And I really, really hate other terms used similarly, but let's not get into that. What and why is obvious if you know me.

Pseudo-obscure is what I use to describe things that I think are or should be obscure, then I find out they're not.

There are a lot of things that should be obscure, no question.

I work in a post office, but people are always asking 'Do you sell stamps here?' There's always the urge to respond with the long, drawn out, dripping with sarcasm 'Noooooooo'.

But they frown on that - something about customers not coming back.

Last year though, one of our 'regulars' started getting money orders for an international competition, you know the ones that say 'send us this once only payment and go into the draw for X dollars!'? For legal reasons we couldn't advise her not to, and in the end, when her nephew heard about it, I think she'd spent at least $800 on the stupid things. You have to wonder how stupid people are that they actually fall for these things though.

PLEASE PEOPLE, DO NOT SEND MONEY TO RANDOM INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS

Okay, first off, absolutely awesome avatar, AKA.

Oh, and I'd say, "Well, I don't, but that machine over there does. I'd be careful, though. You might get stamped out."

Update: There are many non-polite things I would like to say to people. However, they would get me fired.

I think that that's a universal. I refer you to the quote that started this whole thing off. If the other person wasn't a good friend, you'd never say, "Yes, you can ask a stupid question, and I think history will bear me out on that."

We hear so many loaded-bullet questions that good humor really is the only way to deal with it. "What's wrong with me?" comes to mind. The number of times that an honest answer is wanted must be below ten percent.

Here's a subcategory: what hand or facial gesture would you like to make if you could ever pull it off? On a show (maybe more than one) a character got rid of an annoying idiot by shaking an open fist as though there was a ball in there, then "throwing" the "ball" off into the distance so that the idiot would follow it and go away. I've long wanted to do something of that sort, but I've never met someone that dumb.

Personally, I'd just say, "No." And then turn away from them and get on with what ever it is I was doing.
If a person needs to ask if a post office sell stamps, then they proberly shouldn't be sending letters on their own.

Yeah, the whole 'losing your job for pointing out a customer's obvious stupidity' thing is annoying.



Nate: Thanks! But I can take no responsibility for it - I stole it from someone on deviant art, but i don't know who. I'd like to think if I had the least idea how to make something like this then it would be just as pretty, though!

I'm glad that the original avatar maker remembered that there are in fact nine chevrons on a Gate. Two of them are always hidden so the casual viewer might forget.

You could say, "Well, it's against the law for ME to sell stamps, but that machine over there could fence some for you."

You know I had no idea what you were talking about, but... stamps in the USA are sold by MACHINES out the front of shops? or some kinda machine anyway... we just sell them over the counter here.

Uh, yeah, we have stamp vending machines. They tend to stink, though, because of course the value of one stamp does not divide nicely into any reasonable multiple of a dollar, so either you're sticking in random amounts of change, or you get tons of leftover one cent stamps or some such.

Oh, and not the front of stores, at least in Minnesota. The front of the post office, and maybe in some of the larger public libraries and city halls.

It seems quite strange to me that you would get stamps from a library. It's like going to a liquor store and asking for milk or something.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention. In Minnesota the larger libraries are usually part of larger government complexes. For example, my local public library is the library, some public conference rooms, the local courts, the driver's license/boating license/change of address place, and so on. More multipurpose, and as such there are (I think) four mailboxes right out front. A real hub of government activity.