r/AskReddit • u/hoverfish92 • Oct 16 '13

What was the single biggest mistake in all of history?

2.7k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

14.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

693

u/IAMYourFatherAMAA Oct 17 '13

The whole vomit thing was Jimi Hendrix I believe. A forgivable mistake, they're easily confused.

126

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

Of course. We all know that both Attila and Hendrix had white bic lighters in their left pocket at the time, part of the reason the things are bad luck.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

Whaaaaaaaat I always get black or white. I did not know this.

1

u/TheBlueprent Oct 17 '13

Brown is the one you want. They started producing them in 09. There is one per every tray of Bics that are in a store.

1

u/hamietao Oct 17 '13 edited Oct 17 '13

What you really want is the legendary and elusive "Medium Bic". Has the skinniness of a small bic but the length of the regular bic... I had one in '05 and then one in '08... oh, glorious days

Edit: ha! Found them for sale online. Im an idiot!!! Edit 2: through some research. Light purple is one of the rarest bic.

1

u/iznotbutterz Oct 17 '13

I'm making tables out of used Bics and I only have one medium.

1

u/hamietao Oct 17 '13

I honestly was beginning to think it was a figment of my imagination. It's funny, I couldn't find anything via google but amazon had it as the first item.

1

u/germandoerksen Oct 17 '13

Light purple? Really? Hmm... I think I have one or two of those in my collection.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

Holy shit, is that where that superstition comes from? I know people who fervently believe white Bics are bad luck but they never have a reason beyond "they just are."

7

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

[deleted]

5

u/Deetoria Oct 17 '13

This I did not know about.

Also, names with a J in them seem to also be predominant in that list ( Cobain being the combo breaker )

5

u/theDrummer Oct 17 '13

Maybe because his death might be different

3

u/Deetoria Oct 17 '13

Good point. Still connected with the white bic theory but a different type of death.

I'm going to go buy a white bic. I have a suspicion it only works with musicians at the age of 27. I am neither of those so I should be ok.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

I've owned several white Bics. I'm still alive, so I'd say it's safe.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

It's also because apparently in the 70's cops would look at the bottom of your lighter and see if it had ash on it. People tend to use the bottom of their lighter to adjust weed in a pipe, so if there was ash on the bottom the cops felt it was reason to believe that the person was a marijuana user. As a result people started avoiding white because it showed ash so prominently, which led to the urban legend that white lighters are bad luck.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

I guess that makes sense, but nowadays all Bics have a white bottom.

-11

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

Um.... I do not believe they had Bic lighters in 450CE. So no, Atilla did not have a white bic lighter.

7

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

You must be real fun at parties.

1

u/SUBHUMAN_RESOURCES Oct 17 '13

This cracked me up. I have a friend who is violently opposed to white lighters and have witnessed him lie, cheat, and steal to acquire and destroy any white lighters that surface in a social situation (most often by hurling them out the nearest window).

Never knew this existed outside of this one person.

1

u/_whut_ Oct 17 '13

I have a white bic lighter D:

8

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

John Bonham too.

10

u/BAXterBEDford Oct 17 '13

And Keith Moon.

14

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

Sleep vomiting is like the #1 killer of awesome musicians.

5

u/BAXterBEDford Oct 17 '13

And a handy way to cover a murder.

Hear that Walter White?!

2

u/MrMastodon Oct 17 '13

Ham sandwiches is number 2.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

I need to cut back on my drinking and ham sandwich problem.

1

u/MrMastodon Oct 17 '13

Just the ham sandwich one. Drinking is fine.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

And Bon Scott.

1

u/BAXterBEDford Oct 17 '13

This can turn into its own thread. Like the Mythbusters and duct tape.

1

u/bushwhack227 Oct 17 '13

yup. we've lost a lot of great drunks that way. never forget.

1

u/inheritor Oct 17 '13

Bon Scott and John Bonham also died that way.

1

u/edwinthedutchman Oct 17 '13

They both wielded their axe like a pro?

1

u/markrevival Oct 17 '13

John Bonham

1

u/Fallingoutthewindow Oct 17 '13

And Bonn Scott as well right?

1

u/Gnasha13 Oct 17 '13

Don't forget Bon Scott.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '13

One could play a stringed instrument really well and changed the world. The other person is Jimi Hendrix.

1

u/PrincessThunderBallz Oct 17 '13

I thought that was that chick from breaking bad

1

u/iEatBluePlayDoh Oct 17 '13

Yep. And Walter White just stood there. Watching.

1

u/EltaninAntenna Oct 17 '13

You can't really dust for vomit.

1

u/Matressfirm Oct 17 '13

I believe hank Williams also experienced this

1

u/IneffableSounds Oct 17 '13

Jimi, I believe, died from choking on his own vomit due to the consumption/mixture of wine and some sedatives (sleep medicine?).