Comments on: They can direct the deer population anywhere they want to.

They can direct the deer population anywhere they want to.

namewithoutwords — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:30:56 -0800

Each of these incidents occurred shortly after I saw a Deer Crossing sign on the highway!

By: Blasdelb

Blasdelb — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:33:30 -0800

My partner's theory, Someone said fuck Truth and picked Dare. At least thats what we hope happened.

By: mazola

mazola — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:34:03 -0800

I smell an undecided voter -- PANDER TO THEM!

By: tommasz

tommasz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:38:08 -0800

And, lo, he sayeth unto them THERE ARE SIMPLE SOLUTIONS when thou darest to ignore reality. And so were the people made calm.

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:39:36 -0800

Part of my job is responding to public inquiry about municipal issues. This isn't the stupidest thing I've heard this week.

By: Narrative Priorities

Narrative Priorities — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:40:04 -0800

I am going to do this woman the favor of assuming she was trolling. If sincere, this seems like it might fall into that category of "assumptions I made as a child that I have never really questioned as an adult."

By: Narrative Priorities

Narrative Priorities — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:41:01 -0800

Jimmythefish, please oh please tell us some stories.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:41:07 -0800

This isn't the stupidest thing I've heard this week. Do tell.

By: helicomatic

helicomatic — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:46:28 -0800

Animals are so confusing!

By: Cosine

Cosine — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:47:14 -0800

I'm not saying people this dumb don't exist but this one doesn't smell right.

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:47:14 -0800

Well I won't really get into this week (just read a CBC article about posting things online and getting fired so I'm skeeved) but the all-time favourite so far was a woman who wanted to solve the traffic and greenhouse gas emissions problem in the downtown area by diverting traffic over the centre of town with a giant wooden conveyor belt that you'd drive onto, turn your car off, and cruise the cedar planks in silence while checking the town out and waving at your friends.

By: rahnefan

rahnefan — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:47:20 -0800

Her voice says fake.

By: The 10th Regiment of Foot

The 10th Regiment of Foot — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:48:23 -0800

Radio station stunt, nothing to see here... except Jimmythefish's tales!

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:55:42 -0800

The follow-up interview makes it clear she wasn't trolling, and also that she was a tremendously good sport about realizing she'd been dumb.

By: Blasdelb

Blasdelb — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:55:59 -0800

"Well I won't really get into this week (just read a CBC article about posting things online and getting fired so I'm skeeved) but the all-time favourite so far was a woman who wanted to solve the traffic and greenhouse gas emissions problem in the downtown area by diverting traffic over the centre of town with a giant wooden conveyor belt that you'd drive onto, turn your car off, and cruise the cedar planks in silence while checking the town out and waving at your friends." Oh man, you can't just give us that nugget and stop there...

By: ennui.bz

ennui.bz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:03:37 -0800

if only she had watched this informative video: Deer are fine.

By: Blue_Villain

Blue_Villain — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:05:38 -0800

I have no idea what jimmythefish makes annually, but I'd be more than happy to contribute to some sort of a post-employment-disaster-relief fund.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:08:17 -0800

Well I won't really get into this week (just read a CBC article about posting things online and getting fired so I'm skeeved) You can memail them to me (or a mod, I guess) and I will post them as "from an anonymous user:"

By: Dr-Baa

Dr-Baa — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:08:37 -0800

a giant wooden conveyor belt that you'd drive onto, turn your car off, and cruise the cedar planks in silence while checking the town out and waving at your friends. I'd put my tax dollars towards this. On slow traffic days, it could double as a strip for airplanes to take off from.

By: lampshade

lampshade — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:09:37 -0800

FYI - There was a follow up call from Donna and a mea culpa

By: The Prawn Reproach

The Prawn Reproach — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:14:04 -0800

"Well I won't really get into this week (just read a CBC article about posting things online and getting fired so I'm skeeved) but the all-time favourite so far was a woman who wanted to solve the traffic and greenhouse gas emissions problem in the downtown area by diverting traffic over the centre of town with a giant wooden conveyor belt that you'd drive onto, turn your car off, and cruise the cedar planks in silence while checking the town out and waving at your friends." Oh man I'd take this for NYC in a second, one each for Canal, 42nd, 57th and 125th. It could run at 5mph and still speed up crosstown trips during work days. Halal carts could deliver to your car window. It would be amazing.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:16:58 -0800

cedar planks in silence while checking the town out and waving at your friends. I remember a poster in the davis_square livehournal group who was earnestly trying to get support for creating rope bridges, ala an Ewok village, constructed over the square so people would not have to wait for crossing lights. Davis being what it is, her idea got a surprising amount of backing.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:18:03 -0800

This is a very, very old joke. People like to write in to newspapers and make this silly complaint, too. I don't think anybody ever meant it in earnest. This woman certainly doesn't.

