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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

WanderingFox said:
Sneaky dog returning it unseen? If you were focused on looking for the ball you might not have registered what the canines were up to. Also, I know how tricky dogs can be - innumerable times I've looked over one shoulder to check on our dog when she's trailing behind, to find no sign of her, then look forwards again and there she suddenly is. I eventually figured out that as I looked round on one side, she was passing me on the other, and it's happened so often I'm convinced she's doing it on purpose to mess with me. :p
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Good thought :) but Dog2 didn't go back to the area when we went looking so she was still on the path behind us when the ball appeared, and Dog1 was on a lead held by Mr Zebra as she's getting old and tends to wander off nowadays if left to her own devices.

Dogs can be sneaky little blighters can't they? I think your dog is probably messing with you.
But we love 'em. :)
 
Here's my anecdote of domestic pet intelligence.

We keep cat food in a kitchen cupboard along with some cat treats and dried catnip, which was stored in a sealable small plastic bag inside an old tin.
Puss has obviously seen us getting the catnip from the cupboard and sprinkling a small amount near her scratching post for the occasional treat.
One day, a year or so back, she waited until we'd gone out. Pulled open the cupboard door. Knocked the tin out. Either pulled the top off, or it may have fallen off when it hit the floor. Dragged out the bag of catnip. Bit a hole in it and shook it over the kitchen floor.
We found her rolling in it, high as a kite.

That shows memory and a surprising degree of methodical planning.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Here's my anecdote of domestic pet intelligence.

We keep cat food in a kitchen cupboard along with some cat treats and dried catnip, which was stored in a sealable small plastic bag inside an old tin.
Puss has obviously seen us getting the catnip from the cupboard and sprinkling a small amount near her scratching post for the occasional treat.
One day, a year or so back, she waited until we'd gone out. Pulled open the cupboard door. Knocked the tin out. Either pulled the top off, or it may have fallen off when it hit the floor. Dragged out the bag of catnip. Bit a hole in it and shook it over the kitchen floor.
We found her rolling in it, high as a kite.

That shows memory and a surprising degree of methodical planning.
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Your cat is now a junkie.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Your cat is now a junkie.
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This is Puss in rehab:

PSX_20180518_202118.jpg
 
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escargot said:
Yup, we understimate them. Saw a couple of photos recently of a dog which noticed people spending notes on food, and started offering the snack-seller leaves! He's nearly got it!
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Wow I'd like to see that, what an amazing story, but one which I fully believe. Dogs are highly intelligent as all us dog owners know :nods:

One aspect of dog training (depending on which method you prefer to follow, and also of course which method works well for your particular dog) is the idea that if the dog has something which it shouldn't have (say, chewing a slipper) then you shouldn't just take the slipper away, because the dog will learn that good things get taken from him/her and it will make more effort to not let you get the slipper next time.

Instead, the idea is that you replace the slipper (or whatever object) with something of a 'higher value' - a toy, a tasty treat, a tummy rub, a game of fetch, depending on what the dog prefers. That way, he/she learns that it is ok to give up the thing that 'the human wants back' because in doing so, something much better will happen. :)
 
A slight curiosity for your consideration.

I was moving the stair-gate from the bottom of the stairs, (as Dog2 is now old enough to climb the stairs on her own) and placing it at the back door instead, so we could have the door open with the dogs out or in as desired.

To set the scene, Mr Zebra was standing in the back porch holding the gate in place, whilst I was standing in the hallway with the bag of screws lying on the floor nearby, taking only one screw out at a time as I attached the fixings. Both dogs were in the garden and nowhere near.

I'd attached one of the fixings and was struggling to hold the second fixing in place as I reached round to get another screw. Mr Zebra said "I've got a screw here" and handed me one, which saved me losing my grip on the fixing. I duly screwed it in, and as I did so something crossed my mind that didn't sit right but I thought no more of it.

It was only after I'd attached the second fixing and turned my attention to the other side of the doorway, at which point Mr Zebra held out his hand allowing me to select another screw from the several he had, when I stopped and looked up at him. "When did you pick up the screws?" (I realised that this was the thing that didn't sit right with me a minute or so before).

But he didn't know... he had no recollection of picking up the screws (the bag was on my side of the gate and more or less behind me so he couldn't have reached one, and he never moved from his spot of standing there the entire time holding the gate) and I had no recollection of handing him any of the screws.

So... *shrugs* just one of those things? :actw:
 
Schrodinger's Zebra said:
A slight curiosity for your consideration.

I was moving the stair-gate from the bottom of the stairs, (as Dog2 is now old enough to climb the stairs on her own) and placing it at the back door instead, so we could have the door open with the dogs out or in as desired.

To set the scene, Mr Zebra was standing in the back porch holding the gate in place, whilst I was standing in the hallway with the bag of screws lying on the floor nearby, taking only one screw out at a time as I attached the fixings. Both dogs were in the garden and nowhere near.

I'd attached one of the fixings and was struggling to hold the second fixing in place as I reached round to get another screw. Mr Zebra said "I've got a screw here" and handed me one, which saved me losing my grip on the fixing. I duly screwed it in, and as I did so something crossed my mind that didn't sit right but I thought no more of it.

