Comments (67)

1. Take a box of books to work and start a book swap.

   posted by Michael on 5-16-2008 at 1:20 pm

2. 1. When I was in my undergrad, I was falsely accused on threatening a guy. I went “shhhh” in class as he was talking loudly and somehow that had snowballed. Picture this: I am a 5’2″ petite female. He was a 6’5″ linebacker on the football team. Yeah, right. I was pulled into someone’s office…she had a title somewhat associated with social justice and she told me I was not allowed to threaten anyone. I told her I didn’t. Argument ensued. I told her next time I would tell him to shut up and not be nice about it and walked out. Never heard about it again.

   2. Magazine covers sound like a fine idea.

   3. Check with your local college or university’s library. Mine has a cart with “leave a book, take a book” sign on it. Also, check with the public library for the same type of programs.

   posted by Sue on 5-16-2008 at 1:25 pm

3. 1. I wasn’t exactly accused of plagiarizing a paper in a film class, but the teacher pulled me out into the hall during a test and grilled me on several fine details from Frenzy, the Hitchcock film on which my paper was based. Oddly, I ended up getting a B on the paper.

   3. Hide them one by one in Central Park and organize a book hunt, with guidelines similar to an Easter egg hunt. People get to keep what books they find.

   posted by Ira on 5-16-2008 at 1:38 pm

4. 1. While working in a state park, I discovered that vacationing people are possibly the grumpiest and self-centered breed there is. I was accused of
   -purposely holding up a 20-car line just to spite one vehicle
   -giving parking tickets to get more money for the park (btw, parking tickets go to STATE government, and are more trouble than they’re worth for the state.)
   -Unlawfully denying families their right to a campground. WHEN THERE WEREN’T ANY MORE.

   2. old national geographic covers?

   3. School libraries?

   4. Summer camps which lodge in my college (Kenyon College) while students are away:
   -barbershop quartet camp
   -Unitarian camp (security HATES them. They messy and disrespectful partiers)
   -MIME camp. not kidding. mimes.

   posted by Katie on 5-16-2008 at 1:46 pm

5. About 10 years ago, I was in the USMC reserves. I had only been to a few drills when this story takes place. Now, boot camp does well in training you to go out and sleep in the dirt, shoot an M-16, etc., but it doesn’t teach you anything about being a day-to-day Marine. Add in the fact that I’m female (at a Motor Transport unit), and let’s just say that I was still trying to fit in. Another thing that boot teaches you is that your superiors are always right. Let me say that again – they.are.always.right. So, one day at home I get this big envelope in the mail, which has a notice that I need to attend a disciplinary hearing and that if they find cause I may have to go before a court martial. In the affidavit there is a statement from some sergeant saying that I was being charged with ‘stealing computer equipment’, and that the basis of the hearing was on the fact that I had ADMITTED to him that I took it. I nearly s**t my pants. I happened to be working for a law firm at the time and one of the senior attorneys there drafted a response vehemently denying the charges. I got another letter a month or two later saying that they erroneously put my name on the whole thing and that the charges were actually for a different Marine. I was pretty spooked at the thought of spending a couple of years in a brig or Federal prison.

   posted by cb on 5-16-2008 at 1:48 pm

6. Not so much as being accused but suspected of being a serial killer.

   No BS, I was working in an electronics department of a downtown Milwaukee store will a wall of TVs behind me. I was ringing a customer up and when I looked up at her and saw her mouth gaping and staring at me and then at the TVs.

   That was the day the news broke about Jeffrey Dalmer. At the time my hair, glasses and general facial features where similar to the photo of that monster the news was showing.

