BS: Questions that make you defensive

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 01:30 PM

And what was your answer, Kendall? How did you hurt your knee?


(And of course we got the bronzed gold medal remark!)

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 11:52 AM

My favorite is still the one when the woman asked how I hurt my knee.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 11:50 AM

Well, thanks. I'm glad you got it.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: LilyFestre
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 11:03 AM

Kendall,

Regarding your Grammy award nomination medal....LMFAO!!!!!!!!!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 10:05 AM

do yu know the wild rover, i usually reply I do, I met him this morning and he had a hangover

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 09:05 AM

100

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 09:04 AM

I thought this was getting a tad Roood !

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 06:45 AM

"And who the hell do you think you are"? is always good for a clop in the chops.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 11:42 AM

Hey, did you know that looks just like a man's penis, only smaller?

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 11:01 AM

Germaine Greer is supposed to have used the put-down, 'You weren't planning to do it with THAT, were you?'

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 08:31 PM

Liz: I have read that in some countries, if you answer "yes", the reply is "Then go **** yourself".

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: frogprince
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 02:12 PM

Of all the words of tongue or pen,
the saddest words are,
   "Is it in?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 02:02 PM

I understand he went to have it bronzed but they refused because the job was too small to be profitable.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 01:34 PM

That's sort of how Shane feels about his willie...

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 07:54 AM

Asked of an old time Texas Ranger, "Why do you carry a .45"?
Reply,
"Because they don't make a .46."

For a while I was wearing my Grammy award nomination medal and a few people asked what it was. One middle age woman in the post office asked, "Is that an Olympic gold medal"? I said, "Yes, I'm so proud of it I had it bronzed."

Went right over her head.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 10:55 PM

"Who's the father?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 08:48 PM

"Are you pregnant yet?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 06:59 PM

Have you stopped beating your wife ?

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 06:15 PM

"Well, my back kinda hurts, but it's not a BAD hurt you know, sorta like a little kind of ache down near my coccyx. You know, my tailbone. I think you've caused it."

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 05:56 PM

What's the matter with you?

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Becca72
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 01:15 PM

When I explain a procedure to an employee and am met with "ya, but what happens if..." followed by a situation that will never happen in this plane of existence.
Then a couple of days later when they come back and say "how was I supposed to do that again?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 01:13 AM

'Have you got a minute' usually gets me...

Funnily enough Richard, I have never heard any of those questions you posted earlier!!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 12:29 AM

When was the last time you took the dogs out?


And when I answer, she says, "Well, then you can clean up the mess on the floor."

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 12:27 AM

That makes you slightly older than me. You have my sympathy! Of course, you already had that anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 10 - 09:05 PM

65, and in some cases yes, even more so than being Canadian.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jun 10 - 03:26 PM

Hey, Rap...

How about, "How old are you anyway???"

And...

"Does being American equate to being stupid?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jun 10 - 03:22 PM

Oh, yeah! A whole list of great questions there, eh? ;-D

The British used to be similarly annoyed during the heady years of the Pax Brittania, when Brittani ruled the waves. Everyone else seemed to hate them for some reason...

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 10 - 02:46 PM

Ask of an American:

"Why is your country so awful/racist/stupid/imperialist/reactionary/warmongering/capitalist/hateful/wrong?"

"Doesn't everyone in America have gun? How many do you have?"

"Why can't America be more like the UK/Canada/France/Belgium/China/Russia/Iran/the Maldives/Yemen...?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 20 Jun 10 - 11:33 AM

American to a British person

Do you work for BP?

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 10 - 11:25 AM

"You packing yer shootin' irons, mister?"

"You want to step outside and say that?"

"Hey! Why you staring at my wife?"

"What's it to you?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: RangerSteve
Date: 20 Jun 10 - 09:34 AM

Bubblyrat reminded me of an exchange I'd love to use, but the chances always came up at work,so I couldn't use it then:
Can I ask you a question?
You just did
Can I ask you another, then.
You just did.

This could conceivably go on forever.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 11:42 AM

I guess my wife and I both have ways of asking questions that irritate each other. Here's how one exchange went.

I have several times mentioned my intention of fixing up my old bicycle so I can ride it. I know I need more exercise, and this seems like a tolerable way to get it.

So my wife asks me, "Are you sure you CAN ride a bike?"

Now, what kind of question is that? One does not "forget" how to ride a bike. OK, I realize now, although I didn't fully realize then, that her underlying message is that she's concerned about my health and safety. She's probably worried that I might overdo it and give myself a heart attack, or I might fall down and hurt myself. But I'm not stupid. I won't overdo it or take unnecessary risks. I am by nature a cautious person, perhaps TOO cautious. She knows this, or ought to know it by now.

In fact, I have some of the same fears myself. Maybe that's why I have procrastinated so long about getting the bike fixed.

But I, perhaps stupidly, perhaps out of irritation, decide to ignore the underlying message and respond only to the literal aspect of her question.

So I give the only logical answer: "OF COURSE I can ride a bike." This doesn't satisfy her.

After some more awkward discussion, we get around to addressing her real meaning: "Are you sure you can ride a bike without hurting yourself?"

And again, I give her the only possible logical answer: "Well, I won't know until I try, will I?"

