ComicalMayhemWhat's your favorite thing that anyone has done out of pure spite?
Almon Brown Strowger was an undertake and suspected that a rival buisness used their wife’s position as a switchboard operator to basically steal their buisness.
So he invented the automatic switchboard and put his competitors wife out of a job.
ValiantDustCame here to comment this. Are you a fellow Lateral Podcast listener?
Are you a fellow Lateral Podcast listener?
Indeed, though I have the feeling that I’ve know about this story longer then that. Maybe it was on QI?
QI could be right, I couldn’t have recalled that fact but I also learned it and I watch QI but not lateral.
Maybe I should be checking it out though
Admiral PatrickOne particular spite house in Boston: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinny_House_(Boston)#Histo…
According to local legend, the structure was built as a “spite house” shortly after the Civil War:
… two brothers inherited land from their deceased father. While one brother was away serving in the military, the other built a large home, leaving the soldier only a shred of property that he felt certain was too tiny to build on. When the soldier returned, he found his inheritance depleted and built the narrow house to spite his brother by blocking the sunlight and ruining his view.
Another source states:
Not much is known about the city’s narrowest house. Legend has it that … its unnamed builder erected it to shut off air and light from the home of a hostile neighbor (also nameless) with whom he had a dispute. … Believed to have been built after 1874
There’s a Spite House ib Seattle, WA, too. Spite from coast-to-coast!!
Space Ghost approved
Those were some nearly useless photos shown
That actually looks quite spacious for a big city. Where is the front door? Is there a site with more pics?
jordanlundFidel Castro offering to send election observers to the US in 2004.
Ex NummisIn the same vein, Joseph Broz Tito sending a letter to the Kremlin addressed to Stalin to stop sending assassins, because they always bungled their ops. He added “If you do, I’ll send one to Moscow and I won’t have to send a second”.
Stalin left him the fuck alone after that.
Tito smoking Cuban cigars in the White House while sitting down with Nixon is also hilarious.
Nixon told him, “Mr. President, we don’t smoke in the White House.”
Tito laughed and said, “Lucky you!” and finished his cigar and no one attempted again to make him stop.
ganksyKing Harald of Norway, when asked by Trump about getting invited to talk about a Nobel Peace prize, decided to host Obama instead.
dan1101Lamborghini was a tractor company before they made cars. Ferruccio Lamborghini was successful and bought 2 Ferraris, one for him and one for his wife. He would drive his business partners to lunch in hhem, but he tended to burn up the clutches. He eventually discovered that they used a same inexpensive part as his tractors, but Ferrari charged 100 times the money for the same part. He spoke to Enzo Ferrari about it and the conversation did not go well. Lamborghini was so insulted by the reply that he started his own car company.
CosmicTurtle0 [he/him]Tricking people to pay 100x its normal cost is pure unadulterated capitalism.
We have Enzo Ferrari being a prick to thank for the birth of Lamborghini, the Shelby Cobra AC, and the Ford GT40
Story time!
I forget the origin of the beef, but I remember a guy who grew up with another dude who was just a complete tool to my friend. It wasn’t outright bullying, but general arseholery and making his life difficult when it really didn’t need to me.
Anyway, my friend has a long memory and a longer grudge streak. I was finishing college at a time when print media was still king but social media was exploding in popularity.
My friend has decided “fuck this, I’m going to ruin this dude’s life for a bit”. He put an advert in the local paper or freeads (for non UK spuds: the freeads or classifieds is a newspaper-style private advertisements in one place - like a print version of a snapshot of Facebook Marketplace or Vinted for a local area).
Free TV. Call 07000100100 for details.
Anyone to this day knows that anything advertised for free attracts the most annoying, persistent, and unhinged type of people on earth. The freeads was published the following week. I didn’t socialise with the guy on the business end of my friend’s wrath on account of him being a massive cockwomble, but I understand his phone started to go wild with texts and phone calls asking about a free television - bear in .Ind that cheap consumer TVs weren’t really a thing and a TV purchase was a “buy it for life” thing at the time, so a free TV was just an amazing deal.
It would appear the demand for a free television was too much for the guy. In true mid 2000’s fashion, a social media message went up from the clearly annoyed guy, to the tune of:
Hi all, I’ve started to get loads of prank calls, so I’ve changed my number. It’s 07000200200 now.
With the internet and social interactions online still in the wild west era, this was fairly common. My friend chuckled to himself. The plan worked. Not satisfied with that though, he put another advert in the following week’s freeads:
Free TV. Call 07000200200 for details.
The publication date rolls around a few days later, and tens of thousands of this newspaper gets delivered to stores across the region. Obviously, mere hours after the thing yellow paper booklets are released to the public, the idiot’s phone starts going banzai. Dozens of calls a day from all corners of society, relentlessly asking about collection and delivery of a television at no charge.
The guy was livid.
