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People Confess The Strangest Thing They've Done With Their Brain On Autopilot

Full confession, my closest friends often tell me I'm the dumbest genius they know. I breezed through school, handle advanced concepts with ease - and I spent ten minutes looking for my phone in the dark by using the flashlight app on my phone. The saddest part is I didn't even realize how dumb I was being on my own. I tried to recruit my ten-year-old to help me and she just stood there staring at the phone in my hand with the sort of silent pre-teen judgy face you see in sitcoms.

She didn't even have to say out loud how ashamed she was of me. She just stared until I finally got it and went "oh... wait... the phone is in my hand." Then she sighed and walked silently back to her room.


One Reddit user asked:

What's the strangest thing your brain made you do on "autopilot"?

Since I do that sort of stupidly silly thoughtless stuff on a daily basis, I felt like maybe this would be the thread for me. I wasn't wrong. I'm taking comfort in the fact that I've never forgotten that I quit a habit or just showed up on my ex's porch by accident... yet.

60. Sock Trash

Went to put the trash in the clothes bin and the dirty socks in the trash can.

- [deleted]

59. Sandwich Time

Made a sandwich with some expensive pate left over from Christmas and combined it with some lovely cheese from a local castle.

I then cut it in half and put the knife on the plate and threw half the sandwich in the sink where I was soaking a pan from earlier.

- Dedj_McDedjson

58. Soup Anyone? 

I put a 2L carton of ice cream....in the pantry....

Soup, anyone?

- [deleted]

57. Man's Best Friend

Sleep deprivation from grief does things to your head. I live at home and work from home - when my dog I've had since childhood passed, I was utterly devastated. It was sudden, it was awful and I felt so guilty like, there was something I should've seen... But in the end, he was gone.

During my sleep deprivation period, I would wake up, go to let the dog out and feed him as part of my morning routine and then go make myself breakfast.

When I saw his food bowls weren't there on their tray, it didn't register to me. I thought he just knocked them under the table again. I got the door to the backyard open and called out for him.

And then it hit me all over again. The day he passed I went to go shove leftovers from dinner into his bowl when I had taken too much to eat and that set me off badly. With the calling him incident, I just went back to my room and curled up in bed until 3 PM.

I did things like that a LOT because I wasn't sleeping. At all.

That stands as the strangest... and saddest. Sorry...

- Storm137

56. In The Trash

Back in the 90's I had a long phone call (land line) with a friend. When the call was over, I threw the phone in the garbage.

- Born2dodishes

55. Buckle In For This Jam

I sat down at my drum set, put my feet on the pedals and reached to put my seat belt on.

- todayIsinglehandedly

54. Chilled Electronics

I guess putting a remote or some other electronic inside the refrigerator? I don't even remember what it was, it's a common occurrence for me to sometimes just randomly put things that don't belong there after making a sandwich, maybe I should stop sleeping at 2 AM considering I have to wake up at 8.

- wyldenelson

53. Chalk Or Carrot

When I was like 3 or 4, I had chalk and a carrot in my hands. I bit into the chalk. I still remember this.

- MickTheBrick1

52. Lollipop

Back when I used to smoke, I had a cigarette in one hand a lollipop in the other. You can imagine the rest...

- RandomRedditUser1337

51. Green Means Go

I've stopped at green traffic lights as if they were stop signs after driving through many previous intersections that had stop signs.

- The_Cars93

50. It was for safe keeping

Made meat balls, out off a bag, in the oven. Kind of a meal prep thing so I made a lot. When they were done I put them in a Tupperware container and then put the Tupperware container back into the Tupperware drawer. Didn't even think about them until the following night when I needed more Tupperware. Glad I found them before they started to rot. 10ampfuse

49. That's not autopilot...that's Vodka! 

Diving over 100 miles home and not recalling any of it. Suddenly waking up in the driveway wondering how i got there but don't remember doing it. MonKnee

48. It Burns!

Giphy

Once, I washed my eye makeup with nail polish remover. I can tell you, it hurt! madamecoucoucriss

47. What are your specials?

Bit late to the show here, but here goes.

Used to work 3rds at a fast food place, coming home most mornings absolutely exhausted. Came home one day and promptly fell into bed and passed out. Some amount of time later, someone showed up at my apartment complex and rang the security buzzer, which woke me up.

