Thinning The Herd: Dumb Things People Do #1

It's been dry here in the upper Midwest.

Very dry.

Bone dry.

So dry that some folks have forgotten that it may, on occasion, actually ... rain.

Weather forecasters have been predicting rain for a few days now. Enough that some of us came to believe it may actually rain! (Those silly weather forecasters and their predictions...)

Anyway, this morning it was raining. Not a downpour, but enough to get out the ol' umbrella on my mile long walk to the office from the train station.

Along the way I passed a few folks who, perhaps rightly so, chose not to believe the predictions of rain and left home sans umbrella.

When that happens you are usually left with a limited range of choices:

• Run
• Pull a jacket over your head (assuming you have one)
• Hold a newspaper or other object likely to disintegrate in your hands as it gets wet, over your head
• Suck it up and get wet
  
• or, apparently, pull a plastic bag completely over your head!

Yes, as I walked along Kingsbury street, I caught sight of a man who, without his umbrella, decided the best course of action in his situation was to pull an empty, plastic, shopping bag COMPLETELY OVER his head. Worse yet, he did this in complete defiance of the "The thin film may cling to nose and mouth and prevent breathing" warning message printed on damn near every plastic bag ever invented ... well, since lawyers began roaming the earth anyway.

I'm not even going to question how the man was able to see where he was going - it was not a clear bag. No, my only question is "What synapses fired in this man's brain to make him think that pulling a plastic bag over his head was a good idea?" Ultimately, the sad part is that since it worked this time -- he did not die did he? -- he'll do it again. And again. And again. Until he ... well ... dies.

If you ever had any doubts about the legitimacy of Natural Selection, let this man serve as a prime example!