Jason English
Crazy Things Your Teachers Told You
by Jason English - March 19, 2010 - 12:43 PM
bloghead_fridayhappyhour1.gif

Every Friday, I post a series of unrelated questions meant to spark conversation in the comments. Answer one, answer all, respond to someone else’s reply, whatever you want. Very casual. On to this week’s topics of discussion…

owens-long-jump1. When I was in middle school, a teacher told us a wild story about Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics. Owens, he said, was struggling with the long jump. In practice, he repeatedly faulted by stepping over the line. Hitler witnessed this, we were told, and put down his coat on the white line, forcing Owens to take off before it. The trick worked. Four gold medals later—including one in the long jump—and Owens had become a legend. All thanks to the Führer.

I don’t know whether our teacher was joking, confused or flat out lying. (I later learned Owens did credit German competitor Luz Long for helping him during qualifying.) Nothing else happened that year to make me think the teacher was nutty or racist (or both). What’s the craziest (false) thing a teacher ever taught you? How long did you believe it?

2. We seem to get an awful lot of wrong number calls. This morning, Meals on Wheels left a very urgent message regarding food delivery—”If I don’t hear from you by 8:30, I’ll assume you don’t need your meal today.” (I called back and set her straight.) On several occasions, we’ve had a hospital give detailed instructions to an elderly patient who doesn’t live here. Have you had any strange encounters with people calling someone else?

3. Not counting the place you call home, what’s your favorite city? Your favorite country?

4. What’s one website or podcast we should be reading or listening to?

Have a great weekend!

[See all the previous Friday Happy Hour transcripts.]

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Comments (187)

  1. 1. My fourth grade teacher told us that happy people NEVER get sick. EVER. As long as you’re happy, you will never have so much as a cold. She appeared to be serious too.

    2. I haven’t had too many odd phone calls but I did once have a strange guy show up on my doorstep at 11 PM. I asked what he wanted and he peered around my shoulder, asking, “Is he here?” When I was clearly bewildered, he decided he had the wrong door and wandered off. I assume he was looking for drugs but it was very creepy.

    posted by Mother Chat on 3-19-2010 at 12:52 pm

  2. 1)One of my fifth grade teachers argued with me that blood was blue. She was dead serious and treated me like a 3 year old with an imaginary friend when I corrected her.
    2)When I was a kid, I took a phone message from some guy for my parents. I just remember the connection being really lousy. When I gave them the message, they looked at me funny and informed me that their friend by that name had died 2 years previous. No shit.
    3)Savannah, GA is my favorite city that is not home. I have also always wanted to go to Ireland.
    4)thisiswhyyourefat.com has some of the most amazing food you will ever see on it.

    posted by Dara on 3-19-2010 at 12:57 pm

  3. 1. My tenth grade English teacher told us the play Julius Caesar was an allegory for the life of Christ, because Caesar and Christ has the same initials, and Christ was 33 when he died, and Caesar was stabbed 33 times. I didn’t believe her at all, but it taught me a lot about “literary interpretation”.

    2. I walked into the wrong house once. :)

    3. Fave city I’ve visited is Chicago, I don’t really have a fave country, the places I’ve travelled have all been great for different reasons.

    posted by Karen on 3-19-2010 at 1:00 pm

  4. @Dara I was told the same thing about blood. I was told that it’s blue inside the body then turned red once oxygen hit it.

    posted by Chris on 3-19-2010 at 1:02 pm

  5. 1 – I had a Grade 11 (!) chemistry teacher try to tell us that the litre is a defined SI unit, not a derived one. Maybe you have to be a science pedant to understand this, but it convinced me pretty early in the course that she was a dumb blonde.

    2. About a year or so ago, I started getting 2-3 calls a day from someone who would just groan into the phone. Not the moaning you might expect from an obscene caller, more like someone trying to talk who can’t. The last one ended with someone who sounded like a caregiver taking the phone, saying sorry, and hanging up.

    3. I loved Guilin, China, when I visited about 8 years ago, although that was more for the the surrounding scenery than the city itself. For a city per se, I’d probably say London.

    4. I have just discovered lpcoverlover.com. Great old LP covers – some very funny!

    posted by Jon. on 3-19-2010 at 1:04 pm

  6. 3. Rome is my absolute favorite city in the world. I spent the most amazing 3 months of my life studying there. Of course Italy is my favorite country as well.

    4. Definitely Preston and Steve, Philadelphia’s #1 morning show. They are HYSTERICAL!!

    posted by Laura on 3-19-2010 at 1:04 pm

  7. 1) The student teacher in my 3rd grade class told us that there were little rhinoceros like creatures that lived on our eyelashes and they died whenever an eyelash fell off.

    posted by Emily S. S. on 3-19-2010 at 1:05 pm

  8. 1. I had a 6th grade science teacher who told me girls had no place in science. Its the only class I ever got lower than a ‘B’, and I had to fight to even get the ‘C’ I was given. He only worked at that school one more year before being let go.

    2. I keep getting calls for someone named ‘Dave’ who is apparently in collections for something..When I tell them they have the wrong #, they don’t seem to believe me. I am not sure how to get them to stop.

    3. City = Minneapolis. Country = Germany.

    :)

    posted by kimmy on 3-19-2010 at 1:05 pm

  9. 2. This isn’t a call either, but based on Mother Chat’s direction I had an odd visitor in the middle of the night about a month ago. Apparently the KKK decided to do some pamphlet recruiting in my neighborhood, at 2 in the morning. In Texas. (Nearly EVERYBODY in Texas has a gun, and when someone is on the doorstep at two in the morning, if they had woken me up my instinct would have been to get mine.)

    Anyway I found the pamphlet the next morning and threw it away, but someone did call the police. They came out and told the KKK they respect their free speech rights, but it is probably something to be done in the daylight for everybody’s safety.

    They left and have not come back. Apparently they are now afraid of being seen as well as shot.

    Come to think of it, I almost wish they had woken me up. Not that I would have shot them, but I would have pointed and asked some questions. Anyone in the KKK sneaking around on private property ought to have that treatment now and then.

    posted by Witty Nickname on 3-19-2010 at 1:06 pm

  10. Growing up, our phone number was one digit off from the town bank. We got so many wrong numbers that one day, my brother got fed up and responded: “I’m sorry we’ve just been robbed and all of the money is gone!”

    What I would have given to see that woman’s face…

    posted by J135 on 3-19-2010 at 1:07 pm

  11. My me-run stage combat blog and student-run video podcast series are interesting, because stunts and stage combat are fun to watch and learn about.

    bonzuko dot com

    and look on YouTube for MSCDStageCombat.

    posted by Jenn on 3-19-2010 at 1:11 pm

  12. 1. I had a history teacher tell me that Ab Lincoln liked to go the steps of the White House on trays for fun. Though I don’t know if that is true or not, its certainly an entertaining idea.

    2.We get Toys R’ Us calls all the time since we are one number off from theirs. It gets crazy around December. Though the weirdest is at work I get phone calls for people looking for AA.

    3. Fav city is Austin. I like the walkability of it and the vibe.

    posted by T on 3-19-2010 at 1:14 pm

  13. 0. Ummm…Dara hunny, blood IS blue until it meets oxygen.

    1. My Kindergarden teacher told us that all mentally retarded children are that way because the mother didn’t take enough vitamins.

    2. When I was 8 a man called my house instead of an S&M sex chat line. The stuff he said scared the crap out of me so bad I couldn’t sleep for 2 nights.

    3.London England. Bloody fantastic.

    posted by other karen on 3-19-2010 at 1:14 pm

  14. 2. Growing up our phone number was a digit off from a local radio station. I remember getting quite a few requests to play songs.

    3. Seattle. Country? Tough choice, Ireland or New Zealand.

    posted by Paul on 3-19-2010 at 1:14 pm

  15. 1. My Grade 11 history teacher assured me that I’d go bald. (He was pretty bald himself; I’m not sure how much of an expert that makes him.) There’s still time for it to happen, of course, but twenty-odd years later I still have the thick mop.

    2. One time in high school my friend A was trying to call me, and, at the same time, our friend B was trying to call our other friend C. But they got each other instead.

    3. Toronto. I lived there until last year, and, although my new home is great, I still miss Toronto.

    4. There are a lot to choose from. For a general audience like this one I guess I should recommend History Unfolding, an unusually intelligent history-and-politics blog, updated weekly, written by David Kaiser, an author and a professor at the Naval War College.

    Oh, and I discovered this one recently, and was totally impressed! You probably won’t want to spend a lot of time there, but you’ll be glad it’s there when you need it! Basically, if you want to glue two things together but don’t know what glue is best to use, you go to this site and tell it what the two things are made of, and it gives you a helpful explanation of what you need and what your options are. The internet is awesome.

    posted by Matthew E on 3-19-2010 at 1:15 pm

  16. 1. I remember my 6th grade science teacher saying that carbon dioxide was NOT poisonous. My first viewing of “Apollo 13″ put THAT to rest.
    2. I don’t remember this, but my family tells me that when I was 3 or 4 I answered the phone, the caller asked for my father and I told her that he wasn’t here and hung up. It happened 4 or 5 times in a row. Finally my mother answered the phone and it was the operator asking if we would accept a collect call from my father. He was out of town on business and had been trying to call us collect, but I kept refusing the charges.
    3. LOVE Lexington, KY
    4. I recently found TheOatmeal dot com. Screamingly funny.

    posted by TBV on 3-19-2010 at 1:15 pm

  17. 2) When I was a kid I answered the phone and someone asked for Jon. My brother’s name is Jonathon and his friends always referred to him as Jon, so I assumed it was one of his friends and made polite small talk with him. Then the guy started asking if my sixteen year old brother was still married and how the kids were doing. . . I think I hung up because I was so flustered.

    My childhood phone number was one or two numbers off from a nearby liquor store, so we had many a call asking if our home was the liquor store.

    3)San Diego. And I’ve not done a lot of traveling outside the country, but I really enjoyed England.

    posted by Andrea on 3-19-2010 at 1:19 pm

  18. 4.crujonessociety.com Fun site with pop culture overtones

    posted by Lee S. Hart on 3-19-2010 at 1:19 pm

  19. 1. I had teacher once that told us the people of the 13 original colonies wanted George Washington to be their king. He refused, saying, “I will not be your king, I will be your president.”
    2. Last week, I got three voicemails from the census bureau telling me that I filled out my application incorrectly and that I needed to come down and straighten it out. They were looking for someone named Julie or something like that.
    3. Without a doubt, Savannah,GA is my favorite city. I can’t even hear the name without smiling.

    posted by Eric on 3-19-2010 at 1:20 pm

  20. My phone number was one off from a hospital clinic. Some days I would have 15 or more message. I even changed the out going message saying if they were trying to reach the clinic they had the wrong number. I still would get messages even from doctors who worked there. I eventually changed my number.

    posted by kc3478 on 3-19-2010 at 1:20 pm

  21. you should be listening to the birmingham-based (just like mental floss) podcast “Oh Brother.”

    today’s final countdown segment is even based on a recent mental floss piece about weird things found at the unclaimed baggage center in scottsboro. here’s a link to that segment:

    http://ohbrotherradio.com/post/458569229/friday-march-19th-the-final-countdown-on

    posted by Oh Brother on 3-19-2010 at 1:20 pm

  22. 2. When I was in college, I received a series of increasingly emotional messages on my answering machine that were obviously meant for someone else. The messages were from some guy named Glen (I didn’t know anyone at the time with that name), and apparently, he was trying to reconnect with someone he had recently dated. The messages went something like this:

    Day 1: “Hi, it’s Glen. I just wanted to say that I had a great time the other night, and I would love to see you again. Give me a call when you get the chance.”

    Day 4: “Hey – It’s Glen. I don’t know if you got my other message, but I was hoping that I could see you again. Give me a call at 555-5555.”

    Day 5: “Hi. I don’t know if you are mad at me or if I did something that upset you, but I would love to talk to you. Please call. My number is 555-5555.”

    Day 7: “It’s Glen. Whatever I have done, I am so sorry. Please call me. I miss you.”

