People Break Down Which 'Crazy People' In History Were Right The Entire Time
"Crazy" is one of those red flag words that perks the ears.
If you're on a date with someone who mentions that all of their exes were "crazy" you mentally pin that because the only common denominator with all of those exes was the person you are now on a date with.
So if 100% of the exes are now "crazy" that math ain't mathin' in your favor...
If a government labels someone "crazy" ... well ... you're definitely gonna find out something shady when stuff gets declassified a few decades later.
Reddit user TheCheeryStranger asked:
"What 'Crazy' Person is history was right the whole time?"
Here's Reddit's ode to the "crazy" ones who were right all along - and the equally insane circumstances surrounding a lot of these stories.
Dingos And Racism
julia louis dreyfus seinfeld GIFGiphy"The 'dingo ate my baby' lady."
- 5kyl3r
"She was screwed over so hard because the government refused to believe dingos would eat people."
"Even when local aboriginal tribes flat out said they have seen dingos eat children the government went 'well no Australians have seen it, so it doesn’t happen.' ”
"Had the government not been so racist about aboriginal tribes, they might have found that baby's clothes years before and saved that family some suffering."
- Radthereptile
"It took the death of someone else for them to find the baby's jacket, which was near a dingo lair. And the couple didn't even recoup their legal fees!"
"When they were exonerated, they were awarded less than a quarter of what they spent."
"They were the punchline for jokes on so many shows, even the Simpsons! That poor family."
- shewy92
"Lindy Chamberlain."
"Her daughter, Azaria, was taken by a dingo when I was in late primary school (I'm Australian), and I vividly recall how she was horribly attacked and judged by the public."
"It destroyed her marriage, she spent time in prison for 'murdering' Azaria (and delivered a child whilst incarcerated, she was pregnant when found guilty)... not Australia's finest moment how it treated this grieving and traumatized mum."
- jmkul
Hemmingway
"Hemingway talked about the FBI following him prior to his suicide. They thought he was paranoid."
"Decades later some papers get released, turns out the FBI was following him."
- ArchieBellTitanUp
"If I recall correctly, when his wife sent him to have electroshock therapy, the doctor performing the process was actually a member of the FBI."
- Omegus_Blue
"I mean, near the end they were literally going in his house to move his sh*t around to gaslight him into madness."
- HazardMancer1
Germs
"Ignaz Semmelweis- he pioneered hand washing in a time where the medical professionals were in favour of the 'four humours' theory."
"He was essentially laughed out of the field of medicine and died in an institution."
- MatManatee
"He specifically tried to get doctors to stop performing autopsies and then jumping right to delivering babies without washing their hands."
"He even provided hard data to prove that it was harmful. They locked him in an asylum and beat him so badly he died 2 weeks later."
- Damn_Dog_Inappropes
"Ignaz Semmelweis was openly mocked for suggestions that doctors should wash their hands before assisting with a birth, as he noted that maternal death was significantly lower when midwives washed their hands."
"He died in an asylum after suffering a nervous breakdown, and was only vindicated decades after his death when Pasteur and his contemporaries work on germ theory gained traction over the prevailing “miasma” theory (diseases and infections were caused by bad air)."
- Royally-Forked-Up
No Love
Kurt Cobain Rage GIFGiphy"Courtney Love calling out Harvey Weinstein."
"When asked if she had any advice young actresses, she said: 'If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a party at the Four Seasons, don't go.' "
"She was immediately banned by the biggest Hollywood agencies…. A lot of them who today talk about being all about #metoo but helped Harvey Weinstein keep up his sexual predation back then."
- Vegetable-Double
"If Courtney Love, of all people, tells you to not go to a party, DO NOT F*CKING GO."
- Wet_Socks19
"Courtney was very lucky. She had money from her own music and Cobain's money that was still rolling in."
"It didn't matter that she was blacklisted and couldn't really get a real acting gig again, even though she did such a great job with 'The People vs Larry Flynt.' "
"She already had her own."
"I love when people have f*ck you money - but she would have spoken up even without it"
- jayforwork21
"Courtney Love was right about LOTS of things."
