Comments (52)

1. while at the party store one day with a friend i spotted bouncy balls, in packages of twenty, for about a dollar. ten dollar credit card minimum. needless to say i ended up with entirely too many bouncy balls.

   posted by Bay on 2-22-2008 at 12:30 pm

2. I once went to a bar with a $7.00 minimum for credit card purchases (which wasn’t posted anywhere). I bought a three dollar beer and when the bartender glared at my card and grunted at me about the $7.00 minimum, I wrote in a four dollar tip. It’s not often you can shut someone up and be nice at the same time, so I was happy for the opportunity.

   posted by Ira on 2-22-2008 at 12:31 pm

3. A few years ago, my dad started buying the annual Hess truck for my nephew for Christmas. After my dad passed, the torch has been passed to me.

   My mom has quite the obsession with James Dean, so she always gets a James Dean calendar for Christmas. You’d be surprised how many pictures there are of a guy who died at 24.

   posted by Mean Joe on 2-22-2008 at 12:39 pm

4. 1) Copious quantities of Pocky to meet the $20 minimum at the Asian food market.

   2) No, but growing up my grandparents bought me a porcelain figurine of a girl with a gold number announcing my new age to the world ever year until I turned 16.

   3) Match the coffee drink/tea type to the correct preparation technique, Battle of the sexes: Was X product invented by a man or a woman

   4)My parents live on top of a massive hill. One year, the neighbor kids came over with inner tubes and snow boards in addition to our sleds. When we went in, my mom made us all hot cocoa. It was fantastic.

   posted by Ashley on 2-22-2008 at 12:39 pm

5. I’ve lived my entire life in Florida, so I was pretty convinced snow was this stuff that crazy yankees invented to get back at us for getting out of school on hurricane days. I specifically scheduled a European jaunt in the dead of winter in hopes of seeing snow. Tragically enough, throughout the beginning of our journey, we continued to hear, “You’re so lucky! Its incredibly warm for this time of year!” Finally, upon landing in Prague, I saw a magical ground covering of melting snirt. (Snow + Dirt) I wanted to make snirt angels!

   posted by Regkins on 2-22-2008 at 12:43 pm

6. #3 – Bath & Body Works products. Either names of scents that never existed, or choose which has been discontinued, whatever…

   #4 – My best friend lived on a dead end street at the bottom of a hill. It wouldn’t have been a dead end except for the fence that had been erected years ago, with a gate in the middle for pedestrians. Someone left the gate open, and then it snowed a good 12 inches. Being that she lived at the bottom of a slope on a dead end, the snow plows crammed a neighborhood’s worth of snow on top of the fenced area. We managed to burrow through the center to find the gate, leaving most of the snow intact on top. It ended up looking like a giant fort with a hole in the middle. The snow pile must have been 20 feet high and it was just about the coolest thing in the world to a 10 year old.

   posted by Jill on 2-22-2008 at 12:45 pm

7. I’ve got two stories for you.
   First my mom was so convicedd that by buying subscriptions to magazines she would win one of those sweepstakes. By the time she ran out of cash she had ordered 35 subscriptions including magazines about woodworking and golf.

   I once bought a dozen giant chocolate chip cookies because I wanted one and the store only sold by the dozen. Every store I went into I gave the cashier a cookie.

   posted by Patrick B on 2-22-2008 at 1:00 pm

8. Name the 70 Mega Man robot masters in ___ minutes. Also, James Bond movies.

   posted by David on 2-22-2008 at 1:00 pm

9. Snow memories…..I remember as a kid being excited when it snowed because I could play with my “Hoth” Star Wars toys– you know, the ones with the snow gear. It would be awesome because the snow piled up on the side of the driveway after shoveling created the perfect mountain region. As much as I loved playing with these toys, one thing was always certain: One of these toys would be lost in the snow pile, and invariably we would not be able to find it before we had to stop playing. What was most amazing, though, was how the action figure NEVER returned. It would get lost in a pile next to my driveway (neighbors weren’t close enough to come over and snatch it up) and every day I would unsuccessfully look for it… This happened EVERY snow storm…I guess it isn’t a fun “great” memory, but it’s mine and it is all I can offer… Aside from losing my virginity in the snow. But that isn’t even true. So it isn’t a memory as much as it is a lie.

