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Dr. PepperParticipant
This just happened to my sister (but not on a date).
A girl got into an accident with my sister (no injuries B”H, just a couple thousand dollars damage). She had just moved to the city and wasn’t used to “big city” driving. She became good friends with my sister and comes over regularly for Shabbos meals. At one meal she quoted her mother, “Midny*, when I told you to become friends with nice people you run into, I didn’t mean that way!”.
*Not her real name
Dr. PepperParticipantJax-
Dr. Pepper: outstanding stories, so wacky, yet pure entertainment!
that’s great your out of the parsha for a bunch of years! seems like in your case the mrs. saved you! 😉
Yes, I do thank the other Dr. Pepper all the time for taking me out of the parsha. She says that Hashem made me go through all this to make me appreciate her more.
Over Pesach, for the anniversary of our engagement, I wrote her a Da-yainu poem-
Even if you only went out with me to (temporarily) get the Shadchanim off my back- Da-yainu.
Even if all you ever did for me was marry me and get me out of the parsha- Da-yainu.
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Dr. PepperParticipantMayan_Dvash
Thanks- that’s a good one.
That wasn’t even on my mind, at that time I was years away from earning a Ph.D.
(Pepsi was on sale that week.)
Dr. PepperParticipantI agreed to go out with a biology major who lived a few hours away. She offered to drive in since I lived near a fried of hers who she hadn’t seen in a long time.
After picking her up I asked how her drive was and she responded that she had no traffic but she had to make two stops.
I said that when I drive out there I try to skip the stops.
“But don’t you get thirsty?” she asked.
“Well last time I just took three cans of Pepsi with me”, I responded.
She looks me up and down and says, “It’s not possible for someone your size to drink 3 cans of Pepsi in a 5 hour period and not make any stops!”.
I explained that I never said I drank all three, I brought them just in case.
“Oh, well in that case it is possible.”
It didn’t work- she was too smart for me.
(Well actually she ended it, she said I wasn’t smart enough for her. Nice person though. Still can’t figure out if it was a joke or not.)
Dr. PepperParticipantI wouldn’t quite say “force”, I didn’t have a gun at my head, but the easiest way to end the harassment is to just go out with her. And yes it is cruel and unusual torture and should be banned according to the constitution.
Dr. PepperParticipantmoish01-
In a perfect world, yes it would be easier to just say no. But the world isn’t perfect and the shidduch world is as far from perfect as it gets.
Take a less extreme case for example-
Shadchan gives me the name- I look into it and not interested. Shadchan puts pressure on me to go out by having the references call to tell me what I’m missing out on, ask my rebbe to speak with me and lots of other stuff.
I finally gave in under pressure and go out with her. In my opinion the information I got in my research is correct and on top of that her looks are very unappealing. If I say no after the first date I’ll get bombarded with calls that I didn’t give it a fair chance or that I made up my mind from before. I also run the risk of her thinking that I found her looks unappealing.
Instead I go out, act like a kind gentleman, pretend like I have no personality and speak in a monotone. This way she’ll say no and save me from all those problems.
Right?
Dr. PepperParticipantI hesitated to post this at first because I thought that oomis1105 might have gone out with him http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/funny-shidduch-stories/page/2#post-42508 but I seriously doubt it (mainly because he never owned a lizard).
Before I even started dating I used to get a ride with a newly married guy to college. He’s a very funny person but I respected him for his sincerity in not being a faker and asked him some questions about dating. (He said that he would either answer them honestly or tell me that he won’t answer them at all.) At that naive part of my life, my biggest concern was how to say no to a girl without hurting her feelings.
He said what he does in those cases is he makes the girl say no, and told me a few ways he’s done it. For starters when they get to a red light he has a contest with her to see who could find the prime factorization of the numeric part of licence plate of the car in front of them. He was good at this so I assume that he’s done it numerous times before. He would also take off his left shoe and sock and pick at his callouses with his right hand while he drove with his left hand and right foot. (He demonstrated this for me.)
