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?'
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.
People Reveal The Grossest Hygiene Issues They Overlooked In An Ex
Reddit user MustangSallie asked: 'What is the grossest hygiene issue you overlooked in an ex?'
When it comes to love, we've all overlooked something in a partner that we normally would not excuse, because that person meant so much to us.
But when the love wanes and the relationship ends, we realize looking back just how bad some of the things we overlooked actually were.
Already cringing, Redditor MustangSallie asked:
"What is the grossest hygiene issue you overlooked in an ex?"
Poor Dental Hygiene
"They said, 'My tooth keeps chipping and growing back.'"
"Dawg, that’s tartar."
- Alternative_Chip_280
What Teeth-Brushing Habit?
"He said, 'I don't like to brush my teeth because it makes my gums bleed,' as in therefore it's not good for him."
- feyceless
"I dated someone who never brushed his teeth because he didn't like the tastes of minty toothpaste, as if other flavors didn't exist."
- Princess_Jade1974
Used Tampons
"How’s this, happened with my high school girlfriend, at 17."
"The bottom drawer of the bathroom was filled to the brim with used tampons, and when I discovered this and asked why the bin or even just a sealable bag wasn’t an appropriate option, she sheepishly said she liked the smell of them."
"I tapped out."
- Metaphysical-Alchemy
Sniffly Nose
"I would frequently hear my ex blowing his nose at night in bed. He always said it was into a t-shirt. I thought that was gross but whatever."
"Then when I moved out, I discovered he was actually blowing it into his hands and wiping it onto the back of the fabric headboard of my bed! His side was covered in so much disgusting crusty snot."
"I left it there. F**k trying to clean that!"
- bilby_mum
Simply... Unclean
"I could smell my ex's a**. I had to bring it up more than once. That was one of many things. I don't know why I put up with that s??t. All I can think of is that I had low self-worth."
- rubberloves
"Oh God, same. My first proper boyfriend had a constant stink of s**t. I thought I was going crazy because how could someone who just showered smell like poo?"
"Anyway, when we broke up, the first thing my sister said was that she was so glad I was no longer dating S**t Man. Cannot believe I dated that."
- rabbitluckj
Nowhere in the Wedding Vows
"Oh hi. This is going to be cathartic."
"My ex had a toenail fungus so bad that his super long and disgusting crust-mobile toe literally cut holes in multiple fitted sheets."
"Our toilet paper rolls would get poop on them. Because ye olde ex somehow got a poopy hand EVERY SINGLE TIME and then transferred a little bit of it to the roll. Was he doing the first pass with a bare hand? I have no idea."
"Once he didn’t change his clothes for a week, then he took a shower AND ALMOST PUT THE SAME UNDERWEAR BACK ON. I had to convince him to put on clean undies."
"Sat on the bed right after a shower, naked. Stood up, and a tire track was on the bed. HE HAD JUST SHOWERED. THIS HAPPENED MULTIPLE TIMES."
"Fuzzy teeth."
"Anyway, we’re divorcing now."
"All of this started after we got married, and then the pandemic basically turned him into a feral animal. I did not consent to marriage with this level of hygiene."
- psnugbottybug
Disgusting to the Family
"Well, not on purpose, but when we broke up, my family told me he smelled horrible. (I have zero sense of smell, so I had no clue)."
- AtomicDreamWeaver
A Reality Check
"I was seeing a guy but he would never invite me over to his bedroom, and one night his friend dragged me to the room and was like, 'LOOK, at THIS. You want THIS? This is nice?! It’s disgusting! He’s hiding THIS! I’m trying to help you!'"
"He was flipping through trash to show me how bad it was. Food containers everywhere, trash all over the floor and I’m pretty sure suspect-looking piss bottles?"
"I ended up dating him for a year, and cleaned/gutted his room several times, but it was just too much."
- Zoinks3324
"I can just imagine how hard it was for that friend to be like, 'I love my buddy, but please do not date him.'"
- Camimo626
Absolutely Unlivable
"They peed the bed. Every night. I would sleep so close to the edge of the bed to avoid it, and my ex always reeked of piss, even after washing the blankets."