    By day 7, he was getting so sad and desperate sounding that I called him back and told him that he had the wrong number.

    posted by Misty on 3-19-2010 at 1:27 pm

  23. 1. 5th grade history teacher insisted that Columbus was the 1st person on American soil other than Native Americans – I had to go borrow a 1st grade history book to show her that she was incorrect

    2. I’ve also had many calls from doctors giving patient instructions and have had to call multiple offices to tell them I am not the patient

    3. Savannah, GA is my favorite city (Pittsburgh is home) and I’ve always wanted to visit Ireland or New Zealand

    4. “The Militant Carnivore Cooks for his Vegetarian Wife” http://militantcarnivore.com/ – It’s a great site with Vegetarian recipes that meat eaters would love

    posted by Dan on 3-19-2010 at 1:28 pm

  24. Other Karen, human blood is never blue. That’s actually a myth, albeit a widely-believed one.

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_blood_blue_or_red

    posted by Mother Chat on 3-19-2010 at 1:30 pm

  25. 1. my kindergarten teacher would tell us that if you sucked your thumb you would get a tape worm.

    2. a few years ago i received this message \hi sarah, its grandma. i am so sorry about those people how are being so mean to you, if you want me to i’ll come up there and beat them up. love you\

    my name is not sarah, it could not be mistaken for sarah.

    posted by jrd on 3-19-2010 at 1:31 pm

  26. 2. Old number was one off from the bus company. Lots of people looking for schedules. More annoying are the calls I get from a bank I don’t use for a person I don’t know saying their account is overdrawn. It’s a computer recording so talking to a real person takes effort. I’ve told them they have the wrong number at least 4 times.

    3. Switzerland, especially the French part.

    posted by Joshua on 3-19-2010 at 1:35 pm

  27. 2. Last year, some poor kid somehow managed to put my cell phone number down on his college applications and requests for college info. Over the span of about two months, I’d get several calls a week for this guy from various universities. I always did wonder if they ever managed to find the kid.

    3. I would have said Boston, MA is my favorite city… seeing as home used to be Chicago. But then, I moved. I guess it doesn’t count anymore! I visited Spain once and absolutely fell in love with the country. I particularly loved Barcelona and Seville. I would love to go back there some day. My other dream vacation is Australia.

    4. “Clients From Hell” – A blog full of posts from various anonymous designers telling stories about their interactions with clients: http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com/

    posted by Susanna on 3-19-2010 at 1:37 pm

  28. 2. My first phone number after moving out on my own was pair of mixed numbers away from a furnace company, so I got a lot of their calls. When I moved post college, my first phone number used to be the state’s number for road conditions. So every snow storm would get me a ton of calls from people with older phone books, including two sheriff’s departments.

    3. Strangely, I rather like Milwaukee. Yeah, really. :)

    4. Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, the NPR News quiz.

    posted by Adjamemnon on 3-19-2010 at 1:37 pm

  29. 2. I have a story similar to some of the others posted. When I was very young, maybe 7 or 8, a young woman in her teens or twenties called our house and asked for Joe. My father, who had answered the phone, was confused but handed the phone to me. I said, at most, “Hello” and “who is this?” before the woman said, “Joe?! You sound like a little girl!” We quickly realized our mistake and she hung up. For the record, I’m male, but given her surprise and a presumable lack of exposure to children, her response was understandable.

    posted by Joe on 3-19-2010 at 1:38 pm

  30. 2. I once had a Planned Parenthood clinic call me. I was 15 or 16 at the time, and *definitely* not sexually active. And I’ve also had many many people *desperately* calling for Pam and Willie. I think Pam and Willie owe these people money.

    3. Favorite city? Denver, CO. I went there last December and my boyfriend and I fell in love with it. If I get into CU’s med school, we’re packin’ up and moving from Florida.

    Favorite country? New Zealand! I have gone there and it was the most incredible month of my life. I talk about it way too much.

    posted by Debbie on 3-19-2010 at 1:41 pm

  31. 1. My 8th grade English teacher insisted that Christopher Columbus sailed for Italy. We happened to be studying about Columbus in our social studies class and even after showing her from our textbooks that it was in fact for Spain she refused to believe us.

    2. I work at a small independently owned movie theater. We get calls all the time asking for showtimes for some of the larger chain theaters. But the strangest was a woman who asked if this was X theater. I said no it wasn’t. She asked for the number of X theater. I told her that I did not have their number. And then she asked if I could look it up in the phone book for her.

    3. Even thought I was only there for a short time I love Berlin and can’t wait to go back there again. I can’t say I have a favorite country, but I have enjoyed visiting each of the different countries I’ve been to for different reasons.

    posted by Andrea on 3-19-2010 at 1:42 pm

  32. 1. I had an adjunct professor of Introduction to Philosophy who clearly didn’t think very highly or anybody with religious faith. He made numerous little snide comments, but I let it go until one day he declared to the class that the Christian Bible says all believers must discipline their children by whipping. (Not in there, for those who aren’t familiar with the Bible).

    To call him out, I asked him where that could be found in the Bible and he told me it was in “The Book of Paul.” I politely told him that Paul is credited with writing 13 books of the New Testament (thank you, elementary Sunday School!) but there is no Book of Paul. He had no response and sheepishly continued class. But I hope nobody took any of his rants seriously after that.

    2. They aren’t exactly wrong numbers, but I am a receptionist/secretary and I frequently get calls from people stating, “Someone just called me from this number.” Then I have to walk around the entire office to figure out who it might be. I think this is so rude. Just wait thirty seconds and then listen to the voicemail so you can call back on a direct line and have a clue what the call is regarding.

    If you call back in this manner, you’re wasting my time and yours. Plus, this is a place of business, with active BUSINESS relationships. You sound rather unprofessional when you make a confused and impatient call. I would never dream of presenting myself this way!

    posted by Scarlett on 3-19-2010 at 1:47 pm

  33. Austin is cool.
    I listen to the Steve Dahl dahlcast out of sweet home Chicago. Also, Mark Maron’s WTF podcast, and the Amateur Scientist Podcast rocks my funny bone.

    posted by Steve on 3-19-2010 at 1:48 pm

  34. Fifth grade teacher in Michigan told our class that I was flat. My entire family is from Iowa and I have now lived here for 15 years and she did not believe me when I told her that was not correct.

    No weird phone calls but i did have the cops show up at my house a 2 am looking for someone who lived there more than five years ago.

    posted by Leslie on 3-19-2010 at 1:53 pm

  35. 1. My Music professor in grade 10, after a lecture on subliminal messages in music, told us that all our information was being put into a giant supercomputer in Siberia, and that it would only be a matter of time until we were all tattooed with bar-codes and praying to Satan. She was gone before the end of the year.

    posted by PaulC on 3-19-2010 at 1:54 pm

  36. LMAO Should read “Iowa was flat”

    posted by Leslie on 3-19-2010 at 1:54 pm

  37. HAHA!
    In a hilarious coincidence, the tone of voice intimated by Other Karen’s post IS EXACTLY like the one my fifth grade teacher used!:)
    Other Karen, hunny, blood is never blue, just darker red pre-oxygenation. Trust me, I’m a doctor;)

    posted by Dara on 3-19-2010 at 1:54 pm

  38. all related to telephony:

    our childhood phone number was one digit off from “trunkline gas company” – we got lots of calls about missing dividend checks.

    back when i was married, my husband (ron) went out of town for a week. i was home alone & got a call in the middle of the night from someone named “john” – we had several friends named john, so in my half-waking state i said “hi, john – ron’s not here…” “john” replied “i know – i can see you’re alone right now…” i have never been so scared in my life & i hate sleeping alone to this day.

    one of the back lines at our office is very close to the number for the county judge’s office. we get daily calls from people trying to reset their court dates or asking about fines, etc.

    posted by casual_observer on 3-19-2010 at 1:54 pm

  39. 1. 30 something years ago, I asked my first grade teacher why birds sing. She told me, “It’s none of our business, and we should leave them alone.” Even as a six-year-old, I knew something was wrong with that answer, and I still wonder why she said something so bizarre.

    2. Shortly after getting a new phone number, I began getting recorded messages from a court clerk, informing the prior owner of the number of trial dates, later, calls from lawyers who “urgently needed to speak” with them, then, calls from the Sheriff’s office informing of newly minted arrest warrants.

    posted by Also J on 3-19-2010 at 1:55 pm

  40. 2. Someone gave my cell number for call-forwarding when they shut down their failed business. For months I got threatening phone calls and messages from creditors and past clients.

    It took some convincing to get the phone company to take my number off the call-forwarding – veeerrry annoying! Also annoying explaining to these creditors that I was not the people they were trying to reach. Urgh! I ended up letting my pay-as-you-go cell die out…

    posted by Michelle on 3-19-2010 at 1:56 pm

  41. 1. In 1st grade we read a book about fishing, and we all got really upset about the fisherman killing all the worms. Our Teacher told us that it was ok because worms don’t have nerves and can’t feel the hook…. well in 9th grade when we were dissecting worms and were instructed to find the main nerve that runs though the body, I raised my hand and explained that this was a trick question and that worms don’t have nerves….

    posted by Amy on 3-19-2010 at 1:57 pm

  42. 1. In 1st grade we read a book about fishing, and we all got really upset about the fisherman killing all the worms. Our Teacher told us that it was ok because worms don’t have nerves and can’t feel the hook…. well in 9th grade when we were dissecting worms and were instructed to find the main nerve that runs though the body, I raised my hand and explained that this was a trick question and that worms don’t have nerves….

    4. I also really like listing to the podcast ‘Savage Love’ Its a sex advice podcast and I always feel like i am gonna be in big trouble if any catches me listening to it, but Its pretty entertaining… NSFW at all.

    posted by Amy on 3-19-2010 at 1:58 pm

  43. 3. Every once in awhile I will get a rash of calls on my cellphone for people asking to make reservations. My number must be similar to or the same (with a different zip code) as some hotel’s.

    Another time I had a man call my cell phone and leave messages (I always missed his calls for nearly 2 weeks)for someone named Al despite the fact that I am a female named Katie whose voicemail says so!

    4. If you are a fan of delicious desserts and pretty pictures of such things you much check Bakerella.com frequently! She has such fantastic ideas and often gives things away to commenters!

    posted by Katie Rose on 3-19-2010 at 2:01 pm

  44. 1. I don’t remember any specific occasions from my teachers (that was long ago), but last night my 12-year-old had to study for a test on aviation history, and had left her textbook at school. Luckily, I have written several articles on just what she needed to study. Her teacher had pronounced Charles Lindbergh as “LINE-berg” and told the kids that the goal of the Gemini program was to land on the moon. She also spelled the cosmonaut dog as Latka. I explained a latka was a potato pancake or an immigrant on a sitcom called Taxi. Then I directed her to Laika.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 3-19-2010 at 2:01 pm

  45. We used to get phone calls from people trying to order pizza once in a while. One day my dad decided to take their order and told them their food would be there in a half hour. i wonder how long they waited before realizing they had the wrong number.

    posted by Pho on 3-19-2010 at 2:02 pm

  46. 1. My partner’s driving teacher told her never to sneeze while she was driving or she would have an accident. How ridiculous, as if sneezing never happens when you drive.

    2. I once got a call at work for the person who had previously held my position a year earlier and it was her son’s daycare, I assume they were calling because he was sick. Probably not a bad idea to tell your child’s day care what your updated work number is!

    3. City: Madison, Wisconsin. Perfect size (not too big, not too small), still mid western friendly, Big Ten University city so a good mix of intellectuals, bike trails, three lakes in the city, nice restaurants and mix of culture.
    Country: Germany. Alps, Towns, Food, Beer, People, Health Care, Organized and scenic, Autobahn.

    4. Couch Airbag Explosion prank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vppxu70Wojo&feature=related
    It starts right after the short commercial.

    posted by Emma on 3-19-2010 at 2:04 pm

  47. Oh yes, let me tell you, YouTube is great resource for teaching history. I teared up when “The Eagle has Landed”, and wowed the kids when I told them that the guys at NASA “were about to turn blue” as if remembering what they said would have been difficult. But they didn’t “get” how it was such a big deal until I showed them footage of Walter Cronkhite tearing up as well.

    I still had to explain who Walter Cronkhite was. I feel so old.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 3-19-2010 at 2:04 pm

  48. @ Amy… Savage Love is so great! Its definitely a guilty pleasure..

    posted by kimmy on 3-19-2010 at 2:10 pm

  49. I work for my state’s Department of Health and Hospitals, and I have gotten my fair share of strange requests. Probably the most surreal is when someone calls to ask about a dead body. Reporters call me all the time asking for the name of a dead body that the police have just reported. I suppose people hear the name “Health and Hospitals” and just assume that no one is our state dies without me knowing about it. However, we are more concerned with keeping people alive, not how they died.

    posted by Jeremy on 3-19-2010 at 2:10 pm

  50. 2a. my brother used to get voicemails for a WNBA player and the last one ended “we’ve having tacos, so bring your own spoon!”