What reminded me about the guy that oomis1105 went out with was the way he would wait in line to wash in yeshiva. He would use his mathematical skills to predict how long of a wait he had until he reached the faucet (he would do this out loud for anyone who cared to listen). On dates he would complain in a really whiny voice about all his pet peeves. “It’s reeeeeaaaaallllly not faaaaaiiiiiir when peeeeoooople take the waaasshhiiinngg cups from the diiiiiinnnning rroooommm to the doooorrrrmmms, the waaaiiiittiinnnggg tiiimmmmee in the liiinnnnneee is increeeaaasseed by as much as 33%. (He is an actuary now, by the way.)
He found it amusing that two girls that he went out with told him stories of what happened to their friends on dates that were stuff that he was actually the guy that did. The first one will get the whole post deleted so I’ll wait until I get promoted to moderator to post it. The second one was when he took a girl that he already lost interest in to some sort of park, zoo, museum or something of the sort. There was a trail or path that crisscrossed itself over and over again but there was one direction that was supposed to be followed throughout. He told her that he did it so many times that he wants to do it backwards to make it more interesting. Being that it crisscrosses many time and they were going backwards, they kept on bumping in to a friend of hers, also on a date, over and over again. At that time he felt it was very important to tell her about his great aunts in-grown toe nail, in more detail than she cared to know about. Each time they passed her friend and her date he could sense her feeling embarrassed and making faces like “it’s our first and last”. (It was.)
He would also institute something called “window privileges”, he explained to the girl that the use of the power windows in his car are not a right, but a privilege that must be earned.
I actually used that line on a date with my wife. On our first date my wife tried to lower the window but it was locked. My wife wanted to know why I kept it locked (it was actually a rental I picked up that morning that I didn’t even check to see if the windows were unlocked or not). I explained that “windows are not a right but a privilege that must be earned, but you already earned your privileges”, I smiled at her and unlocked the windows. She didn’t laugh but after we got engaged (and she got to know me a little better) she said that she thought I was serious and it was really sweet of me.
Awwww, how romantic!
Dr. PepperParticipantJax-
I’ve been out of the parsha for a couple of years now. (Although Dr. Pepper still reminds me that I am forever indebted to her even if all she ever did for me was to remove me from the parsha.)
Dr. PepperParticipantI filled out the questionnaire online for Dr. Pepper, got a confirmation number and e-mail. A few months later she got a letter saying that since she ignored the questionnaire she must either report to court the very next day or risk facing one year in jail plus a $1,000 fine. I called them, told them about the e-mail and they asked me to forward it to them. Never heard from them again.
As far as jury service is concerned, I never got called but Dr. Pepper did a few times. She just called and said that she’d love to serve on the jury but she’ll need a private room to feed the baby. They always gave her off for a few years. They might have made the system stricter recently though.
Dr. PepperParticipantBasYisroel2-
I know this is off the topic but I once told someone about the dangers of not securing her infant properly in a car seat.
She said, “Oh come on, it can’t be dangerous, I always hold him when my husband drives and nothing ever happened”.
Dr. PepperParticipantHe also told me another story (similar to Ms. Ex-vegetarians-ex http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/funny-shidduch-stories/page/11#post-57443 ) but I’ll have to post it later when I have more time.
Here’s the story:
Guy is form Florida, girl is from Montreal. The girl has a wedding in New York so they decide to go out from there. The Shadchan asks them both to commit to two dates because of the expense of the flights.
Guy flies to New York, rents a car and goes to Flatbush to pick up the girl for the date. Here’s how the conversation starts:
Guy- Nice to meet you how was your trip?
Girl- Good, thanks, and by the way I need to be dropped of in Monsey after the date.
Guy- Uh, that’s going to be a problem since I don’t know how to get there and I have to return the car in four or five hours.
Girl- Well it’s the guys responsibility to drop off the girl where ever she wants to be dropped off.
Guy- I’m going to disagree with you on that. I think that the guys responsibility is to drop the girl off where he picked her up unless there is a prior arrangement made that was agreed upon.
Girl- Well, I really need to get to Monsey after the date and if you don’t take me I’ll have no way of getting there.
Guy- If you get directions and someone to pick you up halfway I’ll be glad to take you there.
So he spends the next hour or so in the car while she calls friends and relatives until she finds someone who is willing to pick her up from the gas station at the beginning of the Palisades, right off the George Washington Bridge. He drives her there, waits with her until her ride shows up and wishes her a good night.
