“Good morning, madam. I’m from the Worldwide Boo-Boo Brotherhood, and I’d like a moment of your time to share with you the good news about Yogi Bear at our free no-obligation pic-a-nic and seminar this Saturday…”
Bearer of Good News
46 thoughts on “Bearer of Good News”
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In my rush this morning, I read the headline as “Beaver of Good News” and then when I looked at the photo, I thought, “That’s no beaver….”
Clutching pearls!
LOL. I hate mornings like that.
Someone looking for a “Beaver of Good News”?
It looks like the video was made by someone who just wanted to make the video! I was glad to read that the beaver survived, without any help from the moron with his head up his ass.
I don’t think it’s quite so bad as that. Here are the comments by klaatu42, who did the voicing [light editing of his comments by moi]:
“Your typical friendly Canadian.
“A beaver on the highway at the Canada US border, welcoming drivers to Canada. He got away fine (and he wasn’t rabid, he was just out of place).
“Nicoalbumphoto shot the original footage and saved the beaver (yay!)
“As you can see in the original videos, the beaver got away fine. 🙂
For people who are complaining that nobody is slowing down: This is a 110KM/hr highway. It takes a long time to slow down (esp. in the winter and with so many cars), you’re not likely to even see the guy until you’re almost upon him.”
“Got away fine” implies the beaver escaped its difficult situation by itself. I’m happy to hear that the human, in fact, helped it.
Welcome to Canada!
Bienvenue!
Young bear puzzled by extreme feistiness of small creature.
Boo-Boo Brotherhood headquarters/temple:
i.. What?? Where???
It’s the Longaberger basket company building, in Ohio. (They closed the building and relocated the employees in 2016, though, and sold it last year. According to the wikipedias.)
Would make a great insane asylum. Basket cases. (Making a joke not trying to demean anyone.)
Snerk, snort, snort. Been in kittie’s position tooo many times. Favorite story on how to get rid of any door to door religious “sales people”. Let me apologize in advance if anyone here belongs to the Jehovah Witnesses or practices any of the ancient religions, no offense is meant. I firmly belief in everyone’s right to practice any religion but please don’t push it on me. So back to story – hubby and I were coming back from grocery store and we’re trying to bring in the bags. Hands full, etc and 2 Jehovahs come up to us and try talking to us with their usual spiel. I looked them straight in the eye, said “I’m sorry we’re Wiccan” and kept walking. First time I ever saw them speechless.
Forgive me if I’ve told this story before (with the same caveat as AJ, as well an outdated and probably non-PC literary trope). When we were courting, my ex was in the middle of preparing lamb kabobs for a romantic dinner, when someone knocked aggressively (think “Cops”) on the door. My ex was so startled that the knife slipped and he cut his hand. He went to the door, opened it with his wrists, and there stood two evangelists, touting for trade. My ex, bleeding and covered with lamb gore (and with a decided flair for the dramatic) said “look fellas, I just started sacrificing this virgin, you’re going to have to come back tomorrow.” They were never seen in those parts again!
That is some quick thinking!
I’ve just gone with “sorry not interested” and closing the door on them. Make me come downstairs in my pajamas on a Saturday morning and you get the bare minimum of politeness and certainly no pithy responses.
Personally I have a very poor knee-jerk reaction to proselytizing that is difficult for me to suppress. But I try, because I don’t think my reaction reflects well on me, or on my genuine belief in the value of tolerance. I’m embarrassed when I don’t live up to my own standards.
Door-to-door preaching is a fundamental aspect of JW religious practice, and knowing this helps me to stop seeing red when faced with a practitioner. https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/jehovahs-will/jehovahs-witnesses-preaching-work/
It also helps that at one time in my life I worked with a JW who was one of the nicest people I’d ever met. We had a great time sharing receptionist duties at a professional firm. Lots of laughs to alleviate the boredom and many frustrations inherent in the gig.
I still greatly dislike proselytizing from any religion. I just try very hard to find a polite way out. It isn’t always easy, but I do try.
I feel the same Ricky’s Mom; and most of the people I know or have encountered who are JW are either born into the religion or are simply lonely and like the company. Apparently Prince canvassed in Detroit and I would have been delighted to invite him in– but the rest I simply wish them a good day with a smile.
Me too! I have found that smiling and offering a genuinely polite comment of “no thank you, but you all enjoy the rest of your day” works every time. Usually there is stunned silence at first, probably from the shock of being treated nicely, but then a friendly response is given in return, and I’ve never had anyone become pushy.
PS: love Blue Footed Booby’s response too! Good one.
I’m all for tolerance but I don’t appreciate unexpected strangers knocking on my door to sell me things…unless it’s Thin Mints, but they don’t really do that anymore. I read an atheist blog and people in the comment section sometimes tell stories of how they either invite them in and start a discussion (or offer them some cold water on a hot day), or mess with them in some funny way, but I have neither the wit nor the inclination to do either. My family ranges from atheist to “evolution is impossible” fundamentalist (actual quote from my uncle when I was reading Richard Dawkins’s Greatest Show on Earth at his Superbowl party) and we all get along just fine.
I was at the mall once and two college-age kids asked if they could ask me a question for a class. It was actually a backdoor way of inviting me to a bible study. I wish I had asked what class they were taking at their public university (I believe the only “state university” that does not actually have the state in the name, which I learned from Jeopardy 😉 ) that required them to spread their religion. But I didn’t think of that until later. (The question was “if you could ask God a question what would it be?” I said, well, I’m an atheist, so nothing. I think that threw them a bit.)
