Stupid People I Know
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This image (which took me quite a few seconds to “get”, after which I laughed out loud), comes from one of my new favorite web sites, GraphJam. And what I love best about this graph is that it reveals how utterly clueless most of us are.
And for your reading pleasure, an anecdote to illustrate this point: I have a friend who lives in Los Angeles and enjoys watching the occasional football game on TV. So my friend decides that on Monday night of this week, he’d meet up with some of his co-workers at a sports bar in Hollywood to watch the Jets / Chargers game. Knowing that parking in Los Angeles can be awfully expensive, he drives around Sunset Blvd. looking for some free street parking after the meters close at six. Wonderfully, this friend of mine found a nice little spot, about a block away, where the meter still had enough time to get through the allotted meter time remaining.
So then, this friend of mine parks his car, walks down the block, meets up with some buddies, orders some hot wings, watches Brett Favre throw three interceptions, watches the Mets lose to the Cubs on a side-TV, and then a few hours later, calls it a night, and begins to walk back to his car.
Upon returning to the place where he parked his car, he notices that his car is clearly not there. My friend’s first thought is that he has walked up the wrong street and is simply lost. Nope, he’s on the right street. My friend’s second thought is that his car has been stolen, but this is quickly overcome by his third thought, which comes to him when he realizes that the other cars he parked behind or in front of are no longer parked on this street.
It then dawns on my friend to read the street parking signs (which resemble the 1977 tax code) a bit more clearly. And what my stupid friend realizes is that the end of metered parking at 6pm, actually ushered in a 9-hour no parking tow-away period. Brilliant. So what began as a noble attempt to earn some free parking, thus turned into a 90 minute, 1 mile, $242 extravaganza.
Gee, I have some stupid friends.
Themocracy
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Mom always said that common sense was an important thing to have.
The “friend” wouldn’t happen to have the initials KMH, would he? Sad but funny story. :) Happens to the best of us.
The LA school district should think up a similarly clever way to make lots of money, like the city of Los Angeles does with this scheme.