He then calls the Shadchan and tells her what happened. The Shadchan sided with the girl explaining that she had another date in Monsey right after him and that’s why she needed to be there so urgently. The guy asks the Shadchan to tell the girl that it’s over but she reminds him that he committed to two dates and he must take her out again.
The whole next day he’s waiting to hear from the Shadchan when to take her out but the Shadchan hasn’t heard from the girl. After doing a little research he finds out that the wedding the girl was going to that night is at Terrace on the Park. Being that it’s on the way back to the airport he thought he’ll stop off there, find her, find out what the story is and change his flight if necessary. Otherwise he’ll just take a taxi to the airport.
He comes to the wedding during the chupa looks around to find the girl and decides to approach her after the chupa.
The chupa is over, the girl and her friends done walking the kallah to the yichud room, and he goes over to her and calls her name. She turns around, recognizes him, let’s out a scream and tries to run away. The only problem is that in Terrace on the Park there’s nowhere to run, you can’t run down the steps you have to wait until an elevator operator takes you down in an elevator.
He meets up with her again by the elevator and asks to speak with her. She justifies her actions by saying that if she flew in from Montreal it’s understood that she is going to be dating more than one person. He disagrees with her again and says that if he flies from Florida, rents a car, and pays for the expenses on the date (while he is not simultaneously dating someone else) then he should not have to compete with another guy.
He’s not in the mood of discussing this any further so he asks if he could please take a taxi to catch his flight. She readily agrees.
The next day the Shadchan calls him and says that the reason why the girl didn’t want to keep her commitment for a second date was because he left her off by a gas station after the first date.
Dr. PepperParticipantHeard this from a guy who was camping out in my room in yeshiva (using the yeshiva as a free hotel and restaurant for a couple of days at a time while he had dates in the neighborhood). I believed it at first but now I have my doubts.
He’s on a date with a girl and offers her a drink a few times but she declines each time. Finally she says, “Can I have a drink now?”. He says, “Sure, can I get you a Sprite?”, but she wants a Coke so he gets her a Coke.
Before she starts drinking she says a whole hinneni mechaven… that she’s not drinking the Coke for tayvos olam haze, but rather to give her koach to serve the Ribono Shel Olam even better. She then makes a Bracha and takes a drink.
She then explains that it is assur to drink Sprite since it is tayvos olam haze, but Coke on the other had has caffeine to give her strength to serve Hashem, so it’s muttar.
He’s sitting there totally bewildered not knowing what to do. Finally he says, “Are you having a good time here?” to which she answers, “Yes, why?”. “I’m going to leave now so if you’re having a good time you can stay but if you want a ride home you’re welcome to come with me.”
The reason why I later doubted the facts of the story is that my sister told me the exact same story was a Purim play in her seminary (with the exception being that the girl in the play brought along a kizais book).
He also told me another story (similar to Ms. Ex-vegetarians-ex http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/funny-shidduch-stories/page/11#post-57443 ) but I’ll have to post it later when I have more time.
Dr. PepperParticipantOnce a guy has his mind set on a girl he’ll do what ever it takes to get engaged to her. A person I know went as far as saying that he was going to give up his career and learn in Kollel for the rest of his life for a particular girl he was interested in. While he might say that he’ll quit, once they get married, the initial bliss is over and they are back to ordinary life, he’ll take up smoking again.
Here’s what’s so bad about smoking-
In the following mortality table “Age” is the left column, the next column is the probability of a non-smoker dying during a particular month at that age followed by the probability of a smoker dying during a particular month at that age. The last column is the percentage increase in mortality that a smoker has verses a non-smoker. (There are many mortality tables out there, I picked this one at random from a website that helps users determine the premium they should be paying for life insurance.)
For example a standard 33 year old non-smoker has a .00154 probability (about one in 650) of dying during that month while for a smoker it’s .00229 (about one in 437), an increase of 49%.