And then I add (truthfully): "You sound skeptical. I feel like you're trying to discourage me."

Then she responds, "Oh, no. That's not what I meant at all."

So then I ask the question that puts her on the defensive: "Well then, what exactly DID you mean?"

My wife's way of being defensive is to clam up. She says, "I don't know. I really don't know what I meant." We have hit a brick wall. I am left on my own to figure out what the argument was all about.

Unlike me, my wife is not very introspective. She says whatever comes into her head, and then, as the moments pass, and the mood changes, she is unable to put herself back in the frame of mind she was in at the beginning of the argument, unable to analyze or even remember what she was thinking when she made the remark that set the whole thing off.

I, on the other hand, analyze things almost obsessively.

What a pair we are!

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 05:51 PM

In our local song circles when someone asks, "Who wrote that song?", they are generally asking because they really like the song, and they'd like to know who wrote it so they can find out about some other good songs the same person wrote...or maybe find out what CD it's on...or if it was written by the person who just played it, in which case they can compliment them for such good songwriting skills.

In any case, it's not a question that strikes me as offensive at all, unless it's accompanied by a look and a tone of voice that tells you they think the song sucked! ;-) (and that almost never happens)

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: John P
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 05:32 PM

"Do you know you're not playing that tune they way they REALLY play it in Ireland/Sweden/France/wherever?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 04:35 PM

About once a month or so, I will have a coughing fit. Usually it's because I inhale a tiny bit of whatever I am eating. I don't know why I am more prone to this than other people, but I am used to it.

It lasts only half a minute, and then I'm fine, but in the meantime, I can't talk because I'm too busy coughing. If anyone is present other than my immediate family (they're used to it too) they will usually ask, "Are you all right?"

I wish I could tell them: "Just leave me alone; I'll be all right in a minute." But of course I can't say anything.

It seems ridiculous to nod my head "Yes" because obviously I am not "all right." If I were "all right" I wouldn't be coughing, would I?

On the other hand, if I shake my head "No" they're likely to be alarmed and think they should DO SOMETHING.

Often people will offer me a glass of water. Water does absolutely no good, because water, when you swallow it properly, doesn't go where the irritation is, which is in the lungs. If water did go into the lungs, it would only cause more coughing. Yet people persist in offering it. I don't know why.

So to avoid making a fuss, I have to say (or convey with gestures) "Yes, I'm all right," although it's a lie, and accept a glass of water, although it does no good, and take a token sip of it as soon as I can, just to show everyone I'm somewhat functional, and I'm not going to keel over, or whatever it is they're afraid I'm going to do. It's a bloody nuisance.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: GUEST,Big Ballad Singer
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 03:48 PM

One that I hate is "did you know (so and so) was/is gay?"

another, less offensive one that still manages to irk me:

"Who wrote that song?"

Honestly... in the cases of both questions... what the hell difference does it make? Most of the time, those questions are being asked in order to pigeon-hole someone into a category that someone can either then accept or reject.

Why not just take each individual life or performance on its own merits?

My thoughts.

BBS

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 03:34 PM

Q: "Did you fart"?

A: "No, should I?"



Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: olddude
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 03:23 PM

My all time favorite ... "YOU LEFT THE TOILET SEAT UP AGAIN!!!!"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Amos
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 02:54 PM

I sometimes really get wound up by "Why did you...". It is usually couched in terms that make it clear that I could not possibly have been in my right mind at the time, and then you have to go trawling for the process of thought that proves it was perfectly reasonable.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 02:06 PM

Ebbie wrote; "What part of NO don't you understand? (I hate that.)"

I agree with you, Ebbie. The formula "What part of ________ don't you understand?" is often used by bullies. They want to make it look like other people are stupid, when the real issue is whether the bullies are entitled to what they are demanding.

I remember a case where some people started a gated community in New Mexico [or maybe Arizona] and were shocked to discover that the school district, which had been in place for decades, would be educating their kids with the neighbors' kids. How they howled! A resident sneered, "What part of GATED COMMUNITY don't you understand?"

See what I mean?

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 01:49 PM

"When are you going to get off that damn computer?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 11:17 AM

"Isn't your wife a lawyer?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 06:54 AM

Yes, there are arseholes in all walks of life, it seems.

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: bubblyrat
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 06:46 AM

Because I have absolutely NO interest in football,racing-cars,rugby,and other "manly" pursuits, and am more artistically inclined , I have,on occasion,been asked , by other men, " Are you Gay?".....
       to which I reply " No...Sorry ! Can't help you there,I'm afraid ! "

...And also, of course,when people say "Can I ask you a question ?",
I always reply " What, another one ?" . Great fun !

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 06:27 AM

ROTFLMAO

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Amergin
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 06:26 AM

Another question that may get some lads up in arms....I have never been asked this myself....though i understand Spaw and Rapaire have...

"Is it in yet?"

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 06:14 AM

After a drunken night party.

Who used the toilet brush last night to clean their teeth

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Amergin
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 05:44 AM

Who used up all the ass wipe?

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 05:28 AM

At your age can you still [insert name of relevant activity]?

Subject: RE: BS: Questions that make you defensive
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 04:39 AM

Who was the last one to go to the toilet?