Fool's Errand Patron Listener Episode

I think I missed the deadline for this but I work at a fire department and we ask probies to do some pretty funny errands like stir the fire truck tank. This involves sending the person on top of the fire engine with a very large stick to stir the water that does not need to be stirred or roll start a K12 saw, this is where you tell them one way to start the saw is to put the large wheel blade on the ground and run it down the floor. See how many times you can get them to go up and down the floor before someone breaks out in laughter. Sometimes this is seen as hazing but it's fun to see who you can get. Generally it's all in good fun. Absolutely love the podcast!

Looking forward to hearing this!

Skyloft

DANGIT! I missed seeing this until now. Had a ton of stories from my Army days. Check armor for soft spots, go get 100 yards of "tank line", get " a roll of reticle wire", or my favorite - go get a "fallopian tube wrench". Of course, there were some backfires, like the day Private Newbie was told to go get some "relative bearing grease", and he met another Newbie who sent him back to us loaded down with 1 container of everything they had in the storeroom - including a case of turbine oil, which was like hens teeth (and we traded around for a bunch of goodies for awhile)

James Myers

I remember how elaborate the Boy Scout hazing ritual had become as the older boys would send the new ones off into the woods. Not just on some vague vain search, but with specific instructions. Half the boys would go "upstream" with pans and sticks and bang them as the "downstream boys would wait with outstretched pillowcases waiting to catch all the Snipes that would come running down the dry ditch. I can't say as I found this to be particularly entertaining, but you definitely dug up some old memories with this "fools errand" request.

Ben Rich

Funny thing is, snipe is actually a non-webbed migratory bird. So you can actually go snipe hunting depending on location and local regulations. https://outdoornebraska.gov/huntingseasons/ (See webless migratory birds) https://www.nebraskabirdlibrary.org/charadriiforms/scolopacidae/common-snipe/

Oh boy, I sure wish I had something to contribute. You two are really important content creators in my life, and I've spent hours consuming your educational and enjoyable material. I would be thrilled to participate in the conversation! I think we even discussed a little bit on an episode about pranks (which, I think, this is a mild form of a prank). I don't personally have any fool's errand stories. I will be looking forward to listening to the podcast!

Offshore drilling rigs where I would frequently work in my early career are a floating social experiment that are subject to very strict OSHA regs and high safety standards, so not a lot of practical joking there, but they still find ways to haze a new crewmember. Each vessel will have their own codes, like referring to offices or services not offered on board as being "on deck 5" for instance, when on that particular ship, there is actually no deck 5 and it goes from 4 to Bridge to 6th. They'd be like "Oh, if you want to use the good treadmills, those are on Deck 5." Or they will say stuff like "we're going to have lobster later today if you want to wait for 4th shift supper" when there is no such thing. I also met a cook one evening for what he promised would be "fishing lessons" and it turned out he was referring to taking out the food waste, which was ground up in a chummy slurry that would occasionally attract sharks to the side of the vessel. At last I knew that I was initiated when we were landing some wires in a control cabinet and the electrician I was working with had cut one wire too short for where it needed to go and he asked for my Wire Stretchers. I told him, I think I left those up on Deck 5.

David Atwood

Gentlemen, When I was a medic at an armor unit, they'd send us around with ball-peen hammers and chalk looking for soft spots on the armor. The upshot was you'd have 1SG come by and ask what the racket was and PT you til your ears rang. It was all fun and games until an M88A1 had an actual soft spot and a proud private showed the circled dented spot. Many recriminations were had. I also had the standard S4 run of grid squares (training aid NSN supplied by an unamused E4), PRC-E6 (unamused signal sergeant who informed us to move on), and, of course, exhaust samples from the motor pool. That one had to be accompanied with an ID-10-T form. From hence comes the 5% rule. One must be 5% smarter than the equipment to operate it. Thanks for the memory lane run, Johann

The classic example of course being the "Snipe Hunt"

A couple decades back when I was at Wyoming Tech, one of the instructors told me about their favorite fool's errand they would send the more gullible students on. They would send them to another class to ask for a metric adjustable wrench. Then they would call the instructor of that next class and give him a heads up. They would continue the process until the student either figured it out or one of the instructors took pity on the student and let him know what was going on. Fortunately they never tried that one on me. I'm afraid I just may have fallen for it.

Jason Stice