- glusmoker69
Poor Cleaning Habits
"He showered maybe twice a week and changed his underpants even less often. In the summer, I could smell his a** crack."
"His job was dishes and he'd leave them for weeks if I didn't end up doing them for him."
"The only thing I really wouldn't do was laundry because we had a creeper downstairs I wasn't comfortable around. So sometimes even I ran out of underwear."
"I left him almost two years ago and he went back to living in squalor. His place is all carpet and he told me recently he vacuumed it once since I left and that was just because the unit was being inspected."
- Pour_Me_Another_
What Shower Habit?
"She showered once a week, sometimes longer, and was very usual for her to go days on end without showering, didn’t change her panties or bras for weeks, either."
- DUKEPLANTER
Worrying For Them
"Refused to floss. She claimed the space between her teeth was too tight, so I introduced her to the Glide series from Oral B; but she still refused. I suggested a water pik since there was no actual flossing involved, and she refused again."
"Some nights her breath was really really bad, to the point where I let her know because I was worried for her health. She took it as an insult and tried to say I was just being a d**k."
"I loved the relationship, but we eventually broke up. The flossing wasn't a factor in this, but it's certainly something that I eventually overlooked."
- bassman2112
Taking Care of Them
"His toothbrush was moldy. I don’t think he ever thoroughly rinsed it off after brushing He still used it, and called me a nag for mentioning it was probably unsanitary."
"So I got him an expensive electric one. It got moldy. So I took on replacing the brush heads for him myself every couple of weeks."
"He wondered why I barely wanted to have sex. Who wants to f**k someone they’re raising?"
- powands
An Unwelcoming Home
"He did not clean his house at all. I mean there was trash everywhere, no clean dishes, no spot was clear on countertops, and his bedroom was so cluttered, there was only a trail clear to the bed."
- wetpeachyangel
So Necessary
"He refused to wear deodorant because it was 'feminine' and 'feels weird.'"
"Mofo, you stink. Wear it."
- GodHatesUsAll
This conversation gave us the creepy crawlies and left us in need of a nice spa treatment.
Everyone could use a healthier dose of self-worth and self-respect, but that seems especially true for these Redditors who actually thought they had to put up with this.
The Weirdest Things People Have Witnessed In A Rich Person's Home
It's no secret that as a person starts to make more money, they may forget how difficult they had it when there was less money coming into their bank account.
Not only are rich people often incredibly out-of-touch with the realities of most people's lives, but what they choose to prioritize and bring into their home is often pretty bizarre, too.
Already side-eyeing, Redditor Jerswar asked:
"What's the weirdest thing you've witnessed in the home of a rich person?"
Love Can't Be Bought
"Rich grandparents had a brand new house built, had a $100,000 splash pad built for their only grandchild who has never visited them at their new house."
- wyoflyboy68
"This reminds me of when my sister built her house. She had a barrier-free ground-floor apartment built in it, so my grandmother could visit. She never did."
- P44
A Separate Hoarder's House
"I had a rich neighbor growing up who'd always invite us over for parties and always insisted on giving us gifts and leftovers. They did this with every guest."
"They were also hoarders but built a separate house to keep their crap in. It was filled with whatever they bought but never used and even never got out of the packaging it was delivered in."
"They told my mom to take a box of what she wanted, and for s**ts and giggles, she did. It was a knife collection and sharpener set."
- MUSTARDUNAVAILABLE
Unusual Art
"I was at John Waters’ house for his birthday and he has a room set up as a lifelike recreation of a meth lab (it wasn’t a real meth lab, it’s an art piece)."
"He told me that when Bill Clinton visited him the secret service agents were extremely concerned about the room."
- writeleahwrite
Weird Pet Relationships
"One client had a whole separate house on their property just for their dogs. They'd referred to it as the 'dog house,' and I was expecting like maybe a little building in the yard where they kept their toys or something, but this was a fully furnished home with king-sized beds and a huge playroom on the main floor."
