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notalwaysright_feedRead This Kind Of Thinking Needs To Go Extinct
Customer: *To me.* "Where are the toy guns?"
Me: "We don't sell those, sir. [Toy Store] doesn't stock them on principle."
Kid: "But dad, I wanna dinosaur!"
Customer: "Shush, [Kid's Name]." *Back to me.* "No guns? That's ridiculous! When I was a kid, we played with toy guns all the time, and we turned out just right."
notalwaysright_feedRead The First Guy Isn’t Measuring Up
Me: "I'm looking to return this shirt."
Employee #2: "I'm sorry to hear that. Is it the wrong size?"
Me: "Honestly, I never even tried it on. It's the wrong color; it was supposed to be grey or light blue, but the employee up in (first city) ordered it online and must have entered it in wrong."
notalwaysright_feedRead Children Of The Corn Aisle, Part 3
A customer's young son, maybe two or three, is helping her unload items from her cart (that he's sitting in). He places some carrots on the belt.
Son: "Vegebals. Yuck."
Me: "Aww, don't be like that. Some vegetables are nice."
notalwaysright_feedRead Thermodynamics, You Take It From Here, Part 26
Customer: "Excuse me. If I leave these in my car overnight, will they freeze?"
Me: "Yes, ma'am. It’s about -5° outside during the day, colder at night. The juice will definitely freeze if you leave it in the car."
Customer: "Okay… but what if I wrap them in a blanket?"
notalwaysright_feedRead Flue Straight Into Sexism
I opened a chimney sweeping business under the shortened version of my first name, which, when shortened, can easily be mistaken for a man's name. A woman called me up and wanted a quote for cleaning her chimney. I give her the quote, and she's not happy.
notalwaysright_feedRead The Kids Are Going Through Phases
Me: "And look, girls! Remember what that moon is called?"
Seven-Year-Old: "Gibbous!"
Me: "That's right! And at the end of the trip, it should be a…"
Four-Year-Old: "Half?"
notalwaysright_feedRead This Is A Very One-Sided Story
I overhear the following phone conversation on a bus:
Passenger: "Why aint you lettin' me speak?"
Pause.
Passenger: "Why aint you lettin' me speak?"
notalwaysright_feedRead Soak And Croak
I work for Yellowstone National Park. Dealing with park visitors at the visitor center is always the funniest and saddest part of my job simultaneously. Visitor: “Where are the hot springs?” Me: “Right here on the map. You just follow this trail.” Visitor: “Do you provide towels?” Me: “Towels?” Visitor: “For the spa.” Me: “We […]
Read Soak And Croak
notalwaysright_feed(I’m away at college, and my mom and her boyfriend come up to visit. We decide to eat at one of my favorite spots, a local pizza place just off of campus. I’m having lasagna, Mom ordered a sub, and her boyfriend is eating an individual sized pizza, but he periodically comments to us about […]
notalwaysright_feedRead Finnish Might As Well Be Double Dutch
Me: "...and here's my high school certificate."
Registrar: "I cannot read it. Why is it not in Dutch?"
Me: "Because I finished high school in Finland. You'll find the authorized and apostilled translation right next to it."
Registrar: "But that's not the original. I need the original."
notalwaysright_feedA little while back I was shopping at a home improvement store, wandering the isles and browsing the new summer grills. Walking about, I spied two shy-looking youngsters who couldn’t have been more than 10. The boy, the smaller of the two, was wearing a T-shirt sporting the face of a famous wrestler. As I […]
notalwaysright_feedWhen I was a child my mother would often buy me clothes that were too small for me and (in my opinion) ugly. I also was a tinier child, barely normal weight, about a child-size small. My mother insistently got me child-size extra-small, sometimes even extra-extra-small. When I was little bit older I begged her […]
notalwaysright_feed(I’m discussing the upcoming weekend plans with my nine-year-old daughter after school.) Me: So [Daughter], do you remember what we’re doing this weekend? Daughter: Yes! Uncle [Name] and Auntie [Name]’s thingamajig! Me: “Thingamajig”? Daughter: Yeah, their marry-thingy! (Yes, my brother and his long-time fiancée were finally getting married! Of course I had to share this […]
smartbitches_feed
Most people know that Harry Houdini was a famous magician. Many people also know that Houdini devoted much of his life to debunking fake mediums during a time when Spiritualism had widespread acceptance.
