9 ms·

I hate to be that person, but I doubt the story is true. The variance in time spent waiting in the checkout line is far greater than the time it takes to walk t

by ggreer 10y ago

I hate to be that person, but I doubt the story is true. The variance in time spent waiting in the checkout line is far greater than the time it takes to walk to the front vs back of the store. What do you know? I google "snopes car allergic to ice cream" and find that it's an urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/icecream.asp http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/icecream.asp

jsight 10y ago
Yeah, I doubted the veractiy as well. Fortunately this is a story that still works even if taken non-literally.
avemg 10y ago
In addition to that, there's no way the engineer waited until subsequent nights to try other flavors.
- ChoGGi 10y ago
  What? You wouldn't want to get paid to eat ice cream?
  - SonOfLilit 10y ago
    I would. But why not today?
Itsdijital 10y ago
It's not that far fetched though. I had a an old motorcycle years ago that was the same way as this guy's car. If I stopped to grab a snack, my bike would not start again. If I stopped for lunch, then it would fire back up no problem. Sure enough the problem was vapor lock. However the time needed for the bike to cool enough was about 15-20 minutes, not the couple minutes mentioned in this story.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  It's definitely a thing that can happen, just not in the time frames mentioned here. 5 minutes for a snack vs 30 minutes for dinner sounds plausible, 3 minutes for vanilla vs 4 minutes for chocolate does not.
- GoToRO 10y ago
  We used a two stroke atv. My father would go to the store (2km) and come back, no problem. I would go to get water from a spring (7km) and the engine would just die after about 4km. It turns out that the gas mixture was too light and the engine was overheating, but only after 4km of continuous run.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
omginternets 10y ago
That's really missing the point of the s/story/parable.
- vilhelm_s 10y ago
  "Moral of the story: even insane-looking problems are sometimes real." Isn't it relevant to note that this problem was not real? It seems to kind of undermine the point if the author did not know of any insane-looking problem that was actually real, and had to make one up...
  - omginternets 10y ago
    No, it really doesn't. If you're hung up on the fact that the story isn't real, it means you aren't thinking about the moral of the story. You're focusing on the wrong thing despite the fact that the insight is being spoon-fed to you... Incidentally (though respectfully... really!), this is a textbook example of pedantry, and it's the bane of our profession. More to the point, fiction often points to truth in ways non-fiction cannot.
    - aaron695 10y ago
      Like most urban legends it's not only bullshit it has a evil side. Re read the story, it has a lot of darkness to it. It also teaches a bad idea. No, more often than not things have simple solutions. Not the highly complicated version here of sending out an employee. Just get the car serviced.
    - Dylan16807 10y ago
      It's not insightful if insane problems never actually happen! It's fine if the author uses a fictional story because it flows better. It not fine if the author uses a fictional story because they can't source a single real one.
      - iopq 10y ago
        see emails not going out more than 500 miles story
egocodedinsol 10y ago
This isn't an incorrect comment, but I'm not sure it's a good one.
cooper12 10y ago
Eh, that's just your assumption. It's a guy in a fine neighborhood going to the store after dinner. For all we know the store is (excuse the pun) deserted at that point.
Sgt_Apone 10y ago
Pretty sure it's just meant to be a parable.
disordinary 10y ago
Also, he's not always getting only Ice Cream I'm sure, he's going to be grabbing other stuff, which depending on what he needs to get is going to create variable times (not to mention the length of the queue). Driving to the store every night for Ice Cream seems like a waste of time, unless he really needs to get out of the house.
kripy 10y ago
The only urban legend here is the fact that Snopes is somehow running Active Server Pages.
JoeAltmaier 10y ago
Ok how about: had the car detailed, cleaned and new floor mats. Filters and fluids replaced. Tires rotated. In a super-service place. Paid and went to the parking lot - car wouldn't start. Not even a click. Just nothing. What could it be? Nothing that was done was related to ignition or electrical systems at all. Yet it wouldn't start. <spoiler> the new floor mats were too thick. Couldn't push the clutch down far enough, and this manual car you had to have the clutch in to enable the ignition. Just nudged the new mat back, problem solved.
gohrt 10y ago
the OP is a page from an ice cream fan site, not a journalism organization http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/smann/IceCream/ http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/smann/IceCream/

by ggreer 10y ago

jsight 10y ago

Yeah, I doubted the veractiy as well. Fortunately this is a story that still works even if taken non-literally.

avemg 10y ago

In addition to that, there's no way the engineer waited until subsequent nights to try other flavors.