"They had a full training and feeding staff to care for the dogs and everything. They lived in their own house and would come over to visit. Seemed like a weird dynamic to have with your pet..."
"One client didn't have a litterbox for the cats, their cats I guess didn't like using the boxes in the basement and they didn't want to put boxes upstairs so they put down pond liner and kitty litter across an entire room in the basement and had their housekeeper run a rake through it daily."
- daabilge
Special Needs Kitty Mystery Mansion
"As a kid back in the Mesozoic Era (I'm old), my best friend and I used to play in a converted racquetball court and lounge under the old West Coast mansion her family had lived in since its construction."
"The stairs to it were hidden behind a closet off of the abandoned servants' quarters. Halfway down the stairs was a wine cellar. A decoy as the actual wine cellar for the home was under the kitchen….. Another staircase behind a rack of dusty bottles led two stories down to our giant play area beneath this."
"At the beginning of WWII, before Pearl Harbor, my friend’s paranoid WWI vet grandfather had dug out the space over fear of Japanese (or German) invasion. Her dad made the giant room regulation designed for racquetball years later. Maybe originally squash. Not sure, but the lounge area was also glassed off above it so one could look down into the court like a gallery."
"It was really neat. Also upstairs in the living room was a wall straight out of an old mystery novel. If you pushed a spot just right, the wall opened to a hidden room. Super tiny and had a button to ring certain other rooms in the house as the home had these already to call for staff. My friend's mom said it was so if someone quickly had to hide, they could alert the household of danger."
"We used to pretend to be on Nancy Drew cases all the time... so fun."
"The family was wealthy, but despite the amazing home, they lived a completely pretentious free life. Normal cars, camping vacations, frugal living as sport."
"But they were philanthropists too, especially supporting organizations like the humane society. One thing about this family’s home was all the cats. I loved kitties but had a mother who preferred her animals well-seasoned. The family had the space so they always had, and were looking to adopt out but often didn’t, at least 20 rescue cats, many with special needs."
"I’m old, I didn’t know how to write that. Special needs kitty mystery mansion really is actually an appropriate description..."
- waltersmama
"Special needs kitty mystery mansion with hidden panic rooms and decoy wine cellars is like, the best possible fever dream."
- ConneisseurOfDanger
A Unique Viewing Experience
"In Naples, FL., I was at a house with a sensory deprivation room. Flat black walls with acoustic dampening baffles, in the middle was a coffin-like bathtub. It had speakers and a flat-screen display in the lid."
"I heard that the room cost over $100K to build."
- frank_sarno
A Christmas Village
"They had part of the house permanently decorated for Christmas and it included a fully decorated Christmas tree that was suspended upside down from the ceiling. Which was pretty awesome."
- lithecello
New Meaning to "Don't Take Your Work Home"
"My wife and I used to babysit for this wealthy couple when they went on ski trips etc."
"Except for the children's schoolbooks, there wasn't a book, magazine, or newspaper in the house."
"The man was a publisher."
- Texbadger349
The End of Laundry
"I knew someone who didn't like to do laundry so she just bought new clothes for each of her 4 kids every week. They were always high-quality or designer clothes. At the time, all her kids were 10 to 16 years old."
"What would happen if they liked an item a lot and couldn't find it again? Why not just teach the kids to do their own laundry? Why not hire a housekeeper who can do it?"
"There are so many options, other than spending thousands every month just to avoid laundry. Plus, they rarely donated it. Just bagged it up and threw it out. I never could wrap my head around it."
- coffee-jnky
Can We Be the Trivia Guy?
"I know someone who's worked for a very rich person, probably worth billions. He had more than 100 staff on site, including chefs for the staff...all while divorced and living alone. He had a 'trivia' staff member... someone hired to tell him interesting facts and stories daily. That was his only job."
"Someone else was hired to maintain his shoes. Polish, shine, the works."
"If I didn't hear it firsthand, I wouldn't have believed it."
- mambo-nr4
A Mud Room, Indeed!
"I used to work as an exterminator, mostly pest control. This had me walking through houses from the poor to the rich."