I trudged out of bed, shambled to the front door, and held down the 'talk' button. "Welcome to [restautant], how can I help you?" HuoXue

46. Old Habits

While getting acclimated to my new job, being half awake at 5:45, I have driven to my old job several times. I now consciously tell myself "don't turn here." rr_0223

45. Oh Jenahhhh! 

I've got a few...

Take off my shoes and socks, in class.

Bit into my keys when my sandwich was in the other hand.

And this one was pretty stupid, but I was on complete autopilot while driving and, I guess because there was not car in front of me, I blew through a red and didn't even notice till my friend yelled at me.

Oh and routinely answering the phone with "hello this is jenahhh from eye best, what can I do for you?" After quitting my phone job there.

jenahhhh

44. A bathroom comfort

Leave my purse on the counter by the sink in a multi-stall restaurant bathroom. My work has a single bathroom with a shower and everything so I guess setting my stuff on the counter by the sink became a habit. It was a good thing no one else came in and that my friend was waiting on me. Lol

firefly063

43. Ding Dong Gratitude

When I worked at Panda Express, everytime a customer would round up to the next dollar to donate to charity, we would have to ring a bell and everyone yells "Thank you!" Well for awhile after I quit everytime I heard anything close to a bell sound I would randomly yell thank you. It's happened multiple times.

MalPalG

42. Great Minds

Not super strange, but a funny coincidence. I stopped to get gas, I pulled up to the pump went inside and bought a soda then got in my truck and left. Didn't realize I forgot gas until a mile later when my gas light came on so I pulled into the next station where my brother happened to be walking out of the store with a soda. I told him what I just did and he looks back at his car, parked not a pump but at the store, and says "holy crap I was about to do the same thing." So we had a good laugh and got our gas and went our separate ways.

Poopletsaurus

41. How About a Snuggle?

Arriving exhausted from work, walked like a zombie to the house, straight to my room and completely undressed as soon as I got inside, completely forgetting that a friend is with me. A lady friend that is...

We still laugh about it to this day... lgfmjr

40. Life in Sleep 

I am a sleep walker. Apparently, everything, including but not limited to, walking, cooking, moving furniture, sex, going outside, eating anything, and one one occasion driving. It's always played for laughs on TV, but it can be terrifying.

throwaway_whatsit

39. Shady Pines Ma

I sat on the toilet and was about to pee before I realized I still had my pants on.

kayveep

38. Maybe You Should Rest

Giphy

Drove to my ex-wife's house, my old house, after work about ten years after leaving. I even wondered who the heck was in my driveway, which reminded me I don't have a driveway anymore.

Using a flashlight to look for my flashlight in the tent.

Using my phone to call my phone because I couldn't find it.

Sigh... 40_watt_range

37. I like Free Pizza! 

I wouldn't necessarily call this "autopilot" as it's only happened once, but I was on a first date with this girl, and we were walking past a pizzeria that had an open-air dining area that was right next to the sidewalk, separated with a short fence. While walking past a table that had a couple eating, I just grabbed a piece of pizza. I don't know why I did it, my body just acted. I immediately apologized afterwards and offered to pay for the pizza, and was COMPLETELY embarrassed.

WilIyTheGamer

36. Rinse, lather, repeat! 

Was attempting to wash hair in the shower, grabbed body soap instead of shampoo and rubbed that into hair. Realized what I'd done, proceeded to wash soap out and go for the shampoo. Grabbed the body soap AGAIN, rubbed it into hair a second time, pondered all of my life's mistakes as I re-washed it out. orangeintheovercast

35. Stare at it long enough, it'll change. 

Waiting for the stop sign to turn green. dandalyisgod

You know what? One time I treated a stop light like a stop sign and did not even realize until I was about 30 feet passed the red light I had just ran. I gasped. Really lucky it was night time and no one was around. That could've been really bad. FiddleSticks3333

34. The Effort Counts.... 

Make a beautiful stock out of a chicken carcass. Pour it into a colander to filter out the bones. Thus resulting in a colander full of bones and the stock down the drain. TheseWereThePlaces

33. Always finish the coffee! 

Woke up. Grab the salt and pepper shakers I kept in my room when I was a teenager. Brought them out to the kitchen. Started making coffee while still holding the shakers. Halfway through realized I was still holding the shakers. Put them back in my room. Got dressed for school and left.

