Ever been the one they made the rule for?

[JTMac]

Most places that have rules have a pretty good understanding of what should and shouldn't be allowed.  But sometimes, we didn't know we needed a rule until someone broke it in advance.  

Got any good stories about being (or knowing) the guy for whom the rule was made?

Mine was simple:  Homework will be due within two weeks of being assigned, and NOT and the end of the year.  I was pretty busy at the time, so I did all my homework for a year-long night class program by taking two days off of work the week before the final exam. 

I'm pretty contrarian when it comes to stupid rules, so I am often just barely skirting around them or breaking them in such a way that dares someone to call me on it.  I'm honestly surprised that the only time a rule has been created for me (that I recall) is when it was completely deserved.

[Huaco Kid]

I've told my children and their friends many times, "Sorry kids!  But we totally wrecked it for you."

"The 60's just happened, but then we came along, kept it going, and took it a little too far.  You can't get away with anything because we ruined it for you."

[Silentpoet]

No, why do you ask?

[janice6]

I had unauthorized flashing light communications with other ships in the 6th fleet moored in Beirut Harbor in 1959(IIRC).

It was decided by the 6th fleet  flag, that I demonstrated an advanced ability for a form of communications that was unknown for my specialty grade in the Navy.  The 6th fleet created a new rule (or whatever they called it) that from now on, the ships could call upon persons in my specialty grade, to provide this ability when and if needed.  The communications I was a party, to was deemed acceptable.

[Collim1]

As a joke I showed up to a patrol rifle class with a bayonet on my rifle. 

When the Lt asked wtf I pointed out the fact there was no policy forbidding bayonets. 

Not until the next week.......haha

[Grabbrass]

Kinda - there's a big patch of bushes growing outside the dorm I lived in as a college freshman in '85-86 because my friends and I played a very, very muddy game of football there one afternoon. It was pleasant little patch of lawn before we started, and looked like someone had run a roto-tiller through it a hundred times when we were done. So, they planted big sprawly prickly bushes, and they're still there, preventing fun to this day.

[janice6]

1 hour ago, Silentpoet said:

No, why do you ask?

Damn!  I love this pic!

[tous]

8 minutes ago, Grabbrass said:

Kinda - there's a big patch of bushes growing outside the dorm I lived in as a college freshman in '85-86 because my friends and I played a very, very muddy game of football there one afternoon. It was pleasant little patch of lawn before we started, and looked like someone had run a roto-tiller through it a hundred times when we were done. So, they planted big sprawly prickly bushes, and they're still there, preventing fun to this day.

Nonsense.

KWalrad told me that the most fun he ever had was in a patch  of big, sprawly, prickly bushes.

[Batesmotel]

Many civilian style vehicles (cars, pickups, vans, etc) in the military only used a few keys to unlock and start them.  Strictly military vehicles didn’t need keys so they used a chain and padlock around the steering wheel to secure them  the other end of the chain was bolted to the floorboards.

 

All an enterprising young Marine scrounger needed to do was get a wrench for the bolt on the chain and hit a locksmith every time he checked out a civilian style vehicle and soon he had access to any vehicle he might need in a pinch. 

 

There is now a rule in Marine Corps motor pools about drivers not copying keys and carrying wrenches. This has gone on for generations but my era got it put in writing. We blamed the Carter budget cuts. When our commander needed a vehicle we got it. Even when Motor-T said they were not available. Usually because of budget related crap. 

Edited September 15, 2018 by Batesmotel

[willie-pete]

Yes, there is a rule/ordinance in North Little Rock, AR that says there can be no exotic animals including lions living inside the city limits..

 

 

That ordinance did not exist  before my renters' pet lion tried to eat the next door neighbor kid.

 

 

 

[flags]

After 1979 sailors are forbidden from renting motorcycles in Pattaya Beach.

Sorry.

