: No, you can't do that, both have died. Him: Well, I need to speak to one of them, it's a joint account.

What happened after that? Did you eventually manage to get someone to understand why they couldn't speak to either of them or what? How can anyone be unable to comprehend something so basic as - someone has died therefore of course you can't speak to them!

Asking someone to name every single one of Shakespeare’s plays and asking them who wrote The Diary of Anne Frank are hardly equivalent.

I still think it’s a pretty ignorant question from someone who works in a bookshop.

I agree that it's surprising, but I don't see it as a sure sign of stupidity. Was this person the owner/manager of the bookshop or just an assistant. Would you expect a Saturday girl/boy in Boots to know by heart all the lines and tones of makeup products that they have on sale? And this is assuming that they don't have any kind of learning difficulties.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Asking someone to name every single one of Shakespeare’s plays and asking them who wrote The Diary of Anne Frank are hardly equivalent.

I still think it’s a pretty ignorant question from someone who works in a bookshop.

I agree that it's surprising, but I don't see it as a sure sign of stupidity. Was this person the owner/manager of the bookshop or just an assistant. Would you expect a Saturday girl/boy in Boots to know by heart all the lines and tones of makeup products that they have on sale? And this is assuming that they don't have any kind of learning difficulties.

😆 Again, knowing all the ‘lines and tones’ of every makeup product on sale in Boots isn’t an equivalent to knowing who wrote The Diary of Anne Frank. No-one said anything about a ‘sure sign of stupidity’. It’s just a thread about stupid questions that people have been asked.

I told a customer that she was the spitting image of a friend of mine. This evolved into a conversation- oh really, where does she live etc. When I replied her friend said oh I used to live there, I wonder if I know her. What does she look like?!