"One day, I pulled up to a four-story mansion with more rooms than I could count."
"I spoke with the lady at the door and got started. As I sprayed, I noticed there wasn’t much furniture in the house. As I went, I made a game of counting the furniture I could find. Over 50 rooms and the whole building had 13 pieces of furniture."
"Pretty odd, but then I went into the very last room, a mud room right by the door I came into."
"I stopped as I walked in, completely shocked. A huge, full-sized (alive) adult pig stretched from one end of the room to the other, resting on the tile floor. I’m talking five or six feet stretched out across the room. Flies buzzed around its head as it stared at me."
"Suddenly, the lady (who I hadn’t seen since she let me in) said, 'Oh, don’t go in there. She doesn’t like men,' and then she walked me out, paid me, and went back inside."
- Moist-Exchange2890
His Very Own Hot Wheels Garage
"Buddy of mine has a car elevator."
"Instead of just building a bigger garage, he stores his cars stacked onto each other, like some kind of Hot Wheels accessory. It's very surreal."
- SmackEh
Make Yourself at Home
"My friend's dad growing up was one of the top lawyers in our state. Their house was so d**n big, I got confused (lost as h**l) on all the staircases they had everywhere. They would split in a few places and lead to banisters that had different connections to different parts of the house."
"They had a room just for dishes. Her mom had a huge room for sewing and another for different crafts. They both had an office. Many guest rooms. A small kitchen in one part with a sink, coffee pot, and fridge. Their main bathroom for guests had heated floors and rainfall showers and everything. I LOVED HER SHOWER."
"Her room had a balcony and a table outside."
"They had a pool and hot tub. Horses and a barn and lots of cute barn cats."
"I was very poor and had a messed up situation in my childhood. I stayed there a lot and they would even take me for weeks in the summer because my mother was not there. They are really great people."
" They didn't give handouts or anything, I would literally scoop up horse shit and clean stalls and help with everything for those horses when I stayed. I wanted to help."
"They had a maid, but we still cleaned up after ourselves. Their kitchen was gigantic, and I always loved the fancy pasta water arm over the stove. I had so much fun cooking with her mom and us having the big dinners (Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) with them."
"They were so magnificent and beyond anything I would have ever experienced without them. I got my first pair of cowboy boots from them for Christmas. Her dad bought me a plane ticket one time out of the blue because I wanted to visit my grandmother. Never forget them."
- xNinjaNoPants
So Much Wasted Food
"A very rich person I know does not eat leftover food. They will cook a feast and after, everything goes straight in the garbage no matter how much is left over."
- duckduckroosebolton
"My husband won’t eat leftovers because he thinks it will give him diarrhea. His family is preoccupied with food poisoning but doesn’t know any of the actual food safety rules."
"Oh well, more for me."
- jendet010
"My brother-in-law’s family does this but they are middle class. It’s such a waste!"
- outlawjoseymeow
An Art Enthusiast
"Not weird but a Van Gogh, just chillin' in the hallway. I took a selfie with the flash on, whoops."
- Raccoon_Expert_69
"When I did executive level IT support years back, I found a Monet dangling haphazardly on an office chair in the CEO's extra office (which was unused for storage, and had an extra desktop computer I would sometimes use for quick tasks when on that floor)."
"Another time, I was admiring a Joan Miro coffee table book in his main office, and when his assistant noticed, he showed me into a side room I didn’t realize was there, which had a mini gallery of original Miro drawings."
- spymusicspy
It's amazing what people will spend money on when they have the money to spare. It would be so interesting to see how much more a person would explore a hobby if they had the money to spend.
People Reveal Their Picks For All-Time Worst Fast Food Restaurant
A lot of things have gone downhill since the pandemic, and it's made the whole process of bouncing back from those two to three years that much harder.
One thing we can all agree on is the quality of the food that we now find in restaurants, especially the fast-food joints we used to frequent and hit the drive-thru for on the drive home.
Curious what other people thought, Redditor Soy_tu_papi asked:
"What's the worst fast food restaurant?"