    2b. my phone has recently started picking up other people’s conversations when it’s completely inactive. two guys discussed a movie they were shooting, and then a week later i heard the SAME guys! my favorite part was when they said “we were rolling around in a rickety old boat” and a girl chimed in with “i really want to win, i watched the grammy’s!”

    posted by Laura on 3-19-2010 at 2:10 pm

  51. 1) Less than 10 years ago, my 8th grade history teacher was convinced the Constitution only has 26 amendments. I argued with her until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

    2) My cellphone has the area code of the town where I grew up. I’ve received random phone calls/texts including: questions about my children playing rec sports (I’m 22, no kids for me) and one series of texts asking if I was messing around with a guy’s sister. He didn’t believe me when I told him I wasn’t. I had to go into great detail telling him I lived hours away from both him and his sister.

    3) No city in particular, but I really like Northern California.

    4) I want to second someone else and say Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. I also really like Bill Simmons via ESPN.com.

    posted by David on 3-19-2010 at 2:18 pm

  52. I get these strange phonecalls to my cell from a school in my area, telling me that some kid “Sammy” was absent, and if I could contact them asap. I have called them, told them that they have the wrong number (I don’t have any kids), but they called again last week.

    posted by Mimi on 3-19-2010 at 2:19 pm

  53. I got told the “blood is blue until oxygen hits it” myth too!

    posted by Rachel O. on 3-19-2010 at 2:19 pm

  54. 1. I had a teacher tell me that dinosaurs were ridden by cavemen… I tried to tell her it didn’t work out exactly like that. She told me I was being defiant. :/

    2. I got calls for about six months from a lady who plans Emmaus Walks for ladies in the Tuscaloosa, AL area. I would call and tell her she has the wrong number and then she would try to recruit me for the walks. I now live in Durham, NC and she still tries to recruit me. :D

    4. I love the Stuff You Should Know family of podcasts. There are several and they are amazing.
    I really enjoy the blog TextsFromLastNight.com

    Emma — Sneezing while I am driving is one of my biggest concerns.

    posted by Tiff on 3-19-2010 at 2:21 pm

  55. 2. The house where I lived in Costa Rica was owned by a Doctor who had moved out at least 5-6 years before. We received several calls a day asking for the doctor, and no one believed us that he’d moved out and didn’t know how to get in touch with him. They’d think we were his grand kids, and one man went into detail about his health problems to me, in the hopes that THEN I’d know where the Dr. was. Finally, we started making up stories how he’d passed away or was locked in the closet, but that didn’t stop the phone calls.

    posted by Laurie on 3-19-2010 at 2:25 pm

  56. 0. It is possible to have rhino-like things in your eyelashes that die when the lash falls off — they’re called crabs, and yes, they can infect the eye region in addition to the more routine naughty bits.

    2. Awakened around 7am on a Saturday by an elderly woman who said my name, then indicated how sorry she was that my mom had passed away. Helluva wake-up call. Got three more of those calls that weekend. Apparently, a woman they knew with my last name passed away, and they all vaguely remembered she had a son who lived in my town. Looked up the first male with the right last name in the phone book, I guess. BTW, I called my mom that Sunday and when she answered the phone, I told her I was glad that reports of her death were obviously greatly exaggerated. Always wanted to use that line in real life.

    posted by VillageCat on 3-19-2010 at 2:29 pm

  57. 2. When my fiance and I signed up for a land line, we started getting recorded messages from a local school saying that our child was absent from school and to call back. Well we don’t have any children and by the time we got home, the school was closed. This went on for about two weeks before we could let the school know.

    3. I love Carlsbad or Oceanside, CA and San Diego is awesome too.

    posted by Colene on 3-19-2010 at 2:34 pm

  58. 2) I used to manage a nice bar/ restaurant on 6th Street in Austin. We’d frequently get calls for a crappy dance club right down the street with a very similar sounding name. People would invariably call asking about the “theme” for the night and we’d always tell them it was foam night – make sure to wear your best bikini/ speedo! We loved the idea of these silly kids showing up in the wrong, skimpy attire.

    Also, our phone number was one digit off from a local indie radio station in town (coincidentally also right around the corner from us) and we’d get calls for requests day and night.

    3) Alpine, Texas or New York City; two very disparate towns.

    posted by Renis on 3-19-2010 at 2:45 pm

  59. 2. A girl named Barbara (as far as I can deduce) gives out a fake telephone number to guys at bars who hit on her. The problem is, the number she’s giving out is mine, so I routinely get texts and calls asking her if she wants to hang out. They often don’t believe me when I say they have the wrong number and insist that they met me at so-and-so bar.

    3. Another vote for Chicago! Love, love, love walking up and down Michigan Ave, Navy Pier, and the Lincoln Park Zoo.

    4. Check out CakeWrecks.com for some absolutely amazing cakes and some amazingly bad cakes – I guarantee the cakes and comments will make you laugh out loud.

    posted by Jina on 3-19-2010 at 2:47 pm

  60. In college, my phone number was one digit off a pizza place, one digit off a radio station, one digit off an office supply store, and the same number as Car Talk if you left off the 1-800. We got a lot of calls for all those places. We took pizza orders, promising delivery in 1/2 and hour or free pizza, we played people’s requests over the phone if we had the records.

    Less humorous, several years ago, I had an elderly woman calling me ever evening at 6:00 trying to get in touch with her grandson who had the same name as I do. It was extremely sad and I wasn’t able to help her find the right phone number.

    posted by Steven on 3-19-2010 at 2:48 pm

  61. 1. I had my music teacher tell us that Ozzy Osborne worshipped the devil and sacrificed people too. Luckily, the Osborne show cleared up the confusion.

    posted by mdely on 3-19-2010 at 2:48 pm

  62. “We played people’s requests over the phone if we had the records.”

    Best thing I’ve heard all week.

    posted by Jason English on 3-19-2010 at 2:55 pm

  63. 1. My 8th grade English teacher had fun whoppers, like he was raised by nuns, and if you saw a car with one headlight, it meant the devil was looking at you.
    2. I moved back in 2006 to the midwestern town I grew up in, and ended up with my former dance teacher’s phone number–she taught me 30 years ago! The sad thing is the people who call for her are all creditors–they call for her son as well. I receive so many calls, I looked up their new number and give it. The calls have gradually stopped.
    3.City? Spokane, Washington.Big enough to have a lot of opportunities for cultural interaction, but still small enough to have name and face familiarity.
    Country? USA. Not in a, “we’re better than you” tone. I just love the fact I live in a country where I can worship, eat, teach and earn what I want as a single parent who is a woman. I also like the fact I have the opportunity to vote on anything I don’t like.
    4.Ravi Zacharias’, “Just Thinking.” http://rzim.org/resources/listen/justthinking.aspx

    posted by Helenann on 3-19-2010 at 2:59 pm

  64. 1. I had an religiously insane science teacher who I argued with for the entire year on subjects such as Lord of the Rings being Satanic literature, Creationism, the evils of Rock and Roll, etc. She also went through our text books and Sharpie’d underwear on the Voyager space probe image that showed a nude man and woman.

    2. I got a wrong number once from the mayor of our city. The caller ID showed her name and number (I think it was her cell). I figured it was some kind of robo-call, but when I answered, she asked if [a city councilman's name] was there and I told her she had a wrong number. Then I wrote down the cell number in case I ever had to call her.

    3. I like San Diego and Paris.

    4. I read hundreds of web sites and blogs, and listen to lots of online music, but never got in the habit of subscribing to podcasts. The only one I have kept a subscription to is Ultima Thule, the ambient music podcast from Australia (great work/study music).

    posted by Chris on 3-19-2010 at 2:59 pm

  65. 1. I had an 8th grade science teacher who was hired to be a coach (a bad sign to begin with). Once, after counting off points on my test, she argued that there was no such thing as a leap year. All years had 365 days. When I showed her where the textbook clearly refuted this, she claimed that it must have been a typo.

    posted by Liz on 3-19-2010 at 3:01 pm

  66. 1. I was taught all through elementary school that we were entering the next ice age because we were causing global cooling with our pollution. Oh…wait…it was the 70′s, they taught everyone that!

    posted by TimCthefilmguy on 3-19-2010 at 3:18 pm

  67. The phone number at my parent’s house was once similar to an insurance agency’s. People would constantly call and leave angry message on the answering machine because their agents hadn’t returned their PREVIOUS call to our number. After quite a few years (and, I think, a threatened lawsuit), my dad finally convinced the agency to change their number.
    When I was in college, a friend of mine- who did graphics for a local TV station accidentally (she says) posted my phone number during the Human Society’s “Adopt this Pet” segment (in her defense, the numbers were KIND OF similar). I had people calling for a day and a half, wanting to adopt my dog.

    posted by Rob on 3-19-2010 at 3:23 pm

  68. 1. I had a music teacher in elementary school tell us that drummer boys didn’t get shot during wars, because both sides made a pact not to kill children. :S

    2. When my boyfriend (now husband!) was taking down my phone number, he got one digit wrong. Later he realized he was going to be late to our date and gave me a call. However, he ended up repeatedly calling someone else named Sandy! Finally she told him to go away, and it really shook him up because he was afraid it was me!!

    3.My favourite city is Boonesfield, Missouri!! It isn’t a real city at all, but a collection of old buildings arranged like a town. I’ve spent two weekends there and it was like stepping into the past!

    posted by Sandimonium on 3-19-2010 at 3:30 pm

  69. 4. I’m big on podcasts these days to help me through some boring work- the two I’m enjoying the most are The Bugle (featuring John Oliver from The Daily Show) and A History of the World in 100 Objects from the BBC. The latter is incredibly informative, fascinating, and always comes at the material in an interesting way, I can’t recommend it enough.

    posted by Kelly on 3-19-2010 at 3:30 pm

  70. 1) i don’t remember any blatant teacher lies, though i did have a teacher who called all the girls gertrude

    2)my hubby and i used to get calls for the mother of a girl named audrey who skipped school a lot. we don’t think it was a coincidence the school had the wrong number

    3) las vegas, i used to live there and it definitely has its good points

    4)if i’m having a crap day five minutes of window shopping on etsy.com always helps

    posted by emilycleone on 3-19-2010 at 3:31 pm

  71. 1. I had a grade school teacher who mispronounced Civil War battlefields (Anti-Eet-Em insted of An-tee-tem for Antietam, for instance). Fortunately it only lasted until I got home and my younger brother set me straight.
    2. Someone’s school called me once and left a detailed message about how “my” son was failing but still had a chance to bring up his grades, etc. etc. Unfortunately, there was no number for me to call back and tell them they called the wrong number.
    3. City: London; Country: Costa Rica
    4. I really enjoy http://www.slate.com

    posted by Hyacinth on 3-19-2010 at 3:32 pm

  72. 1. Similiar to Tiff’s experience above, I had a middle school teacher that told the class the legend of dragons came about because early man would see dinosaurs in the cool early morning hours. Early man sumised from the steam off of their breath that these creatures must be breathing fire. Dinosaurs and man were no where close to ever crossing paths. I wonder if she still tells her classes this.

    posted by Cathy on 3-19-2010 at 3:42 pm

  73. 1) My sixth grade teacher, a Dr. Stephens (turns out he was a chiropractor), told us that he was on the Enola Gay when it dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He didn’t just say that he was in the war/Pacific, but that he was one of the officers on the plane, with the bomn, and saw the whole thing from the window. Since we never GOT to World War II in history class, ever, I didn’t find out he was full of it until college.

    2) Two months after my step father died, the switchboard at work transferred a call to me and when I answered, a voice said, “This is your father.” It was obviously a wrong number but the weird thing is that the guy had a British accent like my step father did and my heart skipped a beat for a second there.