- Rimbosity
Fused Labia
"The lady who sued McDonald’s for hot coffee."
"Everyone treated her like some ridiculous entitled Karen, but she was 80 and the coffee was so hot the skin on her legs fused together and he was hospitalized. She wasn’t crazy at all."
- [Reddit]
"If I remember correctly it was her genitals that fused together, not her legs."
- rawgreenpepper
"As I've said before....you only need to know 2 words from that case to see it wasn't frivolous: 'fused labia.' "
- FlappyBoobs
"We did a case study on this."
"She suffered, if I remember, 3rd degree burns from that coffee. THIRD DEGREE. That should tell you that coffee is WAY hotter than it should be."
"The McDonalds had been fined NUMEROUS times for their coffee being way hotter than what policy dictated."
"That whole thing could have been avoided if McDonalds had done their jobs right. They deserved to get sued for their negligence."
- dsmbr17
"I did some law modules in college and the lecturer did an entire series on what he called 'being a complete bastard to make yourself more impressive as a corporate lawyer'."
"The point being that the legal team at McDonalds could have used any number of methods to defend the case, but they chose to deliberately defame this woman that their company maimed."
"Someone had to come up with the idea of dragging the press into it, and someone else had to sign off on it."
"He said that you can remain 100% within the law on technical terms and just because it's legally right doesn't make you any less of a monster for doing it."
"What McDonald's did while trying that case was technically legal, but they were monsters for it."
- Wind_Yer_Neck_In
Not My Son
"Lessie Dunbar."
"Her four year old son went missing and one day the cops 'found him' and brought him home. Except it wasn’t her son and everyone tried to gaslight her into believing it was."
"They also arrested her for 'trying to make the police look bad.' "
"Eventually she just decided it must be her son and the boy lived the rest of his life as Bobby Dunbar. Well she was right in the first place and no one knows what happened to the real Bobby Dunbar to this day."
- anniemanic
"Worse, actually."
"Julia Anderson, the ACTUAL mother of the little boy the police 'found' came forward saying 'wtf that’s my kid you took' and the Dunbars agreed w/ police that it was their son."
"The actual parents couldn’t afford lawyers and it wasn’t proven until decades later after their grandchildren took DNA tests."
- CaedustheBaedus
"To make it even worse - multiple people confirmed in court the man with the little boy had him long before Bobby Dunbar disappeared and they still f*cking kidnapped that poor woman’s kid and gave him to the Dunbars."
"Just ridiculous."
"I’m honestly surprised Julia Anderson didn’t straight up murder the Dunbars and take her son back because I don't know if I could stop myself."
- emiiyaa
"When Lessie Dunbar told a cop that the child they brought her wasn't her son, the cop whispered to her to 'just take him and see how it feels.' "
- rachface636
"The boys real mother was an unmarried single mom working as a farmhand. She occasionally worked a farm run by the handyman and became friends with them."
"She'd left her son with them for a while because caring for a child while working farms was nearly impossible. She'd already had two other children die at that point, and was trying to put her last child somewhere a bit safer."
"When the police found the boy with the repairman and discovered that he wasn't his son, they assumed that it was the kidnapped child."
"The mother found out about the mix-up and came forward a couple of days later, but she was attacked by both the police and the press."
"One newspaper infamously said that, even if her claim was true, the fact that she was an unwed mother and already lost two children meant that she didn't 'deserve' to get her boy back. She was a 'sinful woman' and unfit to be a parent."
- codefyre
"The family was so committed to ignoring the evidence and deciding that this new child was Bobby Dunbar that decades later, his grandchildren took DNA tests to prove it. Their DNA didn’t match with their Dunbar cousins."
- CaedustheBaedus
People In The Jungle
watch board GIFGiphy"I don't know that guy's name but he basically from 1541-1542 travelled across South America - the first European to do so."
"While he was on his journey he said he saw millions of people and large cities with a lot of life in them in an area that, today, is the middle of the Amazon rainforest."
"He had told the stories of those cities when he got back to Europe. About a hundred years later when explorers visited the place there was nothing. No cities, no people, just jungle."
"So they thought he had made all that up."