But did you know that Houdini’s chief investigator was a woman named Rosa Mackenberg? I did not, but thanks to a Skeptoid podcast episode I do now!
Mackenberg began her career working as a private detective at a detective agency in New York. She was introduced to Houdini, who asked her to help expose fake mediums. Mackenberg believed that it was possible to communicate with the dead, but also agreed that mediums could be frauds. She started a partnership with Houdini that would last even after he died (in a sense).
Mackenberg joined Houdini’s team in 1924. Mackenberg would adopt a costume and a backstory and meet with psychics before Houdini came to town. She took notes on their methods and passed them on to Houdini. Then when Houdini came to town, they would discredit the fake psychics publicly.
Mackenberg testified before Congress hoping to convince them to pass a bill that would outlaw predatory practices among mediums. In the process, she divulged that multiple members of Congress, as well as President Calvin Coolidge, visited mediums in Washington, D.C.
After Houdini died in 1926, she continued her work, investigating fraudulent psychics and giving talks to professional and legal groups as well as the general public on how mediums were able to successfully swindle their victims.
Before Houdini died, he gave a code to his wife and a few other people, one of whom was Mackenberg. The purpose of this was to provide proof of authenticity should any medium actually be able to communicate with his spirit. Despite trying many times, Mackenberg was never able to receive an authentic message.
Mackenberg believed in an afterlife, but the mediums she investigated were not solely providing comfort based in reality or otherwise. Mediums who met with the disguised Mackenberg charged a fee, tried to sell her stocks because of ‘advice from the beyond’ in businesses they stood to profit by, and otherwise attempted to prey upon her, and their clientele, financially and fraudulently. In her work, she advanced not only the opportunities for women in investigative fields, but also some techniques of scientific investigation that are still used today.
According to Atlas Obscura,
By the time she died in 1968, she claimed to have investigated 1,500 mediums. “Rose Mackenberg dons shabby clothes and tracks down ‘spirit world’ frauds,” the Vancouver Sun wrote of her. “She has found plenty, too, having been put in touch with 1,500 departed husbands she never had.”
For more about the indomitable Rosa Mackenberg, check out:
notalwaysright_feed
Me: "Now, this is a Northrop B-2 Spirit, one of the most famous stealth bombers ever made."
Guest: "Did you say stealth bomber?"
Me: "Yes, I did! Its design allowed it to—"
Guest: "—stealth?"
notalwaysright_feedRead When The Wife Has Some Depth Charges
Customer: "It says that this watch is waterproof up to a hundred meters."
Me: "That's right."
Customer: "Is that depth or distance?"
notalwaysright_feed
Coworker: "I'm number 109 out of 111! I mean, it's not great, but at least that means there's six people who did worse than me!"
notalwaysright_feedRead Seeds Of Doubt
A customer holds up a large watermelon and asks me:
Customer: "If I ate this whole watermelon, would I die?"
Me: "I mean… maybe if you tried to swallow a whole one…"
Read Seeds Of Doubt
notalwaysright_feed - This Kind Of Thinking Needs To Go Extinctnotalwaysright_feed - The First Guy Isn’t Measuring Upnotalwaysright_feed - Children Of The Corn Aisle, Part 3notalwaysright_feed - Thermodynamics, You Take It From Here, Part 26notalwaysright_feed - Flue Straight Into Sexismnotalwaysright_feed - The Kids Are Going Through Phasesnotalwaysright_feed - This Is A Very One-Sided Storynotalwaysright_feed - Soak And Croaknotalwaysright_feed - (no subject)notalwaysright_feed - Finnish Might As Well Be Double Dutchnotalwaysright_feed - (no subject)notalwaysright_feed - (no subject)notalwaysright_feed - (no subject)notalwaysright_feed - (no subject)notalwaysright_feed - (no subject)smartbitches_feed - Kickass Women in History: Rosa Mackenbergnotalwaysright_feed - Seeing Is Disbelievingnotalwaysright_feed - When The Wife Has Some Depth Chargesnotalwaysright_feed - Functionally Illiteratenotalwaysright_feed - Seeds Of Doubt![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carisma_sensei
