A tap on the shoulder

[Patrick]

A true story(maybe) from the pages of the Manchester, NH Evening News:
Last Wednesday a passenger in a taxi heading for the airport
leaned over to ask the driver a question and gently tapped him on the
shoulder to get his attention.
The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove
up over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate window.
For a few moments everything was silent in the cab. Then, the shaking
driver said, "Are you OK? I'm so sorry, but you scared the daylights
out of me."
The badly shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said, "I
didn't realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle someone so
badly."
The driver replied, "No, no, I'm the one who is sorry, it's entirely
my fault. Today is my very first day driving a cab. I've been driving a
hearse for 25 years."

[Willow]

From Snoopes.com:

Claim:   A NH cab driver nearly kills himself and passenger due to a shoulder tap after driving a hearse for twenty-five years.

Status:   False. 

Origins:   One of the many rumors that have circulated regarding reasons for cab drivers to jump the curb, drive on sidewalks, or otherwise endanger the lives of themselves, passengers and pedestrians cites the unexpected tap on the shoulder by a passenger after the driver had recently transitioned from twenty-five years as a hearse driver.  Careful investigation has revealed that in fact there are no New Hampshire cab drivers with more than seventeen years experience as drivers of local or remote funerary vehicles.  It was further determined that the plate glass window referenced in the account was no more than seventy five hundred square inches, well below the required area of a large window.  A short interview with the driver in question was able to verify there was no scream involved and the words the driver uttered in explanation did not contain the word daylights.

The presentation is patently untrue.

[Patrick]

Is there a point ?


How could anyone really think this was true anyway.  Its a friggin joke. It was sent to me and I reposted it like I do most others.  But, anyway, thanks for your diligence in looking it up.

[Willow]

..., thanks for your diligence in looking it up.

I didn't look it up, Patrick.  It was a joke.    In my own rather dry humor I was making light of Snopes and to some degree to the people who depend upon it.  

I didn't bother to check whether there is a site called Snoopes.com.

[RainMaker]

You're pretty good at that Snopes thing.  Maybe a site called "willow.com" to mock Snopes.com is in order.

[Pepmyster]

THIS, made me laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Patrick]

..., thanks for your diligence in looking it up.

I didn't look it up, Patrick.  It was a joke.    In my own rather dry humor I was making light of Snopes and to some degree to the people who depend upon it.  

I didn't bother to check whether there is a site called Snoopes.com.

Ah, OK.  We both have a dry sense of humor and I was beginning to think you didn't have a sense of humor.  
Ya got me, good.
At least we don't have much faith in Mr Snopes.

[Big Rig]

All this dry humor is making me thursty....beer anyone?

[Willow]

Oops!     I said I didn't know if there even was a Snoopes.com.  I got curious and thought I'd check because I obviously just made that name up.  There is.  Don't go there.  It may be a malware site.   

[baldo]

A true story(maybe) from the pages of the Manchester, NH Evening News:
Last Wednesday a passenger in a taxi heading for the airport
leaned over to ask the driver a question and gently tapped him on the
shoulder to get his attention.
The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove
up over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate window.
For a few moments everything was silent in the cab. Then, the shaking
driver said, "Are you OK? I'm so sorry, but you scared the daylights
out of me."
The badly shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said, "I
didn't realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle someone so
badly."
The driver replied, "No, no, I'm the one who is sorry, it's entirely
my fault. Today is my very first day driving a cab. I've been driving a
hearse for 25 years."

That's a good one.........the rest of this, not so much.

[The emperor has no clothes]

Oops!     I said I didn't know if there even was a Snoopes.com.  I got curious and thought I'd check because I obviously just made that name up.  There is.  Don't go there.  It may be a malware site.   

See what you just did ! Infected 1/2 the VRCC brotherhood with some Trojan horse thingy.   What's next ? Are you going to spoof some porn sites ?    

[vanagon40]

From Snoopes.com:

Claim:   A NH cab driver nearly kills himself and passenger due to a shoulder tap after driving a hearse for twenty-five years.

Status:   False. 

Origins:   One of the many rumors that have circulated regarding reasons for cab drivers to jump the curb, drive on sidewalks, or otherwise endanger the lives of themselves, passengers and pedestrians cites the unexpected tap on the shoulder by a passenger after the driver had recently transitioned from twenty-five years as a hearse driver.  Careful investigation has revealed that in fact there are no New Hampshire cab drivers with more than seventeen years experience as drivers of local or remote funerary vehicles.  It was further determined that the plate glass window referenced in the account was no more than seventy five hundred square inches, well below the required area of a large window.  A short interview with the driver in question was able to verify there was no scream involved and the words the driver uttered in explanation did not contain the word daylights.

The presentation is patently untrue.

Another paradigm for the need of a sarcasm font. [Paradigm is my word of the month.]

[baldo]

Oops!     I said I didn't know if there even was a Snoopes.com.  I got curious and thought I'd check because I obviously just made that name up.  There is.  Don't go there.  It may be a malware site.   

See what you just did ! Infected 1/2 the VRCC brotherhood with some Trojan horse thingy.   What's next ? Are you going to spoof some porn sites ?    

[Atl-Jerry]

True or not, it’s pretty amusing, but it does remind me of a similar personal story.  My wife’s BIL and sister own a monument company, meaning they open & close graves, sell the burial vaults and headstones.  They also dig up and move bodies when the family wants them closer to home.  My wife is skittish about these sort of things.  When we moved to Atlanta in 2000, they stopped by on the way back home on a “business trip” and spent the night with us.  At breakfast the next morning the discussion turned to where they had been and what they were doing.  My wife was not amused that their van sat in the driveway all night with a body in the back.  It became the talk of the neighborhood and by the weekend a CSI style body outline in chalk appeared on the driveway where the van had been parked.  Every year or two we find the chalk outline reappears and when we have overnight guests they often ask if they are carrying any human remains.  I doubt this one is on SNOPES, but it’s the truth…….and that’s no crap!

[Gryphon Rider]

At least we don't have much faith in Mr Snopes.

Patrick vs. Snopes as sources for truthful, verified accounts of anything...

[baldo]

At least we don't have much faith in Mr Snopes.

Patrick vs. Snopes as sources for truthful, verified accounts of anything...

LOLOL

[Jess Tolbirt]

the joke was funny enough, but you two got each other, thats even funner..this actually made me start lshmbb

[Patrick]

Stuff happens !

And I didn't notice the 2 oo's.