   The customer did finish checking out but never closed her mouth. I got contacts and a hair cut.

   posted by mkechaz on 5-16-2008 at 1:51 pm

7. 3. I have two suggestions:
   a. Try finding a English-language program, because (at least here) they are always accepting donations
   b. there is a website (www.bookcrossing.com – which you should maybe know about, mental_floss advertises it!) that is a project about leaving books places. Short explanation: It’s like that “Where’s George” dollar thing, but for books. Each book you register with the website gets a number. You write the number and http://www.bookcrossing.com (usually a longer message that somewhat explains the number, etc) inside the book, and when someone finds it, they go to the website and enter in the number. The project says they are supposed to ‘release the book into the wild’ after they read it, but if they find it, it’s sort of theirs.

   posted by Jenny on 5-16-2008 at 1:54 pm

8. Donate your books to a nursing home or assisted living facility. My grandmother would get so excited whenever her nursing home’s library received donations.

   Another options is Books Through Bars, or similar organizations that accept books for prisoners. Although BTB is based in Philadelphia, I’m pretty sure there’s branches across the country.

   posted by Erica on 5-16-2008 at 1:55 pm

9. Nudist summer camp for kids- for real

   posted by QT314159265 on 5-16-2008 at 1:57 pm

10. I don’t have any great answers for some of those, so I may think about it and come back, but for #3: Have you considered bookcrossing them? Ira made me think of that. (bookcrossing.com)

    posted by Eileen on 5-16-2008 at 1:57 pm

11. Give the books away on Freecycle (click on my name for more) in your area–if people want them, they’ll come pick them up.

    posted by Katie D. on 5-16-2008 at 2:04 pm

12. 1. When I was in high school, the vice-principal used to send the security guard into the bathroom after me. She never told me EXACTLY what she thought I was doing in there, but I was warned.

    2. I buy a lot of old magazine lots off of ebay. Generic lifestyle magazines. I never use the covers though. I flip through and find the old camera ads or the illustrations. Magazine’s were a lot less PC back in the day and some are quite amusing.

    3. Salvation army usually takes that kind of stuff.

    posted by Melanie on 5-16-2008 at 2:05 pm

13. Dude, you have to get this… it’s classic.
    original Farrah Fawcett poster on eBay
    Only $8.95 + $7.59 &H

    If HR wasn’t so tight around my office, I might regress to my high school days and put this puppy up.

    posted by Jonathan on 5-16-2008 at 2:09 pm

14. 2. Here are some suggestions you probably won’t use:
    a. mannequin hands (to attach to the wall for coat/hat hangers)
    b. Einstein mask
    c. weird telephones
    d. LP covers
    e. instead of, or in addition to, old magazine covers, old advertisements.

    posted by Jenny on 5-16-2008 at 2:09 pm

15. Album covers make fabulous wall art. Also, it’s fun to take bamboo screening or matting and staple-gun it to the wall for a textured wall covering. I have a 6-ft. high, 20-ft. wide length that, with some plants and ethnic masks, makes my entryway look like a tropical getaway!

    For the books, ask your local university, community college, etc. if there are departments that could use them. I have worked in the Multicultural Affairs and Women’s Center offices at a local university, and we’re always trying to build a reference library for those who just can’t find what they want at the campus library. Just a thought.

    posted by Amy on 5-16-2008 at 2:10 pm

16. 1. At theatre (live, not movie) where I work, I am accused at least once a week of purposefully trying to ruin someone’s evening/vacation/etc. It’s especially laughable when they call the day of the performance and want front row seats.

    2. Buy old clothing patterns, unfold them and wallpaper a wall with them using modge podge. They’re a beautiful ecru color and the overlapping lines make a cool geometric effect.

    3. I am in a similar state because I just moved. I have sold a bunch of my books to a used bookstore. I would recommend donating them to a correctional center – even felons like a good read.