"But modern technology has shown that there might have actually been a lot of cities there! And that those people died out with smallpox and all cities were covered by the jungle within the course of 50 years."
"So basically people thought he was crazy and made everything up, but modern science has proven that he was right all along."
- softredina
"You're talking about the Spanish expedition that went from Peru to the beginning of the Amazon and then floated down."
"They passed a thriving town about once a day - and they brought small pox and influenza with them."
"I think only four out of 30 Spaniards survived the trip. The diseases they already had, plus tropic disease and parasites, wrecked them just about as badly as the plagues they brought with them wrecked the civilization they went through."
"The population of the Americas dropped by at least 70% in the century after 1492."
- dieinafirenazi
"It seems impossible for a single boat of 30 people to be responsible for the near annihilation of an entire civilization of millions, but it actually happened."
- Forgive_My_Cowardice
"And the jungle took those cities back like the humans were never there at all. That's ... humbling."
- [Reddit]
"Vague"
"Sinead O'Connor jeopardizing/ruining her career by forcing a spotlight on the Catholic church protecting pedophile priests."
- enriqed
"You have to remember - she didn't explain or give a context."
"She just walked out, and attacked a beloved and respected Pope. And something seemed off about her when she did it - watch the video to see what I mean (I saw it when it happened.)"
"Yes - in hindsight, it's easy to understand why she seemed off; because she was about to do a huge and brave thing, that she knew was going to cause a lot of blowback."
"But at the time it seemed vague and random to a lot of people."
- Squigglepig52
"I will never understand how anyone thought that was vague."
"I was a 14 year old Protestant child when I saw her do that, and I thought her message was as clear as day. I recently rewatched it and I feel the same way."
- SonicBoris
"She tore up the picture after singing a Bob Marley song (War) with some changed lyrics. She literally mentions child abuse during the performance."
- sbrockLee
"THIS is the answer I came here for."
"No one stopped to even ask WTF. They just labeled her 'that psycho bald bitch' and her career got torched in five minutes with literally not one person stopping to ask 'wait, what?' until the story broke big a decade later."
- TheImageworks
Wacko Oprah Guy
"There was a wacko looking guy on Oprah who stopped his vanilla presentation to tell the audience that plastic causes cancer, stop using it to store food and water."
"Oprah cut to commercial and whisked him off the show."
"Dude was right. BPAs were outed that day, but it took another decade for that info to become public knowledge."
"I literally stopped watching her after she cut off plastic cancer guy. I subconsciously knew he was right."
- Firethorn101
Troy
"Heinrich Schliemann."
"He 100% believed that ancient Troy had really existed. So he armed himself with a copy of the Iliad, and actually managed to find and excavate the city."
"He'd told everyone and their sister that Troy was a real place for 40 years before he found it, and everyone thought he was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs."
"Not so much, it turns out."
- ChaoticForkingGood
"There is a fascinating and informative book called Finding the Walls of Troy by Susan Allen."
"It’s about how Schliemann stole the credit for finding Troy from Frank Calvert. And about Schliemann’s shameless self-promotion and lack of care excavating the city destroyed much of the archaeological evidence."
"There’s also a book called Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit that I have not read but purportedly also exposes him as an unscrupulous liar and distorter of history."
"That said, I’m really not sure if people thought he was crazy before Hisarlíc was discovered and he was right that Troy was indeed a historical city, so might still be a valid answer to this post. Just didn’t want to see him portrayed as some sort of archaeological hero."
- TheBlueFacedLeicestr
Did you know these stories?
Are there "crazy" people you want to add to the list?
Let's rant in the comments.
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Things People Secretly Love But Would Never Admit To In Public
Reddit user sweet_chick283 asked: 'What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?;
What makes us all unique is our passions and the things we love, whether it's singing in the shower, reading books, or listening to specific music artists.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are judged for our various tastes and interests thanks to social media, and it makes us consciously selective about sharing the things we love on the internet.
Curious to hear about people's personal desires under anonymity, Redditor sweet_chick283 asked:
"What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?"
These aren't really chores for the following Redditors.
Good Clean Fun
"Mopping, im a janitor and generally hate my work... but damn mopping is so good."
