Random Questions

I always heard, spill red wine, run for the salt, dump generously. Later vacuum. Then, the rest of the process.

I did see that when I ran a search on google;

New topic: Polling for the Presidential (or really any office) election.

I’ve never been polled, but I never answer the phone when it’s from a number I don’t recognize. Is that why I’ve never been polled? So only people who answer their phone get included in a poll??

@VeryHappy. Interesting question. I don’t answer my phone on numbers I don’t know and have a Google screen call but they usually hangup. I have been getting several texts though from certain organizations asking how I am voting and if I want to volunteer kinda thing. Maybe that information gets put into a poll?

I don’t think so. Those calls are trying to get you to volunteer for a particular candidate. I’m thinking of the general national polls – the Quinipiac poll, etc. – that get cited on the news shows and in the paper.

Those polls typically call 1000-1500 people, out of 240,000,000 eligible voters, so you have lottery-like odds of being contacted.

It’s an interesting question though, how do they guarantee a representative sample when there’s been such a fundamental change in how people answer their phone.

Probably factors in to less poll reliability. I just don’t put much faith in them these days.

Why do they call it Pumpkin Spice if there’s no pumpkin in it?

I was called by Quinipiac about a month ago. It was a long call and some questions were a little off the norm for a political survey based on others I’ve completed. There were a few questions like what is the first word that comes to mind for candidate A or candidate B. I had trouble with some of the questions even though I’m very opinionated about who I will vote for. The way they word the questions can really skew the answers.

Does Folex work on pet stains? I have hardwood under carpet so don’t want to use a carpet cleaning machine.

Have you ever used shower bombs? Similar to bath bombs but for those who shower only? Good? Bad? Link?

I too wonder about polls. I certainly never answer any questions like that over the phone. So when I see a poll that says that 42% of college educated women plan to vote for so-and-so I wonder who exactly would answer questions like that?

I mean I might answer a straight up “Do you plan to vote for X or Y?” but no way am I giving demographic info.

@CountingDown We find that Folex works great on pet stains. I just bought a refill jug of it yesterday, because we go through it pretty quickly with our almost 16-year-old dog. Folex has even lifted some old stains.

So the Folex didn’t work. I think it probably would have if I had been able to use it right after it happened. I applied it several times to no avail.

So far it seems that Zep Oxy Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner is working. I guess I’ll wait to declare victory until tomorrow. I could well wake up with another purple blob in the a.m.

I did read about a product called "Wine Away " that reviewers said was able to remove even old red wine stains. I ordered it from Amazon, so if the Zep doesn’t do the trick, maybe this will, and in any case, will be good to have on hand for the next disaster.

Thanks for all the advice.

From what I have read, pollsters ask various demographic questions (gender, age, race, ethnicity, college graduate, party registration, likelihood to vote, etc.). If their sample differs from their assumed demographic model of the voters, the responses will be scaled to that demographic model.

Of course, the result is that some pollsters end up with “house effects”, meaning poll results that skew more toward one party or another than the poll averages, since their models assume more of demographics that tend to favor that party than the average pollster’s model.

Sometimes, the demographic breakdowns of various questions can be interesting themselves. For example, a poll that asks questions about good and bad experiences with police officers may get different results by both gender and race.

But sometimes the demographic subsamples may be unrepresentative by pure chance, causing an inaccurate result for the particular poll.

Which is why there’s always a margin of error.

I’ve answered really in depth good polls two or three times in my life, once for this election. One can tell they are the more professional type because they try to word questions fairly and the people doing the questioning are polite and do not vary from the script and “formality.” I enjoy looking at polls a few days later and figuring I was one of those who answered based upon seeing the questions if I can see them as with Franklin & Marshall’s poll some time back - I didn’t do that one - didn’t get all of those questions.

Biased versions or phishing versions are nowhere near the same and I’ll admit to “playing” with those if I stay on the line, esp since they’ve always been “for” candidates I’ve disliked. I enjoy answering their questions the way they don’t want and hearing them say, “did you say…” Yep. That’s what I said. It’s usually a short poll after that. They mainly want money and are hoping for devotees willing to donate to their cause.

We likely get more due to being in a battleground state. Seems everyone in the world wants to know how we’re going to vote.

I’d have voted already since PA allows it, but I’m afraid of who might contest what after the election with results from absentee or mail in ballots. Therefore, I’m determined to vote at the polls on election day. We’re in a rural area and it’s not generally crowded at our precinct. H and I were just talking - even if we have to make a day trip back from VA to vote, that’s what we’re going to do. Plan A is to return home the weekend before and go back to VA after voting, but for us, Plan A’s haven’t been too reliable for the past few years. The day trip is Plan B.

I have trouble with polls or surveys because I’m not very yes/no person. Same with ratings (very dissatisfied, satisfied, very satisfied.) There always seem to be shades of gray.

I once worked for an offshoot of Gallup. Pre-digital. Callers would pick random names from a phone book. But it was advertising studies, not voting.

However, actual election choices are multiple choice or yes/no (although you could always abstain from a given office or question), so polls asking who or what someone will vote for tend to have similar expectations (though respondents could say undecided).

It’s not the choices of candidates or on issues. It is the background questions.

Trying hard not to be political here.

Disagree, somewhat disagree, no opinion, somewhat agree, strongly agree:
The govt isn’t doing enough to promote clean water.

Where, what? How? In my area, we’re completing a project to replace the old public lead pipes The connection is then to a water souce highly rated for purity. But then there’s Detroit. And the next town over, they periodically have to go to bottled water or boil it first based on bacteria counts.

You get the idea.