Eat... Expensive, Not Fresh
"Subway. The ingredients don't taste fresh. They don't give you enough meat or cheese. The bread tastes sweet. It's not even that cheap anymore."
- Brilliant-Mango-4
There for the Nostalgia
"Tim Hortons. We’re nostalgic for a time when they made fresh donuts and great soup and sandwiches. But that was more than 20 years ago and now everything is just heated from frozen garbage with garbage dish water coffee."
"The only reason they’re around is nostalgia and convenience. Americans for the most part didn’t fall for their crap when they expanded south because they didn’t have one on every corner, and they don’t have the nostalgia, and they already have a s**tty coffee and donut place called Dunkin."
- Strain128
Microwaved Soup
"Really, we all going to pretend like Panera is not fast food?"
- WelderNo6075
"It’s not fast. It's always a 20-minute wait."
- Greedy-Time-3637
"For microwaved soup."
- InsertBlueScreenHere
Hospital Food. Gourmet Prices
"Panera. For when you want hospital food, but you can’t afford the $127,209.00 hospital bill."
- BarnacleMcBarndoor
"Yeah, it’s only $126,208 for Panera."
- sherlock----75
"There is a similar yet worse than Panera hospital food restaurant called Atlanta Bread Company. How these two hell holes stay in business, I have no idea."
- GrandUnhappy9211
New Horizons
"I think KFC abandoned the American market and put all its resources into the Asian market, because omg KFC in Korea is something else. The chicken is breaded perfectly, with no mouth-destroying rock-hard breading and the ratio of breading to actual chicken meat is perfectly balanced."
"Also, the sauce selection; they have so many good sauces. The fries were great too."
- LolitasDaniel
RIP, Potato Wedges
"In my opinion, KFC. They got rid of their beloved potato wedges. The only thing I got there anymore was those and the mashed potatoes."
- dirtymoney
"Wendy’s breakfast potatoes almost fill that hole in my heart."
- Karsa69246
Those Darn Screens
"Any of them that have replaced their menu boards with TV screens that change every 15 seconds so I can't find the price of anything."
- xkulp8
"I hate the TVs. Maybe I'm just a bitter old guy, but they really don't seem to be an improvement. There's just too much going on, and it's too bright. Sure, it's probably more convenient for menu/price changes. But when you add in the cost and electronic waste, it doesn't feel like a net gain."
- BumpyMcBumps
No Longer Affordable
"McDonald’s. They’ve forgotten their role as the place I eat at because I’m broke, probably drunk, and want to fill up for a few bucks. Have you seen their prices lately!?"
- Jlace001
"A quarter pounder meal is over $10. $4 More bucks and you can get a chills old-timer and fries. And they always park you, so not very 'fast,' unless you are talking about the stomach cramps you get after."
- Eric12345678
Define 'Pizza'
"Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready is for when your manager promises you a pizza party when you exceed your sales goal and buys enough for one piece a person, but he's been talking up this party he's going to throw for you all week, so you come in on your day off and see two Hot-N-Ready boxes sitting there and some Dixie cups for water. Sometimes nothing is better, STEVE."
- cold08
"The secret technique for Lil Caesars is to give it another few minutes in the oven/under the broiler at home until it's to your liking."
- KaRabbit
The Great Pizza of the Past
"It hurts me to say this, but Pizza Hut."
"Back in the 80s and early 90s, Pizza Hut was amazing! It's somehow worse than Dominos now. It's a f**king travesty."
- Ocku2
"Their marinara sauce with breadsticks is watery now..."
"My friend and I used to ride our bikes there and play Pac-Man in eighth grade. Their breadsticks and sauce were amazing."
- KkdBaby
Small and Stale
"Whataburger is very hit or miss depending on the individual location. It was also better before it sold out and went national."
- HoovesCarveCrater
"It used to be so good, but it's so bad now. Earlier in the year, I went, and I got a stale bun with a tiny piece of meat they called a hamburger. Then I stupidly went again months later, and got the chicken sandwich. Both the bread and chicken were somehow stale. Never again, it's not worth it."