My mom yelled at me that night for not finishing making the coffee. Trackingwest

32. As clean as can be! 

Put hand soap on my toothbrush like I'd done it 1000 times. Kakorat237

31. Let's have peace! 

A guy threw a chair at me when I was a bouncer from the second floor arcade and shattered it on my head. I turned around, saw the guy staring at me in absolute horror, pointed at him keeping eye contact the entire time, gently grasped him by both shoulders and walked him back down the stairs, out the front door then sat down on the sidewalk curb and then came to my senses around 4 AM at the emergency room with a text containing the security footage of me doing this because I had suffered a pretty bad concussion and don't remember anything that night.

Morpho99

30. Who is gaslighting me?

Giphy

In my twenties i once took something out of the freezer and placed my tv remote back in there. It took me 5 days to find it, i looked everywhere for it. I looked in the car like 4 times alone even though i knew it couldn't be there, i looked under the mattress, removed all the pillows from the couch I don't know how many times. Every drawer at least 3 times.

The worst part is that I didn't find it, a friend of mine did, he was visiting and asking if he could have something to eat i said sure take whatever you like, check the freezer. 2 minutes later he said "why is your remote in the freezer?"

Mind blown.

baronmad

29. The Soft Spark

I wanted toasted marshmallows so I found the grocery list and a pen. I wrote "Marshmallows" and "Fire." Stopitpoodle

28. Denny's it is! 

Woke up, took a shower, packed my lunch, then started driving to work. About 20 minutes into the drive a realized it was very dark. It was about 3am. I worked 2nd shift, didn't need to be in until 1:30pm. Also it was a Sunday, the shop was closed on Sundays. Decided to eat breakfast at Denny's before heading back and going back to sleep. ZefyrGaming

27. A Universal Pass. 

Bought a coffee from the little shop at the train station, and tried to pay for it by holding my monthly pass up at the barista. nullagravida

26. Information is Key?

Tried to unlock my locker using a usb stick. It was a flip up usb as well so I first put it against the lock, saw that I hadn't flipped out the bit you stick into a computer so pushed that out and then tried to unlock my locker again. Marshmallowboats

25. Bravo to Whomever! 

My dad was watching some awards show on tv while I was on my computer. The crowd clapped after a winner was announced and I started clapping along even though I wasn't paying attention in the slightest. interrupting_milk

24. Look Down

Keep in mind I was in grade 1.

I was wearing my snow pants while frantically running around asking everyone where my snow pants are. Why did no one tell me. Nexio8324

23. Just Hold Me

Giphy

Seriously sleep deprived new dad; standing still in the fresh produce isle pushing the trolley back and forth, like a pram. A very nervous cleaner came up to me and asked me if I was ok. I was doing it for about 10 minutes.

A few months later, baby is with the grandparents, standing outside, holding my wife, and we both start rocking back and forth. Our non-parents friends burst out laughing. maxil_za

22. Where was I going? 

Noticing my fuel light was on, I pulled off the highway to fill up. As I start to fuel, the attendant comes up and explains that they do the fueling in Oregon; it's not self serve.

Oh alright. I step aside and begin to sort out my priorities for the day. Let's see, I left my house in Tacoma to go to Costco. So what am I doing in Portland? lacedstraight

21. Uniformed Sleep

Woke up, changed, wore my school uniform, almost got out the house when my mum stopped me. Turns out, I was napping after I came from school. So I just woke up, changed from the uniform, put it on again, then was about to leave. riot_ball

20. The Stroke

Brushing my teeth one time while wondering round the house and without thinking I just spat the toothpaste out on the floor.

Thought I had a stroke or something

- Dudley317

19. The Night Nurse

I used to work in telephone triage (the nurses you call at all hours of the night for advice), and would sometimes have to call the on-call doctor for additional help or to call in a prescription.

And on nights when I wasn't working, I would call my mom at night and our conversations would end with "Good night, sweet dreams, I love you!"

You see where this is going...

One night around 1am, I called the on-call doc to ask a question and she ended the conversation with "Good night".

So my sleep-deprived autopilot brain immediately responded with "Good night, sweet dreams, I love you!"