– MrDDog06
"When you have a great rhythm going it is something special. I get the same feeling while I vacuum, but won’t let my wife know I enjoy it."
– Bogus_34
Act Of Unwrinkling
"Ironing clothes. A dozen of them. Can’t explain how it relaxes me. I told one person and they looked at me like I’m crazy."
– eerie_white_glow
"My mum misses the days when dad would be out on a Friday night, my brother out with friends and me upstairs quietly playing PS1. She would pour herself a Bacardi & Coke and do the ironing while watching her TV shows."
"I'm sure she doesn't really miss it now that we've moved out and they've retired but it was her wind-down after a busy working week so I can see how people can find it relaxing."
– xdq
Our solo actions can spark joy.
Big Brother Is Watching
"pretending to be on the Truman show and whenever im in my house i act all inconspicuous so they dont know that i know that they’re watching me."
– Bec_121
"C’mon man, you’re not supposed to let him know. You signed a contract when signing up for live views. I’m reporting you."
– doeswaspsmakehoney
The Multi-Tasker
"Playing video games naked at home while eating cheese."
– thickening_agent
Releasing The Kraken
"I love the feeling when you've eaten good fibre and let out a solid long train log in the toilet. That feeling is heavenly."
– therapoootic
"Even better when it’s a clean wipe and not a poo crayon."
– TheWarmestHugz
Ultimate Comfort
"My (male 41) weekend routine is coming home from work, make hot chocolate, start a fire, dress in a ugly pink nightgown made for old ladies and watch forensic files."
– crazyloomis
Some people are obsessed with collecting things.
So Kawai
"Sanrio stationery stores. All those different multicolor pens, a thousand kinds of erasers, spiral bound notebooks galore... my kids sadly have absolutely no appreciation for this wonderland..."
– HavingNotAttained
It's A Staple
"Office supplies have a weird, special place in my heart ever since I was a kid. They don't even have to be 'cute' necessarily."
"Japan's legendary stationery stores is unironically a reason I want to go."
– _CozyLavender_
Not Caring Anymore
"The older I get the shorter that list gets. Not because I love less things, but because I don't care about hiding it."
– Bi-Beast
"YES!! I'm 53 now. I'm working my first job in public since 2006. Today is Halloween and we're allowed to dress up so I am sitting here waiting to go to work dressed as a VERY bad Wednesday Addams. My bf said I'd 'look stupid' because no one else will probably dress up and I'm like, 'WHO CARES!' My makeup looks horrible and not like I practiced, but I DO NOT CARE! I'm having fun with it anyhow and I don't care if my coworkers dress up or not. I'm bein' ME! :)"
– deanie1970
Honorable mentions start here.
The Savior
"Picking up worms from the street and sidewalks when it rains and moving them into the dirt so they don’t burn in the sun, every time it rains I do this."
– sky_kitten89
Hero Of The Moment
"Yoooo I scoot SO many snails and worms. I work as a tech/mechanic at an automotive shop, I had a peoject car towed to my house the other day and it was covered in snails. I saw them when the tow guy/coworker was unloading and I was like, 'oh! It comes with free snails!' and began moving them. He laughed then realized and said, '... Oh, you're serious. Uh... Okay.'"
"I don't care who knows it. These little things barely can look out for themselves, why shouldn't we if we can take a moment to help? I don't care what happens next, it probably doesn't matter overall but I can help this moment."
– chris14020
Why should some of the hidden desires mentioned above have to be secret?
Redditors opening up about some of these would make them a hit at parties–no shaming.
As a matter of fact, I'll totally be down for a Forensic Files viewing party where we all make hot chocolate, light the fireplace, and cozy up together in our respective pink ugly nightgowns for old ladies.
Companies and products rebrand for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes they want to revitalize a dying brand.
Or stay fresh and modern.
Other times they're trying to put a negative public image in their rear view mirror.
And sometimes, someone somewhere in a company has low impulse control.
Anyway...
Reddit user PulakHasan asked:
"What's the Weirdest Rebranding of all time?"
Weight Watchers
"Weight Watchers abbreviated their name down to 'WW' and in doing so, increased the syllables needed to pronounce their new company name."