Livid, but not smart. He had gotten pissed off with the calls, and was unable to stop the barrage of bargain hunters hitting his digits to get a gogglebox gratis. He went back to his phone network operator and makes the appropriate changes. Not one for releasing his number in a private, carefully controlled manner - the gist of the following was posted to social media a few weeks later:
Not sure why I’m getting so many prank calls, and my mobile network are useless. My new number is 07000300300. Let me know if someone asks you for it because I’m getting annoyed.
Most normal folk wouldn’t have risked being burned a third time and released their number in person or by SMS message. That said, I suspect the Venn diagram of twats like this guy who had spent an elder childhood making people’s lives difficult; and those who don’t appreciate the drawbacks of one-to-many communication, aren’t far off a circle.
My friend sees this status update or whatever it was called back then, cuts out the reply slip of the freeads, enclosed his payment, and sends in the following for publication the following week:
Free TV. Call 07000300300 for details. Shout “camel” when I answer so I know you’re genuine.
Hilarity likely ensued. My friend found immense satisfaction that the guy who tried to socially ostracise him and physically manhandle him for “fun” was now getting Guantanamo Bay levels of psychological torture, and 90% of calls that he answered started with someone hollering the name of a type of Saharan quardraped species.
The guy never posted anything after that. Not his new number, not any angry rants, nothing at all.
I respected the guy. So much mental torture for so little effort. I lost touch with the friend but I still think of him now and then, and I hope that he still chuckles to himself with that prank under his belt, because I certainly do.
ØR10N5B3LTthis was a great read, HAHAHA!
Cheers. It also made me think of a bit of newspaper advert abuse that an old colleague of mine told me.
Another pair of people, another spat over something minor, but one wasn’t to be outdone. In the first week of January, he put an advert into a local popular newspaper, saying something similar to:
Leave your old Christmas trees with me for a charity project! Bring your Christmas trees to 45 Smith Drive, Newport*, if I’m not in then leave them on my lawn!
The net results was days worth of Christmas trees being drive-by yeeted into his garden. Said it was the best 50p per word they’d ever spent.
wow! i will definitely be reaching out to you for spiteful ideas in the future XD
i have a certain building management company (shit landlords) in mind
Apathy TreeTotally completely unrelated to anything you said. Just a hookup between arborists and people who need an entire dump truck load of free wood chips unceremoniously unloaded in their driveway at a random future time.
Wow, love this and could totally use it in the future. Thanks for the link!
Wow, I want a book written by you, you have a great style of writing! This was hilarious
Back around this time I was in the military and each base had Public Folders in Outlook where people could post stuff for sale. I left my computer unlocked one day and one of my colleagues posted my car for free on there. This was also back when you would have like 25 MB mailbox limits. Needless to say my inbox got filled up in minutes.
TomMaszWarren Buffett bought Berkshire Hathaway in part to spite its management. He had been buying shares for a while, and at one point offered them a chance to buy them back. They low-balled him on the price, he got pissed, took majority control of the stock, and fired the management.
Wish i har that kind of “fuck you” money haha
It sure does make it easy.
I know there’s been a few cases of people paying fines with wheelbarrows full of loose pennies.
Obligatory caution that that can backfire if the recipient insists that the debtor counts the pennies. Or if the creditor refuses the pennies entirely, which is legal in some jurisdictions. (e.g. in the UK, pennies and 2p coins are legal tender up to amounts of only 20 pence. Anything beyond that is left to the discretion of the recipient.)
In the US, pennies are legal tender and have to be accepted as payment for debts owed. This tactic usually ended up in the fine being dismissed.
LogicalDrivelPennies only have to be accepted if there is a state law saying so. For example in California if a landlord refuses a cash payment (pennies or otherwise) then the tenant basically gets free rent that month. Businesses generally set their own rules as to what is accepted. Just like you see signs saying “No bills over $20” - 50’s and 100’s are legal tender, but they can refuse them just like a bucket of pennies can be refused.
Title 31 (Money and Finance), Subtitle IV (Money), Chapter 51 (Coins and Currency), Subchapter I (Monetary System), Section 5103 (Legal Tender) of the United States Code states:
United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.
Since you feel like quoting things is conducive to proper discusion:
Is it legal for a business in the United States to refuse cash as a form of payment?
There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise.
Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled “Legal tender,” states: “United States coins and currency [including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” This statute means that all U.S. money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor.
Yes, you’re correct. That’s where the “debt” part comes in. If it’s before you incur the debt, they can refuse to accept any legal tender.
LilB0kChoyare legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues
There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services
Goods or services ≠ debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.
A retail store, a restaurant etc. can refuse currency from a customer but a loan/lien holder, a public utility company, a government entity or an HOA must all accept any legal tender.
You’re confusing two separate situations.
No, you’re confusing two separate issues.
If it’s before the point of sale, they can refuse any form of payment. If you’ve already accrued the debt, they can’t refuse it.
At no point was I talking about payment for goods and services.
Re-read my comment. You’re saying the same thing I did. Did you think I replied to you and not the other user?