It was only after I'd attached the second fixing and turned my attention to the other side of the doorway, at which point Mr Zebra held out his hand allowing me to select another screw from the several he had, when I stopped and looked up at him. "When did you pick up the screws?" (I realised that this was the thing that didn't sit right with me a minute or so before).

But he didn't know... he had no recollection of picking up the screws (the bag was on my side of the gate and more or less behind me so he couldn't have reached one, and he never moved from his spot of standing there the entire time holding the gate) and I had no recollection of handing him any of the screws.

So... *shrugs* just one of those things? :actw:
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Mr Zebra can teleport.
 
A minor incident, but very personal. It's from around 1990. I am a Morris dancer and the Fool of my team. The Fool of our local (friendly) rivals was not a close friend although we got on well. I was born 1962, he was a POW in Japan in the WW2, so we were a long way apart in ages. He was well known and well liked across the Morris world.

One afternoon, he rang my number and left a message for me to ring him back. I rang him the next morning as soon as I got the message, only to find out he had died quietly in his armchair the evening before.

His widow had no idea why he might have rung me. He had never rung me before, and there was no imminent event involving our two Morris teams. However, the fact that I was the first Fool find out he had passed away meant that I was able to get the word out quickly so that dozens of Fools from all over the Morris world attended his funeral.

I can only speculate that he knew he was going to go and wanted the message to get out quickly.
 
Mikefule said:
A minor incident, but very personal. It's from around 1990. I am a Morris dancer and the Fool of my team. The Fool of our local (friendly) rivals was not a close friend although we got on well. I was born 1962, he was a POW in Japan in the WW2, so we were a long way apart in ages. He was well known and well liked across the Morris world.

One afternoon, he rang my number and left a message for me to ring him back. I rang him the next morning as soon as I got the message, only to find out he had died quietly in his armchair the evening before.

His widow had no idea why he might have rung me. He had never rung me before, and there was no imminent event involving our two Morris teams. However, the fact that I was the first Fool find out he had passed away meant that I was able to get the word out quickly so that dozens of Fools from all over the Morris world attended his funeral.

I can only speculate that he knew he was going to go and wanted the message to get out quickly.
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Awesome. He was indeed a wise Fool.
 
Mikefule said:
A minor incident, but very personal. It's from around 1990. I am a Morris dancer and the Fool of my team. The Fool of our local (friendly) rivals was not a close friend although we got on well. I was born 1962, he was a POW in Japan in the WW2, so we were a long way apart in ages. He was well known and well liked across the Morris world.

One afternoon, he rang my number and left a message for me to ring him back. I rang him the next morning as soon as I got the message, only to find out he had died quietly in his armchair the evening before.

His widow had no idea why he might have rung me. He had never rung me before, and there was no imminent event involving our two Morris teams. However, the fact that I was the first Fool find out he had passed away meant that I was able to get the word out quickly so that dozens of Fools from all over the Morris world attended his funeral.

I can only speculate that he knew he was going to go and wanted the message to get out quickly.
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He's a long time dead but here's a song for him.

 
Mikefule said:
A minor incident, but very personal. It's from around 1990. I am a Morris dancer and the Fool of my team. The Fool of our local (friendly) rivals was not a close friend although we got on well. I was born 1962, he was a POW in Japan in the WW2, so we were a long way apart in ages. He was well known and well liked across the Morris world.

One afternoon, he rang my number and left a message for me to ring him back. I rang him the next morning as soon as I got the message, only to find out he had died quietly in his armchair the evening before.

His widow had no idea why he might have rung me. He had never rung me before, and there was no imminent event involving our two Morris teams. However, the fact that I was the first Fool find out he had passed away meant that I was able to get the word out quickly so that dozens of Fools from all over the Morris world attended his funeral.

I can only speculate that he knew he was going to go and wanted the message to get out quickly.
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You could be the board's only morris dancer. Whereabouts do you ply your trade?
 
hunck said:
You could be the board's only morris dancer. Whereabouts do you ply your trade?
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There are 16,000 (estimated) Morris dancers in the UK, as well as teams in NYC, Vancouver, Toronto, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Australia (at least) so it's unlikely I'm the only one.

My team is based in Nottingham, England, and we perform mainly around Notts, Derbys and Leics, with occasional visits to other teams around the UK, and abroad. I've danced in France, Netherlands, Spain and Romania.
 
Mikefule said:
There are 16,000 (estimated) Morris dancers in the UK, as well as teams in NYC, Vancouver, Toronto, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Australia (at least) so it's unlikely I'm the only one.

My team is based in Nottingham, England, and we perform mainly around Notts, Derbys and Leics, with occasional visits to other teams around the UK, and abroad. I've danced in France, Netherlands, Spain and Romania.
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Your side doesn't take its name from a John Arden play, does it? If so, we probably know some of the same people.
 