~ hambone10
"You burn more calories uttering the extra syllables."
~ jungl3j1m
waitr
"Waitr was an extremely successful delivery service here. They had full time employees and you could get food delivered in 30-45 minutes."
"Then, they made everybody an independent contractor and started calling themselves ASAP."
"'As slow as possible' caught on and they lost the majority market share within a month."
~ bravesgeek
GiphyHBO
"I still don’t understand HBO dropping probably the most prestigious name in cable tv/streaming."
~ stoneman9284
"Right?! Also it literally means Home Box Office - that’s the best name for a streaming service????"
~ oreos_in_milk
Nordic Choice Hotels
"Nordic Choice Hotels rebranded to 'Strawberry'."
"They have to mention their old name all the time, because Strawberry could be absolutely anything."
"If only it were 'Strawberry Hotels' but it's not. It's just Strawberry."
"They removed the part that explains what kind of business it is."
"Madness."
~ WoodSheepClayWheat
GiphyUSWest
"USWest-->Qwest-->CenturyLink-->Lumen I don’t care what your name is."
"Can I have more than 10mbps DSL at my address?"
~ Trickycoolj
"In Europe, and it's now Level3--> Centurylink--> Lumen--> Colt."
"I'm sure they rename in the hope people forget the incompetence."
~ ConsciousValence
"My mom has worked for them since 1977 when they were Northwestern Bell."
"She's been through a billion name changes."
~ CorporalBB
Circuit City IQ Crew
"Circuit City rebranding their PC technician division from IQ Crew (which predated Geek Squad, by the way) to..."
"Firedog."
"I worked at a Circuit City from 2005-2008 and we all thought it was a prank when we saw the announcement."
"'The intensity of fire with the loyalty of man's best friend'."
"I sh*t you not—that was the marketing."
~ Tiberius_Jim
GiphyBritish Petroleum
"When after a major oil spill, BP changed their branding to Beyond Petroleum for an ad campaign showing how they were investing in renewables."
"Logo change too."
~ RandomAmuserNew
"An oil spilled followed by a huge effort to cover it up, including dumping Corexit into the water to mix with the oil and make it sink."
"So it was no longer visible from aerial shots, but it did far, far more damage mixed with a dangerous chemical and sitting on the sea floor than slowly evaporating or being soaked up on the surface."
~ LurkerOrHydralisk
Amoco
"When BP purchased Amoco, they quickly rebranded all the stations to BP."
"Not sure if it is everywhere but Amoco had a lot of brand recognition in the Midwest and a lot of people just didn’t like BP."
"Eventually, they started rebranding some of their stations back to Amoco to cash in on nostalgia."
"I always thought it was dumb but never realized that so many people hated it until after I worked for BP (very briefly) and was told the story of how much pushback they got."
~ anitabelle
British Petroleum (BP Oil)/Paul Sableman
Overstock.com
"Overstock.com I think qualifies for weird rebrand."
"Bed Bath and Beyond went out of business and was bought out by Overstock and then Overstock just rebranded everything to Bed Bath and Beyond."
"If you go to overstock.com it’s just BBB."
~ WhatsABuckland
Snoop Dogg
"When Snoop Dogg (temporarily) changed his name to Snoop Lion to make a reggae album."
~ RomanOnARiver
"Snoop’s original name on Death Row was 'Snoop Doggy Dogg'. When he left Death Row and went to No Limit, he had to alter his name (which might have been his original name) to 'Snoop Dogg'."
~ GotMoFans
"Snoop’s mother used to call him Snoopy as a nickname which is the origin."
~ OpanaMan
"The Charles Schulz people would have had a field day."
~ GotMoFans
GiphyBooks-A-Million
"Books-A-Million to 'BAM'."
"I was in a parking lot with one and had no idea it was a bookstore, as I was a bit too far out to see more than 'BAM' from where I was parked."
~ lynnyfox
KIA
"Everytime I see the new KIA logo I assume its a NIN [Nine Inch Nails] fan."
~ vinyalwhl
"I thought it was KN for an embarrassingly long time."