Age Non-smoker Smoker Ratio
18 0.00149 0.00199 34%
19 0.00153 0.00206 35%
20 0.00155 0.00209 35%
21 0.00154 0.00210 36%
22 0.00151 0.00208 38%
23 0.00149 0.00205 38%
24 0.00146 0.00200 37%
25 0.00143 0.00195 36%
26 0.00141 0.00193 37%
27 0.00139 0.00192 38%
28 0.00139 0.00193 39%
29 0.00140 0.00196 40%
30 0.00141 0.00202 43%
31 0.00144 0.00209 45%
32 0.00148 0.00218 47%
33 0.00154 0.00229 49%
34 0.00161 0.00242 50%
35 0.00168 0.00258 54%
36 0.00178 0.00278 56%
37 0.00189 0.00301 59%
38 0.00203 0.00328 62%
39 0.00217 0.00359 65%
40 0.00234 0.00394 68%
41 0.00251 0.00433 73%
42 0.00270 0.00475 76%
43 0.00291 0.00519 78%
44 0.00313 0.00568 81%
45 0.00338 0.00619 83%
46 0.00364 0.00673 85%
47 0.00393 0.00730 86%
48 0.00425 0.00792 86%
49 0.00458 0.00860 88%
50 0.00497 0.00934 88%
51 0.00541 0.01018 88%
52 0.00592 0.01113 88%
53 0.00650 0.01220 88%
54 0.00714 0.01336 87%
55 0.00784 0.01460 86%
56 0.00860 0.01589 85%
57 0.00942 0.01723 83%
58 0.01029 0.01864 81%
59 0.01127 0.02014 79%
60 0.01238 0.02182 76%When a smoker is in his late 40s to early 50s his chance of dying from smoking is almost equal to the probability of dying from everything else combined!
Dr. PepperParticipantames- the only hardware missing was the bar code scanner which I can’t imagine was too expensive.
I used a laptop and the yeshiva already had the Scantron sheets and scanner (which could have been hooked up to my computer if I wanted). I would think that they need this more in public schools that prep schools.
Dr. PepperParticipantames- I actually heard this from a colleague of mine while I was a teacher and I think he was very serious. Some of the authors list the names of the students who helped review the textbooks.
As far as the software is concerned- I agree that it’s very interesting.
Pretty often when I was creating an exam I started with an answer and went backwards to a question. (For example: X = -3 and 5. Now the question would be “Solve for X: X^2 – 2X = 15.)
The software would ask for ranges for the answers, say from -10 to 10, and design the question accordingly. An advanced option would create a different exam for each student (same questions but different numbers and the correct solutions were randomly placed from A to E for each student). Each test would have a bar code that had to be scanned before the answer sheet was submitted to the Scantron. Of course I couldn’t justify asking the Yeshiva to buy the necessary hardware to combat cheating when it was nonexistent.
I can’t begin to imagine how textbooks were written before PCs. Forget about coming up with problems, just think about the formatting and mathematical notations!
Dr. PepperParticipantames-
Did you ever wonder why all college level math text books are written by professors?
Supposedly they make up questions and give them to their students for homework. The ones with solutions are included in the next edition and the ones without solutions are thrown out or edited by the student for extra credit.
When I was teaching high school the software I used to type up exams had an option to check most of the questions to see if there was a solution. (It could only check the computational ones not the word problems and I never used that feature so I don’t know how well it worked.)
Dr. PepperParticipantStart with the prime factorization of 1,000,000
= 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5.
So the two integers must consist of six 2s and six 5s between the two of them.
Any integer that contains a 2 and 5 in it’s prime factorization will end in 0. (2 * 5 = 10 and any integer multiplied by 10 ends in 0.)
=> one integer contains all six 2s and the other one contains all six 5s.
I read this riddle when I didn’t have a calculator nearby (it must have been on shabbos) and the way I calculated (2^6) and (5^6) is by breaking it into squares.
(2^6) = (2^3)^2, we all know that 2^3 = 8 and 8^2 = 64.
(5^6) = (5^3)^2 was a little trickier. 5 * 5 = 25 and 25 * 5 = 125 (5 quarters is 125 cents right?) now 125^2 is what?
Using the trick from the second half of this post http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-riddle-thread/page/8#post-16043
125 * 125 = 100 * ( 12 * 13) + 25 = 15,625.
The two integers are 64 and 15,625 and that is the only solution.
Dr. PepperParticipantaussieboy- Is that the answer you had in mind?
There is only one integer solution to my riddle.
