I read they're thinking of fining drivers who drove past barricades. Making them pay for the rescue effort.

It seems like every year they talk about doing this to people who get stranded on ice out in the lake.

Somebody mistakenly sent out an email which went out Firmwide. Thousands of people.

Could be worse. My last job was still winceing from the global email flamewar that somebody started -- she sent out a personal, inflammatory reaction to Sept. 11 to the whole multinational, eleventy-hundred-subsidiary, yes-we-have-an-office-in-Singapore company. And every single reply was Reply All. And people argued back and forth for more than a week before someone in the tech office called up each one personally to tell them to shut the hell up. Before it all ended, it crashed the server. Rumor has it she got fired, but I've never been able to verify that.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

Somebody mistakenly sent out an email which went out Firmwide. Thousands of people.

And NOW dozebns of people are replying ALSO FIRMWIDE that they got the email in error. How fucking stupid do you have to be to add your "me too" to the mistake?

Morons at my former BigInternationalCompany managed to shut down our entire email system for two days doing that.

In some European country, they started charging to rescue mountain climbers who climbed the mountain despite weather warnings. IIRC the average charge is $50,000.

I think it's just like, "Oh, shit, we don't have a stupidity and arrogance charge. What fits?"

I'm not saying I'd like to see her in jail. She'll certainly suffer enough for her arrogance/stupidity without jail. But I think society needs the nerf babs--if only to serve as a warning to others to THINK before they do something incredibly stupid. It probably has the same deterrent effect the death penalty has on murderers but it helps ease society's outrage.

-t, thank you for making me feel not alone.

Pencil usually survives those accidents pretty well

It's practically unreadable. Oh, well. I wanted to go over my answers again anyway. t /silver-lining-are-us

sara, yup, taking things in perspective.

Sorry for being such a whiner. It's night already, nobody's here (which is good, considering I actually shouted at myself out loud when I watered my exercise (no, silly, the answers won't grow longer when watered. And now I know that for a fact)), and I just wanted to share.

Some dude here went hiking out in the storm the other day. And of course, got trapped when the water rose.

I think he should get a bill from the state for his own damn rescue.

Or not be rescued, so Darwin can remove him from the gene pool most righteously.

In some European country, they started charging to rescue mountain climbers who climbed the mountain despite weather warnings. IIRC the average charge is $50,000.

I think people should be required to sign DNRs (Do Not Rescue waivers) before taking stupid risks like that. As a taxpayer, I don't want to have to foot that bill. Does that sound harsh?

Does that sound harsh?

Nah. I get angry at people who build billion dollar houses on the edges of cliffs in California, too. They should have insurance that pays out for rescue, and whatever homes they destroy when the house they built for the view tumbles down the cliff.

I mean, there's an erosion factor, of course. Homes that were stable 80 years ago are not so much, today. But I wouldn't go and buy one.

Huh. They neglected to tell me that my shoes had shipped until after they were delivered. Maybe I can get home and get them from my doorman before it starts snowing too hard.

Tom, you are living the dream. If the dream is irony.

It wasn't until we heard him speaking into the phone that we realized the three year old had learned to use the damn thing--granted, he just hit the send button and it dialed the last dialed number (which, how fortunate for him was his grandmother).

A couple of years ago, my Mom, bro, and I were driving around tryingt o find the homebrewing supply store (an Xmas gift to my stepdad was going to be his own homebrewing setup). Because we are us, we couldn't find the place, even with directions. So Mom handed my brother her cell phone, which was very old and held together with rubber bands because she was too lazy to be arsed to replace it -- you know the kind.

He called the homebrewing supply store. Or, at least, he called *someone.* Because his end of the conversation sounded like this:

Bro: "Hello?"
Person: "...."
Bro: "Umm, is this -- Aunt Poohie?"
Person: "...." [I assume she was verifying her identity here.]
Bro [pause, then, confused]: "Aunt Poohie, do you work at Listerman's Brew Supplies?"

Eventually we worked out that Mom's phone just called the last dialed number.

And no, my aunt doesn't work at the homebrew supply store.