~ VulfSki
"KIA changed their logo on their cars and Google showed an uptick in the searches for 'K N cars' because people liked the look of them but didn’t realise it was a KIA."
~ User_Deleted_Content
Mark Chan on Unsplash
Royal Mail
"Royal Mail deciding Consignia was the way to go forwards."
~ PonITdude
"They wanted to go international but they lost so much money that year they had to stay national and reversed the name back."
~ ShinyHead0
"Twitter to X."
~ sandiercy
"And then everyone still refers to it as Twitter."
~ Safety_Drance
"'A user on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted…'.”
~ tommyk1210
"Rather like to see 'A user on Twitter, erroneously known as X, posted...'."
~ SagittaryX
"'A user on twitter, largely unknown as X, posted...'."
~ Pinksters
"A few days ago, I saw an article that said 'Twitter, which Elon Musk incorrectly thinks is called X for some reason...'."
"That was pretty funny."
~ temalyen
GiphyCity Landmarks
"In Chicago we still call it the Sears Tower [renamed Willis Tower in 2009]."
~ baccus83
"And in Pittsburgh, it’s still Heinz Field [renamed Acrisure Stadium in 2022]."
~ NoVaBurgher
"And in Toronto, it’s still the Skydome [renamed Rogers Centre in 2005]."
~ nonanarchist
"And in New York when you take 287 across the Hudson it's still the Tappan Zee Bridge [renamed Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in 2017]. "
~ keytarin
"A lot of LA people still call it Staples Center [renamed Crypto.com Arena in 2021]."
~ New_Simple_4531
"In Denver we will always say Mile High Stadium [renamed Empower Field at Mile High in 2019]."
~ SheBrokeHerCoccyx
Some rebrandings make perfect sense to the public.
Others are utterly baffling.
What would you add to this list?
I freely admit I'm of a certain age where my primary education occurred before the age of the internet—when our questions were answered with conversations with experts, encyclopedias or knowing how to use card catalogs.
My knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System is largely useless today.
Research is drastically different now—sorry Melvil Dewey. Internet search engines quickly became the difference between occasionally finding an outdated version of the information we were looking for and rarely not finding current information on the most obscure of topics.
Unless your Google game is super weak, you're likely to find what you're looking for or something close to it unlike the good old days when our chances were hit or mis—with lots of misses.
So what do we use this amazing, life-changing tool for?
Well...
Reddit user b-secret asked:
"What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever Googled?"
How Much?
"what's the alcohol percentage in 70% rubbing alcohol?"
~ LightsJusticeZ
"55% alcohol, 15% rubbing"
~ FishOfFishyness
Who?
"I Googled my work because I couldn’t remember my boss’ name after working there for 8 months."
"I just blanked and couldn’t think of it."
~ HCxTC
Spellcheck
"I Google how to spell restaurant all the time."
~ ParkOk6450
"I'm like that but with Febuary."
"EDIT: February"
~ NeoNero_x
"I go into incognito mode to check spellings of words I should know how to spell."
~ LordCaptain
GiphyUm, No.
"I was trying to find the name of those signs where a word is written down the side and each letter is used for a descriptive word."
"Confusing I know."
"So here’s an example: False Evidence Appearing Real"
"I know it has to have a name. So I googled 'Sign where every word starts with a letter' and Goggle responded with 'Did you mean a sentence?'.”
~ Team_Lift
Looks Like...
"Googled green beans once, was super high and forgot what they looked like."
~ testies2345
"I did the same thing with beets."
~ Jjetsk1_blows
Gaby Yerden on Unsplash
That Movie, With the Guy and the Stuff...
"I'll forget the name of a movie and just type in random sh*t I think I remember. Usually it works."
"Like 'that movie where the kid sleeps and has weird dreams and flies on a bed'."
"Works like a charm."
~ fohsupreme
Did They Have Blue Feet?
"big boobies"
"I was only 10."
"I was surprised to find some."
~ PoopPower99
"I’m 39 and I Google this every day."
~ dekkact
"They're nice birds but are they really worth Googling everyday?"
~ redwolf1219
Blue-Footed Boobies
GiphyPredictive Text
"I used to search something like 'no clothes' or 'without clothes' or something like that when I was a kid."