Now to bring this back to Teh Cute:
I’ve gotten good results with “Everyone in this household is happy with their relationship with Jesus.” It communicates the goal without signalling “I have a God-shaped hole in my heart” and it’s not technically a lie as long as you’re happy with what you are.
Oh, that’s a very good response. Thank you!
My father invites people in, but makes it clear that if they want to talk religion, he gets equal time and he gets to go first!
For many years I owned a plastic Viking-style helmet and axe from a child’s dressing-up costume. After a spate of unwanted visits from JWs, Mormons and creationists I vowed that the next time I saw the usual suspects near the Shortcakery I’d answer the door in full berserker mode and explain that this was an Odinist household. The time came, and I donned my accoutrements, opened the door, and found myself face to face with…a grocery delivery man. The Mormons were on the other side of the street.
This is hilarious! I live in a doorman building so no one comes to my door. I almost regret it now because I would love to explain that this is an Odinist household.
Fortunately I knew the delivery man, which is probably why I haven’t been blacklisted by Tesco.
I was kinda worried my story would have people up in arms and come after me with pitchforks but I’m over here crying from laughing at everyone else’s responses to “the usual suspects”. I love the ones from N.Fritz and Shortcake. Odinist household and in full regalia – hysterical!! When one comes to the door, I’ve been tempted to respond that we follow the ways of our ancestors and break out in an Native American chant/dance or spouting ancient Greek but so far I’ve restrained myself. Luckily I work during the day and they don’t see to come around as much anymore. Out here I’ve noticed they’ll set up at one of the transit stations and stay there most of the day.
Transit stations and some bus stops. I might understand why they are at the bus stop near a Starbucks and bookstore, but I have no idea why they stand near a bus stop in front of a real estate office. Hmmm, maybe because it’s on the corner so they get all the foot traffic going by? who knows.
As for the picture, I’m not sure if I’d be more worried about encountering the bear or the cat. Cat looks pretty fierce!
You are definitely not getting any disapproval from me, AJ. Here JWs are often aggressive when they realize you are not the right recipient of their “wisdom”, you can be polite, but it is more practical to be fast, strong or very loud. But hey it was a protestant charity collector who wanted to slash my car’s tyres last year, not a JW, so who knows 🙂
I know where the JW’s building is in town (it’s kinda tucked away on a wooded side street) but they’ve never knocked on my door. I’ve also seen pairs of Mormons once in a while, down the road from my complex, but never in my complex. (The people who knocked on my door in my previous post were at my old apartment in a different town; I don’t know if they were JW or something else. The only thing I saw was the word “Agape” on a book or something the guy was holding, but I don’t know if that’s a JW thing or what.)
It was probably “Awake” and that is a JW thing. It’s the name on their magazine/brochure/whatever they call it.
I have never had any problems with Mormons, here they are the ones that accept a “no, thank you” without threatening you, pushing you away to enter your home etc. Well, they are mostly from the US.
But JWs come every single week, well not to me, but to the nice, polite people 🙂
It was a very interesting experience when I met American Christians for the first time. I had seen an advertisement for a cheap camp where there was a possibility to practice English with Americans. I was 18 and I did not suspect anything. It was a religious camp where they wanted to convert even atheist monsters, but unlike the religious people I had met before they accepted different opinions, there was no aggression at all. So I think it is different in the US.
Here if I hear that someone is not an atheist, I am looking at ways to defend myself if needed. At least verbal aggression will follow soon as they have seen the light that I haven’t.
It really varies depending on where you are in the US. I don’t live in an area where it’s much of an issue (Mid-Atlantic region). Some areas would be more hostile to people not of the ‘right’ religion, though I’ve never really experienced it personally.
It’s less of an issue in NYC than it’s likely to be elsewhere, although NYC is awfully big, and I wouldn’t swear that’s true of all parts of the city., The most aggressive proselytizers I ran into were Chasidim a couple of decades back, but I haven’t run into that in years. I could do without various Subway Shouters, but I feel exactly the same way about guys drumming on plastic tubs. This burg is more than loud enough.
I don’t have a lot of experience with the NYC subway. When I’ve gone to the city by myself it’s been for work and that’s an easy enough walk from Penn Station. I’ve seen a few soapbox-shouters on the sidewalks, though.
I do live not to far from Lakewood, NJ, which has a large Hasidic community, but I’ve only ever driven through, really.
There’s probably less proselytizing within the community than outside it.
I was surprised to learn a few years ago that there’s a Chasidic branch in my family tree. I met some of them; they were lovely. Yet another reason not to succumb to knee-jerk reactions. 🙂 It’s not a life I’d choose, but they don’t hurt me by choosing it for themselves.
‘Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.’ ~Anne Lamott
I heart this very much.
I’m lucky – our local door-to-door folks are really nice. Maybe because this is a tiny town, so we’re probably neighbors. I respect that visiting is part of their religion, and they respect that I’m a heathen. They’ve even helped carry my laundry up the stairs!
I wonder if that counts as soliciting…my complex has a sign at the entrance that says Private Property, No Trespassing, No Soliciting. Maybe that’s why I don’t see them around.
I love this post and all your comments, people. That poor kitty! I’d be wigged out too!
I work on a college campus that seems to be heavy recruiting grounds for Mormons. There have been several days where as I walked across campus I encountered 3 different pairs! The last pair that tried to talk to me started by complimenting my earrings, which had red pandas on them, but the guy thought they were wolves. They had never heard of red pandas!!! So basically the encounter turned into me proselytizing to them about the the life saving cuteness of red pandas.
If I ever find religion it needs to have Cute.
heh