Dr. PepperParticipantmoish01-
There is a solution using two integers.
Using the second part of this post http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-riddle-thread/page/8#post-16043 you should be able to do it in your head.
Good luck.
Dr. PepperParticipantames-
Most of us do but in our own way.
Dr. PepperParticipantTwo numbers multiply to 1,000,000. Neither number contains the digit 0.
What are the two numbers?
Dr. PepperParticipantA + C = 2C – B
Dr. PepperParticipantHow did two guys, both chavrusas, get rejected for the same reason over the same weekend by two different girls?
He had the knowledge to take care of the software programming involved and the basic design, but he needed someone with a math background to help calculate how the parallel resistors should be arranged properly as well as the fine motor skills and experience of using a soldering iron on small connections without leaking any solder. I had experience in the use of soldering irons from high school, as well as the math background and was also the proud owner of a TI-89, so when he asked me if I also wanted to be one of the coolest on campus I jumped at the opportunity.
Dr. PepperParticipantHere’s a story that happened with me.
Shadchan calls and tries to set me up with someone whose parents insist their son-in-law must live in their neighborhood. I immediately say no.
Shadchan calls back and says her parents are willing to negotiate after the wedding. Still not interested but call a friend of mine whose wife is the girls friend to see what is going on. What the shadchan didn’t tell us (she probably didn’t know) is that the girl is an only daughter of elderly parents, who need her to take care of them.
They also felt that the lucky guy will be getting so much (their daughter as a wife and them as in-laws) that he should be willing to forgo something as trivial as living where he wants to.
While the shadchan might have felt it was a silly request, the parents had a legitimate reason for the condition and as far as they were concerned it was not something that could be negotiated.
(No, I did not go out with her.)
Here’s a streimel story with a happy ending.
Guys family insists he wear a streimel, girls family won’t hear of it. The two are already going out and like each other. So they compromise. When they are by his parents he wears a streimel. When they leave the streimel goes into the “spare tire well” as he calls it.
Both families were fine with that and they are now married. (He wore a streimel for the wedding.)
Dr. PepperParticipantHeard this from a guy who was my roommate in yeshiva at the time. He told me this story right after the date but I think it’s greatly exaggerated.
He couldn’t borrow a car for the date (this I know is true, I was there when he made the calls) so he had to use a car service. Right from the beginning he got annoyed that she was asking what he felt were dumb questions. Eventually he gave up on the date and decided to give dumber answers.
So, um do you know how to drive?
Well, I had to stop recently until I can get my sleep apnea under control.
Yeah, so how was Purim? (The date was between Purim and Pesach.)
Good
Did you, like, get drunk?
No, alcohol is horrible for my stomach ulcers.
Aha, uh did you, ah ya know, smoke?
Nah, the doctor told me to hold off until my collapsed lung is fully healed.
How about dancing with your friends, did you do any of that?
Oh no, none of that, not until I lose some weight and my knees stop buckling.
So how is Pesach cleaning coming along?
Oy, I started but I got an asthma attack from all the dust so I had to stop. I’ll leave it for my roommate (yeah right)…
(No, they did not go out the next day, (he had to get his dentures fitted,) or the next (he had 47 ingrown toenails,) and no, they did not married.)
Dr. PepperParticipantJax- That’s hilarious.
Something similar happened to me. I was going out with someone from Washington Heights and I told her that my friend, who was also dating someone from the Heights, gave me ideas where to go.
Then she asked me “Is she single”?
I was totally bewildered and said “I just assumed so and didn’t even think to ask”. She then explained that in Washington Heights the frum community is split between singles and the Kehila and she was just asking which community she was from.
Dr. PepperParticipantaussieboy-
raised to the power of
3^7 = 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 = 2,187
Dr. PepperParticipantSolution to Rubik’s Cube Riddle.
There are 8 corner pieces each one can be in any corner => 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 possibilities.
The first 7 corner pieces can be oriented in three different directions but the last one is fixed => 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 1 possibilities.
There are 12 side pieces the first 10 can be anywhere but the last two are fixed => 12 * 11 * 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 1 * 1.
The first 11 sides can be oriented in any direction but the last one is fixed => 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 1.
