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Today, while I was working out at the gym, I noticed a guy sitting next to me doing shoulder raises. He was obviously untrained and a noob. He also had a toothpick in his mouth.

Now, he was lifting moderate to heavy amounts of weight and breathing pretty hard. I was thinking that the dumb ass was going to suck that toothpick down his throat. Sure enough, five minutes later I hear someone yell. The guy is on his knees holding his throat and gasping for air. He swallowed his toothpick. He left in an ambulance after vomiting all over the floor.

Now, how smart do you have to be to realize that doing heavy sets with a toothpick in your mouth is a bad idea? I thought the people that do squats wearing sandals were stupid until tonight.

Darwin Award Honorable Mention

That is pretty damn dumb. He probably though he looked macho with that toothpick in his mouth. Oh well no loss right?

Serves him right.

Sadly, i doubt he was being an idiot on purpose. Oh well. Nature weeds out another shallow gene pool...

hope the idiot doesnt die.

I usually have a toothpick in my mouth, when I study.

Don't be "in" an idiot?

You should've advised him to remove it, granted it's his fault, but still, i feel a compelling urge to try and save people from their own stupidity.

Some people are just plain dumb. I had a customer at our bike shop stick his finger into the disc brake rotor on a spinning wheel. He ended up losing the tip of his finger, his fingertip got sliced off and mangled in the caliper assembly. I've reached the point where I'm no longer surprised by this shit.

Rye wrote:Don't be "in" an idiot?

You should've advised him to remove it, granted it's his fault, but still, i feel a compelling urge to try and save people from their own stupidity.

Why save idiots,if like this one they do exercise with a toothpick in his mouth and then start choking,i say don`t waste your time saving him he may do it again later,some of them never learn.

Heh, fool.

He could have been chewing gum though.

Montcalm wrote:

Rye wrote:Don't be "in" an idiot?

You should've advised him to remove it, granted it's his fault, but still, i feel a compelling urge to try and save people from their own stupidity.

Why save idiots,if like this one they do exercise with a toothpick in his mouth and then start choking,i say don`t waste your time saving him he may do it again later,some of them never learn.

Must be my christ-like countenance.

Isn't it redundant to accuse someone of being an idiot "on purpose?" How can someone be an idiot by accident? Idiocy implies that he has made stupid decisions, and decisions are always made on purpose.

Yeah but gum is better than a small stick with two sharp ends.

I could have advised him, but he was probably thinking he looked tough. He probably would have just ignored me. Maybe I should have at least tried...

Don't be 'in' and idiot... It's a typo.

That sure was nice of you Superman, what with your warning him about his mistake and all.

Sometimes it is best to allow people to learn their lessons by themselves.

Might sound harsh, but it's the truth.

Oh please, like it's my responsibility. Ok, granted I probably should have, but it might have just offended him. I think he was really trying to look cool or something.

Yeah, I am going to agree with Spanky on this one.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Sometimes it is best to allow people to learn their lessons by themselves.

Might sound harsh, but it's the truth.

Yeah, but you get all the fun of being able to say "i told you so" if they ignore you.

Superman wrote:Oh please, like it's my responsibility. Ok, granted I probably should have, but it might have just offended him. I think he was really trying to look cool or something.

Is it your responsibility? No. But it does make you an outright ass. The simple fact that your getting indignant over the issue proves your own selfish nature.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Sometimes it is best to allow people to learn their lessons by themselves.

Might sound harsh, but it's the truth.

This isn't the sort of lesson you should have to learn. Going to the hospital in am ambulance is not a fucking lesson. Its an ignorant mistake that really hit you. Whats worse is that some people who DID know didn't bother saying anything.

Alyeska, do you try and correct everyone who is doing something wrong?

Let me point out one thing here: When you lift at the gym, you quickly realize that there's definately an unspoken ego thing going on. The guy who runs around trying to get everyone to use what he thinks is 'proper form' is usually put into his place. I'm not angry over this at all; but I do think that since you had nothing to do with any of this, you have no place to tell me what I should have done. From what I read on this thread, most people here wouldn't have gotten into this guy's business either.

Every adult over the age of 18 is soley responcible for their own safety. If it was someone I knew, then I would let them know that what they were doing was potentially dangerous. But with someone I didn't know, I honestly really couldn't care less what happened to them, as I don't know them.

Superman wrote:Alyeska, do you try and correct everyone who is doing something wrong?

Let me point out one thing here: When you lift at the gym, you quickly realize that there's definately an unspoken ego thing going on. The guy who runs around trying to get everyone to use what he thinks is 'proper form' is usually put into his place. I'm not angry over this at all; but I do think that since you had nothing to do with any of this, you have no place to tell me what I should have done. From what I read on this thread, most people here wouldn't have gotten into this guy's business either.

This isn't some fucking case about proper form. This is an instance of something you KNEW was dangerous and you saw an ameture was doing it. You had a chance to prevent an accident in the making and just shrugged it off.

Like I said, even if I would have warned him, he might have told me to 'fuck off.'

Another one, Alyeska; I see morons doing squats wearing sandals all the time. This is blatantly dangerous too, but the gym doesn't seem to care about enforcing a rule against it. Should I also tell each sandal wearing squatter to stop?

Superman wrote: Let me point out one thing here: When you lift at the gym, you quickly realize that there's definately an unspoken ego thing going on. The guy who runs around trying to get everyone to use what he thinks is 'proper form' is usually put into his place. I'm not angry over this at all; but I do think that since you had nothing to do with any of this, you have no place to tell me what I should have done. From what I read on this thread, most people here wouldn't have gotten into this guy's business either.

Whilst what you do is entirely your own business, you don't have to be wandering around trying to enforce gym policy (as you're right, that's a way to get many people pissed off at you) but if it comes down to accidents waiting to happen, then surely it's possible to give a polite and subtle warning. I mean, about the sandals thing, you can't do much about that, as if they're wearing sandals then they obviously havent got (or can't be arsed to get) their trainers, in which case, there's not a lot you can do to get them to do otherwise. With something like the scenario you originally described, you could have warned him to be careful, maybe have made some bull about knowing a guy who choked on a toothpick or something, if you were that convinced he was going to have an accident.

My point, I suppose, is that there are times when saying something will or may make a difference, this doesnt mean that winding down your window whilst driving to tell other drivers not to use mobile phones is something to get into the habit of, but where you see an imminent danger, then whilst not being your responsibility, perhaps it is a civic courtesy to at least offer a warning.

No offence meant, but your scenario was as good as any for the purpose. I think.

EDIT: Oh, and if he'd told you to fuck off, then the toothpick would have fallen out of his mouth...