The best part? Her equally sleep-deprived brain responded with "Ok, love you too!" before hanging up.

She called back about 2 minutes later and we had a good long laugh about it.

- nursejacqueline

18. Dream Clock

Morning alarm went off (in winter, so still dark) got up, made coffee, fed the dog, took her out, looked around and realized it was 'too' dark came back inside and realized it was 3AM not 6AM, I had dreamt the alarm and never questioned it... the pathetic thing is we have many decorative clocks. I must have walked by 5 while getting ready.

- Xioshi449

17. Spit

I was driving my car and had a build up of saliva. So I rolled down the window to spit outside. I then looked down, and spat directly on my crotch while driving.

- TheSoapbottle

16. The Ex's Front Porch

Drove myself to my ex girlfriends house when I was supposed to be going to dinner with my new girlfriend. I didn't snap out of it until I was on my ex's front porch about to knock. I went to turn away when my ex opened her door asking why I was there and if everything was okay. I just awkwardly stumbled over my words, turned away and walked back to my car and drove off.

- Ask_A_Sadist

15. Ka-Chunk-Flash-Flash

Spend a good minute trying to unlock my front door with my car remote, while my car is sat about five yards behind me going ka-chunk-flash-flash every time.

- MudShark419

14. I Forgot I Quit 

I stopped at a gas station, went inside and bought a pack of cigarettes. I went to my car, opened them. Wadded up the foil pieces, removed a cigarette and lit it. It tasted like I just licked a dirty ashtray. That's when I remembered that I had quit 6 months earlier.

I went back inside and left the pack on the counter, told the guy working that I forgot I quit.

- Euphtech

13. A Whole Shelf

Put ALL the toilet paper in the fridge. There was a whole shelf of cold toilet paper.

- the_geek_fwoop

12. A Few Too Many

I went to a bar near my ex's apartment. The whole night I was thinking I can have a couple more than usual if I want to, I'll just walk home. It was only when I was walking up the stairs to her apartment that I remembered that we broke up two weeks ago and I live on the other side of town.

- Falcon_Glen

11. The Train Ride Home

Left work and walked a mile to the train station. Then I took the 45 minute train ride back to my home town. I got out of the train like normal, looked around the parking lot... and suddenly remembered that I drove to work that day.

- Hrekires

10. Don't Swallow The Ring

I believe mild heat exhaustion came into play in this scenario, it was a summer day & my boyfriend and I were hanging out by my pool and ended up falling asleep in the sun for a few hours. We went inside for a snack & then napped in my room, with the door shut so no air circulation.

Woke up suddenly in the dark to my phone alarm to take my birth control, and in my disoriented state I opened the ring box on my night stand & popped the ring inside into my mouth. I sat there feeling the metal on my tongue for a solid thirty seconds thinking something didn't feel right, but arguing with myself that this was something I did every day. I won the argument and didn't swallow the ring.

- awkwardhousehippo

9. Wrong Hand

When I was around 12 I got given a $10 bill to go buy a sub from Subway. In my other hand I had a receipt which I intended to throw away. One thing in each hand so I couldn't mix them up, right? Wrong. I used the wrong hand. I put the $10 in the trash and walked to subway before realizing what I did, luckily it was still there when I looked in the trash can!

- ClubWRX

8. Buckle Up For This Jam Session

I sat down at my drum set, put my feet on the pedals ... aaaaaaand reached to put my seat belt on.

- todayIsinlgehandedly

7. Desolate Roads

Strangest? Let's say scariest.

I live in very rural Midwest, and spend lots of weekends driving flat, straight, 1 and 2 lane highways/interstates with very little traffic and nothing to look at off the highway.

Several trips I have completed, and when arriving at my destination, think to myself where the heck the past X hours just go? I don't remember a moment from them. It's like my brain just shuts off out of boredom.

People will try to be justice warriors and condemn anyone who texts and drives at any chance they get, but you don't know how desolate the country can be (especially those in populous states/cities). Some of the drives require absolutely bare minimum attention. So naturally I gravitate to my phone, music, the views around me, etc. and it's baffling how little I actually pay attention to the road sometimes.

I should clarify, when I get into residential areas, any sort of traffic, etc. I put my phone down. I do consider myself to be a good, responsible driver. But I do believe that "absolutely no texting and driving ever" is unrealistic.