    3) Savannah, Georgia is lovely. I could walk around there for weeks (spring and fall, that is)

    4) maruthecrankpot.blogspot.com (political but hysterically funny)

    posted by Donna on 3-19-2010 at 3:43 pm

  74. 1) I had a crazy substitute teacher in junior high that was a regular teacher. Instead of teaching whatever subject matter he was left, he gave a lecture on being the best at anything and everything you tried in your life. His famous tagline was to include all professions, by saying, “that includes prostitutes ladies, if you are going to be a whore, be the best damn whore you can be.” This was in the late 80′s-early 90′s and to my knowledge, he was never admonished and still subs to this day.
    2) We had a phone number that was one number off to the managers office of a very seedy apartment complex. People called 3-4 times a day to inquire about places to rent or to complain to the manager. There were 4 teenagers in the house and we just started faking like we worked there when people called. We’d take complaints, promise to be right over for repairs, and make arrangements to meet tenants. Boy, I wonder how many people we duped over the years.

    3) Favorite city? Las Vegas. If you can’t be entertained there, you’re just impossible to please. :)

    posted by Jana D. on 3-19-2010 at 3:44 pm

  75. 2. Just yesterday I got a call from someone (while I was at work, on my direct line) who immediately started yelling at me to stay away from her boyfriend. She threatened to “slap me with a chainsaw”. It was awesome.

    Also, some kind named Alexander somehow put my email address on his SATs or some other information that went out to colleges, because for over a year I got constant recruitment emails from probably every college in the country. I could only unsubscribe from each one individually as I had no way of knowing what the main source was that was feeding them all my address. I still get a few here and there.

    3. Favorite city is probably the greater Phoenix area (I live in New England). I just love the air out there. But I could never live there because I’d miss the autumn I have here. Favorite country other than the US, in my limited experience, would be France. I honeymooned in Paris and it was awesome.

    posted by Sara on 3-19-2010 at 3:46 pm

  76. 2) My friend in high school’s # was 1-digit off of a local chain supermarket. His dad always played along with the caller telling them ‘steak was buy-one-get-one-free’, etc. The best was a person who called with a Powerball ticket saying she had matched 2 numbers and the powerball. His dad said, ‘hold on to that ticket and get down here right away!’. I always laughed hard whenever he told that story.

    3) I love Chicago in the summer. Wrigley, Navy Pier, museums

    posted by jj on 3-19-2010 at 3:46 pm

  77. 2. I got a long message on my cell phone from a dad looking for a hooker for his son’s 18th birthday.

    Just a thought but you might want to be sure you have the right number before you ramble on someone’s voicemail for 5 minutes looking to solicit a hooker and going into details about it!

    posted by N37 on 3-19-2010 at 3:49 pm

  78. 2) First year of university, my landline was accidentally listed (i’m guessing) in an advert as the number for a new local restaurant. i got at least 10 calls a night requesting tables. Some people were really not very apologetic about getting the wrong number, and when i called the restaurant suggesting they had the wrong number, they told me i was mistaken! After being interrupted about 5times in 5mins, i began taking bookings “party of 8 for tomorrow? no problem! I’ll give you 20% off”.

    posted by nick on 3-19-2010 at 3:50 pm

  79. For the the longest time someone would call me speaking a foreign language (not sure which, not Spanish, or Italian, or French…), obviously looking for someone else. They would hear me speaking English, hang up, and call back repeatedly. Not always from the same number either.

    My boyfriend was getting calls from an old lady that thought he was her grandson for the longest time. She’d leave this long sad messages. Weird part was her grandson’s name is John, and so is my boyfriend’s, although he goes by Dan (his middle name). And he has no living grandparents. His last grandma died the week before the mysterious old lady called the first time.

    posted by Anna on 3-19-2010 at 3:53 pm

  80. 2.my father phone number is VERY (we are talking the last digit is the only difference here) to one of the burger kings nearby. We got so many calls, about 4-6 a week. I finally looked up the number so i could tell people the correct number, hahaha

    posted by Jennifer on 3-19-2010 at 3:57 pm

  81. 1. We had a U.S. History Teacher who we KNEW didn’t know anything about what she was teaching. One of those teachers who gave notes verbatim from the teaching guide, xeroxed tests from the teaching guide and pretty much didn’t do anything if it wasn’t from the teaching guide. So one day, already knowing what the answer way, I raised my hand and asked her what the “D” in D-Day stood for and she said, “I think it stands for Destruction.”

    posted by Brian on 3-19-2010 at 3:59 pm

  82. 2. When I was seven, our wires got crossed with a hotel’s phone line. We kept getting phone calls asking for room service.

    posted by Cassie on 3-19-2010 at 4:04 pm

  83. 1a. I have a landline at home, but never give the number out. So I know when it rings that it’s either a telemarketer or the wrong number. There’s one guy who calls pretty regularly, with a very heavy foreign accent, and I can’t understand who he’s asking for (it’s a foreign name). Every time he calls I tell him that he has the wrong number, but it doesn’t seem to stop him from calling again.

    1b. I work for a small business that has the same name as a large national retail chain. Every year, at Christmas time, we’ll get calls from people thinking that we’re that store, asking about limited edition Christmas ornaments or Christmas cards.

    1c. At my first job out of college, the company I worked at had the same number as an old Linens-n-Things store. We would get calls for them daily. The callers would ask if we had certain products in stock, or if they could speak with someone in the “kitchen” department or the “frames” department, etc. We’d start telling them that we didn’t have such-and-such product in stock, and to try another store. That was just easier than trying to explain that they had the wrong number.

    posted by Kelley on 3-19-2010 at 4:11 pm

  84. 1. It was told to a friend of mine by a college professor that “Adoption is wrong on all levels and no children that were adopted turned out o.k.” Being that her, myself and both of our siblings are adopted and quite well adjusted adults the teacher got some serious screaming from her.

    3. I totally love Louisville, Kentucky, never been to a cool country yet aside from the good ol’ usa and canada. I want to go to Ireland and Japan someday though

    posted by hockey zombie on 3-19-2010 at 4:12 pm

  85. 1. 6th grade social studies teacher “Each state elects two senators, a Democrat and a Republican”

    2. Old number belonged to a septic tank company. I got a call asking me if I had a septic tank and I said, “Yeah, I think so, but I just rent here”

    3. San Antonio

    posted by Tex on 3-19-2010 at 4:17 pm

  86. 2. Before me, my phone number belonged to someone claiming to be a shaman. For about a year I would receive calls from people who needed help getting rid of evil spirits.

    posted by Lara on 3-19-2010 at 4:19 pm

  87. The phone number where I work is one digit off from the local Wal-Mart, Super 1 Foods grocery store, and the city water & light company. Needless to say a large number of our calls are wrong numbers. No one listens when we answer the phone with our company name, they just wait for us to stop speaking so they can ask for the deli, bakery, electronics, or for someone to get their damn electricity back on this instant.

    posted by Wendy on 3-19-2010 at 4:20 pm

  88. 1. My junior English teacher was known as Crackhead Larson (and called that by everyone, including students, parents, and her own coworkers). In my term paper for her class, I used the phrase “This will affect us . . .”. She took off points and informed me the correct word to use would be effect. Her logic was that since affect is a highly emotional word and this was a logical paper, effect should be used. Never mind the difference between a noun and a verb.
    2. I used to get collection calls from 24 Hour Fitness for someone else. They got a little nasty.
    3. My favorite city has to be Memphis. It has a great vibe, an eclectic mix of old South and modernity with a heavy dose of rock and blues mixed in. Plus, the Mississippi is gorgeous at night. I haven’t traveled enough to pick a country, but Switzerland was awesome.

    posted by janeeyre316 on 3-19-2010 at 4:20 pm

  89. 2.(again) I just remember one time I answered the phone, and the caller was some kid rapping the word “Mama” over and over. (Seriously, the second I said Hello all I hear is “Mamamamamamamamama.” As soon as he stopped for a second, I said, “Wait, what?” (In retrospect, that was kinda rude, but I was really surprised, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say.) The kid:”Mama?” Me:”Um, I think you have the wrong number.” The Kid:”Oh, sorry.” I felt so bad for that kid. That really must have been embarrassing for him.

    posted by Cassie on 3-19-2010 at 4:26 pm

  90. 4. http://www.wwwdotcom.com
    :~)

    posted by Tdl on 3-19-2010 at 4:49 pm

  91. 2. I once had a soldier call my number looking for his old buddies. He had just gotten back from a year in Iraq, and he was trying to reconnect with people. That was back in 2004, and I still regret not staying on the phone and chatting a while. He sounded really down.

    posted by Eva on 3-19-2010 at 5:02 pm

  92. 1. In kindergarten, our teacher had us all sit on the rug and come up with words that begin with the letter “N”. I waved my hand wildly and watched her call on every other kid until I was dead last. I blurted out “non-toxic!” She told me I was too young to know that word.
    2. We used to get several phone calls from various collection agencies as well as an attorney representing Bradlees, a defunct regional Northeast department store chain. Most of them were looking for “Nancy B…”, but occasionally it would be for “Juan”. For months this went on, but we usually missed them since we’d be at work, but there was always at least one message on the machine. One day I happened to be home, and heard the Bradlees attorney leaving yet another message for Nancy B. I grabbed he phone and let him know that he’s got the wrong number, there is no Nancy B here, but if I ever meet her, I will personally bring her to his office. I also said, for what it’s worth, I doubt you guys are going to be getting any money from her! That gave him a laugh, and he apologized, and we never heard from him again. The other calls tapered off after that, but we changed the number after we moved anyway. Last year I was getting more calls on my cell from collections agencies for someone else. After a few voicemails, I gave in and called back to correct them. They haven’t called again.
    3. I don’t rally have a favorite city, but I loved San Francisco. I’ve never traveled outside the country, except for when my mom went to Nova Scotia while she was pregnant with me, so that doesn’t count.
    4.http://www.forteantimes.com/.

    posted by Terri on 3-19-2010 at 5:09 pm

  93. 1. I would often get collect calls from jail for a Coach Walker. Coach Walker was the football coach for the city high school. I hate that those kids wasted the supposed “one call!”

    2.I thought the Presidential chopping of the cherry tree was true until college. I felt so dumb.

    3.Philly, London, Sydney…England and Australia

    posted by Leanna on 3-19-2010 at 5:19 pm

  94. 1. In fourth grade, our teacher said that it’s impossible to see across the Straits of Mackinac, because it’s five miles across. I tried arguing with her, because I’d been there, but she wouldn’t listen.
    2. A number of years ago, I received a series of messages on my answering machine from some guy looking for someone else who owed him money. He sounded really desperate. He never left a phone number, so I couldn’t call him back and tell him he was calling the wrong place.
    3. I can’t really think of a favorite city, unless Disney World counts! :-) I’ve only been to 3 other countries, and my favorite one is Canada.
    4. I got nothing.

    posted by Tammy on 3-19-2010 at 5:19 pm

  95. 1. An elementary school science teacher once told us that every new fact we learn creates a new wrinkle on the brain.

    2. I’m male and I once got a phone call from a woman I didn’t know who wanted phone sex. As far as I could tell, she just dialed random numbers until she found a willing partner.

    3. Hard to pick a favorite city of all the ones I’ve visited around the world; I think I’ll go with Copenhagen. Favorite country is harder, because I think it’s *going* to be New Zealand, but I haven’t made it there yet.

    4. Do radio shows count? It’s also a podcast and my favorite of the two dozen or so I listen to regularly: RadioLab. If you haven’t heard it before, I highly recommend starting with the program they did on Space: http://tinyurl.com/jj2jk

    posted by Dan on 3-19-2010 at 5:26 pm

  96. 4. http://www.sporcle.com. Mental Floss introduced me to it and I am hooked.

    posted by Lee on 3-19-2010 at 5:46 pm

  97. The Ricky Gervais Show has consistently been my favorite podcast. I’m pretty sure most of us have heard them but if you haven’t you are missing out!

    posted by John on 3-19-2010 at 6:03 pm

  98. 2. We used to get collection calls all the time. They were pretty easy to fix if we had the time to call back and inform the company that they had the wrong number.

    3. I LOVE Aruba! And I’m glad so many people love Chicago.

    4. I’ve been reading Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project blog.

    posted by Mrs. Coffee on 3-19-2010 at 6:06 pm

  99. 1) There was a teacher in my middle school who said things like, “WE AIN’T STUDYIN’ THEM MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES LIKE CHINA AND TOKYO!” completely seriously. I also had a substitute tell us that the little black spots in vanilla ice cream were flies that fell in the machine. I believed that one aaaaaalll day.

    posted by Layla on 3-19-2010 at 6:06 pm

  100. While reading this thread (!) I got a call from a computerized voice informing me that “there is an important business message for Jean ___”, which isn’t me at all. I have gotten several of these calls over the past year, I suppose it’s a business voice mail calling me as a wrong number? Funny that the last one happened and prompted me to post.

    posted by Trish on 3-19-2010 at 6:14 pm

  101. Can I just say that reading people’s responses has convinced me that the next generation of kids are completely screwed when it comes to teachers?