    4. I went to a Melodrama day camp in California when I was a kid. Like full on “boo” “hiss” “tie her to the train tracks” melodrama camp. It was pretty awesome.

    posted by Christina on 5-16-2008 at 2:13 pm

17. Well, I went to a gymnastics camp. Supposedly – to the parents – it was pitched as “fun” – but really it was get the little pixes for a full week so you can really abuse them. 8 hour workouts. Vegetarian healthy food. Sheer torture.

    posted by danielle on 5-16-2008 at 2:13 pm

18. The University of Missouri at Rolla has sponsored an explosives camp for teenagers in recent summers.

    As for the books, some charitable orgs hold book fairs to raise money. Almost all of them rely on donations to keep their overhead low.

    posted by jeem on 5-16-2008 at 2:15 pm

19. 1. I’ve been accused many times of impersonating my twin sister and trying to trick other people. In reality, people are embarrassed that after quite a few years, they still can’t keep us straight.

    2. Um, you could hang Japanese paper lanterns in your office with all those magazine covers on the walls…

    posted by Anna on 5-16-2008 at 2:27 pm

20. 3. My dad’s looking to get rid of 10+ years of Sports Illustrated issues (80′s & early 90′s), so if that interests you for decorating the office, let me know and I can put ‘em up on eBay for ya – he would have done it by now if he knew how. the mags are by no means in great shape – I used to plaster my bedroom walls with pictures from the mag, so I’m sure there’s a lot missing – but there’s still a lot left

    :)

    posted by Clotho on 5-16-2008 at 2:29 pm

21. I used to work at a chocolate store in a very upscale mall in Boston. We actually made the chocolates ourselves, and would get little drips and drabs of it on our white shirts. One day on my break I went across the way to Macy’s to buy a new Swatch, and when I came out and opened it I wanted, of course, to set it to the correct time. I had my apron off so was just walking around in what probably looked like a mud-splattered white shirt and black pants. I approached a couple sitting around the fountain outside Macy’s, and, holding up the watch, said, “Do you know the time?” The woman looked at me, got a shocked expression on her face and said, “NO!” What she saw/heard was a dirty girl trying to sell her a watch (“do you want to buy?”). Her husband answered, “It’s 12:40,” and then she got this look on her face like, “Oooohhhhh…” and said, “it’s 12:40.” And the husband added, for effect, “And it’s Tuesday” and looked at his wife, and then at me, like, “See what I have to put up with?”

    posted by kdub on 5-16-2008 at 2:44 pm

22. 1) About 5 years ago I was driving on a bypass about 30 minutes from my hometown. I was speeding, but only about 5mph over the limit, so I was a little surprised to see blue lights pull up behind me. I stopped, and the officer came up to the window. He looked a little disappointed as he said, “Oh, you’re not a black man with an ax.” (Note, I am a VERY Scotch-Irish, pale girl who doesn’t even own a pocketknife.)

    2) What about odd original paintings?

    3) Well, I always open up my books to friends to pick through first, but a nursing home or retirement center is also a good way to go. Or, is there a homeless shelter or something similar in your town?

    4) I’m not sure it’s strange as much as it is nerdy, but I went to Writer’s Camp at Duke University when I was in middle school.

    posted by Jen on 5-16-2008 at 2:48 pm

23. At my place of employment at least four times per year books are collected for our soldiers. They are put in care packages along with other goodies like food, DVDs, and personal products. Check it out: booksforsoldiers or givebooks

    posted by McTiffie on 5-16-2008 at 2:49 pm

24. I used to help out at a friend’s ballet school recital. Once a mom bought tickets for the wrong day and her very vocal mother accused me of trying to rip them off by making them buy tickets for the correct performance, even though I wasn’t trying to sell them tickets–the performance was sold out!

    The bookcrossing suggestion might be fun if you have the time and inclination, but I vote for donating them to rest homes, although FreeCycle is a good way to get rid of them with very minimal effort.

    posted by Judy on 5-16-2008 at 2:49 pm

25. 1. I worked at a major theme park for awhile and was accused on an almost daily basis of targeting specific individuals in line to not allow on the ride. The only time I ever stopped someone from going onto the ride was when they were a child who didn’t measure up to the height indicator. A guy once actually yelled at me in my face for almost 5 solid minutes and threatened to call my supervisor for refusing to allow his 3 year old on a simulator ride that caused most 15 year olds to vomit. I had to explain that the seat restraint only came to a certain height and that if the child wasn’t tall enough the bar combined with the ride movement could either strangle his child the entire 5 minutes of the ride or snap the kid’s jaw. The man STILL thought I just didn’t like his kid.