   posted by Darren on 2-22-2008 at 1:02 pm

10. As far as buying more than you need, does it strike anyone as odd that the guy on TV that is a shill for everything (he has a beard…Billy something or another) sells stuff that is guaranteed for life, and yet by the end of the commercial he’s thrown in two more of the item? If you only need one for the rest of your life, why does he want to sell you three for one?

    posted by Darren on 2-22-2008 at 1:04 pm

11. 1. Working at my local Cumberland Farms is “The Most Miserable Human Being EVER” and it really boils his blood when you buy something inexpensive with a credit card. Needless to say my boyfriend and I purchase as LITTLE as possible when we go there. We especially like to withdraw cash from the ATM and then urn around and immediately pay for a pack of gum with plastic.

    It’s the little things…

    2. Every year since I was about 3 my mom has been buying me these little Christmas ornaments called ‘Mary’s Angels’. I’m not one for Christmas, or angels, or anything, but every year my mom’s favorite part of my gift opening is watching me open the Angel. Very sweet.

    3. Meh, I’m never good at quizzes.

    4. 5 years ago I was living in an apartment in Doylestown, PA and my neighbor and I decided to go out for a few drinks. Because the forecast was so crappy for the next day work had already been canceled for a great many people (it was a Sunday nite). It seemed that every 21-35 y/o was out in full effect that night and the mood in the bar was so jovial and was just oooozing with comradery. The bartender stayed open till almost 4 (bars in PA close at 2) and then the party moved just down the street to some persons house. There’s so much more, but you get the gist. My friend and I still talk about it as the best friggin nite at a bar eva.

    posted by Jessica on 2-22-2008 at 1:10 pm

12. 1) a single stick of deodorant once was charged to plastic because I somehow forgot to apply it that morning and had to stop on the way to where I was going and get some XD

    2)nope… no annual gifts

    3) I’d love to see something about Tim Burton! He’s a genius for sure.

    4) My most vivid memory of being in the snow involves sledding. Our local park has a hill that must be nearly a 1/4 of a mile high and they regularly place straw bales along one side during the winter so that people don’t accidentally sled into the the public pool. Invariably, some bales get moved and converted into “ramps” for sledders. Not thinking nearly as much as I ought, having just finished a semester of physics, I went about 200 above one of the bales and blissfully sped towards the bale. Next thing I knew, I was high in the air, far from the innertube and then I was on the ground nursing a VERY sore tailbone indeed.

    posted by Korin on 2-22-2008 at 1:11 pm

13. Jessica…where do you live now? I live in Warminster, just outside Doylestown. Don’t worry–not looking for a date here. My wife and kids would kill me! lol Just thought it funny that of all the gin sites on all the Internets in all the worlds, this dame had to post a comment on mine…well not mine but you get the joke.

    posted by Darren on 2-22-2008 at 1:58 pm

14. When on Amazon and I am just short of the $25 needed for free shipping I do a Google Query like

    “$0.05 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.” site:amazon.com

    I wind up with a lot of weird religious books laying around.

    posted by Witty Nickname on 2-22-2008 at 2:04 pm

15. #2 I bought my boyfriend, now my husband a valentine card that was like a book. I later slit the pages to make lots of blank pages. Each year I include the events of the year, from our wedding to our children, to buying our home. It’s a history of our marriage. And it saves me five bucks a year!

    #4a I once used a Krazy Karpet to slide down an icy road. My sister, who saw my velocity accelerate, blocked me from sliding under a car, crushing her ring onto her finger and turning it blue. The finger was saved, but the ring was not. It was pretty exciting!

    Krazy Karpets rocked. You were practically guaranteed injuries if you were out in the snow more than 5 minutes. Ah, good times. And boys think girls don’t enjoy that kind of stuff!

    #4b I have, indeed, actually had sex in the snow. Yep. Just make sure that if you’re on the bottom, you’re wearing a LOOOOONG coat.

    posted by Marisande on 2-22-2008 at 2:08 pm

16. The buying of multiple items reminds me of a David Sedaris essay I read once about him living in Paris. He said that he never understood the feminine/masculine nouns, so he would always buy two of something, so he would just need to know the plural.

    posted by Chris on 2-22-2008 at 2:19 pm

17. 1) I had to do a sensory project for an installation (art) class I was taking. I went to the store to buy playdoh (and i NEVER have cash, debit only). I had to buy 9 cans of playdoh to make the minimum.