- user_base56
Belly Bombers, Indeed
"White Castle. I ate there once, and I now know what it feels like to reject an organ."
- flyzapper
"I have a stomach of steel when it comes to fast food. Not even Taco Bell gives me an above-average s**t. But when it comes to White Castle, some things just can't be saved."
- STILETTO_exists
A Rise in Poor Management
"Sonic used to be good."
"I feel for the two workers running the whole place. There used to be a lot of staff to handle the load."
"But now I feel bad going there simply because it's unfair to the workers. Which means corners get cut, things aren't clean, people aren't happy and workers end up catching the blame because there aren't enough of them."
"They really need to get it together. And treat their customers and employees right. It's going to kill their business."
- That_90s_Kid_
"The only Sonic near me stopped serving onion rings, which to me is their best side. And they take for-f**king-ever now to get you food, and half the time it's wrong or half-a**ed. I used to love Sonic, and I still want to and will go there, but every time it's a let-down in some form."
- SweetCosmicPope
"Sonic used to give their managers minority ownership as part of their compensation package. The result was highly motivated managers. Unfortunately, they had to work 80 to 90 hours a week. I thought about getting onboard with them but after using two weeks of vacation from my current job to work there, unpaid, I quickly decided smelling like French fries 24 hours a day, seven days a week was a very bad idea."
- the_beeve
A Series of Failures
"A bad KFC is tough to top, but there are still some amazing ones out there. The key is that it’s busy enough to have fresh chicken and a few employees that aren’t strung out. Not all. Just some."
"Burger King increasingly tastes like the burgers from my elementary school that sat in that weird burger water after being boiled in its own juices. I like their nuggets though."
"What even is Jack in the Box? It’s just some random assortment of food you take kids who can’t agree on what hot garbage they want to eat so you go here and make everyone unhappy."
"I’ve been to Whataburger once and it was bad, but since it’s crazy popular, I assume maybe it was just a bad experience and it was in AZ vs TX."
"I feel like I’m left with Little Caesars at this point, as the person buying those godawful hot and ready things is the epitome of a desperate person just trying to fill their children’s with ‘pizza’, thus the reason why there are any in existence."
- bowindine
So Real for This Answer
"Basically, every single one since the pandemic."
- MythicalMango123
"Dine-in prices for dollar store flavors."
- WannaBeTraveler87
"This is the answer. They are all awful now."
- chris1out
Especially for those of us who had the pleasure of experiencing these food places in the 80s, 90s, and maybe the very earls 2000s, it's terrible to think of how much these places have declined now.
As some Redditors have said, it's almost not worth going to these places anymore. We'd rather preserve the happy memories of going there with our families and friends rather than go for an unhappy meal now.
The Biggest Culture Shocks People Have Experienced At Someone's House
No two family homes are exactly alike, but some households are wildly different, from how they're decorated to what the family eats to how the family members treat each other.
What's interesting is how two people could be best friends and lead completely different lifestyles when they go home, but their friend might never know that until they go for a visit.
Redditor mango-chocolate asked:
"What is the biggest cultural shock you experienced when going to someone else's house?"
Bad Hostesses
"This is the strangest experience I’ve ever had at someone’s home. I worked with this young Cuban gal as a waitress while I was studying at University."
"She mentioned that her sister needed some help with Math in her Nursing program so I offered to go over and tutor."
"I knew it was a multi-generational house with parents, adult children, grandparents, great-grandparents and babies. When I arrived at the house, only the sister was home."
"She invited me in and started unloading the refrigerator of leftovers and asked if I would like to have some of this, some of that, etc."
"I was genuinely not hungry but she was super persistent and made us some food anyway. She offered me a drink, but I just wanted water. She made herself a Cuban coffee and insisted I have one too."
"Then my friend comes home, and looks at us studying. In front of me, I have snacks, water, and a coffee."
"She begins screaming at her sister in Spanish. I can barely make it out, but she’s mad that her sister didn’t offer me anything to drink or eat. I explained I wasn’t hungry and I had two drinks in front of me, but she was still mad at her sister."