Here’s what I said:
A retail store, a restaurant etc. can refuse currency from a customer but a loan/lien holder, a public utility company, a government entity or an HOA must all accept any legal tender.
Which is the same as:
If it’s before the point of sale, they can refuse any form of payment. If you’ve already accrued the debt, they can’t refuse it.
The user I replied to who was responding to you said:
There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services.
I told them they were confusing two separate issues.
Oops, my bad. My eyes fucked up the comment levels.
There is no federal statute requiring private lendors to accept payment in the form of coins. The coins are legal tender but they dont have to be accepted.
The discussion is about fines. I’m not sure why you’re talking about lenders.
I don’t think that says what you think it does. Just because they are legal tender does not inherently mean (nor does that snippet say) that they cannot be denied as a form of payment.
Yes it does. It’s a legal form of payment, and if a lender denies it, you can sue to have the entire debt discharged because the lender is refusing legal tender.
You really should read down to the bottom of that article, where it says that businesses are allowed to set the terms of what forms of payment they’ll accept as long as they do so before the deal is made or the sale is done. Your own source contradicts what you said.
Don’t quit your day job to start giving people legal advice.
Did you not read anything I said? You don’t have a debt before the deal is made or the sale is done.
If payment offered in legal tender is refused, the debt would be cancelled.
There’s no requirement to accept cash for pre payments, but for debts cash just be accepted.
I see child comments turning into some debate. lol
Wasn’t there a case somewhere where someone tried to pay a settlement in pennies, and then they themselves were fined?
Edit: maybe I’m thinking of this story costanzo-law.com/angry-employer-pays-in-pennies-t…
Though it’s not entirely clear to me what law this violates regarding legal tender. Seems more to do with employer / employee labor relations.
jawa22My grandmother furnished an entire house with quarters in the 80s, all in one go. It was apparently around $1,000 worth of quarters.
magnetosphereEquality House, bought and painted to irritate Westboro Baptist Church. It’s a tie with Mott House, listed on the same page.
I’d be worried to live there, not knowing what the westboro people might do to it.
When it was first purchased, it was an office for a few years. Nobody lives there now.
I’d be worried about that too. In some places you cannot insure an unoccupied (residential) building. But if it’s an office, maybe that’s different. I’m guessing the westboro property is also an office.
My mate painted the side of her house rainbow in a pretty progressive area, and it’s since been vandalized multiple times.
My mate painted the side of her house rainbow in a pretty progressive area, and it’s since been vandalized multiple times.
Got a hug from someone at school
VanthWhen we were kids, my brother would get mean when bored. Low-grade physical stuff, hard pinches, pulled hair, coming into my room to harass me and break toys, enough to cause pain without evidence if I were to complain. I asked my mom to intervene, she didn’t want to deal with it, so she gave me the old phrase, “if you don’t know what to do, spit in a shoe and do it again at half past two”.
So I spat in my brothers shoe every time he messed with me. And for good measure, I spat in my mom’s shoe too for letting him continue to abuse me.
But did you do it again at half past 2?
because useless family knowledge has to be easy to repeat in order to make it down the generations
HossenfefferA guy I used to know got annoyed with some student neighbours who were kind of arseholes, but he was mostly annoyed with them for their frequent late, loud parties - like partying until 04:00 in the morning, shouting and screaming, vomitting on the pavement in front of the houses, etc.
Phase 1 spite involved booking in lots of tradespeople to come and visit them early in the morning so, eg, carpet fitters coming to measure up a room in their house at 08:30 on a Saturday morning and so forth.
Phase 2 spite involved pissing in an empty washing up liquid bottle and then squeezing a little stream of piss in through their letter box whenever they weren’t home. Not enough that it wouldn’t dry in a couple of hours, but that was the aim. Their hallway carpet got smellier and smellier as more and more piss dried on it.
Eventually they moved out and the landlord has to replace the carpet. The only problem. was that no carpet fitters would come out to that property any more.
Sounds like he spited the tradespeople and the landlord. I bet the students didn’t care if their carpet smelled like piss.
However, if he had previously complained to the landlord, and the landlord didn’t do anything to fix the behavior of his tenants, from whom he is collecting money and allowing them to disturb neighbors where he himself does not live, then fuck that guy. Should have pissed on his carpet too.
I’ve had similar neighbors. I complained to the landlord, and those assholes don’t do shit.
I hate scammers. People who call you pretending to be the “IRS” and claiming that you’re about to be arrested for unpaid taxes. Sick bastards who make money ripping off (mostly elderly) people.
One time I started getting those phone calls. I went down to the customer service department where I worked, which still had a fax machine, stuck a blank piece of paper in, dialed the scammers number, set retry x100, and hit send.
I called them back an hour later to see if they were getting the message and the guy gave me an earful. I politely explained that every second of his time that I wasted was one less second he got to spend ripping someone else off. He hung up on me but I kept calling back until they finally disconnected that number.
Totally worth it. Fuck scammers.