Can someone actually be this stupid?



  • This morning I bought my breakfast and was walking to work, when I stopped at a street fruit vendor (common in Manhattan) to buy a piece of fruit. I already had a bag, so I just put the fruit in the bag. I had exact change in my hand.

    The fruit cart guy had an assistant helping him. He tells his assistant to take the money. The assistant then tries to pull a fresh bag off the bag-stack, and struggles with it. He finally gets it off and struggles to open the bag - all the while with me repeating: I don't need a bag. The guy tells his assistant - in English - to just take the money. The assistant sees the exact change in my open hand, but starts to fumble in his money-bucket for change. I repeat that I have exact change. The assistant just looks at me - utterly confused. Finally, the main guy just takes the money and thanks me.

    This guy couldn't handle the pressures of put-fruit-in-bag-or-not-if-customer-has-a-bag and accept-exact-change-if-offered.

    How did this guy manage to get through Manhattan to arrive at the fruit cart?



  • @snoofle said:

    How did this guy manage to get through Manhattan to arrive at the fruit cart?

     

    He walked?

     



  • He could be really hungover. 

    ...or have a little baby keeping him up at night. 

    ...or stayed up all night in the club doing e-bombers.

    Either way, I'd just feel sorry for him.



  •  Dude has issues.



  • Just a thought, perhaps the assistant doesn't speak English and the main guy doesn't speak much of whatever language the assistant does? Or the assistant is largely deaf and had his 'interview' in a suitably quiet environment.



  • @pinkduck said:

    Just a thought, perhaps the assistant doesn't speak English and the main guy doesn't speak much of whatever language the assistant does? Or the assistant is largely deaf and had his 'interview' in a suitably quiet environment.

    He probably still has EYES to see he doesn't need a bag and EYES again to see the exact change.


    Edit: or do you think everyone that doesn't speak English is either blind or doesn't really know how stuff like bags and money works?



  •  The really important issue here is of course: What kind of fruit was it?



  • @derula said:

    or do you think everyone that doesn't speak English is either blind or doesn't really know how stuff like bags and money works?

     

    Blind? No.

    Deaf? Absolutely.



  • The guys is working as an assistant at a fruit stand...  I don't think you're going to find any "beautiful minds" there.

    Also about being deaf/blind, probably not.  Most likely an aspie who had just one stimulus too many and froze up (I'm assuming it was quite busy there).

    Or he liked you...  *wink wink, nudge nudge*  Go getim tiger!



  • @derula said:

    He probably still has EYES to see he doesn't need a bag and EYES again to see the exact change.
     

    Yes, because you can always tell somebody's intent by visual inspection of their possessions, and discerning the value of a pile of coins in someone's hand from a distance of at least ${width_of_fruit_counter} is trivial.

    Snoofle, I love your work stories, but a brief spaz moment by some guy working a fruit stand is hardly a WTF.  Now if it went on for 30 minutes...



  • @C-Octothorpe said:

    The guys is working as an assistant at a fruit stand...  I don't think you're going to find any "beautiful minds" there.

    You never know. He could be like the garbage man on Dilbert...



  • Did I just break the tag system? It started doing right-to-left text, half way through writing out a tag...



  • @Joel B said:

    Did I just break the tag system? It started doing right-to-left text, half way through writing out a tag...

    Nah, that's normal. Not a bug, definitely a feature.



  • Nothing like (relatively) wealthy people bitching about poor service from minimum wage workers.

    Besides, only pussies eat fruit. Man-up: buy some bacon.



  • @derula said:

    @Joel B said:
    Did I just break the tag system? It started doing right-to-left text, half way through writing out a tag...

    Nah, that's normal. Not a bug, definitely a feature.

    It was probably just my WTF tag with built-in backtrack prevention. Consider this your initiation. ;)



  • @derula said:

    @Joel B said:
    Did I just break the tag system? It started doing right-to-left text, half way through writing out a tag...

    Nah, that's normal. Not a bug, definitely a feature.