    2) I don’t give any annual presents… but my parents get me a different art book every year for valentine’s day. I don’t celebrate valentine’s day, but i like presents.

    3) I would love to see a seinfeld quiz, or pop culture cult favorites.

    4) About 15-ish years ago, there was a huge blizzard in the northeast ( I lived in Jersey at the time) and we must have gotten 5-8ft of snow in areas. We had a deck off the back of my house and the snow was up to the railing. So my pop picked me up by the back of my coat and threw me out into the snow. I sunk to the bottom and made all these under-snow tunnels with my brother.

    posted by Melanie on 2-22-2008 at 2:26 pm

18. 3) Maybe we could see how much we’ve learned from the Feel Art Again series and match the painting to the painter.

    4)Growing up in south central Nebraska, we sadly had no hills to speak of. The steepest incline anywhere in our town was a large ditch next to a steel company. Yes–a large ditch was as good as it got.

    So, the obvious solution was to hook up your sled or inner tube to the back of a 4-wheeler. You got to go a lot faster than you would with a crummy old hill and gravity anyway. :) It was best to go on the golf course, because there was a lot of space with no trees–clearly ideal.

    One night in high school brought an improvement to this activity, only with snowboards instead of sleds, country roads and snow-filled ditches, and a pickup instead of a 4-wheeler. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a fine example of wise decision making. Good times though. :)

    posted by kate on 2-22-2008 at 2:27 pm

19. My brother buys me a Hess truck every year for Christmas. I buy my wife (who is a chef) a cookbook every year for Christmas.

    1996 blizzard, almost three feet of snow in/near Philly, it was pretty impressive. We made soup and took some to the TV news crew who was reporting from a large-ish interesction near our house, and we got on TV.

    posted by fixedgear on 2-22-2008 at 2:32 pm

20. 2)Every year at Halloween I get Halloween inspired socks from my mom, I always look forward to it.

    4)I have some pretty good childhood memoried of snow here in good ol’ Canada, but a good one is from when I was in University.
    My friend and I stole 2 lunch tray from the cafeteria under our sweatshirts and went sliding on them. She ended up putting her tooth through her lip, and I ended up cracking my tailbone and having to sit on my hip for 2 months while in class.
    I still have the broken lunch tray.

    posted by Brittany on 2-22-2008 at 2:33 pm

21. 1. I try not to overspend, but my problem is with pizza. Sometimes I just want a small pizza, but they won’t deliver it because the minumum is 10 bucks for delivery.I usually end up adding breadsticks, wings and I coke. Way more than I need!

    2. My mom has always been the one for annual gifts. I collect playing cards, so I always get a deck for my birthday and Christmas.

    4. My best snow memory is my only snow memory. I saw snow for the first time last Easter. It wasn’t just snow, it was a blizzard! I had two hours in it, to make it home. I’ll never forget that.

    posted by Mary on 2-22-2008 at 2:47 pm

22. We moved to Minnesota from Virginia when I was 6. In Virginia it basically never snowed, and when it did, school was automatically called off.

    So we get to Minnesota, and the very first snow of the year is a 39-inch blizzard on Halloween (Megastorm!!) We go out trick-or-treating in it (I had a gigantic black and magenta winter coat on under my vampire outfit) and just get sacked by the snow.

    However, my brothers are able to convince me that this is Minnesota, they never call off school for snow. So the next day I reluctantly get up and start prepping for the day. My mom sees me and asks what I’m doing, to which I indignantly reply “Getting ready for school.”

    “There’s over 3 feet of snow on the ground. You’re not going, it’s cancelled. Go back to bed!”

    And it truly was cancelled!

    posted by Kevin on 2-22-2008 at 3:22 pm

23. #4 We had a blizzard in New York and lost power for 3 days. I was in fourth grade at the time and my parents had all of us set up blankets and sleeping bags in the one room of the house with a fireplace. For three days we would go to school and they would go to work, and when we got home we’d be camped out in front of the fireplace together with a few lit candles, roasting a pack of hot dogs in the fireplace. At the time since I was so young, I felt like we were so cool for “roughing it” and hoped the electricity would never come on again!

    posted by Irene on 2-22-2008 at 3:25 pm

24. 2) Every year my mother-in-law gives my wife and I each a new Christmas ornament. However, we really don’t celebrate Christmasd and do not put up a Christmas tree, yet, being “landfill conscious”, I refuse to immediately throw these things away. So now we have a box full of otherwise useless ornaments.

