Idiot Sightings

[Hoowil]

I spent a few years in Seward, Alaska. The vast majority of our industry was summer time tourism. This town, for those who aren't familiar, is on a bay/fjord, and is a port of call for multiple cruise lines. There are very few places in town where you can not see the bay if your outside. I can remember, on multiple occasions, having someone walk into the store where I worked, look out the front picture windows, overlooking the bay, and say "Wow, it sure is beautiful around here. What's the elevation?" I couldn't resist making comments like " Oh, I don't know.. four?" or "Well, we're probably lower than your room on the ship." And of course, working in a tourist town, in a little shop, we'd get questions like "Do you take American money around here?" (Gee, last I checked, Alaska is a STATE) or "What day does the sun go down?" or, especially being on the souther coast "Do you have many problems with polar bears?". We even had people ask why they didn't see any penguins.

[Breandan]

I've heard all of those and more. Funniest one being from an Irish immigrant family and asked by tourists if I'm an Eskimo... oy vey 

[RSLeask]

I've heard all of those and more. Funniest one being from an Irish immigrant family and asked by tourists if I'm an Eskimo... oy vey 

Shoulda had a bottle of Elmer's on hand for those questions... "This is as close to 'igloo' as I get."

Yeah, ok, bad pun, heh

[renfairephotog]

Ired By Shire Attire
Clothing Store | Montreal, Canada

Customer: "Excuse me, can you help me choose which suit I should get?"

Me: "Certainly. This model here was worn by actor Sean Astin."

Customer: "Who is that?"

Me: "He played in The Lord of the Rings. He was one of the hobbits."

Customer: "You sell to hobbits!?"

Me: "Well, he's not re–"

Customer: "You shouldn't sell to hobbits!"


http://notalwaysright.com/

[WindChime]

Ok, ok....I gotta add a few.

As some of you may or may not know, I used to work on an Island with ferry boats shuttling tourists to and from the mainland.  Without fail, every stinkin' season, one or all of the below listed questions would get asked:

1.  What time does the 7 o'clock (or any o'clock) boat leave?
2.  Does the water go all the way around the island?

And to understand the last one, you have to know that The Mackinac Bridge connects the Upper and Lower penninsulas of Michigan and it's a BIG HONKIN' suspension bridge.  This little factoid leads us to our last "Commonly Asked Questions of Mackinac Island".

3.  What time does that bridge swing over to the island?  (and yes, this one got asked at least once a year)

I use to live in Cheboygan,MI and I could never get over how fascinated people got when the main street would stop so the bridge could open and let a sailboat go under. Tourist would get out off their cars just to take pictures. Mackinaw city is only 15 miles from where I use to live and I remember as a kid riding my bike from home to there just for fudge. A few times my friends and I would get honked at and people would pull over just to see if our parents knew where we were going or if we were riding for some reason like a bike a thon or something like that. This was back in the mid 80s.

[Auryn]

Well I guess the week wouldn't be complete without my own idiot sighting.

Just a little background, I am currently working on designing brand new brochures for our business and of course getting them printed.
That means I have had a parade of printing service salespeople in my office.

Well one lady came in yesterday, she is new to the business.
I went over everything with her, gave her dimensions etc.
The main piece I am interested is a 8 panel (4 on each side- horizontally ) brochure that folds accordion style onto itself, each panel measuring 7"x7".

Today she  calls me and asks " I need to get from you the overall length of the accordion brochure so I can get you the quote". A little taken a back I ask, "you mean the one that has 4 panels each 7x7???"
her: "yes that one"
me: " well 7 times 4 is 28 so I would say 28 inches long".
her:"ok perfect thanks"

I am still in shock over it