    3. You said your library isn’t taking donations, but did you check with your local museums? Two of the museums in my area take book donations for their book court and biannual book sales. They use the cash from the used books to fun some of their summer programs and special exhibits.

    posted by Laurie on 5-16-2008 at 2:52 pm

26. For number 2, I would recommend some old cheap comics (for 50 cents or so). They could decorate and serve as interesting reading material for slow days.

    posted by Genevieve on 5-16-2008 at 3:05 pm

27. For wall decor, what about the magazine Highlights? Look up on ebay “lot of 29 highlights for children”. They would look neat on a wall.

    posted by Heather on 5-16-2008 at 3:09 pm

28. Hospitals and senior citzen homes will usually accept books. Or how about local schools?

    Also, there is a neat program at bookcrossing.com which is considered a nationwide catch and re-release book program. Basically, you leave your book somewhere and log the location on the website. Then whoever picks it up next logs where they found it and, once they’re done with it, where they re-released it at.

    posted by Shannen on 5-16-2008 at 3:10 pm

29. Donate your books to your local jail or prison. Magazines too. Just go easy on the murder mysteries!

    posted by Susan on 5-16-2008 at 3:25 pm

30. 1. It wasn’t me, but when I was a kid, my parents wanted to move to the nice part of town (we lived in DC, btw). We found this one place that was really nice, so my dad called the real estate agent for the house. Note, my dad’s Hispanic. Anyway, the real estate agent answers and says she won’t show him the house because he’ll rape her. Yeah. Needless to say, we got her fired.

    Another time when I was a kid, we were driving in West Virginia, coming back from a ski resort. A cop pulls us over and accuses my dad of kidnapping my mother and me (my mom’s of Irish descent, remember my dad’s Hispanic). It took a bit of persuasion to get the cop to go away.

    2. You could go after antiques. Stuff like cameras, old medical equipment, that sort of thing. I recommend cameras because, if you can get the extra equipment, like flashes, it just looks extra awesome when it’s on display.

    3. There are other book swapping sites online. I can’t find anything else other than what’s already been mentioned, but I used to have links to several others.

    4. When I was in sixth grade, my school took us city kids to a thing called Outdoor Ed. Think summer camp, in October, with the people you go to school with. Not fun. It was really surreal.

    posted by Silva on 5-16-2008 at 3:46 pm

31. 1. Late one night I was on my way home alone in my truck. On my route, there is a popular Honky-tonk bar and the local fuzz always patrol the area. This was a while back, (back in the days of cassette tapes) and one of my favorite tapes got stuck in the tape player. It kept unraveling and just got worse. That’s when I saw red and blue poice lights. The officer was quite belligerent and made me walk the line, etc. I had to explain to him the reason I was weaving on the road was because I was trying to salvage my beloved cassette tape (It was an Eagles tape, I believe).

    posted by Shane on 5-16-2008 at 4:04 pm

32. 3. You could list them on Ebay. I know you didn’t want to ship them out, but I think I know someone in the area who’d want to buy them…

    2. You could buy books off ebay and use them as decoration. You could just buy them from someone locally to save on shipping…

    posted by kevin on 5-16-2008 at 4:11 pm

33. RE: the books. Not sure if anyone already said this, but check to see if any retirement homes or assisted living residences would be interested.

    posted by karen on 5-16-2008 at 4:21 pm

34. While in ninth grade, and with my leg in a cast and on crutches, I was accused of getting past a teacher, into the girl’s locker room, and stealing several hundred dollars from a senior girl’s locker. To make matters worse her boyfriend, also a senior, was in my gym class. I was very intimidated! The thief was never found, I think it was Katie, herself!

    posted by gus on 5-16-2008 at 4:32 pm

35. 1) While working at a large online university, a student once accused me of recording our conversation for “one of those underground government hoo-doo experiments.” (“Hoo-doo?”) The next day, I received an email from the student assuring me that, although I wasn’t aware of it, I was actually a “minstrel of Satan” and that my offspring were destined to be born with hooves and the mark of the beast. That peach earned a place of honor on the cubicle wall.

