Northern Lights
As a student, a bunch of us heard that the Northern Lights were, unusually, visible from England. So we all pile out (around midnight), into my little old Metro and drive out from Manchester city centre to the middle of Saddleworth Moor.

There we stand staring up at the... thick layer of fog, not well known for aiding sky-based observations.

We return (about 2am) to our Hall of Residence. The Porter, not the sharpest tool by a long way, asks where we have been and we tell him about our complete failure.

"Oh, you won't see the Northern Lights tonight lads - they're over Oxford"

Same Porter once blew my mind and vastly expanded my understanding of sheer stupidity. He spent 5 minutes explaining to me about the days getting longer and shorter throughout the year. Yawn, like I didn't know. But then he hit me with this simple statement which floored me: "That's the system... but I wish they'd change it". WTF!!
(rob3rt, Sat 8 Jan 2005, 6:24, Reply)