By: helicomatic

helicomatic — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:21:11 -0800

Thanks for posting the followup. I'm still not sure if she's totally genuine or not, but it's a bummer that she's getting pranked that much about it.

By: me3dia

me3dia — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:22:51 -0800

Is it her confident speaking voice that makes people assume that it's a prank? She was confident of her convictions, and had clearly been thinking about this for awhile, so of course she sounds a little scripted -- she'd probably been practicing it in her mind for awhile.

By: wenestvedt

wenestvedt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:23:14 -0800

"There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken

By: 2N2222

2N2222 — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:25:42 -0800

Without the signs, we would be encouraging the deer population to jaywalk. So it's not as simple as simply moving the signs.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:27:28 -0800

me3dia: “Is it her confident speaking voice that makes people assume that it's a prank? She was confident of her convictions, and had clearly been thinking about this for awhile, so of course she sounds a little scripted -- she'd probably been practicing it in her mind for awhile.” Well, for me it was the fact that this is a really common prank to play.

By: wenestvedt

wenestvedt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:27:51 -0800

Dr_Baa: On slow traffic days, it could double as a strip for airplanes to take off from. Ah-hah! As a Doctor, you should know that those moving plankways would not be useable for planes to land on, only take off from: http://kottke.org/08/01/mythbusters-airplane-on-a-conveyor-belt

By: kurumi

kurumi — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:28:56 -0800

I suspect most callers like this -- and instances of the Morning Zoo radio hosts pranking an unsuspecting listener -- are fake.

By: dirigibleman

dirigibleman — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:31:08 -0800

if only she had watched this informative video: Deer are fine. A rebuttal.

By: TheRedArmy

TheRedArmy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:51:21 -0800

'But the government can control where the deer cross just by moving these signs!' is where she lost me. That's too far gone.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:52:17 -0800

Every four years, in late February, the Daily News "Voice of the People" section will feature complaints sent in that Leap Day should have been placed during a nicer part of the year.

By: dng

dng — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:52:52 -0800

Isn't this a scene from The Straight Story

By: AstroGuy

AstroGuy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:56:00 -0800

From my local paper in 2011 and later featured on Leno: "The deer crossing sign needs to be moved to a road with less traffic." http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/article_c75bc6a0-c5dc-5642-abd4-4613161d0914.html

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:00:16 -0800

At around 1.20 she nearly laughs

By: AElfwine Evenstar

AElfwine Evenstar — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:12:33 -0800

Definitely a Minnesotan trying to troll North Dakota.

By: yoink

yoink — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:15:20 -0800

The follow-up interview really doesn't fit with the "prankster" theory. I think she was legit.

By: xedrik

xedrik — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:21:09 -0800

I would totally go for the conveyor belt thing if it was built like a roller-coaster.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:29:33 -0800

Is it her confident speaking voice that makes people assume that it's a prank? No, it's the fact that it's from a morning radio show, a format well-known for intentionally generating 'controversial' calls to boost exposure and ratings. My baseline expectation is that 100% of call-ins are faked either by the show itself or by people who want to get on the air. The follow-up interview really doesn't fit with the "prankster" theory. The follow-up call would presumably also be a fake.

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:29:52 -0800

I would completely for the car conveyor it if it meant the idiot bikers with straight pipes had to shut off their motors when cruising around town on the mechanized main drag.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:30:16 -0800

(I should be clear that I don't actually think 100% of call-ins are faked. But I presume fake until definitively proven to be not-fake.)

By: item

item — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:32:09 -0800

It is kind of cute that some of y'all think this was a sincere call.

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:36:49 -0800

Also, the Straight Story is full of these silly modern fables, my favorite of course being "What's the number to call 911!?" I think one of the points he was getting across is how these apocryphal tales define us as a culture - Aesop and urban legends, plain folks jokes and stories of kindness and virtue repaid with the same coin. An unexpectedly warm and charming movie from David Lynch.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:54:03 -0800

Every time I see an "End Road Work" sign, I pump my fist. "Yeah! Fuckin' Road work! End it!!!!!"

By: darksasami

darksasami — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:03:02 -0800

I think it's cute that people actually believe that nobody's that stupid.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:15:39 -0800

Oh, I have myself been that stupid, from time to time. But radio call-in shows can't afford to wait for people being stupid to call in.