    2) Interesting headware, lots of it. Viking hats, miners headlamps, Hot Dog on a Stick uniform hats, etc. Encourage visitors to try them on. Better yet, be wearing them when visitors stop by.

    3) Local Girl Scout troops usually have annual book sales, and would probably appreciate the donation. (You’ll have to sift out the Harlequin romance novels first, though.)

    4) I went to young journalists camp when I was in fourth grade; I was convinced I was going to be the next Nancy Drew, but wanted to make sure I had the proper means to publish my sleuthing successes. Obviously.

    posted by Megan on 5-16-2008 at 4:32 pm

36. 3) You could put them on Craigslist, specifying that you’ll give them them away for free to anyone who’ll come get them/ a good cause.

    posted by gibson8or on 5-16-2008 at 4:50 pm

37. One of my good friends goes to a Socialist camp every year in Canada. They hold puppet shows and sing workers anthems around the campfire…
    I attended the same day camp every summer for 6 years when I was young. It was a place where all the children were forced to walk everywhere, sometimes for prolonged periods. To a six year old, extended walks to thrilling destinations, such as the local community college, were about as exciting as death. Especially when the trip to the community college was just to look at the outside of it, from the street that is. I recall there was a word of the day, and if you managed not to say that word all day you were rewarded with cheap plastic beads. Mostly I didn’t bother, because I always managed to get the ugly orange beads, instead of the attractive pink sparkly ones. I distinctly remember tormenting my fellow campers by forcing them into inadvertently say the word of the day in front of the counselors. Thanks to me, very few children in my squad received beads. I still begrudge my parents for sending me…

    posted by Hannah on 5-16-2008 at 5:36 pm

38. 1) I handle registrations for large academic conferences and meetings. One time, it was for a summer “residency” for an online university. (From the sounds of Megan’s post, I’m wondering if this was the same institution. There are people there with a fair amount of book smarts – and a whole heck of a lot of entitlement – but at times they seem to have the collective intelligence of a bag of rocks.)

    Anyway, we had their fees, which included a NON-REFUNDABLE deposit. It said on the form (about nine times, in bold red print) that this deposit was non-refundable, but still, there was one guy who, after canceling and not getting back his deposit (because it was non-refundable), called his credit card company and accused me of credit card fraud.

    Another time, I got a call from an apparently crazy jealous girlfriend. It seems I had “called her man”. She didn’t know why I was calling, because she hadn’t listened to what I’d said in my voice message. But, no other girls EVER call him, so CLEARLY I was trying to steal him away from her, and that I’d better not call there again.

    I told her that if I was calling from the number at which she’d reached me, then it was clearly a business message.

    She told me that I’d best not be callin’ that number again, or she’d “come up [here] and get all up in [my] business.”

    posted by Mel on 5-16-2008 at 5:43 pm

39. 1: I had some classmates who were convinced I had sexed up not one, but two of my profs in college. As I wasn’t having much luck sexin’ up the girls in my class, this sounded like a pretty good idea, but was patently false.

    2: send ‘em to prison. or your local county lockup. The one and only night I spent in jail, I pacified myself with a Douglas Adams book — the only interesting thing on the shelf.

    posted by Mudi-B on 5-16-2008 at 6:41 pm

40. 2. The cheesiest autographed photos you can find. People you’ve never even heard of saying “cheers” or “rock on” to people you’ve never met! :P

    3. Many great ideas already out there but, depending on the content/condition of the books, don’t forget childcare centers and teen centers in your town.

    posted by frodopal on 5-16-2008 at 6:49 pm

41. I used to work for a mortgage company, so dealing with the deeply or temporarily insane was part of my job description; I was called everything but a white woman.