[Silentpoet]

[Cubdriver]

I haven't, but my father was responsible for the placement of 'No Thru Trucks' signs on a steep hill in town thanks to an incident that took place shortly before I was born.  He borrowed his buddy's dump truck, and was heading through town with it.  He went down an ungodly steep hill that ended at the bottom in a 'T' intersection, with the branches of the 'T' being short downhill stubs that joined Main St.  The end of the 'T' was about 10-15' above the level of Main St.; you had to make a 90 degree right turn at the bottom and go down the short reminder of the hill to get to the level of the main street.  (About 20 years ago they eliminated the T intersection and made the bottom of the hill a dead end.)

View up from street (before the dead end reconfiguration, the paved 'arch' road ran along the top of the retaining wall, joining the main street to the left where the car is parked, and to the right off the frame a bit.):

 

View looking down on Main St. from bottom of (now dead ended) hill.  There used to be an arched section of road perpendicular to this dead end that went down to the main street below.  Picture the asphalt sidewalk that goes off to the right near the guard rail as being a road instead.

The dump truck was an old POS, and the brakes went out as he went down the hill.  He wound up going over the end, with the nose of the truck planted on Main St at the spot that would be more or less directly in line with the two signs visible above in the first picture, or dead straight through the guard rail in the second one.  By some miracle, there were no cars on the road below or someone would likely have died.  He emerged relatively unscathed; I think he got a few bruises and a broken toe out of the whole deal.  It wasn't too long after that that signs forbidding trucks on Academy Hill went up.  I have newspaper clippings about the accident floating around here somewhere, but lord only knows where they are...

-Pat

 

[Silentpoet]

On a related note we recently changed the rules regarding something.  I had to enter the data on a minor work activity on the calendar.  I'm the first one it bit on the ass.

[minervadoe]

8 hours ago, JTMac said:

Most places that have rules have a pretty good understanding of what should and shouldn't be allowed.  But sometimes, we didn't know we needed a rule until someone broke it in advance.  

Got any good stories about being (or knowing) the guy for whom the rule was made?

Humboldt State Lumberjack days, 1981; the rugby team bought a keg and we were gifted a booth.  So, we drank our keg in our booth.  Someone justified the booth with a stupid throw a dart, pop a balloon, get a stupid prize game.  Nobody wanted to play.  I did a little quick math for the boys and showed how much extra beer we had that we couldn't drink ourselves.  I changed the rules so that anybody playing, even if they missed the balloons could get a beer cheaper than on the licensed beer halls. It more than paid for the keg.  People swarmed to our booth.  So, I thought that is the end of my story.  Decades later, I look up Lumberjack Days on the Internet.  Apparently, in later years, the selling of beer in a similar fashion from unlicensed vendors got so out of hand that they cancelled all future Lumberjack Days.  

Yay me. 

Edited September 15, 2018 by minervadoe

[tadbart]

Online homework is not to be done in the minutes between ER nursing duties, after I got paid to do my whole Bachelors degree while sitting in the triage office. When I had duties, I performed them. When I didn't have duties, I was writing papers and taking tests. The director didn't want to hear any of it, even though I always did more than was required of me at the position, which made my coworkers' shifts go much easier.

[Hannie Caulder]

We make new scrabble rules all the time.  I think everybody has at least one created for something they did.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Hannie Caulder

[tous]

Is one of the rules that Scrabble is trademark and a proper noun?

[Hannie Caulder]

37 minutes ago, tous said:

Is one of the rules that Scrabble is trademark and a proper noun?

Rulings on words are left up to the referee whose decisions are final (that's one of our rules).  The other rules we have deal with play, like for example only the player whose turn is next can challenge a word.  We had to do that because players after that may have played words on the disputed word.

It gets complicated.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Hannie Caulder

[DieselMcBadass]

We had a mandantory safety meeting because of me. A piece of aluminum got stuck on a scotchbrite wheel, whipped around and hit me in the shoulder. They did a little refresher on safety. 

Another guy in our shop put a cutting wheel in a drill. The Picture of the bloody drill has become famous in training slides.

[Walt Longmire]

Thou shalt not kill.

[Dric902]

Not intentionally

 

.

[Huaco Kid]

No.

Never.