    Just don't type a 'W' and you'll be fine.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Besides, only pussies eat fruit. Man-up: buy some bacon.
    QFTABD

     


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    Nothing like (relatively) wealthy people bitching about poor service from minimum wage workers.

    Nothing? Really? By your logic, bitching about software developers where you've paid nothing for the software would be even worse. What's the right payment to bitching ratio?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    only pussies eat fruit.
    But fruits never eat pussies...  Weird but true.



  • @boomzilla said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Nothing like (relatively) wealthy people bitching about poor service from minimum wage workers.

    Nothing? Really? By your logic, bitching about software developers where you've paid nothing for the software would be even worse. What's the right payment to bitching ratio?

    If you're trying to paint me as a hypocrite, you should know that:

    1) Of course I'm a hypocrite

    2) I've never claimed otherwise



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Nothing like (relatively) wealthy people bitching about poor service from minimum wage workers.

     

    Whoa there.  The assistant works in Manhattan.  He probably makes more than you.

    @blakeyrat said:

    Besides, only pussies eat fruit. Man-up: buy some bacon.

    Real men eat pussies.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    If you're trying to paint me as a hypocrite, you should know that:

    1) Of course I'm a hypocrite

    2) I've never claimed otherwise

    No, I don't really care about hypocrisy. That's waaay overused. And often incorrectly. That was really a long winded way of saying, "You're full of shit." Also wrong.



  • @boomzilla said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    If ... otherwise
     ...  "You're full of shit." ...

    Eating enough fruit will fix that.



  • I've tested software with the same kind of problem.



  • @SteamBoat said:

    I've tested software with the same kind of problem.

     

    Exactly.  What we have here is a faulty case of inheritance, where the assistant's "pack up the purchase" method doesn't have an extension for "...in the bag the customer brought with him", and "accept payment" has a mandatory "give him back his change" function tacked on.

     



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Besides, only pussies eat fruit.

    Enjoy your scurvy!



  • Garbage Person

     I don't think they have a bacon truck in Manhattan. And fruit is acceptable if it's a tomato or avocado or it is a strictly non-banana tropical variety and you're either trying to impress a woman by being all exotic and shit, or somewhere in that fruit's native range. Acceptable vegetables are capsaicin-containing peppers, onions (sparingly, for flavor) and potatos.

     

    Oh, and if you're one of those sociopaths who think nuts and beans (I mean REAL beans, not the useless ones you eat in the pod) are either a fruit or a vegetable, those are acceptable as well.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @boomzilla said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    Nothing like (relatively) wealthy people bitching about poor service from minimum wage workers.

    Nothing? Really? By your logic, bitching about software developers where you've paid nothing for the software would be even worse. What's the right payment to bitching ratio?

    If you're trying to paint me as a hypocrite, you should know that:

    1) Of course I'm a hypocrite

    2) I've never claimed otherwise

    I love this forum for many reasons, but one of the top ones has got to be because everyone here is to some degree a misanthrope.



  •  When I was growing up, probably the dumbest people I knew had IQ's of 100. But then I realized that 100 is the AVERAGE. There are lots of people out here who are dumber than anyone I ever met.

    The guy's gotta do something, right? You think that a guy with an IQ of 120 is going to bag fruit? Well, the guy with an IQ of 80 is bagging the fruit. He's human, too.

    (The average IQ in the USA is 100. In Thailand it's 90, and my son's mother is definitely below that.)



  • @derula said:

    @pinkduck said:
    Just a thought, perhaps the assistant doesn't speak English and the main guy doesn't speak much of whatever language the assistant does? Or the assistant is largely deaf and had his 'interview' in a suitably quiet environment.
    He probably still has EYES to see he doesn't need a bag and EYES again to see the exact change.
    Maybe he's just a deaf, dumb and blind kid (who might nevertheless be miraculously good at playing pinball)?



  • @Weng said:

    Acceptable vegetables are capsaicin-containing peppers, onions (sparingly, for flavor) and potatos.
     

    My last doctor was allatime trying to get me to eat more green vegetables.  Problem is, I'd buy 'em, stick 'em in the fridge, and a day or two later they'd turn into alien life-forms and have to be destroyed, preferably with fire.