    4) Having grown up in Florida, snow always had a mystical quality for us Florida kids. It never seemed fair those Northern kids got to sled and build snowmen and get in snowball fights when all we had was the beach. Now that I live in Chicago I eagerly await the first snow large enough to allow me to fire up the snow blower and even though I’m in my mid-30′s I still find the time to build a snowman each year.

    posted by Florida on 2-22-2008 at 3:35 pm

25. Not an annual gift, but whenever we go out of town/visit a new place, my friend and I find and buy the most hideous souvenier we possibly can to give the other person. It’s always something fun to do while on vacation and the result is usually pretty hilarious.

    Past gifts have included a Washington Monument (grossly out of proportion) thermometer, a “Mind the Gap” thong from London, a corkscrew in the shape of a small Argentenian boy with the cork screw in place of his penis, a pig bank from North Dakota with hearts for its eyes and nose and flowers with the words “Beautiful North Dakota” printed on the side of it….the list is quite long, as we both like to travel a lot.

    posted by Jen on 2-22-2008 at 3:36 pm

26. PS–I’m not really into the quizzes…but where do I complain about/lament the loss of the Morning Cup ‘o Links?? That was my morning sustenance and It’s gone, gone!!!

    posted by Jen on 2-22-2008 at 3:41 pm

27. 4. I live in Hawaii :(. No snow here. Well, unless you go to the top of Mauna Kea in the winter. I’m rather jealous of everyone’s cool snow stories. And school doesn’t ever get canceled here. Unless there’s flash flooding or something. But we have the beach! I still want snow :(.

    posted by Leah on 2-22-2008 at 3:46 pm

28. I bought a $12 bag of candy at the office supply store because I didn’t have the dollar I needed to buy a Snickers. The dollar was in my car…and now so is the candy. :)

    posted by miss v on 2-22-2008 at 4:12 pm

29. I have a male friend in his thirties who really likes Hello Kitty, so during the year when I see HK household goods on clearance I grab him something for the next gift-giving occasion (bubble bath, bookends, coin bank, snow globe . . .). And if I travel, he gets the weirdest local-flavored HK souvenir (like HK as a tiny Vegas showgirl on a cell phone charm).

    posted by kittymama on 2-22-2008 at 4:19 pm

30. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. In the winter of 96/97, it snowed so much that we ran out of places to put shoveled snow- really! The back driveway was stacked 8 feet high on the sides. I took a trip with a friend to Vancouver, BC about the 3rd of January, which was only a week after it had had a record snowfall that had paralyzed the entire lower mainland. When we arrived, all the snow had disappeared, and it was t-shirt weather (at least for us Albertans!) I vowed never to live in Alberta again, and 4 months later, I had moved to Penticton. Best decision I have ever made.

    posted by mark thompson on 2-22-2008 at 4:46 pm

31. Do we need the first ever (?) MentalFloss meet-up? In or near Philly/Warminster/Doylestown/Cheltenham?

    posted by fixedgear on 2-22-2008 at 5:00 pm

32. I grew up near Atlanta, where summer seems to last from May through October (at least). One May, my father and uncle were hunting in the North Georgia mountains & they got a huge amount of snow. They piled several feet of it into the back of his pickup truck and drove back down to Atlanta. Needless to say, all the neighborhood kids came out to play in the snow in their shorts. Didn’t last long, but we had fun.

    posted by Melissa on 2-22-2008 at 5:06 pm

33. 2) My father-in-law gets the kids the Hess trucks every year, and we’re such horrible parents, we won’t let our kids (preschooler and toddler) play with them. We’re saving them for when they’re older. My brother used to get the complete set of Topps baseball cards each year from my parents, which is kind of cool.
    3) LOVE the quizzes. I can’t think of a topic off the top of my head, but keep up the good work.
    4) Not a cold weather person. All my happy memories of snow involve getting away from it. We don’t have it where I live, and I’m glad about it.