- iBaconized

6. Calling The Dog

Sleep deprivation from grief does f*cked up sh!t to your head. I live at home and work from home - when my dog I had since childhood passed, I was utterly devastated. It was sudden, it was awful and I felt so guilty like, there was something I should've seen... But in the end, he was gone.

During my sleep deprivation period, I would wake up, go to let the dog out and feed him as part of my morning routine and then go make myself breakfast.

When I saw his food bowls weren't there on their tray, it didn't register to me. I thought he just knocked them under the table again. I got the door to the backyard open and called out for him.

And then it hit me all over again. The day he passed I went to go shove leftovers from dinner into his bowl when I had taken too much to eat and that set me off badly. With the calling him incident, I just went back to my room and curled up in bed until 3 PM.

I did sh!t like that a LOT because I wasn't sleeping. At all.

That stands as the strangest... and saddest. Sorry...

- Storm137

5. Soaked Sandwich

Made a sandwich with some expensive pate left over from Christmas and combined it with some lovely cheese from a local castle.

I then cut it in half and put the knife on the plate and threw half the sandwich in the sink where I was soaking a pan from earlier.

- Dedj_McDedjson

4. Wet Clothes

My nightly routine involved changing into my jim-jams, having a wee then putting my clothes in the laundry hamper. One night I dumped my clothes into the toilet bowl and was half-way to peeing in the hamper before I clicked back to reality.

- paigezero

3. Back To The Start

I was walking back to my flat from the train station. I have to wait near a bus stop to cross the road. It takes me about 2 minutes to walk home from the bus stop. All I need to do is wait for a break in traffic and cross.

The bus arrives while I'm waiting. For whatever stupid reason, I get on the bus. I then pay for my destination, which is the train station, right back where I started from.

The station is 20 minutes walk away from my flat - I should know because I JUST WALKED IT. I would have had to wait for another bus to leave, which would have taken another 30-40 minutes. So I walked. Again.

God, that was an excruciating journey home.

- smidgit

2. The Bathroom Key

I do it all the time with the bathroom at work. My office is inside of a larger office building so we share a bathroom with the other tenants. It's also locked to prevent non-employees from using it.

I can't count the number of times I've been on auto-piloted and did weird things with the key. Like putting the key in my pocket right away and then being confused why the bathroom door wouldn't open;

I've gone to the bathroom and completely forgotten the key; I've tried to unlock our office door with the bathroom key; I've tried to use the office key to unlock the bathroom; I've tried to use the bathroom key on the inside of the office lock when leaving for the bathroom.

You'd think that something as simple as opening a bathroom door wouldn't cause so much trouble, especially after using it at least once a day, five days per week.

- joe_frank

1. Porch Diapers

We cloth diaper my son. A normal change goes: stuff new diaper with inserts, take off old diaper, clean butt, button new diaper. Wipes in the trash, diaper in the bucket by the washing machine.

I stuffed the clean diaper, took off the old one. Wiped his butt, put the old one back on, and threw the clean diaper on our front porch.

My brain was telling me i needed to feed the dog (on the porch) after the diaper change. My poor kid was still laying on the floor like, "This isn't right..." and my husband told me to go take a nap.

- KFiggNewton

H/T: Reddit

People Share Their Best 'Don't Ask How I Know That' Fun Facts

Reddit user Dry_Bus_935 asked: 'What is your "don't ask how I know" random fact?'

Person holding large stack of books
Photo by Jay Lamm on Unsplash

Whether you're naturally interested in fun facts and trivia or not, it's always nice to know a few that you can pull out of your pocket at a moment's notice as a nice conversation starter.

But there are some fun facts out there that are so weird, people become more preoccupied with how the teller found out that information rather than the information itself.

Redditor Dry_Bus_935 asked:

"What is your 'don't ask me how I know' random fact?"

Nuclear Fail Safe

"You have quite a lot of time, certainly more than ten seconds, to turn back on the main pumps of a nuclear reactor once you have accidentally turned them off."

- egorf

"I'm not surprised. The amount of fail safes, redundancies, and emergency scenario planning for nuclear power plants is insane."

"I toured a nuclear plant and wrote my high school senior thesis on the plans put in place to ensure the Fukushima disaster would not happen at that plant."