"Their parents came home and they started yelling about the same thing and accusing their daughters of being bad hostesses! I felt bad, and I somehow allowed five drinks to served to me and so much food, I was stuffed for the rest of the day."
"The whole experience was a weird combination of feeling guilty or like I may have insulted them, but also feeling loved and appreciated."
"When my friend introduced me to her family, she introduced me as the woman that would carry all her trays at work while she was pregnant so she didn’t have to lift them. I can’t believe she had even remembered that. I hadn’t until she brought it up. They made me like an honored guest in their home."
- mydogdoesntcuddle
"I’m Cuban. Not offering food or drink to your guest is extremely rude and shameful. And we mean FOOD AND DRINK. Not little finger sandwiches and tea. This even extends to a maintenance person that comes by, or a mail carrier, etc. it’s like grandma culture on steroids."
"Additionally, our intrapersonal communication style is extremely loud and can seem aggressive to others, so they might not have actually been yelling at each other."
"My stepfather is a white American from NYC, and when he saw the way my mother and I spoke to each other when we first started living together he’d constantly be worried asking why we were fighting; we’d have to explain we weren’t fighting, just casually talking."
- Asleep_Sherbet_3013
A Lack of Reading Material
"I hung out with my college roommates' family around Christmas. There were NO books in the house, none. This was early aughts."
"She told me her parents didn't want challenging books in their house to make the kids feel stupid."
"Her parents were professors at our college in the EDUCATION department."
"She (my roommate) and her siblings were f**king stupid."
- angel_inthe_fire
"I have always had a ton of books in almost every room growing up. It came as a shock going to someone's home and NOT seeing a book anywhere."
- GeekyBookWorm87
Loving Families
"When I was a teen, I was genuinely shocked to see that other families actually loved each other and wanted to interact and say nice things to each other."
"I kept expecting it to turn dark, and when it didn’t, I had no idea what to do and felt completely ashamed and out of place."
- MTBeanerschnitzel
Far Too Strict
"As a kid, I visited some friends who had scary 'yes sir/no sir' fathers who were quick to use a belt on them."
"None of those guys turned out well as adults, I might add."
"The funny thing is, my dad was an Army platoon sergeant, yet he was a jovial and easy-going father."
- p38-lightning
Empty Plates Only
"My friend's parents would make them finish their meals, even if they said they were full."
"The meals looked huge to me, and my friend was overweight. It felt depressing."
"If I was full at home, I'd never be pressured to eat absolutely everything if I didn't want to."
- nightsofthesunkissed
An American Breakfast
"I'm a first-generation American (Asian). Due to TV cereal commercials while watching Saturday morning cartoons, I grew up believing that White people would simultaneously have a glass of milk and a glass of OJ in the morning (as part of this complete breakfast)."
"You can imagine my disappointment the day after sleepovers at friends' homes."
- cloudedarcher
"My mom (white) literally did this. I'm not sure if she got it from commercials or something else because she had a weird idea of nutrition on other stuff too, but literally every morning my breakfast included an eight-ounce glass of milk and a four-ounce glass of orange juice."
"The combination is actually terrible. OJ and milk don't mix well in your stomach and drinking them together always made me feel uncomfortable, but it was the kind of household where I got in trouble for not finishing the whole meal."
"A pretty common weekday morning breakfast was a bagel with cream cheese and jam on both halves, some sliced-up strawberries, milk, and OJ. It's way more food than I'd eat for breakfast on a typical day as an adult and I was often uncomfortably full from it as a kid."
- SeaworthySwarth
Not So Messy
"I was raised by two women (my mother and my dad's wife) whose notion of cleanliness was such that rooms were sterile and it looked to me like the point was to make it look like no one lived in our house."
"By contrast, I was used to being called and feeling like I was a 'messy' person because none of those things are priorities to me."
"The first time I went into the house of someone who was truly messy... I'm talking leftover candles from a birthday party that happened two weeks ago still on the dining-room table messy, basement so full of junk the notion of separate rooms has been made abstract... it rearranged the way I looked at myself a little."