    I did learn that blood was blue while in the body like many others…THANK YOU(!) Mental_Floss for correcting this myth.

    I’m also a huge fan of Jesse Owens…he’s the reason why as soon as I hit high school I started sprinting. I’m now in my last season of Track in college (which is sad. I don’t think Hitler would ever do that for Owens…from what I’ve read Hitler wouldn’t even shake the guy’s hand. The American team also took (I believe) two Jewish guys off the 4×1 team to appease Hitler. Boooo appeasement…yay Jesse Owens! :-)

    posted by Meg on 3-19-2010 at 6:20 pm

  102. 1. My fourth grade teacher at a Catholic elementary school told us that she used to wear peace signs until her father told her that the peace sign was a broken cross. She told us this “fact” after several kids had drawn peace signs for an art project.

    3. In the US, New York City and San Francisco. Internationally, I would say Barcelona. I really want to visit London, Paris, and Tokyo. For countries, I would say that I haven’t stayed in most countries long enough except for the US and Ecuador.

    4. I’m also a Stuff You Should Know podcast fan. Also, for geography nerds, there’s always the GeoQuiz from PRI.

    Recaptcha: speak poetry

    posted by ce on 3-19-2010 at 6:30 pm

  103. 1. I had a physics teacher for Electromagnetics in college with such a heavy accent that we couldn’t tell what he was saying. Fortunately for me, I’d already had most of the material in a EE class and ended up being the class tutor.
    2. When my wife and I moved into our new house on the other side of town we had to get a new number. For over a year we kept getting calls for the previous person with that number, who it seems had skipped town. As the calls finally stopped, I thought of calling our old number and found that it had been reissued. It took several calls to the new owner to convince him that my call was not another person looking for me, but actually me. I gave him our new number and I guess he hasn’t had any more “wrong numbers.

    posted by Prism on 3-19-2010 at 6:40 pm

  104. 1. Seriously, no lie my geometry teacher in high school (Mr. McNamara – Toll Gate High!) told me he would see me in hell. I’d like to think that was a lie.

    4. Bobby Bones Show on 96.7 Austin.
    Podcast – CNN News of the Absurd.

    Happy Friday Flossers!

    posted by izzi on 3-19-2010 at 7:09 pm

  105. 1. I also was told blood was blue until it hit the air.
    3. another vote for “History of the world in 100 objects” my current favorite.

    posted by lee on 3-19-2010 at 7:29 pm

  106. I was pulled over for speeding one night by an officer who decided he wanted to give me a hard time about it. After he gave me the ticket, I told him he should “go catch some drug dealers” as I peeled out. He chased me down in his car and, long story short, hauled me to jail. Luckily for me, he relented and let me off with a warning when he saw that I worked with his wife. Anyway, the next day, I started receiving calls from a collection agency, looking for THE SAME COP!!!! I let them know where he worked.

    posted by Kath on 3-19-2010 at 7:54 pm

  107. 2. I had a phone number that had
    previously belonged to an incredibly interesting couple who apparently lived some kind of soap-opera life. Over time we learned a lot about this couple, such as their full names, former address, and who they owed money to (LOTS of people). The most interesting thing we learned about them was the fact that they had just up-and-disappeared, without telling their family or friends where they went or even that they were leaving at all.

    I also had a number that had previously belonged to an eldery woman. We didn’t learn as much about her as we did the other couple, but we did find out that she was apparently very lonely, and she loved talking to telemarketers, invited them to call her back, and often bough their products. Trust me, this is the absolute WORST kind of person to inherit a phone number from. We had to change our number after receiving hundreds of telemarketing calls.

    posted by Michigan Mom on 3-19-2010 at 8:00 pm

  108. I received a phone call at work once from a nurse who cheerfully informed me that I was NOT pregnant. Since I actually was several month’s pregnant, I figured the call was for the other Kathleen in the same office. Since we had an open office layout, I was able to watch her face when i transferred the call to her and the nurse apologised for “outing” her.

    posted by Kathleen on 3-19-2010 at 8:15 pm

  109. 1. I had a college professor (in Michigan) tell me that I had “too much of an East Coast attitude” because I expect things to get done, and that I should acclimate myself to the culture of Michigan, this was three weeks before graduation… growing up near Boston and now living in NYC I took it as a complement

    posted by Kerri on 3-19-2010 at 8:26 pm

  110. 1. In college, I had an older professor who had some important dates from WWII wrong. I was student teaching a lesson on that material and knew it front and back. When I tried to nicely correct him after a class was over, he wasn’t too happy and dismissed me as quickly as he could.

    1b. Now I’m a high school history teacher…and am hopefully not giving out the wrong information. When a student asks a question that I really don’t know the answer to, I’ll tell them that and I’ll try to get back to them later with an answer. If we have time at the end of class, we’ll even look up the info on the library’s online databases.

    3. I went to Germany several years ago for a week and still think that vacation was the best taken.

    4. http://www.consumerist.com It’s a website associated with consumer reports, but has a ton of useful information.
    Also, http://www.failblog.org and all of it’s associated sites, such as http://www.itmademyday.com I’ll go there when I need some laughs. http://www.pogo.com has some fun online games.

    posted by Christi on 3-19-2010 at 8:36 pm

  111. Being a teacher myself, I thought I would defend our profession a little bit. While I can believe that people have been taught a lot of dumb things, my own experience suggests that some of the above dumb things were only what people *thought* they were being taught. Given some of the answers I’ve gotten on tests, I think students believe they’ve been taught all sorts of things they haven’t been.

    posted by neklaw on 3-19-2010 at 8:42 pm

  112. 1. I don’t remember…even college is now officially 17 years ago. I don’t remember!

    2. I got a cell phone on a T-Mobile contract in September 2008. Turns out, it was the former cell phone of an electrician who was on the lam for not paying his taxes. I got calls from the California tax bubbas, San Bernadino County Sherriff, and the IRS. For nineteen months. I finally cancelled after T-Mobile’s unwillingness to help got to me.

    3. My wife is from Udon Thani, Thailand (in northeast Thailand). But I instantly fell in love with Chiang Mai (in the northwest). It’s got a disproportionately larger number of English-speaking tourists (and therefore a larger number of passable English-speaking Thais) than anywhere else in Thailand. Plus it is the cheapest place to live in the whole country. Hello, retirement destination!

    4. One website I recently visited that I think is pretty awesome is http://www.getuncommon.com/.

    I uploaded a photo and they turned it into a case for my iPhone. Coolness.

    No, I do not work for them!

    posted by Bob on 3-19-2010 at 9:01 pm

  113. 1. I don’t remember any stories that were false coming from one of my teachers, but I do remember one in fifth grade when my teacher went through this incredibly elaborate description of illegal drug trades when it was a picture day and we had nothing else to do since most of the class was out of the room at any given time. Most vividly I remember walking back into the room after having my picture taken and her making this hand motion in the shape of a square and saying, \Well a kilo is about this big…\

    2. My family moved into a new house about a year and a half ago and we got a new number. Apparently, our new number used to be the number for this guy named Jeff Parks and we’ve been telling people that this isn’t his number anymore for the entire time we’ve lived here. Even crazier, when we first moved in and were looking to get some furniture reupholstered we talked to Jeff Parks, the former owner of our new phone number!

    A couple of months ago I received a text that said, \i just ran into your niece at sams\ I don’t have a niece.
    So I sent them a text back that said, \Yeah, isn’t she great? Oh, and you have the wrong number.\
    Re: \I am so sorry\
    Then I get another text from the same number about five minutes later:
    \She’ll be home a little late tonight.\
    So I replied, \Okay, that’s fine. And you still have the wrong number.\

    posted by Jordan on 3-19-2010 at 9:01 pm

  114. My 7th grade health teacher told us it takes hours to digest a doughnut, but every time she’d mention it the length of time changed. It got to the point where i stopped believing we even digested doughnuts. A college history professor told my class that the Arawaks no longer existed, which is flat out false. When I showed him he was wrong, he said it didn’t matter…Really? I think the Arawaks might disagree
    reCaptcha: scant growth

    posted by Teresa is amazing on 3-19-2010 at 9:09 pm

  115. 1. As a teacher, I once was asked a question by a student that I had no clue of the answer. I wanted to move on with class so I fabricated an answer. Little did I know that it would come back and haunt me on a mental_floss comment board.

    2. My in-laws phone number was 1 digit off the local pizza hut and the pharmacy for the local supermarket. The supermarket closed about 10 years ago and they still get calls for prescriptions.

    posted by Chris on 3-19-2010 at 9:20 pm

  116. 2) We used to get all kinds of calls for the Bingo Hall on the other side of town. My parents would tell them there was a two-for-one special on cards that night.

    3) Favorite city is either Seattle or Memphis. Favorite country is easily Costa Rica.

    4)www.halfbakery.com A collection of half-baked ideas. So worth the read!

    posted by onemoremoondance on 3-19-2010 at 9:27 pm

  117. Also, I had a history teacher tell us that Moses led his people INTO Egypt and then back out again. And that the first George Bush was re-elected.

    posted by onemoremoondance on 3-19-2010 at 9:29 pm

  118. Weirdest call I ever got was when I lived in Orlando, and someone called and asked if someone was available. This person didn’t live with me, neither did I know anyone by that name. But when I asked my husband if he knew the person being asked for, he gave a name similar to it. Still no success for the caller, so we all hung up. What’s funny is that at no time did either party ever give our names! LOL

    posted by Sandra Stott on 3-19-2010 at 9:34 pm

  119. One of my students is terrified of Judge Judy. So I told her if she ever made me mad and I quit, then Judge Judy would come in and be the new teacher. I felt bad when I realized she believed me (I heard her telling other students this a few weeks later. Oops) :)

    posted by TeacherPatti on 3-19-2010 at 9:35 pm

  120. 1. I don’t remember any teachers giving false info. However, my husband DID do this to our girls on a regular basis–just to screw with them! He told our oldest that if you closed your mouth tight and blocked your nose and if you tried really, really hard, you could actually breathe through your ears. She then went and had a very heated argument with her sixth grade teacher, who said it wasn’t true. My husband thought this was hilarious.

    2. One evening, while making dinner, I answered the phone.

    Caller: Hello. Is Mary there? (NOT my name.)
    Me: Sorry, but you must have the wrong number.
    Caller: (long pause–depressed silence)
    Caller: (in a happier mood) What are YOU doing tonight?

    Being the mother of two, it definitely made me feel better that a (I assume) college student would want to ask me out on a date. :)

    posted by cmfalls on 3-19-2010 at 9:37 pm

  121. 3. Love Lisbon

    4. Sleeveface.com, friendsofirony.com, http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/

    posted by Ranger J on 3-19-2010 at 9:37 pm

  122. 1. I teach grammar to international students at a college. Occasionally I’ll make stupid mistakes explaining the grammar, but I don’t think that will scar anyone for life. If I see any grammar-related posts here, I’ll know I’m wrong.

    2. In college, I got a call from jail one day and I suspected it was my roommate at the time. Wrong – it was some prisoner being held in jail for 30 days. And he called me 4-5 times everyday for 2 weeks (he literally filled up our answering machine everyday wondering why we wouldn’t take his calls). We finally filed a police report and changed our number. The police never could tell us why he was allowed so many phone calls!

    posted by Sara on 3-19-2010 at 10:40 pm

  123. 2. Not my story, but this happened to my dad. He works at a community college, and received several phone calls from a lady who was trying to reach the American Airlines reservations line. Each time, he politely informed her that she had the wrong number, only to have her call back about 10 minutes later. He finally offered to take her reservation, and when she asked about giving her credit card info, he said “we’ll figure it out.” I think she finally paid attention to him at that point.

    3. Favorite cities: Bernkastel or Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Favorite place that’s not a city: Santorini, Greece.

    posted by Jenn on 3-19-2010 at 11:02 pm

  124. As a 7th grade teacher I can tell you that there are days when you just can’t handle another ridiculous, off-topic question designed to disrupt the class. I also know the level of attention given to answers is downright frightening, especially towards the end of the day! I HOPE I haven’t given misinformation but I know I’m regularly misquoted. The funniest teacher tale I’ve heard probably started with a teacher getting disgusted with kids chewing erasers (?) This character told his class that ear wax was mixed in with the rubber. I know this traumatized kids for years after!