    posted by Lebetho on 2-22-2008 at 5:07 pm

34. 4)My older brother and I decided to create the biggest snowball known to men. We got on our knees and began gathering the snow when my brother said “hey, it’d be pretty funny if I smashed your face in the snow!” to which I replied, “Please don’t, it’s freezing and I could catch a cold”. I was surprised he actually listened to me, he never did that! 30 seconds later I thought I would be funny to throw snow on his face, worst mistake of my life! He smashed my face in the snow and threw snow on top of my head for what felt like 10 minutes. It was really unpleasant and really cold. I never again pulled a stunt like that!

    posted by Zita on 2-22-2008 at 5:47 pm

35. Here are some quiz ideas,

    Match stage name to given name

    Match opening lines to literary work

    Christmas specials

    Place historical events from around the world in chronological order

    Speaking of time, how about time travel? (Back to the Future, Bill and Ted, Terminator…)

    Greek mythology

    A Greater than, less than, equal to quiz (like, who was married the most times; Henry XII or Elizabeth Taylor?)

    Name the elements on the periodic table in ____ minutes

    Left handed historical figures

    What came first: The book, or the movie? Orange the color or Orange the fruit? Turkey the country or Turkey the bird?

    State bird/flower/saying/etc.

    And how about a quiz about Mental_floss? Or would that be way to self-referential.

    posted by colin on 2-22-2008 at 6:19 pm

36. 1. I used to work at a bagel store, and we did occasionally have people putting 1 bagel only on their credit cards. You shouldn’t feel so bad about that, Jason. Fortunately, it’s never hard to get rid of food you’re willing to give out for free. I’m guessing your dozen won’t last very long.

    2. My former next door neighbors have a ridiculously adorable 4-year-old son. I collect pandas, and whenever he visited our house, he always wanted to play with them. Now, for most birthdays and Christmases (is that a word?), I give him pandas so he can have his own collection.

    4. As a former resident of Syracuse, New York, I have millions of snow memories. However, my favorite occurred one day last February when my mom and I were heading to the airport to fly to Texas to visit my dad, who was working there at the time. We had to shovel our car out of our driveway and drive over a giant snow bank just to leave our street. The highway on the way to the airport was slowed down to less than 30 miles per hour and there was practically no visibility. Once we finally made it to the airport, we realized all the parking garages were full and we’d have to park in one of the remote lots. My mom rolled down the car window to get the ticket to park, and when she tried to roll it up again, it was frozen in the open position. There was no way we could leave the car like that for the two weeks we would be gone. So, we finally found a strong-looking guy who successfully forced our window back up. We left for Texas, and we saw sunshine and warm weather a few hours later that day. What a happy ending. If only all my snow memories ended that nicely.

    posted by Sandy on 2-22-2008 at 6:31 pm

37. Re: Colin (“And how about a quiz about Mental_floss? Or would that be way to self-referential.”)

    That would be way too self-referential. But we did whip this up a while back for internal purposes only. For some reason, most of the pics aren’t working. And I don’t think half the staff could break 50%. But feel free to take a look…

    mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php?q=184

    posted by Jason on 2-22-2008 at 9:48 pm

38. 2. In my first year of college, my mother sent me themed socks or underwear for each month. So Halloween, Thanksgiving…. Earth Day and so on…
    The only weird thing was accidently picking up my mail before going to dinner and having a package that I knew I could not open at the dinner table, in case my mother had sent me more underwear!

    posted by Liz on 2-23-2008 at 2:43 am

39. Quiz ideas:
    - Match the logo to the production company;
    - Select what happened in the TV show pilot;
    - Choose whether a dessert has been turned into a Strawberry Shortcake character;
    - In each question of four, choose which actor did not guest star on “Friends”;
    - Match the controversial book to the reason it was banned.

    And another name x in y: All the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaborations.

    posted by K on 2-23-2008 at 10:53 am

40. Kevin, I am from Minnesota and was also going to post about the Halloween blizzard. I was 13, and went out trick or treating as a Minnesotan in all my regular winter gear. No one else really was out, so even though I only went up and down our block I got a ton of candy. We definitely didn’t get the whole next day off though, maybe only 2 hours. Stupid efficient plows.

    posted by Julia on 2-23-2008 at 11:51 am

41. quiz topic–expired Gap colors. Match the real to the made up. Tougher that you think…I used to work at Gap, and they would release a card or some kind of guide to the colors before the new stuff would hit the shelves and it always cracked me up. Things were never “purple” or “light green”, they were “Twilight” or “Thoughtful” or “Asian Fruit Bat”or some such stuff..still makes me laugh when I go in one.

