"Well, Susan, I wish it was that simple. Sometimes people cause you stress by pointing you in two opposing directions, and putting their sticks between your feet."

Oh, I was just pointing out that the concept worked for them. I don't have the patience. DO IT OR GET OUT OF THE WAY is where I usually stand.

Personally, I prefer to lock the idiots out in the -45F blizzard or shove them off a cliff.


"Shhh, grab the dogs and get into the car and close the windows! Hurry!"

"Why?"

"There's a bear coming!"

"Really? Where?"

You know the joke about not having to run fast enough to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun YOU? I suspect there's more truth to that than most people realize.

I went to a safety meeting recently where the Operation Lifesaver presenter was talking about how stupid some people are around trains and crossing. Quite a good video of car/train and truck/train encounters, a lot of stupid in a short time. The metal recycling people would have been drooling.

I know it sounds insensitive at best and callous at worst, but there are a lot of people out there who have managed to survive simply because other people have kept them safe. Let them off their leash and they make the newspapers and the Darwin Awards.

* You can't fix stupid people, and you often can't save them no matter how hard you try. Don't try too hard, they may kill you in the process.

* The shallow end of the gene pool has a lot of rocks, and really DOES need more chlorine. And you don't even have to hold their heads under, they'll do it themselves.

* If stupid people walk between mainline RR tracks with a cellphone against one ear and a finger jammed in the other, are you really doing the world a favor if you tell them Amtrak is coming at 79 mph?

* Isn't it irritating when stupid is the rule, rather than the exception? My sister works for a hospital where you can't get fired. Oh, maybe if you stabbed a doctor or something, but if you just stabbed him and he didn't die, they would probably just tell you not to do it again and forget about it. They wouldn't even make you clean up the blood.

* You may have noticed that there's no old saying about "Survival of the dumbest".

Sometimes they just aren't worth the time or the effort.

Resuscitate? Why? He just reached his Peter Principle level.

Cynical Sue (who else?)