    As for phone calls, my family was accidentally given our number that was supposed to be temporarily put on hiatus for a Roberta Emil. She was so livid that she continued to give our number as her own, even on billboards for rental property. Things tapered off after we called the State low-income housing office but even 6 years later we get calls. We named the geese in our pond …Roberta and Emil!

    London England is my fav city

    I’m hooked on http://www.ted.com Always an interesting talk on Technology, Entertainment or Design

    posted by Peter on 3-19-2010 at 11:27 pm

  125. my 7th grade history teacher told us there was going to be school and winter break was canceled. we freaked out and then realized it was a joke :)
    our current history teacher sneezes so loudly and we all are like WOAH especially if he is standing right behind you

    posted by kaede on 3-19-2010 at 11:28 pm

  126. I have to agree with neklaw. As a university professor, I have often said to my wife, after marking exam scripts, that I sincerely hope some of these students are not going around telling people that I taught them the nonsense they are putting down on paper.

    posted by Gollum on 3-20-2010 at 12:28 am

  127. 2. When we got our current phone number we got quite a few calls for a person that we later learned was a relatively well known photographer. 20-some years later, our son-in-law’s mom suggested we use her friend for the kids’ wedding — the guy we used to get calls for.
    3. To “T”- the person who lauded Austin as being “so walkable”. Maybe if you’re only here for SXSW and going to clubs. Honestly, it takes 30 minutes to drive north to south – within just city limits – at 4:00 am. You need to see more of the area — it is beautiful — and get out of the bars.
    4. I love Radio Lab and This American Life. Thought provoking and geeky!

    posted by larriann on 3-20-2010 at 12:56 am

  128. 1. My senior year of high school, I took a psychology class that was unfortunately taught by the school’s baseball coach. He was teaching about Jean Piaget and pronounced it like “Gene Pee-uh-jet”. I had never taken Psych OR French before, but I gave him a scowling look and he let me his pronunciation right.

    Also, in college, I took this class about aging and the elderly, taught by our menopausal adviser. She told us that Astroglide (the lube, which she swore by) was called such because it was invented for astronauts to help put their helmets on. I’ve never looked up if that was true, but that story did help my purchasing decision the night after my wedding…

    2. When I lived in Jacksonville, we got a call to our house that I could hardly understand. I really thought the person was asking for “Stinky Fingers” and I kept repeating that back to them because I didn’t know what to make of it. My roommate then reminded me that there was a local restaurant called Sticky Fingers.

    3. Don’t wanna jinx where the Navy might send us next/again.

    4. Totally addicted to Failbooking.

    posted by catherine ann on 3-20-2010 at 1:00 am

  129. 1. My driver’s ed teacher in HS kept complaining that we were lethargic in his class right after lunch because we ate foods with MSG. All the while he was sporting a very big belly from eating too many burritos (which he admitted freely).

    posted by Steve D. on 3-20-2010 at 1:45 am

  130. 1. Nothing really stands out.

    2. Doctor’s office 30 miles away would constantly call to remind Mr. Not-my-name about an appointment coming up. This continued several months, and each time I would call them back to say they had the wrong number.

    3. Favorite cities:
    Boulder, CO & San Antonio, TX
    Favorite country:
    Greece

    4. A new website I’m enjoying lately is http://www.fiverr.com which connects buyers and sellers. The only stipulation: all prices are set at five dollars. Amazing what some people are willing to do for that amount of money.

    Back to #1: Do Sunday School Teachers count? To this day I remember one of them making the comment that if God was not real and Christianity was a lie, then Christians are the most miserable people on earth. I have found this to be SO not true. Having a personal relationship with the creator of the universe? AWESOME! Of course, if you keep your god in a box and think Christianity is all about what you can’t do, then yeah, I can see how you’d be miserable. Sad, really.

    Sorry if I was preachy on this one. That comment has just always bothered me.

    posted by Karen L. on 3-20-2010 at 1:52 am

  131. 1. I had a gym class in a workout-gym at the school with treadmills and other machines. The very fit coach told me that if my heart rate was above 120 it was way too much and I needed to slow down. I now know 120 is well below minimum. Needless to say, I didn’t get very fit that year.

    2. My number was nearly the same as a pizza place, and often I would answer and take orders for pizzas that would never be delivered.
    Another story. My parents left me alone at home for the first time in my life one evening. All night long the phone rang over and over again and when I answered it, or if the machine got it, I would hear the scariest and weirdest noises. It scared the crap out of me all night long. Turns out it was a fax machine calling over and over.

    posted by blah on 3-20-2010 at 1:59 am

  132. 2. The pharmacy that I work at is one digit off from a local auto parts store. The thing that kills me is every time I answer the phone I say, “Terrace Pharmacy, technician speaking,” and I still get people asking me for auto parts.

    3. Favorite city: Crescent City, CA, or Chicago. I’ve only been to Chicago once for a day, and I want to go back.

    4. I love wondermark.com.

    posted by Janel on 3-20-2010 at 2:15 am

  133. My 7th grade history teacher told us on numerous occasions that Russia and it’s former territories were still called the USSR.

    We were in 2nd grade when the USSR dissolved and our (then) social studies teacher spent a week on the significance of the event.

    When we tried to correct the 7th grade teacher, she told us were were wrong and stupid, pointing to the more than two decades outdated wall map. Didn’t help our case that the textbooks hadn’t been updated in over a decade…

    posted by Brandy on 3-20-2010 at 2:40 am

  134. 1. Can’t remember anything in particular… Well, I had this one teacher who wasn’t too good at spelling (not a language teacher, but still…). Being as picky with spelling as I am, I’d always cringe whenever she wrote something on the board…

    2. Our home phone number was very similar to the one for the White Taxi company, so we’d frequently get calls from people wanting to get a cab. Once Grandpa answered “Oh, we don’t have white cabs, but we do have blue ones” and offered to send one. :D Thing is, there is a yellow cab company, a green one, and all the smaller companies have white cabs, but there is no such thing as a blue taxi here…

    2b. I work in an airline reservations center. When customers call, they are greeted by the machine: “Thank you for calling ____ reservations, if you wish to make a booking press 1, blah blah blah”. Then when they choose whatever option, they are told to hold on while they listen to some advertising (the daily offers and such). Then they are greeted by the agent who answers “Thank you for calling ___, my name is Joe, how can I help you?” So after hearing the name of the airline at least three times, people still ask “Uh, where am I calling?” *facepalm*

    We occasionally get calls from people who want to buy/already have tickets with other airlines. When informed that we cannot help them, they will still ask if we have the other airline’s phone number. Come on, you don’t visit your local McDonald’s and ask for a Whopper…

    Similar deal as in my previous job (a travel agency). I’d pick the phone “___ Travel, good morning” and get asked if we were carrying such-and-such refrigerator part.

    3. Favorite place, not quite a city, is the Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala. (OK, you said “not home”, but Guate City is an hour away by plane so it still counts).

    4. xkcd.com – great comics three times a week

    posted by FlyingAce on 3-20-2010 at 3:41 am

  135. 2. Growing up, our phone number was a digit off one of the local church’s 24-hour prayer line. We’d get calls at all hours asking for thoughts and prayers. I always felt bad for the people calling at their worst moment and getting me who had to tell them the right number.

    posted by Samantha on 3-20-2010 at 3:47 am

  136. 1. Just out of high school I had a job as a disk jockey and decided to forgo college for a while. My folks were afraid I’d never go to college so to assuage them I enrolled in a couple of courses in a community college.

    First day of Freshman English, the lady teaching the class said every college student should have two reference books: a dictionary (she recommended Webster’s), and a cartharsis! She even went so far as to write “R-O-G-E-T-’s” cartharsis.

    2. My land line is one digit off from an auto parts store. Every four or five Saturdays I get a call from someone at 8 am and get, well, grumpy.

    So this guy says, “Do you have a differential for a ’98 Corolla?”

    I said, “You’re not the cops, are ya?”

    I went on to tell him we had one, that the chop shop didn’t have enough room in the truck to take it last night and we’d pay him $50 bucks to haul it away.

    I said for him to come to the back door of the store and pound on the door real loud so we could hear it up front.

    I’ve always wondered how that worked out.

    3. I think NYC as a theme park for grown-ups. Good food, great museums, half-price Broadway tickets, street characters with oversized heads….

    posted by MonkeyHawk on 3-20-2010 at 7:11 am

  137. 1. We have been called and asked if our business would like to donate to,I think, it was the American Heart Association.
    I told them that they had called a private residence. And once we got a call from someone wanting to cancel their YMCA membership. We have the same prefix, but that’s it.
    2. My grandmother used to be a mail carrier. One morning, a woman from Forest Home and asked me when my grandmother’s funeral was. It turns out there was another mail carrier who worked in Forest Home, who had died-may they rest in peace. I think he/she died in a car wreck. My mom is the postmaster.

    posted by Sara in Al on 3-20-2010 at 9:30 am

  138. One time on air, I had a contest to give a t-shirt to the ninth caller. I picked up the phone over and over, and for the fourth call, I said “KDcountry, you’re…” and a voice interrupted me and said “HELLO! This is MISS CLEO!” and then I got a recorded sales pitch for her psychic services. I had to stop and listen for a while because it was so funny. And she gave me a great joke…

    If she was really psychic, she would have been caller number nine!

    posted by Miss Cellania on 3-20-2010 at 10:42 am

  139. 1. In seventh grade, we watched a filmstrip that said the Crazy Horse monument “will be completed by 1980.” This was 1987. (Egad, I’m old.) Since Crazy Horse is, to this day, nowhere near complete, the film had to have been 20 or 30 years out-of-date.

    2. I have amusingly bad luck with phone numbers.

    When I lived in Maryland, an alarm company mistakenly entered my number as the emergency contact for a Burger King in New Jersey. (The last seven digits were the same, but they got the area code wrong.) So when the BK’s alarm went off in the middle of the night, I’d get a call. The alarm company refused to change the phone number on my say-so. I had to talk to the manager of the Burger King, who was very eager to make the request after I told him his alarm was going off three or four times a week.

    Another one: I was living in Denver when the Broncos went to their first Super Bowl (go Broncos!), and my number was used by a con man who sold people fake Super Bowl packages. Needless to say, when people realized they’d given this guy thousands of dollars for fake tickets, they weren’t happy, and they weren’t about to believe me when I told them it was a wrong number. I had to let all my calls go to voice mail for about a month because the callers were so abusive.

    3. I love Asheville and Chapel Hill, and Sydney. Favorite country (other than Japan) is either Australia or Singapore, depending on my mood.

    posted by Karen In Japan on 3-20-2010 at 11:01 am

  140. 1. I had a teacher tell me once in high school (late 1980′s) that learning Spanish would do me absolutely no good. He was very wrong.

    2. Recently, a man kept calling my teenage daughter’s cell phone and leaving profanity laced messages directed to a buddy of his. I finally called him back and threatened him, with the same amount of profanity, if he ever called again. It worked.

    3. My favorite city right now is Lawrence, Kansas. It just has a great vibe. I love all of Europe.

    4. A podcast that everybody should be listening to is Kevin and Bean on KROQ. Those dudes are the best!

    posted by grouchonacouch on 3-20-2010 at 11:24 am

  141. 2) For a while, an elderly woman would call and leave messages on my cell phone…she thought my number was her grandson’s. My own fault, I suppose, for not having my name on my voice mail, but still, I felt bad about it. She must have figured it out after a while because the calls stopped.

    3) Favorite city is probably Charleston, SC. Or Asheville, NC. Favorite county: Ireland, hands down.

    posted by Jen on 3-20-2010 at 11:41 am

  142. 2. Last September, I had a guy call me wanting to buy marijuana. I think he felt rather awkward when I told him he had a wrong number, and suggested he quit smoking weed. I also had one woman call me once asking for Jason. When I told her there was no Jason at that number, she asked if I was his wife. She seemed a little suspicious. I was just a tired college student being woken up at 7:30 in the morning by a woman who couldn’t get the right number!

    3. City, in my limited experience, is definitely London. Country would be Ireland. Can’t wait to go back to both!

    posted by Kate H on 3-20-2010 at 1:48 pm

  143. When I was in 9th grade back in 2004, the week I got my first cellphone in the middle of the day I got a phone call, with a message from Blockbuster telling me I had two over due movies. I’ve gotten one or two from different schools where I am now, which is a different area code from my phone, telling me about school functions, like back to school night or something.