    posted by Jason on 2-23-2008 at 2:25 pm

42. #2. Every year I get my boyfriend the newest BOCA (Best of College Acapella) CD. Ok, I cheated and started by buying a box set a few years ago that included the first 10 or 12 and have just added to it since.

    posted by Trena on 2-23-2008 at 3:39 pm

43. 1 – I have a coworker who will write you a check for $0.41 to cover the cost of the stamp she bought off you as she never carries cash

    2 – christmas ornaments since I was born from my grandma. And she never gets the same one twice and always tries to find very unusual ones. So when I first moved away from home my mom packed up all my ornaments for me so I could decorate my own tree. I now have more ornaments than I have tree.

    4 – many snow stories from over the years. How about the blizzard of ’79 in chicago that we couldn’t get the side door of the house open becuase the wind had blown all the snow up against the house. We could climb up on the roof and slide down.

    My husband has similar stories from upper wisconsin and building about 1/2 mile of tunnels in the yard with his brothers from all the snow piled up over the winter of shoveling the driveway.

    posted by Beth on 2-23-2008 at 6:12 pm

44. I grew up in North Dakota. I try to FORGET all my snow memories.

    :P

    posted by Moon on 2-24-2008 at 10:39 am

45. These days I have no problem using my card for anything, as I don’t carry cash. I regularly pay for my 84-cent happy-hour coke at Sonic with my debit card. (they put the reader right there next to your car window… it’s just so convienient.) However, when I was in college I both felt silly charging small amounts to my card and never (and I mean never) had blue books when I needed them. Since blue books only cost like 15-cents a piece, I would sometimes buy them for the whole class, usually along with some snacks and whatever cute pen they had on the checkout counter, just to make the purchace add up to more. (You know, if I hadn’t given them all out, maybe I’d have had blue books for the next time I needed them…)

    posted by Misty on 2-24-2008 at 11:22 am

46. 1) I like to use cash, but sometimes I find that I am a dollar or two short and have to break out the card. That’s annoying….I do recall buying a bag of rubber bands at Hobby Lobby because I needed two and the smallest amount in a bag I could find was 100.

    2) My sister gets a nutcraker every year for Christmas. The fancy ones that you shouldn’t actually use to crack your nuts. She has a ballerina, three mariachi ones (my favorite), one that looks like Santa and a bunch of others.

    3) I love the quizes! I play them at work every day! Some topics: Cartoon villans, Aesop’s fables, The Simpsons trivia, I also liked the idea of Friends guest stars.

    4) What’s your best snow memory? I grew up in Colorado so we got plenty of snow, but I went to Swansea, Wales for study abroad in 2005 and people there didn’t really know what to do when it snowed. Things shut down for half a day if there was just a dusting. One morning I woke up to a loud series of thuds outside my window. I looked out to see about an inch of snow and the boys who lived in the flat below me were out playing in it by throwing snowballs at our windows. I quickly got dressed to go romp in the white, but one of my flatmates was not as amused. She had left her window (with no screen) open the night before and woke up to snowballs in her bed and one landed on her face. We threw snow at each other and tried to make a small snow man until about noon when the sun came out and zapped the snow away. Great fun.

    posted by SM on 2-24-2008 at 2:09 pm

47. 1. i didn’t know there was a minimum at the copy store and i went in and realised after i had made all my copies that i needed one colour copy.
    i didn’t have the 40 cents or whatever it was, and the minimum charge was a dollar, so i had to make three colour copies.

    3. discontinued ben and jerry’s ice creams. we’ve all had a favorite that was discontinued because they have so many short lived flavours. i was a particular fan of “dilbert’s totally nuts”.