The centers are all connected and direction does not matter since the faces are a solid color (recall that we are talking about a classic Rubik’s Cube with no logo on any face) => one possible way.
(8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1) *
(3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 1) *
(12 * 11 * 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 1 * 1) *
(2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 1) *
1
=
8! * (3^7) * (12!/2) * (2^11) * 1
=
43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible configurations, of which one is correct and
43,252,003,274,489,855,999 are incorrect.
As you can see the number is greater than 10,000,000 and the last three digits are the same.
(The number is 43 quintillion, 252 quadrillion, 3 billion, 274 million, 855 thousand, 999)
Dr. PepperParticipantJust happened to my sister. I’m embarrassed to say which person she was so let’s just call them A and B.
So A and B are on a date. A is telling B about the recent wedding of a friend. B wants to know if A had a good time at the wedding. A admits to not dancing because “I was born with two left feet”. B is fascinated and says, “Wow, you must have a hard time buying shoes!”.
Dr. PepperParticipantI can only try
You’re off to a good start but let me make some corrections.
The center piece is one piece and remains fixed. On a “classic Rubik’s Cube” the orientation of the center faces won’t make a difference. (Had there been any writing or a logo then the orientation would have to be taken into account since the writing (or drawing) must be face up.) Therefore the center piece can be ignored for this problem.
The other mistake is that you are not taking into account the possibility of losing a degree of freedom. If one were to disassemble a Rubik’s Cube and put the pieces together at random- chances are that the resulting cube will have no solution. When assembling the cube most pieces may be placed in randomly but there will be a few that are forced into a specific location or position- hence the loss of a degree of freedom. As a hint: there will be one piece forced into a certain location and two pieces forced in a specific orientation.
Dr. PepperParticipantames-
Consider this a take home test- you may use any resources you desire but your answer must contain a full explanation or you will receive no credit.
kapusta-
Not it my personal life, but if I wasn’t like this in my professional life my colleagues would have a severe advantage over me.
aussieboy-
Nice try but you’re trying to solve it from the wrong dimension.
Here are two hints:
1. The correct answer is over 10,000,000 and
2. The last three digits of the correct answer are the same.
Good Luck Everyone
Dr. PepperParticipantThere is one correct solution for a Rubik’s Cube.
How many other possible ways are there to arrange a Rubik’s Cube. (Without taking it apart or removing stickers… Also I’m referring to a classic Rubik’s Cube- a different color on each face with no logo on any of the tiles.)
Dr. PepperParticipant*kapusta*
When I was studying civil engineering one of the textbooks would throw in some interesting facts. I don’t recall the vast majority of those facts except for a few that pertain to bridges (and tunnels) in and around New York.
(By the way- I did not graduate as an engineer.)
Dr. PepperParticipantaussieboy
I think you may find this interesting. (From your screen name I assume you are Australian.) When construction on the Sydney Harbor Bridge began it was supposed to be the longest arch bridge in the world. The Bayonne Bridge, on which construction was started later on and finished earlier is longer by about 2 feet. The same gold scissors was used for the ribbon cutting ceremonies on both bridges. After the ribbon cutting in Australia the scissors were taken apart, half was kept in Australia and the other half was sent to the U.S.
Dr. PepperParticipantThe longest in the U.S. is the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at 4260 feet (measured by length of main span or distance between towers). The Golden Gate Bridge has a main span of 4200 feet. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge lost the title of longest suspension bridge in the world in 1981 but remains the longest suspension bridge in the U.S.
I posted a riddle some time ago as to why the towers are further apart at the top than at the base. Anyone remember that?
Dr. PepperParticipantsqueak-
Tilt the barrel until it is almost about to spill. Now look into the barrel, if you can see the bottom it is less than half full.
Dr. PepperParticipantCorrection- There is no elevator access to the top floor of the Empire State Building. The highest floor served by an elevator is the 101st floor (which is incorrectly advertised as the 102nd). The plan was for passengers arriving on dirigibles to take a gangplank from the airship to the actual 102nd floor, walk down to the 101st floor and then take an elevator to customs on the 86th floor. Being that there is no elevator service to the actual 102nd floor the management just labeled the 101st floor as the 102nd.
