Ask A Genius 600: Jackass on a Jackhammer
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021/07/04
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So we both have different kinds of neighbors. Mine are Canadian. My experience with them is a lot lighter where it’s just different forms of jackassery. Yours is more severe.
Rick Rosner: All right. So yeah, we both have problematic neighbors. Our neighbor has been troublesome since Isabella graduated from high school eight years ago. This guy made it hard for her to study while she was in high school. So it’s been going on for at least a decade. He has parties that go all night with loud music and people in the hot tub. When he’s not having a party, he rents out his house as an Airbnb party house for parties that not uncommonly go until past 3 a.m. with music just blaring. Lately, added to that, for the past eight weeks, six days a week, a few hours a day, he’s had people jackhammering concrete and tile across his entire property wherever there isn’t a structure. There are ugly marble fragments sunk into thick concrete.
Jacobsen: You can’t make this up.
Rosner: No, you can’t. He’s finally getting rid of it. But it’s been eight weeks of daily jackhammering to the point where it’s so noisy, he’s had to move out of his house and into another one of his properties. So he knows it’s bad because it’s bad for him. But there’s zero consideration for the rest of the neighborhood. Your problem? You have a party house where the woman rents out to irresponsible tenants.
Jacobsen: Six, eight, ten. Yeah, they’re all people that are 18 to 20. And it’s like six, eight, ten of these kids and the noise. I’m out working all the time, right? Or I’m in here at my workstation with my headphones on. So I don’t hear it. But I come home. Yeah, it’s noisy as hell.
Rosner: We used to get pretty upset with this guy when it was just parties. But I think now, like, I mean, I’m really upset at him because it’s been eight weeks with no sign of ending. Four dumpsters, four construction dumpsters full of concrete and this ugly tile that was improperly installed in the first place. So it looked even uglier. But his family is, they’re the ones who put this mess in, in the first place. They caused the aesthetic problem that he’s now addressing. And the construction part of his project hasn’t even started yet. But anyway, I’m really upset. But maybe a little less upset than we would have been if the rest of the world hadn’t become full of jackasses to fatal effect. You know, to fatal effect of, you know, COVID has unnecessarily killed more than seven hundred thousand Americans, more than one out of every hundred American seniors is gone. And probably eighty-five percent of those deaths could have been avoided with competent leadership that didn’t politicize the situation. Plus, we’re going to keep losing over a hundred thousand plus Americans for maybe years to come because it’s been politicized. A hundred thousand Americans per year for years to come. It’s the deadliest event in U.S. history. But anyway, with this massive display of thoughtlessness, it’s easier to be less upset with just a local nuisance who just makes a lot of noise. The end.
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