    I like Wait…Wait Don’t Tell Me, NPR’s news/quiz podcast, it’s normally recorded in Chicago, but every now and again they go to other cities in the country. I also enjoy Kevin SMith’s SModcast from smodcast.com, very not worksafe. There’s also a slew of podacasts from HowStuffWorks.com, I haven’t had the chance to listen to them, but they should be interesting. This American Life is amazing, and Selected Shorts from NPR is great too. Selected Shorts is authors reading short stories.

    posted by Meister Jazz on 3-20-2010 at 1:56 pm

  144. My sister’s 9th grade history teacher told the whole class that the South won the civil war. That was pretty ridiculous.

    posted by Dan on 3-20-2010 at 2:29 pm

  145. In 7th grade science, I had a teacher ask the class about the theory of evolution. I answered with an rough explanation about the theory of common descent, that all life on earth is descended from a common gene pool. She quickly cut me off – and said, no, you’re wrong – it means that man is descended from apes. How rude and narrow!

    posted by James H on 3-20-2010 at 2:31 pm

  146. 1. When I was in first grade, I had a teacher who told me that we had to be good during mass because the priest was watching us, and would write our names down (while in reality he was reading the Bible!!!) and would call our teacher over the phone and tell on us! We were terrified! But I found out the truth in about fourth grade. Another time, we had a fake wedding at school when I was in second grade. There were bridesmaids, a best man, groomsmen, flower girls, “family of the bride” and “family of the groom”, a priest with a mini-bible, even plastic rings! We had our little ceremony with about 120 students! It was very innocent, with NO physical actions,not even the typical wedding kiss, in fact, that never even crossed our minds! But then, we got in so much trouble! They told us we had sinned and that we were going to go to Hell! We all cried!

    2. I once had a LONG conversation with a person I called by mistake! And once, I called the Shoebuckle family when I was trying to call home!

    3. My favorite city is Cleveland. I live in a suburb of Cleveland, so technically I don’t call it home…My favorite country is America, but I call it home, so my next favorite country is probably Italy (though, surprisingly, I am 0% Italian)

    4. Go to cookingandbaking.wetpaint.com

    posted by Emma on 3-20-2010 at 2:31 pm

  147. I had an elem. school teacher that thought the Earth was flat!

    posted by Summer on 3-20-2010 at 2:35 pm

  148. 1. My fourth grade teacher was sort of an idiot, especially when it came to science. I can’t even remember any specifics, there was so much misinformation. I do know I got shut down for bringing up recent astronomical discoveries because it wasn’t “in the book.”

    2. Some girl back in college left a breakup message for someone else on my voicemail. She was really mad and wanted me to “die, or fall off a bridge or something, I don’t even CARE just get out of my life.” I even made a WAV file and put it on my website. I probably still have that file somewhere, actually. We also got a call from a local video store when I was about 14 regarding some overdue porn. I still wonder if that was actually a wrong number, though…

    3. I’ve never been anywhere all that hip, but I like just about every city/town in Iowa I’ve ever been to. In theory, my favorite country is France, but I’ve never been there.

    4. Um, mine? If you’re into waxing nostalgic about old cassette tapes, at least.

    posted by clint on 3-20-2010 at 2:38 pm

  149. 2. I came home one day to listen to a message from a crack dealer trying to settle a deal on my answering machine

    posted by Vicky on 3-20-2010 at 3:22 pm

  150. 1. I’m also a teacher and I admit to making up some pretty bad things just to amuse myself. When you repeat the same info 6 times in a row, it can get monotonous. I justify it by thinking that it can help sharpen my students’ critical thinking skills.

    2. In my very first apartment, my phone # had previously been assigned to a “swinger’s” club. I got calls every weekend from men asking if they could “come by for a while.” Then, one weekend, a woman called, saying she’d found the business card for the club in her husband’s wallet. She thought he might be cheating on her and asked if I was involved. It was a little scary and very sad.

    posted by Beth on 3-20-2010 at 3:30 pm

  151. I remember being told, though I knew better, in second grade that there was no such thing as a negative number. And a music teacher who told us that if you don’t get nervous getting up in front of people you weren’t normal. When you’re a little it’s nice to hear a teacher say you aren’t normal.

    I get calls from people looking for the Alaska State Trooper Dispatch now and then on my cell phone. The best calls are when I answer with hello and get a very confused “is this trooper dispatch?” And one guy who tried to cover by saying his wife dialed the phone and handed it to him.

    posted by Frankie on 3-20-2010 at 4:37 pm

  152. My high school science teacher told the class, that as more and more people were being born and the human population was getting bigger, we were making the earth heavier.

    Our increased weight in turn, was making slowing down both rotation and it’s orbit around the sun.

    posted by Matt.K on 3-20-2010 at 5:20 pm

  153. 1. My 7th grade science teacher told the class that recycling was a waste of time.

    2. When I was in college and lived with 2 other girls, we would get phone calls from this creep every time we got out of the shower. He would tell us that he could see us taking a shower. we blocked out the windows

    3. Madrid Spain

    4. http://www.tango-echo.com has great pop culture articles and cool science nerd videos.

    posted by kat on 3-20-2010 at 7:03 pm

  154. Not sure if people are still reading these but I have to share my story for #2…

    I was in college and I got a call at about 7 am from some random dude looking for “Mr. Ballard” (thats pretty close to my name, but its not my name, obvious mistake) I said no you must have the wrong number and rolled over to go back to sleep. Three minutes later, same dude, same conversation, back to sleep. This happened 3 or 4 more times, by the last one I said something like ‘seriously dude, this isn’t the right number, STOP CALLING ME IT’S F**KING EARLY I NEED SLEEP’. He called right back and I went off on him – steady stream of cursing, threats, etc… He called back 3-4 more times and we went at it, I was screaming at him and he was giving me grief: ‘bet that makes you feel like a big man, huh?’ ‘Oh those dirty words really scare me’ etc.. Eventually the calls stop and I figure its over.

    Phone rings again about a half hour later and I answer (no caller ID), voice on other end says ‘Hello sir, I would like to apologize on behalf of (company name)’ and continues to tell me that he is the jerk’s boss and the jerk was talking to me on speaker phone and half the office heard it. The Boss puts the jerk on and he very sheepishly apologizes, sounding like he feared for his job.

    I still wonder/hope and pray that he did lose his job…

    ReCap: ideas covetous LOL

    posted by matchoo on 3-20-2010 at 8:29 pm

  155. Er, I should say, I was living in Denver when the Broncos WON their first Super Bowl. I guess I blocked out those first three losses.

    posted by Karen In Japan on 3-20-2010 at 8:37 pm

  156. @Scarlett: I work for a police department, and people call all the time saying they just received a phone call from our number. We just tell them that all numbers route back to the main line, so we don’t know who called, but if it’s important, they’ll call back.

    wordsmoker.com

    posted by Constance on 3-20-2010 at 8:52 pm

  157. @Beth – Wow. Really? Really? You can justify making stuff up? Please tell me where you teach so I can make sure I don’t send my kids there.

    1. When I was in Sunday School at a Southerrn Baptist Church in the Sixties, my teacher started telling us this story about his family going to the house of an African American family for some business reason and when it was time to leave he found his kids playing with the other kids and they were having a great time. I thought he was telling us this heart warming story to teach us the wrongs of racism. But then he tells us that he had to explain to his children that it was bad for them to play with kids from other races. I couldn’t believe it!

    posted by Stan on 3-20-2010 at 8:57 pm

  158. We used to have a business out of our house that had a toll free number. It was one digit off of Crayola so I got a loud message one night about 2 am from a mom wanting to know how to get Raging Raspberry out of her white sofa.

    posted by Alicia on 3-20-2010 at 9:46 pm

  159. 2. I have an old h.s. classmate with whom I’ve recently become facebook friends. Shortly after re-establishing our friendship, online and cellular, she sent me a message that she had been left a voicemail by someone looking for a man with my name, and if I could please call him back at 1-888-etc. My phone number and hers are nowhere near the same, and I’ve never had a phone number near hers. Funny.

    Every few weeks she emails me with a new message from random numbers looking for “me.”

    posted by VitaminD on 3-20-2010 at 10:07 pm

  160. 1. The other day I heard a sunday school teacher explain how it can’t snow if it gets below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. And she wasn’t just having a brain fart.

    2. A girl called and talked to me for 30 minutes before I finally asked who she was. We went to the same high school, but never talked or saw each other again after that one wrong number.

    3. London, England

    4. Wait wait don’t tell me, and Walk in the Word with James McDonald

    posted by tggolden30 on 3-20-2010 at 10:41 pm

  161. 1)I guess it would be the “permanent record” thing.
    3)My favorite city is Austin. I know it was suppose to not be the city you live in, but I moved here. I am originally from Shreveport La. Austin is the first place I’ve ever lived where people want to live there. Even when I lived in L.A. most people wanted to live elsewhere. People move from Austin and will come back because it’s Austin. There is no place like it.
    4) Podcast, I like Diggnation.

    posted by Jazzie Wonder on 3-20-2010 at 11:59 pm

  162. About phone calls:
    After I moved from NYC to Boston, my old work started getting calls for me from a collections agency. One day I decided to call them back, and the woman angrily told me they would begin to garnish my wages because I hadn’t paid off my student loans (I never had student loans). I told her that, and she THEN asked to verify my information, which I did. To which, she replied, “….oh….i guess….i guess i have the wrong person.” and hung up. No apology for the threatening nature of the phone call.

    When I was in high school, our phone number was one digit off from another of my classmate’s. We got calls for her all the time, and I would tell them that they had the exchange wrong, and give them the correct number. Once, the person on the other line argued with me.
    Him: “Is Amy there?”
    Me: “Sorry, wrong number, try 778-XXXX instead”
    Him: “But this is Mr. Smith”
    Me: “but you have the wrong number”
    Him: “But this is Mr. Smith”
    Me: “Oh, ok. (shouting) Aaaaammmmyy…Mr. Smith is on the phone. (a beat, then into the phone) Sorry, she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

    posted by nicole on 3-21-2010 at 1:15 am

  163. 1. In 5th grade we had a teacher who got chili stains on our tests. She also lost student papers and her license. In 6th grade we had a sub for math and my friend asks “Why is the sky blue?” and the teacher gives a detailed explanation.

    posted by Danielle on 3-21-2010 at 1:28 am

  164. I once received a very strange phonecall at work…
    Me: Hello?
    Woman: Could I speak to Victoria please?
    Me: I’m sorry, there’s no one here by that name. I think you may have the wrong number.
    Woman: No, this is her number.
    Me: I’ve been at this number for six months. Which number did you dial?
    Woman: This one.
    *hangs up*

    posted by Lynn on 3-21-2010 at 7:59 am

  165. 1. The earliest I can recall is my first grade teacher giving us an assignment to cut out photos of things with the short e sound. Among my pics was a strawberry. My teacher marked this wrong and told me it was pronounced “straw-bair-y”. I have a feeling that her accent from the small town my school was in took over. I had just moved from another state and she didn’t seem to like that and stood her ground until my mother had to call the school and have my grade corrected. Not really outrageous but silly that she held her ground.

    2. I have had phone messages in Spanish even though my voicemail greeting is in English.

    4. NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
    Real Time with Bill Maher

    posted by beffie on 3-21-2010 at 8:37 am

  166. Am Irish but lived in California. LOVED every last minute of it. Loved the San Francisco lifestyle. Loved Los Angeles. Don’t get me started on the women of San Deigo.
    Other? Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand. Most laid back place on the planet imho.
    capthca – hecklers and

    posted by Daddy on 3-21-2010 at 9:45 am

  167. 1. My 5th grade teacher told us that she had a niece that was a dwarf small enough to hide behind cereal boxes. Shortly thereafter my parents pulled me out of that school.

    3.I think my favorite city that I’ve visited is either London(so much history) or Seattle(so relaxing and chill).

    4. Everyone should check out http://www.ted.com. Their tagline is “Ideas worth spreading”. Careful though, watching the videos becomes very addicting.

    posted by Daniel on 3-21-2010 at 10:47 am

  168. Highly entertaining podcast!
    confusiondeathmonkey.com

    posted by Michelle on 3-21-2010 at 11:32 am

  169. 1. In kindergarten, we were learning how to write numbers, and our teacher taught us how to write the number 2 without the loop in it. One day, I saw her write the two with loop in it, so I wrote that on my paper. Because she never actually taught that, she told the entire class “Look what she thinks is the number 2!” And wrote it on the board and said that number did not exist. The whole class then laughed at me.