    This was a job held at the height of the lending boom, but with an organization that had no desire to enter the subprime market; our stated income loans had very strict underwriting guidelines attached. I had more than one person shriek at me because we wouldn’t give them a rock-bottom rate or qualify them for something they couldn’t afford.

    And now I sit here and sometimes smile while whispering the word “foreclosure,” knowing that karma is, indeed, a bitch.

    posted by Dan on 5-16-2008 at 6:55 pm

42. 4. CAMP LUTHERHAVEN
    A camp for Lutherans. I was a tortured youth!!!

    posted by Sandi Mays on 5-16-2008 at 7:48 pm

43. 1. giving my little brother a black eye in the middle of the night while sleeping

    2. Stickers

    3. Give them to me

    posted by pineapplesauce on 5-16-2008 at 8:05 pm

44. EBAY ideas … from the lady married to the biggest eBay addict on the planet. True Story :)

    1. Funny Bumper Stickers
    2. Funny Buttons or Pins
    3. An Enron Keychain
    4. Worldcom Stock Certificates
    5. Old Ticket Stubs (Journey, KISS)
    6. 100 Marvel Comics – just $41
    7. 50 Matchbox Cars
    8. Wedding Cake Toppers
    9. Snowglobes
    10. Decorative Souvenir Collector Plates
    11. Circus Programs
    12. Vintage Felt Souvenir Pennants

    posted by Sandi Mays on 5-16-2008 at 8:05 pm

45. In a Chinese poetry class in college we were assigned a book review. Typically, I waited until the day before and went through the library stacks to pick a book of English translations of Chinese poetry. I scanned through it, wrote a couple of pages in the typewriter, and turned it in. It was a contentless paper.

    A week later the Prof announces to the class that one of the papers was plagiarized, but if the writer would come to his office and own up to it a second opportunity would be given.

    A week later, I was the only one in the class who had not gone to the Prof’s office and the plagiarist still had not turned himself in!

    So I went. He had spent hours in the library searching for my source!!!! I insisted it was my own work. He finally gave me an A.

    I showed it to an English Prof I had had and he laughed and agreed that it was my work. He said I had the habit of using phrases like “It is…” and undergraduates usually hedged their bets with “It might be…” “It could be…” “Perhaps….”, etc.

    He thought the Chinese poetry Prof just couldn’t believe that an undergrad wrote with that kind of assertiveness.

    posted by Rich Beckman on 5-16-2008 at 8:25 pm

46. MEGAN and MEL: Does the school’s first name start with a C by chance???

    posted by Sue on 5-16-2008 at 9:36 pm

47. I’ve used Freecycle to pass books onwards. I’ve used Freecycle to pass basically everything onwards. Works like a charm.

    posted by Dianne on 5-16-2008 at 11:25 pm

48. On eBay, try numbers:

    310050790561 (old photos; could easily be hung on walls)

    120262334777 (funky gears; could be made into wall art of some sort of into a mobile) (there are several other lots like this from this seller)

    130221953667 (vintage patent illustrations and possibly other papers; again, wall art) (this seller has many similar lots that are also pretty neat)

    260239190629 (vintage pocket protectors; I don’t know what you would do with them, but they seem very _flossy)

    110253368419 (funky fabric; wall art? curtains?)

    220234204354 (very cool fabric; same uses as the last)

    370051409229 (keys, of the winding variety; could probably be used much like the gears) (you might keep an eye on this seller; they have more coming!)

    130222470746 (“Teach Me About Fishes” flash cards; same uses as photos?)