    Finally found a green vegetable I could keep long enough that there was actually a chance I'd eat it before it went bad: dill pickles.

    My ex-doctor seemed to think I was being uncooperative.

    (BTW, now that there are five "kingdoms" in biology instead of the old "plant-vs-animal" thing, mushrooms are no longer vegetables.  Make whatever use of this revelation you find helpful.)



  • Sounds like a very insecure, nervous, adhd-type person on his first day at work. At least, I can identify with the guy, it could be a fourteen-year-old me. Just had instructions, never did this kind of work before, a wild customer appears, panic, your 'big, impressive boss' looks over your shoulder, all these new impressions, it would really freak me out. In the end, I would isolate myself from everything and just fall back to memorizing all the steps from the instruction, take bag, open bag, put fruit in bag, take money, give change, and then one step is missing and the plan falls apart. And then the 'boss' takes over and you feel like a complete failure.

    Luckily I'm not like that anymore, but I once was exactly like this guy. It doesn't have to do anything with stupidity, maybe after a few customers he got some confidence and did his work just like everybody else.



  • @renewest said:

     The really important issue here is of course: What kind of fruit was it?

    I am interested in your viewpoint and would like to subscribe to your newsletter, if you have one.



  • @da Doctah said:

    [ . . . ]

    (BTW, now that there are five "kingdoms" in biology instead of the old "plant-vs-animal" thing, mushrooms are no longer vegetables.

    1970 just called.  They want their last-year's-news back.

    Also, there are six kingdoms now.

     



  • @da Doctah said:

    Problem is, I'd buy 'em, stick 'em in the fridge, and a day or two later they'd turn into alien life-forms
     

    Please explain the nature of the situation that renders you unable to produce a proper meal within two days of buying produce.

    @da Doctah said:

    BTW, now that there are five "kingdoms" in biology instead of the old "plant-vs-animal" thing, mushrooms are no longer vegetables.
     

    There's a legal distinction and botanical distinction. It's a fungus.

    Tomato's a fruit. Except when you'r importing it. Then it's a vegetable.



  • @da Doctah said:

    My last doctor was allatime trying to get me to eat more green vegetables.  Problem is, I'd buy 'em, stick 'em in the fridge, and a day or two later they'd turn into alien life-forms and have to be destroyed, preferably with fire.

    Finally found a green vegetable I could keep long enough that there was actually a chance I'd eat it before it went bad: dill pickles.

    My ex-doctor seemed to think I was being uncooperative.

     

    These will probably survive more than 2 days...

    Eat your greens



  • @AndyCanfield said:

    (The average IQ in the USA is 100. In Thailand it's 90, and my son's mother is definitely below that.)

    I thought I read somewhere the average is 106 now. But that could just be Australia :-)



  • @Zemm said:

    @AndyCanfield said:
    (The average IQ in the USA is 100. In Thailand it's 90, and my son's mother is definitely below that.)

    I thought I read somewhere the average is 106 now. But that could just be Australia :-)

    A wise man stupid-as-shit nazi retard once taught me densely proclaimed that Jews are 10% smarter than us Germans, and black people are 10% less smart.



  • @derula said:

    us Germans

    Enjoying Doom and Doom II? I hear there's already some games have cloned it.



  • @Zemm said:

    @derula said:
    us Germans

    Enjoying Doom and Doom II? I hear there's already some games have cloned it.

    Speaking of cloning, it's still a shame Bionic Commando was totally destroyed through localization. Okay, they (accidentally?) left in the animation of the bad guy's exploding face, but it's not that satisfying when it's just "Master-D" instead of the real thing.



  • @DaveK said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Besides, only pussies eat fruit.
    Enjoy your scurvy!

    I let animals eat vitamin C, then I eat the animals.

    If your dumbass navy had fresh meat aboard their ships, they wouldn't have gotten scurvy either... this is actually what made scurvy so hard to identify, because people on land didn't get it even if they never ate fruits. And if they weren't so fucking incompetent, they wouldn't have lost the cure to scurvy and had to re-invent it. (Then fail at the re-inventing, by boiling the lime juice which removes the vitamin C, then have to reinvent it a third time.)