"I'm sure the secondary pumps are plenty capable of handling the reactor until the main pumps are repaired or just turned back on."

- Borderlandsman

Happy Cat

"If your cat chews on fresh eucalyptus, they might start hallucinating and fall over repeatedly, leading to a $400 emergency vet bill just to be told she’s just kinda high."

- oddidealstronghold

"And, that's part of why koalas love it. Little stoners."

- littlebluefoxy

Archaeology: Do Not Lick

"Old human bones are very porous, so if you lick them, they’ll stick to your tongue."

- clanculcarius

Sharing is Caring

"A pigeon will only eat a Starburst if you chew it up a little bit first. Just to clarify: chew the Starburst, not the pigeon."

- OhTheHueManatee

"Instructions unclear. Pigeon unhappy."

- Wild-Lychee-3312

Intriguing Anatomy

"Everyone is here with the creepy crime stuff, and I'm just like, 'A soft fur rat has 22 nipples.'"

- horroscoblue

"Okay, so either they have really small nipples, their nipples overlap, or they have nipples in places where there shouldn't be nipples."

"(I've never written the word 'nipples' so many times in a singular sentence before.)"

- GdeGraaf

'Don't Ask Me,' Indeed!

"Turmeric can be used as clothes dye. It is capable of permanently dyeing cotton cloth even after it has passed through the digestive tract of an adult male."

- SlefeMcDichael

"You s**t your pants, didn't you?"

- PMmecrossstitch

"I'd prefer not to answer that question."

- SlefeMcDichael

High-Risk Survival Skills

"If you ever trying to survive in the Arctic, don’t eat polar bear liver. It is so high in vitamin A, it will kill you."

- WrongWayCorrigan-361

"It's also surrounded by a lethal amount of angry polar bear."

- horanc2

Real-Life Spies

"TV shows and movies go out of their way to make military/intelligence officers look bada**."

"But real-life 'spies,' by design and training, are boring. They have regular houses and standard second-hand cars, they dress down, and they have vague, boring job titles (accounts receivable) as cover, and they do not draw attention to themselves. Most come from specialized academia."

- Ok_Worth_1093

Haunting Reality

"Your muscles can keep twitching for several hours after you die."

- JustDave62

"Also, beards can appear to grow. This is however not because the beard itself grows but because the skin shrinks."

- RRautamaa

"I worked at a morgue for over eight years. If you grasp the hand of a dead body to move the arm, the hand will grasp back, but that's just muscles and tendons reacting to the tension."

- goneferalinid

The Sneakiness of Drowning

"When a drowning victim is revived, get them to a hospital as soon as possible. Drowning is the leading cause of death of kids from the age of one to seven and is ruled as accidental drowning when it comes to secondary drowning or dry drowning."

"Basically, your lungs are full of water despite being revived. Your lungs will absorb the liquid, but not before your body acidifies from high levels of carbon dioxide. The only chance to survive is to have the lungs pumped with oxygen via CPAP machine and time."

"Also, drowning is extremely quiet. You don’t hear the victim go under. And if you see flailing, do not attempt to save the victim otherwise you’ll become another drowning victim. Throw them a lifeline and hope their amygdala realizes that a rope or something is floating near them and grabs on it."

- Dfiggsmeister

Not Everyone's Favorite Chocolate

"Hershey’s chocolate has the strong smell of vomit or feces to some people (me), and that’s because they use butyric acid as a preservative. Butyric acid is the compound that makes vomit smell so bad."

"Edit: Digging further into it, there are some claims that they may not be “adding” the butyric acid, but rather it is occurring from essentially spoiling the milk in their milk chocolate. Either way, the butyric acid and putrid smell remains a part of their product."

- hefewiseman1

"That explains the weird aftertaste I always get! I don’t smell it but their chocolate always has this super unpleasant sharp/acidic aftertaste that I find repulsive. I assume this is why!!"

- PomegranateNo975

Do Not Lick the Asbestos

"Asbestos tastes like chalk. And if you lick it, it has the texture of extremely gritty sandpaper. Which is actually the feeling of microscopic asbestos needles piercing your flesh!"

- TooYoungToBeThisOld1

Mapping Out the War

"Beginning in 1911 in anticipation of the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, two statesmen, one from England and one from France, began visiting locations in France that they believed would be the settings for a number of major battles that would occur during the great war."