"Then I learnt the word NAKED because of the TV show Naked and Afraid."
"Then searched it so many times that my autocorrect started to show that word first when I wanted to type something."
~ sniper8207
NSF...S?
"My favorite band growing up was 'The Barenaked Ladies'."
"When I was at school, I once Googled them and clicked on a link that said 'free shows!'."
~ BW_Bird
Good Description
"I forgot what a 'gondola' was called so I typed in 'Thing that carries you through the mountains in a basket'."
~ TheGreatJaceyGee
"I once forgot the word for 'door' so my brain reached for adjacent concepts, smashed them together and threw them out my mouth: 'house portal'."
~ Tail_Nom
GiphyIt Just Doesn't Translate
"I have to search a random word 'auf Englisch' or a random word 'auf Deutsch'."
"Every damn day."
"It took me a minute to realize that there was no way to translate Schadenfreude into English."
~ grammar_fixer_2
Ah, Memories...
"I found out that as long as you're logged into Google, all your searches are saved to your Google account (I'm not talking about browser history)."
"So I looked back, and the 1st thing I ever googled after getting a Google account was 'Can ducks fly'."
"I've no idea why I googled this. I know ducks can fly."
~ caca__milis
GiphyYou Ate What‽‽
"Once I was with some friends and I was telling them about how when I was a kid we only got to eat nuts as a special treat around Christmas."
"Then I mentioned how much I liked squirrel nuts and no one knew what they were. So I Googled 'squirrel nuts' with image search."
"Not at all what we ate at Christmas time."
"Finally found out what my family called 'squirrel nuts' were actually called hazelnuts."
~ 123fofisix
100% NSFW
"A few years ago my coworker and I were looking at the calendar at work. It had pictures of birds and we were trying to figure out what kind of bird was pictured for that month."
"I can’t remember what she thought it was, but I darned sure it was a Great Tit."
"We have a great relationship and have been working together for a long time but we tend to argue like an old married couple. So we went to Mr Google for the answer."
"Let me tell you that Googling Great Tit at work isn’t something I will ever do again."
"For the record, I was right. The bird was a Great Tit."
~ pi11bott
Great Tit holds an insect in its beak
A Perry on Unsplash
Hope some of these folks remembered to clear their browser and search histories.
So, what's your hilarious—or embarrassing—little Google secret search?
People Divulge The Scariest Thing They Learned About Someone From Their Childhood
Life is all about learning new things, including learning new things about the people in your life. Sometimes, the things you learn are shocking, disgusting, or even scary.
I was the new kid in town when I was in fifth grade and my first friend was this quiet (and cute) boy in my class. He and I remained friends through middle school, and even though we drifted apart in high school, our interactions when we ran into each other in the halls or the cafeteria were really nice.
All throughout school and even beyond, he remained quiet, polite, and reserved. Just a few years ago, I read a news article written about him. He had apparently fatally wounded his father after an argument.
I had to reread the article several times to make sure it was really about my old friend. I think about it a lot, and still can't believe it!
I'm not the only one that has a shocking story like that. A lot of Redditors learned shocking or scary things about people from their childhood, and are ready to share.
It all started when Redditor ValuableHovercraft90 asked:
"What's the scariest thing you have found out about someone from your childhood (old friends, teachers, etc)?"
So Creepy
"That the boy who lived across the street and moved when I was 6 is still obsessed with me and my sister 30+ years later and posts ramblings on Facebook with our names and that he's going to be with us. Pretty terrifying honestly."
– mrscrawfish
The Worst List
"A neighbour died when he was 30. Police searched a trailer he owned and found weapons, bombs and a list of people he wanted to kill. My uncle was on that list."
– Flashy_Somewhere_648
"I'm glad this ended the way it did."
– CreepyCandidate4449
Terrifying
"One of my best friends (and locker partner) from high school was kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq. After a nightmare of 6+ months, all went silent. We buried an empty casket in his memory 10 years later."