    4. i am having a hard time thinking of a favorite snow story, because like anyone who has to deal most of the year with the stuff, i think it’s sucks hard. lol
    but i guess the only story i can think of that doesn’t sound totally inappropriate is one time when i was a little kid (it must have been 1st grade or sometimes therabouts) our class got to go to one of the other kid’s houses, during the school day, and spend the afternoon making snowmen.
    BIG snowmen, because the adults could help us lift the monsters.
    we even got a snack (trust me, until i became an adult the idea of breakfast or a afternoon snack was pretty foreign to me).
    it was good snow too. heavy and wet but not TOO wet and there was a lot fo it.
    and it was clean.
    actually, we had some snow like that in december and i made a little snowman out in my front “yard” (ok, it’s a bush with two thin strips of grass and lots of concrete sidewalk) that was of good size with random litter pushed into it to make a face and such.
    it melted the next day, but thankfully no one kicked it down.

    there you go, two-for-one.

    posted by Sue on 2-24-2008 at 3:25 pm

48. Sue, you might enjoy the Discontinued Ben & Jerry’s Flavor or Band I Found on Myspace quiz. (You’ll find the link in my name.)

    And here are some more quiz ideas:
    - Based on a picture, name the breed of dog/cat/horse;
    - Choose who voiced the cartoon character;
    - Match the new/old slogan to the fast food company;
    - Match the sport to its inventor;
    - In each question, select which game hasn’t been a Monopoly spin-off.

    posted by K on 2-24-2008 at 6:58 pm

49. 4) I was about 13 years old at the time, and lived in a rural area with a big hill on our property. It had just snowed with freezing rain on top of that, so there was an impenetrable layer of ice over the snow – I’m sure you know where this is going. I trudged up the hill with my sled, sat down, and launched myself, never breaking through the ice. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I estimate I was going about 35mph.

    Now the twist: we had just recently had the driveway plowed, which made a ramp on either side of the driveway – I did not take this into consideration before I began. I would like to refer you back to my approaching speed of 35mph… I hit the ramp, became airborne, flew completely over the driveway, cleared the ramp on the other side and landed on my back (a distance of about 25′) with my sled hitting halfway up a tree (about 10′). I laid there for a minute gathering myself and finally thought: THAT WAS AWESOME!

    posted by Jeff on 2-25-2008 at 7:56 am

50. 1. No…but I’ve dug around for enough change to buy something…often digging around in places that shouldn’t be dug!

    2. No, but I wish I did…I just don’t know what!

    3. You guys do such a good job with coming up with them, who am I to interject a new quiz?

    4. This past weekend with my son. I borrowed one of those inner tube things from my neighbor and my son and I went down our back hill together. His giggle was gold.

    posted by beth on 2-25-2008 at 10:42 am

51. 1. I always end up buying extra chinese food to meet the delivery miniumum. 4 egg rolls usually does the trick.
    2. Every year, my mom would get me something Coke themed for Chirstmas, even though I stopped collecting the stuff 5 years ago. This past year, in honor of my new diet, she got me a Diet Coke ornament. har har.
    3. Something with food: where such and such originated, what resturant has such and such special dish. I’m hungry.
    4. During some blizzard in the 90s (’93, ’94?), my Dad volunteered to use his 4 wheel drive truck to drive a friend of ours who worked at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to work everyday. He got a bumper sticker for it. I thought it was cool that my Dad was helping keep the dolphins and the fishes alive.
    There was also one year when it snowed over night, and in the morning it was freakishly warm. So, we went out and played in the couple inches of snow in shorts and tee shirts.

    posted by Heather on 2-25-2008 at 2:51 pm

52. 1. I was a graphic design major in college, and therefore spent most of my time at Kinko’s. I ran in there one day, made one copy, and had to use my debit card – for 7 cents. They started giving me things free after that, which came in really handy when I printed off a regulation-size movie poster I had designed that would have easily cost me $65.00.

    2. I give my husband cash for Christmas every year, however, he has yet to figure out the trend. One year I gave him a bag with a dollar sign on it, and a statement for an account that had $400 in it. Last year, I found one of those sweet silver briefcases, had some friends paint it, and then filled it with $1 bills. I always manage to give him vague enough hints at Christmas time, that he has NO idea what’s under the tree.

    3. I, personally, would love a Futurama or Family Guy themed quiz, but then I’m just a big dufus.

    4. Snow, snow…. We don’t get a lot of it in Chattanooga. We had a huge snow storm about 15 years ago. It knocked down 15 trees in our yard, blocked off our driveway (not that we were going anywhere) and took out the power and phone lines to the entire neighborhood. On the other hand, there was one of those plastic “big-wheels” (is that what they are even called??) that had been left on our sidewalk. After the storm, and all the trees fell, the big wheel never moved!

    posted by Pearl on 2-25-2008 at 3:49 pm

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