Ask a Stupid Question Day

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By Diane Forrest

I’m sure you have been in a classroom or other educational setting where the instructor will tell you to ask anything, there are no stupid questions.  Well that person has never met my family!!

When my son was small, when he was learning to talk, we called my mother grandma.  Well the name that came out of his mouth was Ama (pronounced A-maw).  That’s who she became.  Well my mother can come up with some off the wall questions, and my father started calling them Amaisms.  He told my son he should write a book of them.  One of my favorite ones happened when a friend was discussing painting a room with polka dots.  My mother then asked, "Oh, do they make polka dotted paint?"

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My aunt is another one asking stupid questions...she was talking with a friend and they were discussing the difference between almond joy and mounds candy bars.  My aunt then asked her friend, "Now which one has the nuts?"  Her friend just told her to think on that for a min.

One of my favorite one's is from a teacher who would see students when she would be shopping at a grocery store.  They would ask, "What are you doing here?"  She would always want to answer, "Oh you know...just hunting buffalos!"

Some other stupid questions include:

• Having someone step on your foot and asking if it hurts.
• Asking a waiter if the selection you choose is a good dish.
• When you get a late night phone call and they ask "were you asleep?"
• When you have obviously gotten a shorter haircut and are asked "Did you get a haircut?"
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I was talking with a friend of mine the other day.  He had just got a new cookie stove for his business.  I was talking to him on a chat page, and he often uses a short hand and I have to try to decipher that he says.  He had just had some fresh baked cookies and was telling me about them.  I asked how they were he said too many chips, and too sweet.  I assumed he was talking about chocolate chip.  Then he said he liked oatmeal better.  I asked how many different kinds did he have, when I just got some letters as a reply.  Figuring it was shorthand, I asked," so do you have any peanut butter?"  That’s when he rolled his eyes and said I was "so Blonde!!"  His letters that I thought were shorthand was actually spelling the word one, as in he only had one flavor of cookie.

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Today is Ask a Stupid Question Day.  This holiday was created in the 1980's to encourage kids to ask questions in class.  So today, go ahead and ask a stupid question.  You may get some "eye rolls" and may even learn some useful information along the way.

Questions - all those silly and stupid questions

By Diane Forrest,

How many times have you heard 'There are no stupid questions"?  Well today is ask a stupid question day, but if there are no stupid questions, then this will be a hard task to accomplish.  However, if you listen to my dad, he will tell you "ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer."

The roots of this special day goes back to the 1980's. At the time, there was a movement by teachers to try to get kids to ask more questions in the classroom. Kids sometimes hold back, fearing their question is stupid, and asking it will result in ridicule. Teachers created this day on September 28, If it fell on a weekend, they would celebrate it on the last day of the month.

As I was thinking about this day...the first thing that came to mind was Bill Engval.  He has become famous with his "Here's your sign" routine.  This came about because people asked stupid questions and they were awarded a "stupid" sign.  Here are a few he has told:

We're in the process of remodeling our house; we've been doing it for a while now. And we have the painters in, putting sheets up around the furniture, you know? And we have a piano, just a regular, up against the wall piano. One of the painters said to me, "Is that y'all's piano?" I said, "Nah, that's our coffee table, it just has buckteeth!" Here's your sign!

I go to the flow'r feller, and get her flow'rs, and a card. And he asks me what this is for. And I tell him my grandma just passed away, hundred and four years old. And he says, "Ooh, a hundred and four? How'd she die?" How'd she die; she's a hundred and four! She wrecked her Harley up there at BikeWeek! Here's your sign!

My son, when he was six years old, was going to fly by himself from Dallas to Austin, to spend a week with his grandparents. I'm putting him on the plane; his grandmother is going to take him off the plane. And the woman who I was buying the ticket from asks, "Is there going to be anyone in Austin to pick him up when he gets off the plane?" Nope, I'm gonna pin a twenty dollar bill to his collar and wish him the best of luck! Here's your sign!

The best one I've seen yet happened in Los Angeles, California. I got stuck behind a big rig that wedged his trailer up underneath an overpass and me and the trucker are waiting on the side of the road on the tow truck driver. Well, the highway patrolman pulls up and looks at the guy's rig and he looks at the trucker and I'm thinking, "Oh, Dear God, he can't say it," 'cause I'll start laughing. Sure enough, he goes, "You get your truck stuck?" And God bless this trucker, without missing a beat, he goes: "Nope. I was delivering that overpass and I ran out of gas. Here's your sign."

Here are some more stupid questions:

When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say

"Is this chicken what I have, or is this fish? I know it's tuna but it says Chicken, by the Sea," the very brainy Jessica Simpson asked then husband Nick Lachey on their reality show "Newlyweds."

"So, where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?" a geographically challenged Christina Aguilera reportedly asked.

Do fish get thirsty?

How does a thermos know whether a drink should be hot or cold?

If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors? For that matter, why is it called 7-11?

Ok, I could go on and on, but you get the idea.  So today, on Ask a stupid question day, go ahead and ask away, I promise not to laugh!  Send us one of your favorite "stupid questions"