Dr. PepperParticipantkapusta-
Another political fact-
Former President Gerald Ford was never voted into office. He became vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 and he became president when former President Nixon resigned.
Two more empire state building facts-
On July 28, 1945 a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building. One of the workers in the building at the time was a newly engaged young woman who thought she was going to perish. This young woman took off her engagement ring and tossed it out the window hoping that at least some one else will find it and use it. She survived, got married and slightly less than 4 years later had a son George. When George (Willig)was 27 he scaled the south tower of the WTC using some home made clamps.
Originally the top of the Empire State Building was supposed to be a mooring mast for blimps. The plan was for passengers to exit the airship, walk along a gangplank (1,250 feet above New York) to a landing platform on the 102nd floor. For many reasons this did not work.
Management hoped to open the 102nd floor for tourism but decided it was too unsafe and chose to open the 101st floor instead. What is now called the 102nd floor is really the 101st (they probably assumed that no one would figure it out anyway and it sounds better for one to say that they went to the top floor of the Empire State Building rather than the second to top floor).
The floor that is open to the public, albeit for an extra fee, is fully enclosed whereas the one above (reached by staircase or elevator) has an indoor and outdoor observation deck (where the passengers were supposed to disembark). The indoor observation deck has a much smaller perimeter (too small for tourism) than the floor below, and they didn’t want anyone on the outside deck so it was never opened to the public.
Dr. PepperParticipantThe first Jewish mayor of New York City was Fiorello Laguardia. (His parents were Italian but his mother was Jewish.)
Dr. PepperParticipantThis one I heard from the guy himself. He was actually shocked that she took him seriously (that he wanted to introduce her to his friends) and that she said “no” because he wasn’t “frum enough”.
Dr. PepperParticipantThis happened to a friend of mine while on a date in Baltimore. I didn’t quite understand how he did this until I followed it on a map.
This guy has a date in Baltimore so he drives down and stops by some friends in the yeshiva there to change and get ideas of places to go. One guy gives him an idea of a park at the end of I-70 and gives him directions there.
“When you get to the highway (I-695) get off on the right. Look for I-70 and stay to the left. When you reach the end of I-70 there is a park there”. Sounds pretty easy right?
The problem is that the girl was boarding by a family on the other side of the highway so when he came to the highway he was coming from the other direction. He took the entrance ramp on the right side anyway. I-695 circles the whole city so he did end up reaching I-70 but about 50 miles later instead of 5. When they reached I-70 he remembered to get off on the left side as the instructions said- the problem again being that he was coming from the wrong direction. So they are going and going down I-70 and he keeps thinking that the guy said that it should only be two minutes on I-70. She finally realizes that they are heading towards Denver and suggests that he turn around. So he turns around and they find the park.
On the way home he managed to get onto I-695 in the right direction (getting on I-70 was a no brainer since it only goes in one direction from the park) but he got off the highway heading towards the yeshiva instead of her place of residence. She pointed out that he was heading in the wrong direction. He said, “I know, I know- my friends said that if it goes good I should bring you to the yeshiva and introduce you to them”.
They did not marry each other.
Dr. PepperParticipantJax-
That’s hilarious. I never forced any girl to finish their vegetables. I just refused to let them order dessert until they ate them. It always worked.
Dr. PepperParticipantThe copper sheeting of the Statue of Liberty is less than one tenth of an inch thick!
Dr. PepperParticipantkapusta-
Originally I only posted stories that happened to me. When I ran out of stories that I was willing to repeat (and that the mods would be willing to approve) I posted stories that happened to friends. If I have doubts about the veracity of any story I tried to mention that.
After the vegetarian story I thought I should post a story that all parties involved could laugh at if they read it here, so I posted the mascot story.
Here’s one similar to the vegetarian story but with a happy ending.
The girl asks the guy if he smokes. The guy’s a heavy smoker but she’s more important to him than cigarettes. He says, “I used to smoke but I quit cold turkey and haven’t smoked since”. He didn’t mention that he quit “cold turkey” 90 minutes before but he did give up smoking for good. They ended up marrying each other.
Dr. PepperParticipantI heard this one from a friend who said it happened to his roommate. I have no reason to doubt it.
The guy and a girl decide to go to a ball game for one date. They look for a nice quiet section of the stadium so they could talk and watch the game and end up sitting on a bleacher about one foot away from each other.