    320250417680 (miscellaneous learning things–flash cars, blocks, etc–that could be used for something cool)

    I believe that all of these things are fairly inexpensive, so they would easily it within you budget, even with shipping.

    Happy shopping!

    posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 5-16-2008 at 11:41 pm

49. Rich, I love it! The entire class shows up to claim it was there work…just in case!!! LOL I am sure it gave the professor a headache. LOL

    I stick with “may” and “might” because in my line, we don’t deal with causation, just correlation. If one wants to say X causes Y, expect to have the data requested…several times.

    posted by Sue on 5-17-2008 at 12:12 am

50. Egads, I could type out an accusation story that would rival “The 10 Longest Novels Ever”

    Besides being accused of being “an overly sensitive, mentally retarded, idiot savant, homosexual, who’s having a mid-life crisis, (& more)” a mentally ill woman and her friends have been telling people a story about me belonging to a secret organization. I can tell if someone has been told the story by the way they look at me. One day in a sports bar, a guy that I don’t know, looked at me with such fear in his eyes I thought he might pee himself. He ducked behind a potted plant to hide from me. So, there’s this 6 foot 6 guy crouched behind a 4 foot rubber tree, peeking at me from between the branches like Arte Johnson on Laugh-in. I felt like going over, and saying, “Dude, don’t worry, it’s a lie, I don’t belong to any secret organization, and I don’t bite.”

    Mechanics refused to work on my car because they heard a story about me being an evil, wicked, horrible monster, who should be punished.

    posted by Tdave on 5-17-2008 at 12:45 am

51. Decor: Bobbleheads.

    The best one is bobblehead Jesus – enlightenment on a spring!

    posted by Brian on 5-17-2008 at 11:08 am

52. 1. Running down a nun. I swear, my car was 3,000 miles away at the time.

    posted by loripop on 5-17-2008 at 11:09 am

53. 2) Coyote Jaw Bones. (item #160240099592)

    reason: 4 for 11 bucks! Why not?

    posted by Dan on 5-17-2008 at 2:35 pm

54. Tag them, then release them into the wild… don’t forget to track them on BookCrossing.com (yes, I learned about that in a mental_floss)

    posted by Trena on 5-17-2008 at 6:30 pm

55. I have no idea how common these are elsewhere, but I know of at least 2 rock ‘n roll camps. Think “School of Rock”, but for real.

    posted by larriann on 5-17-2008 at 11:07 pm

56. I had an interesting experience some years ago bringing my daughter hom from a school function in the evening. I noticed we seemed to be following another car most of the ride home (a number of turns), and I was extremely surprised when they pulled into my driveway. I was even more surprised when the driver of the other car jumped out, ran up to my car and accused me of following him!

    . . . paranoia anyone?

    posted by KG on 5-18-2008 at 12:24 pm

57. I was accused by a cop of drag racing. Yes, me. I’m a young female college student that was just trying to get home after spending a few hours in the hospital (Dad had a heart attack). The officer pulled me over to ask if I knew what the penalty for drag racing was. Um..no? So after explaining that yes, I did see that car next to me (on the freeway) but no, I wasn’t intentionally going the same speed. In the end, I wasn’t even speeding, but I got a ticket for obstructing my winshield with a small cross hanging from the mirror (oddly it was Easter Sunday). Oh, yeah, there were two squad cars, and one was the drug dog car. Cool.

    posted by Heather on 5-18-2008 at 3:54 pm

58. Pocket the $50 and just decorate the walls with pages from your books.

    posted by nikki on 5-18-2008 at 7:15 pm

59. This isn’t so much an accusation as a rumor gone crazy, but I thought I’d share it anyway. I work at a 7 Eleven, and a few days ago, two teenage girls were hit by a car as they were crossing the road right outside my workplace. Naturally, traffic stopped and we were all watching and waiting, hoping the girls were okay. The girls are fine (some broken bones but nothing fatal), but before I found out that they were okay, I called a friend of mine and told him about what had happened. At the time, it looked like one of the girls might have died (her body laid in the road for a good ten minutes), so I told him that. The following night, I went to a party, only to be greeted by a group of people saying, “Dude, we heard you killed someone with your car!!!”