    Also you should know all this history (and the cause of scurvy) before wisecracking, otherwise someone who does know the history will tear apart your post.



  • @The_Assimilator said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @boomzilla said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    Nothing like (relatively) wealthy people bitching about poor service from minimum wage workers.

    Nothing? Really? By your logic, bitching about software developers where you've paid nothing for the software would be even worse. What's the right payment to bitching ratio?

    If you're trying to paint me as a hypocrite, you should know that:

    1) Of course I'm a hypocrite

    2) I've never claimed otherwise

    I love this forum for many reasons, but one of the top ones has got to be because everyone here is to some degree a misanthrope.

    I hate people for no good reason. But the people I hate most are people who hate people for no good reason.



  • @da Doctah said:

    (BTW, now that there are five "kingdoms" in biology instead of the old "plant-vs-animal" thing, mushrooms are no longer vegetables.  Make whatever use of this revelation you find helpful.)

    My Zoology Lab teacher disagreed.  This made it extremely hard when I had a non-insane-old-guy for Zoology class.


  • @Sutherlands said:

    @da Doctah said:

    (BTW, now that there are five "kingdoms" in biology instead of the old "plant-vs-animal" thing, mushrooms are no longer vegetables.  Make whatever use of this revelation you find helpful.)

    My Zoology Lab teacher disagreed.  This made it extremely hard when I had a non-insane-old-guy for Zoology class.
     

    You could always use the granola/new-age distinction of "anything with a face" vs "anything without a face".

    Which makes oysters vegetables.

     



  • @da Doctah said:

    You could always use the granola/new-age distinction of "anything with a face" vs "anything without a face".

    Which makes oysters vegetables.

    My new age-y sister-in-law, when she pretended to be a vegetarian, would eat chicken. So... chicken = veggies, too?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @da Doctah said:

    You could always use the granola/new-age distinction of "anything with a face" vs "anything without a face".

    That works for me. None of my veal chops has ever had a face.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @da Doctah said:

    You could always use the granola/new-age distinction of "anything with a face" vs "anything without a face".

    Which makes oysters vegetables.

    My new age-y sister-in-law, when she pretended to be a vegetarian, would eat chicken. So... chicken = veggies, too?

    Maybe her criteria was "anything without lips".



  • @blakeyrat said:

    My new age-y sister-in-law, when she pretended to be a vegetarian, would eat chicken. So... chicken = veggies, too?
    I saw some place once where they sold vegetarian pizza. Which included tuna and shrimp as ingredients.

    @The_Assimilator said:

    I love this forum for many reasons, but one of the top ones has got to be because everyone here is to some degree a misanthrope.
    I'm not a misanthrope. Fuck you.

     



  • I went for a tour around an abattoir once (I applied for a job there (in IT) and I needed to make sure I could handle the environment - apparently I was in second place). People told me it would make me vegetarian, but the opposite (sort of) happened. It was so organised and clean I didn't feel bad eating meat. The offal room could have freaked me out: hearts and things still moving minutes after being removed from the animal.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @DaveK said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    Besides, only pussies eat fruit.
    Enjoy your scurvy!

    I let animals eat vitamin C, then I eat the animals.

    If your dumbass navy had fresh meat aboard their ships, they wouldn't have gotten scurvy either... this is actually what made scurvy so hard to identify, because people on land didn't get it even if they never ate fruits. And if they weren't so fucking incompetent, they wouldn't have lost the cure to scurvy and had to re-invent it. (Then fail at the re-inventing, by boiling the lime juice which removes the vitamin C, then have to reinvent it a third time.)

    Also you should know all this history (and the cause of scurvy) before wisecracking, otherwise someone who does know the history will tear apart your post.

    Yeah yeah yeah, I read the wikipedia page too.  I just don't share your peculiar belief that jokes have to be factually accurate in order to make people laugh.

    Although I did enjoy your suggestion that naval ships should have kept a herd of livestock on deck.

     


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