– francois_du_nord
"This is horrifying. How incredibly sad for family to never get any closure. Very sad to read this. :("
– fizzycherryseltzer
"About 15 years ago my dad received a very good offer for work in Iraq, as a construction specialist. He was considering going, since at the same time the financial crisis started in Europe, but then one of his friends, a civil engineer, was kidnapped. Never returned back either."
– 19lgkrn70
"Same thing for my dad old coworker told him how great the money was. Dude got sniped working on a radio tower or something. My dad luckily was like, "I got a wife and family that would kill me for doing something so dangerous.""
– tristanjones
End Of The Friendship
"One of my dad's good friends, and my "uncle", just stopped coming around one day. I was told he was always busy with work, away, etc."
"Turns out, he killed 3 people in a drug deal gone bad and got life in prison."
"What's scary, is that we were over at his house for a weekend BBQ with a bunch of people earlier in the day of the night he did it, and it happened at his house."
– pnwking509
School Friends
"Don't know if it was scary, but I grew up with a kid whose birthday was the day before mine so we almost always shared birthdays in elementary school. We were friends, even spent the night at his house growing up. Later on in our teens, he started getting into some really dark stuff. I recognize that now as his being a sociopath, but like most everybody else at the time, figured it was just him going through some kind of emo phase. Over the years, we lost touch but I would occasionally run into him around town and our meetings were cordial, if not friendly."
"Last year, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for killing a man back in 1993, roughly 3 years after we got out of High School. Apparently he, his sister and another man lured this guy out to the boonies and killed him to steal money he had gotten in an insurance settlement."
"The only reason they were caught is the other guy got religion, felt remorse and went on the local TV station and aired a confession before turning himself in (He got 25 to life)."
– 530_Oldschoolgeek
"A girl I went to school with did the same thing. She was the nicest girl, got good grades & was kind of a dork. Mixed with the wrong people after graduation. She and two others lured an old man into an abandoned building, stabbed him and robbed him. He later died from his wounds."
– HereF0rTheSnacks
The Worst Afternoon
"I had a friend in grade school who was being raised by her single dad. She had a unique name and pretty face. She never talked about her mom, and she was super outgoing, so all us kids just made friends with her quickly. It was weird her dad never brought her to our birthday parties, even though she was always invited, but we didn’t think much of it. A couple times, she was allowed to ride the bus home with me after school, and we played and had fun until her dad came to pick her up. Later in the school year, she invited me to ride the bus to her house, and my mom agreed. I was 10. It was the scariest afternoon of my young life. I cannot articulate the extreme tension in her home. We weren’t allowed to make any noise, and we mostly stayed outside, me desperate for my mom to arrive."
"Her dad screamed at us for opening the door, and I was too nervous to go into the house to use the restroom. I knew she was embarrassed that there were no snacks or comforting interactions, like at my house. I didn’t really tell anyone how uncomfortable the experience was. After that day, I didn’t hang out with her a lot. We were in different classes, drifted apart, and decades later, when my own daughter asked to go to a friend’s house, I thought about that girl."
"As an adult, I figured out her dad probably worked a night shift and tried to sleep during the day…or he was an alcoholic who was really angry. Maybe both? I looked her up on social media, and thanks to her unique name and face, I recognized her immediately. She’s a perfectly well-adjusted woman with a beautiful family. She even had pictures of her kids with her dad and tributes to him as the greatest father and grandpa. Her whole page made me wonder what the hell I experienced that afternoon in the 4th grade?"
– OlderAndTired
School Is Supposed To Be Safe!
"In our school, we had something called "de halte." In English, it means "the halt" literally translated. Basically time out. BIf you had a meltdown in class or you were just a little sh*thead, you were sent there for 15 minutes or so to cool off.
The de hatle teacher got fired and jailed for breaking 4 different wrists of 4 different students by bending them the wrong way..."
– Ok_Win7358
*Skin Crawling*
"There was this classmate a grade below me but all grades shared the same drama class. She was weird and kind of "off." I tried to befriend her at one point and was rebuffed. It later came out that she was actually an almost 30-year-old woman who would show up in a new area claiming to be a 15-year-old runaway. Kind of freaked me out."
– jackfaire
It turns out it was a good thing that the friendship didn't work out!
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