"Long bike rides through these future battle zones in the countryside and weeks spent building a foundation for a French-Anglo codebook that would later prove important in helping win the war."

- fjordperfect123

Avoiding Lawsuits > Protecting Patients

"Doctors, or surgeons more specifically, that make too many mistakes during surgery, ie, leaving instruments in patients, frequently gets ‘quietly traded’ to other hospitals where they continue their path of destruction with the patients not being aware of their past record. Hospitals tend to keep quiet about the matter to avoid lawsuits."

- Kittytigris

Bonus Points: Do This While Having Lunch in Your Car

"If you overfill a fast food gravy cup and then put a lid on, it will create a pressurized gravy stream that sprays all over your face and uniform while your coworker looks on in horror."

- thechaosjester776

This subReddit thread was so a roller-coaster of random facts, we've surely all walked away learning something.

But the biggest takeaway might just be: Maybe don't lick so many things.

Shocked woman covering her mouth
vaitheeswaran Nataraj/Unsplash

When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.

But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.

Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.

It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.

Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:

"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"

These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.

Bleeding Out

"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."

"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."

– DongLaiCha

Tragic News

"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."

– accountnameredacted

Bottom Of The Barrel

"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."

– Crotch-Monster

A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.

Like Father, Like Son

"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."

– psycospaz

Busted

"Flashing blue lights."

– FiddleOfGold

"This sobered me up just thinking about it."

– redmaple_syrup

Losing Sight

"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."

– MissHibernia

Quitting The Bottle

"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."

– omgtater

These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.

Unplanned House Guests

"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."

– Oneinsevenbillion75

Serious Health Warning

"Elevated liver enzymes."

"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."

"So I opted for recovery, instead."

"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."

– Far_Meal8674

The Joyride

"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."

– foxfood9116

The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?

How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.

But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.

Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.

Woman holding multiple shopping bags
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.

Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.

These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.

From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.

Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:

"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"

"Tale As Old As Time..."

"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","

"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."

"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."

"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."

"Lol!"

"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom

"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."

"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."

"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."

"I think he was a germaphobe."

"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."

"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."

"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.

"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."

"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."

"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000

Money Burn GIF by nog Giphy

Who Wore It Better?

"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."

"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."

"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."

"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'

"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"

"No."- mertsey627

Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...

"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."

"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."

"It was very low key."

"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."

"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."

"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."

"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."

"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa

south park wedding GIF Giphy

See You In Court!

"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."

'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."

"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."

"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."

"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."

"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin

It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!

"I work in a public library."

"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."

"A popular book that just came out."

"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."

"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten

A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!

"My own."

"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"

"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."

"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"

"Unacceptable!"

"This shall not stand!"

"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."

"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."

"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."

"I got over it."- DeathGrover

homer simpson episode 23 GIF Giphy

Holy Matrimony!

"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."

"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."

"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."

"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."

"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."

"It's just a party."

"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree

When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...

"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore

In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...

"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."

"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."

"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."

"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."

"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."

"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."

"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."

"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."

"We don’t offer wrapping services."

"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."

'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae

Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso Giphy

Happiest Place On Earth!

"I used to work for Disney."

"That in itself should tell you everything."

"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."

"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."

"Suddenly got worse huh?"

"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."

"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."

"I'm not kidding."

"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."

"My wife worked booking."

"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."

"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."

"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."

"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."

"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."

"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong

Disney World GIF Giphy

The horror!

Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!

It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...

Said absolutely no one.


Four mistreated baby dolls are hung by barb wire
Photo by J Lopez

For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.

Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.

The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.

Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:

"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"

Serious Danger

"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."

"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."

oofboof2020

Waiting for Food

"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."

"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."

nowhereboy1964

Captain Hobo to the Rescue

"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."

"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"

"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."

FartAttack911

Survival

tsunami GIF Giphy

"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."

faithfulpoo

These Tsunami stories are just tragic.

On the Sand

Scared The Launch GIF by CTV Giphy

"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."

oyloff

Be Clever

"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."

OstneyPiz

Bad Jokes

"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."

Alegan239

YOU

Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN Giphy

"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"

PrettyLola2004

Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.

No one should talk to others in the dark though.