ChoGGi 10y ago
What? You wouldn't want to get paid to eat ice cream?
- SonOfLilit 10y ago
  I would. But why not today?

Itsdijital 10y ago

It's not that far fetched though. I had a an old motorcycle years ago that was the same way as this guy's car. If I stopped to grab a snack, my bike would not start again. If I stopped for lunch, then it would fire back up no problem. Sure enough the problem was vapor lock. However the time needed for the bike to cool enough was about 15-20 minutes, not the couple minutes mentioned in this story.

StavrosK 10y ago
It's definitely a thing that can happen, just not in the time frames mentioned here. 5 minutes for a snack vs 30 minutes for dinner sounds plausible, 3 minutes for vanilla vs 4 minutes for chocolate does not.
GoToRO 10y ago
We used a two stroke atv. My father would go to the store (2km) and come back, no problem. I would go to get water from a spring (7km) and the engine would just die after about 4km. It turns out that the gas mixture was too light and the engine was overheating, but only after 4km of continuous run.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

omginternets 10y ago

That's really missing the point of the s/story/parable.

vilhelm_s 10y ago
"Moral of the story: even insane-looking problems are sometimes real." Isn't it relevant to note that this problem was not real? It seems to kind of undermine the point if the author did not know of any insane-looking problem that was actually real, and had to make one up...
- omginternets 10y ago
  No, it really doesn't. If you're hung up on the fact that the story isn't real, it means you aren't thinking about the moral of the story. You're focusing on the wrong thing despite the fact that the insight is being spoon-fed to you... Incidentally (though respectfully... really!), this is a textbook example of pedantry, and it's the bane of our profession. More to the point, fiction often points to truth in ways non-fiction cannot.
  - aaron695 10y ago
    Like most urban legends it's not only bullshit it has a evil side. Re read the story, it has a lot of darkness to it. It also teaches a bad idea. No, more often than not things have simple solutions. Not the highly complicated version here of sending out an employee. Just get the car serviced.
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    It's not insightful if insane problems never actually happen! It's fine if the author uses a fictional story because it flows better. It not fine if the author uses a fictional story because they can't source a single real one.
    - iopq 10y ago
      see emails not going out more than 500 miles story

egocodedinsol 10y ago

This isn't an incorrect comment, but I'm not sure it's a good one.

cooper12 10y ago

Eh, that's just your assumption. It's a guy in a fine neighborhood going to the store after dinner. For all we know the store is (excuse the pun) deserted at that point.

Sgt_Apone 10y ago

Pretty sure it's just meant to be a parable.

disordinary 10y ago

Also, he's not always getting only Ice Cream I'm sure, he's going to be grabbing other stuff, which depending on what he needs to get is going to create variable times (not to mention the length of the queue). Driving to the store every night for Ice Cream seems like a waste of time, unless he really needs to get out of the house.

kripy 10y ago

The only urban legend here is the fact that Snopes is somehow running Active Server Pages.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago

Ok how about: had the car detailed, cleaned and new floor mats. Filters and fluids replaced. Tires rotated. In a super-service place. Paid and went to the parking lot - car wouldn't start. Not even a click. Just nothing. What could it be? Nothing that was done was related to ignition or electrical systems at all. Yet it wouldn't start. <spoiler> the new floor mats were too thick. Couldn't push the clutch down far enough, and this manual car you had to have the clutch in to enable the ignition. Just nudged the new mat back, problem solved.

gohrt 10y ago

the OP is a page from an ice cream fan site, not a journalism organization http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/smann/IceCream/ http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/smann/IceCream/