    I get a lot of calls for someone called Barbara. I’ve gotten calls from debt collectors and a call from a police station saying her son was detained.

    posted by MM on 3-21-2010 at 2:03 pm

  170. 1. I’ve always had a dinosaur obsession. My grade 2 science (!!) teacher told me there was no such thing as dinosaurs. I was stunned because I had switched schools that year and the year before my class had taken a field trip to Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology.

    2. We often get phone calls for an ‘Angus’. I assume Angus is elderly because everyone who calls for him is elderly. Even after I say it’s the wrong number they usually tell me stuff about Angus – his health, his family, etc. It’s very strange. Angus apparently had a heart attack last year but must have survived because we still get calls for him.

    3. My favourite city to visit is Toronto. My favourite US state is California.

    4. Subnormality comics, written by Winston Rowntree: viruscomix.com/subnormality.html

    and

    Hark, a Vagrant comics, written by Kate Beaton: harkavagrant.com

    Both are fantastic Canadian artists.

    posted by Heroin on 3-21-2010 at 6:03 pm

  171. 2) This guy called my cell phone once and asked if I was someone whose name I didn’t reconize. I told him no and that he had the wrong number. He kept insisting that I was who he was calling for! Then he wanted to have conversation with me, I hung up.

    posted by dee on 3-21-2010 at 6:15 pm

  172. 1. Last semester my intro to art teacher tried to convince our class that there our death camps in America, she went on about how there’s a bunch down in Florida and such. Wow.
    3. Only counting cities I’ve been to? Toronto. But honestly I really want to go to Boston or Chicago, they seem great.

    posted by Dale on 3-21-2010 at 7:36 pm

  173. 1) In college, my Abnormal Psych prof said he didn’t ‘believe in’ Transgenderism/Transexualism, so he just popped a video in as the ‘lecture’ and left us for the session

    posted by Anon Emous on 3-21-2010 at 8:49 pm

  174. Actually, one of those ‘Trans’ should be transVESTISM

    posted by Anon Emous on 3-21-2010 at 8:51 pm

  175. 2) Moved into a new apartment and got a new telephone number that was one digit off from the number to call and find out the times that movies were showing at a local cinema. I got a new number after about a week of the phone ringing off the hook. It was amazing the number of people that insisted that they had called the correct number and that I tell them the movie times. There were a lot of folks who were either very early or very late to movies that week.

    Drunken guy called once about 2 AM and was obviously expecting a female to answer. When a male answered, he wanted to know who I was and what was I doing at Amy’s. I told him there was no one there by that name but he continued to demand to know what I was doing at Amy’s. I finally said sleeping in bed with a beautiful woman (referring to my wife) and hung up.

    Final one was a guy called and woke me up at 3 AM and started chatting with me as if he knew me, using my first name and stuff. I finally asked who he was and he refused to give his name but stated I knew his wife “very well, in the biblical sense”. He proceeded to accuse me of having an affair with his wife. As I have never done such a thing, I asked him where I knew her from. He said that it was probably work and asked where I worked. When I told him where I worked, he hung up. Turned out he was married to the sister of a friend and co-worker. When the friend had died, I had given the sister my telephone number to call if I could help in any way. The jerk was convinced she was having an affair and had stolen her address book calling all of the males late at night. When I told him where I had worked, he realized that I was a friend of his late brother-in-law and hung up.

    posted by Jeff on 3-21-2010 at 9:42 pm

  176. 2a. I’ve had a bunch of funny calls. First a guy who is drunk kept calling on and off for about 10 years asking for Jjjjeeerrrrryyyy. Saying something like, I keep calling you why don’t you call me back? Finally he called when we were home and I told him he had the wrong number and he never called back.

    2b. A drunk from a bar called twice leaving a message asking me to deliver “lobster cantonese to go” and complaining that he lost 50 cents in the da.n phone.

    2c. A man with a foreign accent left a message that I should call him back to a six digit phone number.

    posted by Stew on 3-21-2010 at 10:31 pm

  177. 1. This wasn’t false, as far as I know, but in 12th grade, I took a combined English/Government class that was team taught. At one point, we were studying the renaissance and the government teacher was doing a lecture on the Sistine Chapel and explaining that a couple of Pope’s after it was painted had someone else add fig leaves to all the naked men. Well our English teacher who was sitting at her desk doing paper work piped up and said “until I was 14 or 15 I thought male anatomy was fig leaves.” Needless to say, the group of sixty 17 and 18 year old students turned en masse with jaws dropped.

    posted by Grace on 3-22-2010 at 12:07 am

  178. 1. In 10th grade I had a teacher tell the class not to listen to the band AC/DC because the acronym stood for Anti-Christ/Devil’s Children

    2. No really strange phone calls but I used to have a bill collector call me at work all the time. The phone I used to talk to the bill collector was right next to my supervisor’s phone. Very embarrassing.

    3. My favorite city is probably Seattle. Very pretty in that area. I’m going with the U.S. for my favorite country!

    4. My favorite website is OBNUG.com. It’s all about Boise State football. If you’re not into that, I also really enjoy the site howstuffworks.com. If you’re curious about how something operates, that site will break it down for you.

    posted by Jeremy on 3-22-2010 at 6:08 am

  179. 1. On the morning of 9/11 my teacher came in and told us that terrorist had taken two empty planes from JFK and flown them into the Twin Towers. I can’t really blame her for that though, because I don’t think anyone knew what was happening at that point.

    2. Our phone number is one digit off a local school’s. The worst is snow days, when we have parents calling in the morning to find out if there’s school that day, and all we’re trying to do is enjoy our day off by sleeping in.
    Sometimes, when someone asks to be transferred to some department, we say hold on and \transfer\ them and just pick up again. It’s actually quite funny.
    3. My favorite country would have to be Israel. Love it!

    posted by michelle on 3-22-2010 at 11:24 am

  180. 1. I am a math teacher, so the amount of material students think they heard by the time they get to me is insane. However, there are definitely some no nos that students everywhere learn in elementary school, such as the fact that there is nothing smaller than 0, you can divide a number by 0 and get 1, fractions must be smaller than 1, etc…

    I had a math teacher in middle school that would read the textbook to us as her lesson. When anyone asked a question, she would just reread that portion.

    And, of course, I had English teachers with horrible spelling and grammar.

    2. As for the phone question, there are many.

    When I was young, our phone number was one digit off from both Pizza Hut and Dominoes. You can imagine what we did with that.

    After college, I got a number that had belonged to a graduate of ITT. I had to work hard and waste many a cell phone minute to get off of every ITT phone announcement, company that had gotten this woman’s number off her resume willing to offer her some pretty amazing jobs, and the numerous collection agency’s accounts. What a hassle.

    The next phone number I had was for a woman whose family lived in Mexico. They called all the time and left beautiful messages for her about how much they missed her. On her birthday I received no less than 20 phone calls from family and friends, most of them singing \Feliz Cumpleanos a Ti\ as soon as I said hello. What a bummer to have them sing the whole song and then hear me tell them they have the wrong number. I felt bad about that.

    3. I love the outskirts of Malibu, California and the downtown area of Charleston, South Carolina. Great memories in both of those places. Great food, too. Country? Norway.

    4. The Moth. 8-16 minute clips that will knock your socks off.

    posted by Breezy on 3-22-2010 at 2:09 pm

  181. 1. When I was a kid many science teachers would have a poster of the Milky Way with a little “You are here” note pointing to one of the arms.

    So, I ask,
    “Is that a picture of our galaxy?”
    “Yes, and it points to the Earth on this arm”
    “How did they take the picture?”
    “They used a telescope.” ????

    posted by Dan on 3-22-2010 at 3:55 pm

  182. At some point when I was in elementary school some teacher told us that blood was red when it was oxygenated and blue when it wasn’t. I am 26 years old and until today I had no idea this wasn’t true!

    posted by Jessica on 3-22-2010 at 4:06 pm

  183. So many strange phone calls!

    2a. Someone named Christian DePrado skipped out on his debts and gave out my number. It took a lot of convincing to get the debt collectors to stop calling me.

    2b. A man who was creepy in a Kevin Spacey kind of way would call about once a year and talk about bizarre things. The creepiest was about how he was trying to find pictures of a woman in jail, laughing about how she “looked kind of homely” and how it’s no surprise since she was probably stressed out from the murder charges.
    I changed my number after four of these calls.

    2c. I live in Alaska. I ordered craft supplies from Canada, which went through customs at Washington D.C. (which is 3 time zones behind.) For three weeks in a row I got calls at 6am Monday morning from D.C. Customs wanting to talk to me about my Hunting Trophies from South America. No matter how much I insisted that I have never been to South America or hunting, they would tell me that because they had my name and number associated with the Hunting Trophies, I must be the owner. By the third call of this back-and-forth I demanded to speak to a supervisor, and when denied, I began yelling that I was sick of being called at 6am to be told that I needed to take responsibility for South American Hunting Trophies, and to never, ever call me again.
    I felt bad for yelling, but it was 6am, was denied a chance to talk to a supervisor and they would not listen. They did stop calling after that.

    posted by Ellen on 3-23-2010 at 5:17 am

  184. 1.Teachers used to tell us all sorts of incorrect/watered-down information about the Pilgrims, Thanksgiving, WWII, but I can’t recall a specific example.
    2.When I was a kid we used to get calls for a stationary store in our town that had a very similar number. It went out of business and they stopped, but not for almost a year after. Also when my Mom got her first cell phone she would get phone calls for a “Kayla”, requesting various illegal substances to be delivered. She reported it to the police and hasn’t had that problem since.
    3.I love New York. Cliche probably, but it’s been a huge part of my life even though I don’t live there. Favorite country is Greece. I love the lifestyle, cuisine, culture, and landscape.
    4.It’s not new and people on Mental_Floss are probably already listening, but I really love WNYC’s RadioLab.
    http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/

    posted by AbenaC on 3-23-2010 at 10:50 pm

  185. 1. The math teachers at my high school pronounced “Euler” as YOO-ler. Didn’t believe that for terribly long but it took me a while to understand what this Oiler’s number was that my college profs spoke of.

    2. I’ve had lots of interesting wrong numbers.

    One vein was that a phone book put my number instead of a grocery store’s number.

    Another was when an everything’s-a-dollar store opened with a number very near mine. Eventually, I just started answering the questions about prices.

    Now I have a number that used to be one for a pipeline company. That was a little confusing at first, but I googled my number found some references.

    My favorite wrong number was from “the other woman”. As soon as I said hello, she demanded to know if I was the one who vandalized her car. I said I thought she had the wrong number and she said she knows it’s me and that I did it because I found out about the affair and goes on to tell me what she intends to do as retaliation for my vandalism. I tell her again that I think she has the wrong person, that I’m not married. The woman acts like I’m engaging in some psychological ploy. I don’t know if she ever believed that it was a wrong number.

    Pre caller-ID, my mom got an interesting one. A woman called and asked for [my mother's name]. My mom said it was her. The woman said she sounded funny and Mom said she was getting over a cold. The woman started talking, “You won’t believe what Momma did!” and on from there. Mom thought it was one of her sisters and she just wasn’t recognizing her voice, but as the lady went on, Mom’s curiosity built enough that she asked who was on the other end. It just happened to be a wrong number that was trying to call someone with the same name.

    posted by Beth on 3-24-2010 at 12:13 am

  186. In regard to the whole “blood is blue until it hits oxygen myth”, isn’t there oxygen IN blood?!?! If I thought about this for a few seconds, I would have realized it was a myth a LONG time ago. P.S. I actually “learned” this myth from my older brother. I can’t wait to tell him that he was wrong all these years and rub it in his face.

    posted by Cassie on 3-24-2010 at 8:23 pm

  187. I’m a bit late on the responses…

    2. At my old job we used to get calls for a doctor’s office. People often switched two of the numbers when dialing, but then they refused to believe me when I tried to correct them.

    3. Cape Town, South Africa. Brazil is also high on the list of favorite countries.

    4. Since I can’t choose just one podcast, I highly recommend The Moth (live storytelling), This American Life, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

    posted by Katie on 3-25-2010 at 6:25 pm

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