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"The great secret of the successful fool is that he's no fool at all"- Isaac Asimov
"Become a fool by the worlds standards in order to become wise, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight." (Bible:1 Corinthians 3:18/19 )

jester.jpg
 
From Twitter:

Walthamstow Diary‏@StowDiary

On Hoe Street and a unattended watermelon rolled past, it was swiftly followed by a slightly out of breath man shouting ‘catch the melon, stop the bastard melon’. He vanished down a side road swearing at the melon as he went . This is the finest thing I have seen for some time.

Checking on street view it looks like there is a slight incline. But sufficient for this incident?
https://www.google.nl/maps/@51.5826...4!1s_QkdgA-1k4_caHfzx4zNmQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

There are a few nice replies to the tweet:

A friend of mine once lived at Hampstead and saw Sean Bean chasing apples and oranges down the high street that he'd accidentally dropped.

I was once stood admiring the view in Bramley, and an apple rolled past down the street. No man chasing it. Just a quiet street, me and the mobile apple of Bramley.

I once saw a man drop a giant, creamy birthday cake of obvious expense, then slip and fall into said cake, in the most pleasingly vaudevillian fashion. Your watermelon tale gives me equal joy.

I recall Walthamstow as being generally flat, what gave this watermelon its evasive momentum?

A few decades ago, a half truck carrying watermelons tried to take a turn into a street that was going downhill quite steeply, and the watermelons started rolling down the hill and painting it red. People from the neighbourhood are still laughing about it.
 
Last year, I was walking into my local Co-op supermarket. The car park is sloped towards the store and at the top of the slope, there was a woman, half in and half out of a Nissan Juke, buckling her kids into the back seat and oblivious to the fact her trolley load of shopping had suddenly become mobile and running away at a very quick pace towards a VW van driving too fast into the car park. The van braked but the trolley hit it head-on, resulting in an almighty KER-ASHHHHHHH! There were groceries everywhere. I just couldn't stop myself from laughing.
 
ramonmercado said:
He's a long time dead but here's a song for him.

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Good song. I read somewhere that Paul wrote this song after seeing a stranger on a hill one day when he was out walking. I can't find the exact thing where I read about itat the moment, but here's what wikipedia has to say:

Alistair Taylor, in the book Yesterday, reports a mysterious incident involving a man who inexplicably appeared near him and McCartney during a walk on Primrose Hill and then disappeared again, soon after McCartney and Taylor had conversed about the existence of God; this allegedly prompted the writing of the song.[4]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_on_the_Hill
 
A few decades ago, a half truck carrying watermelons tried to take a turn into a street that was going downhill quite steeply, and the watermelons started rolling down the hill and painting it red. People from the neighbourhood are still laughing about it.[/QUOTE]


Very early on a Sunday morning, no people and no cars, I was sitting on the stoop of a house on a quiet street in the middle of San Francisco. I was about to move into the house. I had one day to strip out the carpeting and was drinking strong tea and preparing myself. A white rabbit hopped by me, left to right, and continued down the street. Amazingly, my memory is that I saw it and returned to my tea.

I later found out that it was common in the neighborhood for rabbits to be kept in back yards for food. I was watching an escape.
 
wolfie61 said:
Just heard my name spoken on the radio, made me pause for a second. It was just after an ident (or whatever they are called) and just before the song started.
I think its part of the song, but it was bloody weird. Just said it like it was trying to address me lol
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This happened to me in the dead of night a while ago. Must've been only half-asleep.

I snapped awake to hear the rest of the sentence, which was actually about me! :eek:

I'd fallen asleep listening to a podcast about ghosts and they were reading out an email from me with a spooky story.

Edit - oh yeah, and we have a thread or two on 'Hearing your voice spoken'.
 
I once saw a man drop a giant, creamy birthday cake of obvious expense, then slip and fall into said cake, in the most pleasingly vaudevillian fashion. Your watermelon tale gives me equal joy.
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I did a yoga class yesterday and am in some pain from it this morning. This story has made me bark with laughter but OUCH !
 
It might even be this thread, certainly one like it, I posted about my dear departed friend's possible last ever text message, sent to my phone, which I couldn't bear to delete (Mysterious text asking me to sneak into the hospice even though it was family only by that stage, and that she'd told the people at reception to let me in, like there was summat she wanted to tell me... None of her other friends to my knowledge got a similar text, and as she slipped into a coma a few hours later - and was so exhausted it was really hard for her to text anyone in the last few weeks - I always wondered what it was about).

I forgot to post this here but a couple of months back I was at a trade show. Thing about my late friend was, she knew she was dying for years and so set about becoming The Most Popular Person On The Planet. She was gregarious, charming, and people flocked to her. This was a show that had she been alive, she'd no doubt have been there with me.

I am not gregarious or popular but because I was her friend, I met a lot of people many of whom seem to have adopted me since she went. Anyway, as usual, one of our mutual friends hoved into sight at this show and sat down to chat. This is a show I've never done before and did no advance publicity for it, so no-one expected me there. She said she was really surprised to see me and it was weird because when she'd turned her phone on that morning, a message from our dear departed was somehow on her screen.

I have an event this week that she came with us to, and I always feel her absence the most at this event. Wonder if she will 'text' anyone else who turns up!
 
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