- BananasPineapples05
The Importance of Snack Time
"I remember going to a friend’s house after school we sat at the kitchen island and her mom gave us apple wedges with peanut butter and they talked about school."
"I was blown away that her mom just gave out snacks and was interested in her life, I thought it was probably a special occasion since I was there."
"Then I experienced snacks at other friends’ houses."
"I told my mom about the apple wedges and peanut butter once and she screamed at me and said if I wanted a perfect family, why don’t I go live with them? She worked full time and I cooked pasta for my brother and me most nights, there was nothing resembling snacks in the house. We just had meals and drank water."
"As an adult, I have a snacking problem."
- yokizururu
...Excuse Me?
"Back in high school, I visited a friend's house and had to use the bathroom."
"I asked her where the toilet paper was in the bathroom and she said, 'We don't really wipe our butts in this house.'"
- Silent-Bird-4474
Always Say 'I Love You'
"People not saying 'I love you' before leaving or hanging up the phone. I was always taught to say 'I love you' to family before hanging up the phone or saying goodbye."
"You never know when your last goodbye will be so let the last thing you say to a loved one be 'I love you.'"
"A tradition I continue to practice to this day. Yet I think I was the only one who did that in my friend group."
- Herpypony
"My family never said I love you growing up. I asked my mom about it not long ago, and she said her dad never told her, so she didn't know to say it to her kids."
"One of my sisters started saying it, and making us say it, when we were in our 20s. It felt so awkward and weird to say it, but I forced myself. Now, 20 years later, we always say it to each other, and it feels normal. I should ask my sister about why and how she got the idea to start saying it to us."
"It seems so odd to me now that my parents never said I love you to me or my sisters growing up. They showed us, but never said it."
- Zaltara_The_Red
Run Away!
"When my friend's Russian grandmother chased me with a shoe and yelled at me in Russian."
"I didn’t know why she was angry but all my friend would say is that it had something to do with where I put my shoes when I entered the house."
- ArmyRepresentative88
An Awe-Inspiring Breakfast
"I went to the neighbor's house for breakfast one morning before the bus. We were good friends. She's Hindu, and her family is as well."
"It was a culture shock to see and smell the amazing food we had that morning. It wasn't the normal pancakes, eggs, and bacon for Americans."
"I think it was potato latkas with some delicious green spread. God, I wanted to eat all of it, and her mom was so happy I loved it."
"Never before in my life had I had such a different breakfast for me. It was shock and awe I experienced."
- Apprehensive-Skill34
Different Cultures, Different Accessories
"I’m an international student in the USA. I lived with my grand uncle for six months, and one of the cultural shocks that surprised me was that he had carpeted floors in his bathrooms. And also the lack of bidets in America."
- cassiemoonnana
A Kid's Dream
"I went to a friend's house at maybe age nine and was floored that she didn't share a bedroom with her little sister. On top of this, she also had a double bed and a small TV in her room hooked up to a PlayStation 2."
- LittleMsBlue
The Love of the Family
"I learned that other people's parents smiled at them, were nice to them, and seemed to enjoy having them around."
"I rarely experienced any of that. I thought everyone's parents were angry all the time and didn't like them much."
- t_portch
"I had a friend over recently and she thought it was necessary to tell our teenage son how lucky he was to have parents who love him (this was after a few beers)."
"I was kinda taken aback by the comment, given the realization that some parents don't dote on their kids, including my friend. Apparently some don't..."
- MainInTheMT
"Same. I had a best friend who was from Croatia. Her parents loved her and her brother so much, and they definitely weren’t afraid to show it."
"Her dad would hug her every night when he got home. It was absolutely shocking to me."
"I also would intentionally go to her house after school because her mom would have a FEAST waiting for us."
- NuriMoons
You never know what you're going to find before visiting someone else's home, from different decorations and food, to different beliefs about how a family should treat each other.
In a way, it's heartwarming to know that these Redditors were exposed to these different lifestyles, perhaps especially those who didn't know that families could show each other love, so they might have higher standards for their relationships in the future.