During the game the home team mascot sits down between them and puts one of his arms around each one of them. To their horror they looked up and saw their picture with the mascot wrapped around them being shown on the giant screen.
(They did marry each other.)
Dr. PepperParticipantMrs. Beautiful-
I wouldn’t quite say, “he was going for it anyways”. This was a major hesitation that he had. As he put it, “I felt as if I was babysitting my 8 year old sister”. However the shadchan and references reassured him that she is very mature albeit on the shorter side- therefore possibly giving off the impression that she is younger than she really is.
On one of the dates they walked by a bank that was giving out Teddy Bears as a promotion for anyone who signs up for their credit card. She asked him if he could please sign up for one and get her a Teddy Bear- he could always cancel it later on. (She didn’t bring ID, lucky for him they were out of Teddy Bears and were giving out T-shirts instead but she didn’t want one.) The guy said he was thinking, “this is acceptable for my 8 year old sister, not a girl who is ready to get married!”.
Dr. PepperParticipantThe guy didn’t either remember at first, being a vegetarian was a small detail she mentioned on the phone once.
He only realized when he was trying to figure out what would have made her act like that in front of him and his family (especially if she honestly thought she was going to marry him). In general there is nothing wrong with being seen by your date and his family while eating with friends.
If anyone out there knows her would you mind letting us know her side of the story?
Dr. PepperParticipantA little background first-
The guy is the oldest child of an out of town family but was learning in a local yeshiva and dating a local girl. He likes the girl and her family but felt that she was not mature enough to get married (she was 19 or 20 at the time but, according to him, acted a couple of years younger).
Before the next date he told the shadchan that he was going home for bain hazimanim but would try to plan something for the interim if applicable. For the date he asked her if she would like to go to a park and have a picnic. She liked the idea but mentioned that she is a vegetarian so he should please bring bagels and cream cheese.
When he arrived home his family was all excited, they knew it “was going to happen” and decided to go to New York to buy new clothing for everyone for the upcoming wedding. He chose not to tell her that he was coming in to town since he didn’t know if he’d be able to fit her into his schedule and he wasn’t about to take her out in the family van.
After a tiring day of driving around Brooklyn and shopping he decided to take his family to Kosher Delight for supper.
Guess who’s eating a hot dog there with her friends?
The guy leads his family in and they start oooing and aaahing as they never saw any Kosher restaurant that size before (did I mention that they are from out of town?). The girl notices the guy, starts to shriek and runs towards the exit. The guy was mortified but pretends he doesn’t know her and walks right by her towards the counter. He turns around to look for his family only to see that they are still standing in front of the door looking all around- still amazed at the size of the place. The poor girl was in tears by that time and could not get by his bewildered family to make her escape.
She later called the shadchan and asked her to ask the guy if she can call and apologize. She did apologize for making a scene but she did not explain the vegetarian thing.
(They are both married now but to other people.)
Dr. PepperParticipantIs this it?
Does anyone remember if there is a thread for “Shidduch Horror Stories” or should I just post it here?
Dr. PepperParticipantI have the original TI-89 that came out in late 1998- early 1999.
The original TI-92 which came out in the mid 90s was the first calculator that was capable of performing symbolic calculations (algebraic manipulations, symbolic differentiation/ integration, homogeneous first and second order differential equations…) as opposed to numeric approximations (like the TI-80 through TI-86). The TI-92 was not allowed to be used on many standardized exams (like the SATs) and many professors did not allow their usage in class since the QWERTY keyboard gave it more of a computer status than that of a calculator.
When the TI-89 came out TI released the TI-92 PLUS which looked like the TI-92 but had the same software as the TI-89.
TI skipped from TI-86 to TI-89 because at that time they claimed that the TI-89 would be the last calculator released in the TI-8X series since it has the capability of upgrading the software and downloading programs.
I lost touch with graphing calculators a few years ago (although I still have mine and use them from time to time). I think the version that I have has been discontinued for the TI-89 Titanium and TI added the TI-84 to the TI-8X family although I’m not sure what they do better/different than the rest of the family.
Oy, there’s so much more to write about graphing calculators.
Maybe later.
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