    I am known as a bad driver, so this is not entirely far fetched, but it’s pretty scary to be accused of killing someone, even if you know it’s not even remotely true.

    posted by Ana on 5-18-2008 at 11:16 pm

60. I concur with the suggestions to donate the books to a jail.

    Love the idea of decorating your office with cheesy autographs! Comic books would be good, too.

    posted by Suzeo on 5-19-2008 at 12:00 am

61. 1. I took a class on how to find a full-time job when I was a senior in college. One week, we had to make an appointment with our teacher and do a mock interview. Well, I showed up 15 minutes early to my appointment. Then, the teacher rushed me through my scheduled 30 minutes so that we were done in half the time. I was a little disapointed.
    The next day, I get an e-mail from the teacher, scolding me for not showing up for my appointment and telling me that it was so unprofessional and wouldn’t fly in the “real world.” And that it would affect my grade.
    She got a nice little response from me and went on to apologize for mixing me up with another Heather in the class, even though I gave her a copy of my resume with my last name on it at our meeting! Geez.
    2. Old school magazine covers sounds like a good decorating idea. How about some funky frames to display covers of mental_floss?
    4. I know someone who went to a nudist camp. They took a panoramic group picture. Creepy…

    posted by Heather on 5-19-2008 at 8:44 am

62. I’m with Jenny; Book Crossing is a great way to get rid of books. I always have one with me in my car. I leave them in waiting rooms all over the place, like when I am getting my oil changed or at the doctors office. I also like leaving books at the airport. Some of my books I’ve left have made it to Europe.

    Another great place to give books is retirement homes, they will take pretty much anything if it is in relatively good condition.

    posted by Bethany on 5-19-2008 at 9:46 am

63. Find as many maps from National Geographic as you can, and cover the walls, or frame them and arrange in an artful way…..It’s something I always wanted to do, but haven’t gotten around to actually completing.

    posted by Nick on 5-19-2008 at 9:47 am

64. 1) When I was 17, I was dating a 21 year old guy who started freaking out and accused me of being an undercover cop who was trying to bust him for some raving he did back in the day. He told me he was moving to St. Louis to get away and immediately cut all connection from me one day. 5 years later he contacted me on yahoo messenger and suggested that me and him hangout sometime. yeah, right.

    posted by susan on 5-19-2008 at 1:30 pm

65. I took off early from work one day to enjoy the beautiful weather and told my wife I was going to pick up our son from school and get ice cream. So I find my son at school and we hop into my car to head to the ice cream shop. We see three of his buddies and I pull over and ask them if they want to go too. They say “yes!” and off we go. We get about 200 yards when I get pulled over by no less than 3 police cars responding to a strange man picking up children with offers for ice cream. I was escorted from my car, we were all interviewed and after about 30 minutes we were released. By this time my enthusiasm for ice cream was gone and we all just went home- to waiting parents who were waiting for their kids to come home after hearing about some stranger picking up kids near the school. This was three years ago and I still owe those boys an ice cream.

    posted by Scot on 5-19-2008 at 3:50 pm

66. 1. Apparently, I cut down two of my neighbors mangy little trees around the holiday season when I was 12.

    Except we didn’t own a saw at the time.

    And I was over 50 miles away at my aunt’s house.

    Gotta love crazy neighbors though!

    posted by grover on 5-21-2008 at 4:39 am

67. 1. I had emergency surgery when I was 18 or so. My boss accused me of scheduling my EMERGENCY surgery so that it would interfere with her vacation time.

    2. I got nothin’. My husband is the queer eye in our house.

    3. You could use them to decorate the Brooklyn office….

    posted by Pearl on 5-21-2008 at 12:58 pm

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