By: HotToddy

HotToddy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:31:12 -0800

Oh come on. It's obviously fake. She says she's been "involved in three separate car accidents involving deer" over the past few years. Even if she at one point actually held this misconception about deer crossing signs, do you think she hasn't discussed them with anyone else? I live in the rural west as well and hitting a deer is one of the most common topics of conversation--you hit one, tell everyone, everyone in earshot chimes in with their story of hitting a deer, you talk about the worst areas for deer, what it did to your car, the personal quirks of the body shop guy, etc. There is just no way that a person who has been thinking about this enough to call in to a radio show about it hasn't mentioned it to someone else beforehand. And there's no way that the person they mentioned it to didn't set them straight. Fake.

By: yoink

yoink — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:54:03 -0800

The follow-up call would presumably also be a fake. A deliberate "bit" by the radio station is certainly a possibility, but that's not the same as a "prankster." I don't buy a "prankster" thinking it would be fun to call in to a radio station and talk about how stupid they were: the whole point of pranks like this is to crow about what gullible idiots the DJs were. But you're right that it's possible the whole thing was contrived by the show from the get-go.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:03:17 -0800

I guess it depends on the definition of a 'prankster' - it's possible she just wanted to get on the radio with her funny story. Getting on the radio TWICE seems to be an added bonus. I actually tend to enjoy morning humor shows. My objection is to the general idea, often espoused when these things go viral, that the people who call in reveal the stupidity of the American public.

By: cacofonie

cacofonie — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:06:32 -0800

It is surprisingly easy to pass through life carrying some very basic erroneous assumptions about small, dusty corners of the world that wouldn't have had the chance get corrected. I.e. my adult cousin, while at a museum, had a revelation "wait.... So these bones were REAL dinosaurs?"

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:09:04 -0800

Nearly 10 years later, my college friends still get a kick out of the time I claimed, "No one has every really SEEN a photon." But see, I made this claim to friends before I called in to a radio show, and "No one has seen a photon" is not a very well-known urban-legend-dumb-comment the way "They should move the Animal X-ing" sign is.

By: darksasami

darksasami — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:10:11 -0800

I don't think it's possible that it's a deliberate bit by the radio station, because the DJs have absolutely no comeback to it. DJs don't do silence--dead air is unthinkable, the worst possible thing that can happen on radio. (I lived with one for 15 years, and believe me, it carries over into real life, too.) If it were prepared ahead of time, they'd have played along much more quickly and thrown in a few zingers.

By: Babblesort

Babblesort — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:11:40 -0800

I saw a photon once. It was waving at me.

By: Kokopuff

Kokopuff — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:15:30 -0800

I call shenanigans. She just sounds too coherent and educated for this not to be a prank.

By: TheCoug

TheCoug — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:20:31 -0800

I have never once seen the bear on the left.

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:25:25 -0800

She's a fake. The station let's it play out, laughing all the way to the bank.

By: herbplarfegan

herbplarfegan — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:19:17 -0800

Ctrl-F-jimmythefish

By: binturong

binturong — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:19:52 -0800

We have street signs that read "Children at Play" and I always think in my mind: "Which play might that be? Peter Pan?"

By: darksasami

darksasami — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:15:10 -0800

I've always had that problem with STOP AHEAD.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:40:25 -0800

SLOW CHILDREN

By: clorox

clorox — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:43:37 -0800

Fakety fake fake fake. instances of the Morning Zoo radio hosts pranking an unsuspecting listener All of those are fake, too.

By: Lipstick Thespian

Lipstick Thespian — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 03:44:01 -0800

I would totally go for the conveyor belt thing if it was built like a roller-coaster. When I lived in the Bay Area many years ago, I had a friend who'd never ridden BART before. I took her over to Berkeley for the day, and told her that the handrails on top of the seats were there because the commuters had written a petition to the Transportation Dept. complaining that the ride into SF was too boring, and that they had gotten a loop-de-loop constructed just outside of the Oakland Coliseum to make it more exciting. She immediately grabbed the handrail and looked out the window, exclaiming, "Here comes the Coliseum - can we see it from here???"

By: h00py

h00py — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 07:45:26 -0800

When I was in my late 20's I had a particularly stupid argument with a learned friend who was insisting that gravity wasn't caused by centrifugal force. I knew he was wrong based on my experiences on the Gravitron fun fair ride. He was very polite but I felt shame, great shame after I'd done the smallest amount of research. I'd been reading hard science fiction for ages, too. What a maroon!

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 11:41:33 -0800

I also used to think that gravity was caused by centrifugal force, and that if the earth stopped spinning we'd all go flying off. It seemed so obvious!

By: xedrik

xedrik — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:49:00 -0800

these silly modern fables, my favorite of course being "What's the number to call 911!?" This actually happened in my family. Grandpa panicked and was frantically flipping through the phone book. People do crazy stuff under stress.