People that answer the wrong dang question!

I have a lot of frustration in dealing with it when people don't answer the question I actually asked, as it came out of my mouth, but instead do one of the following:

1.) Answer a similar question, but not the same one.
2.) Answer the question they think I meant, but not the one I actually asked.
3.) Answer what they predict would be my followup question if they chose a particular answer to the one I asked in the first place--which they didn't actually answer.

My husband does this all the time, and then when I try to clarify what I was really asking, he gets mad and says, "Drop the subject! I already answered you a dozen times!" When no, he didn't. He actually did one of those things above. In an extreme form, the conversation sounds to me like this:

"What day is it?"
"Purple."
"No, I didn't ask what color grapes are. I asked what day it is."
"I already told you! Purple!"

It makes about that much sense to me. Then he'll accuse me of trying to trap him into a situation where I ask him a question there's no right answer to, and every answer he gives will get him in trouble. I don't know what he thinks I am, but I don't play that game.

I don't mean only my husband. This happens all the time, and it could be between me and anybody else. To cite more likely examples, I might ask, "Do you prefer long or short hair on a woman?" The answer comes back, "I think women should wear their hair however they want. It's their hair." Well, yes. But that doesn't tell me YOUR preference, which is what I asked. Then if I try to clarify, "I'm asking what you yourself prefer," you might then tell me, "I already answered that question." No, you didn't. "I don't have a preference" would be an answer, and may very well be what you meant, but it isn't what you said, so I don't know for sure.

Another example I have experienced is:

"I wonder why they call it having somebody over a barrel. Where did that expression come from?"
"It means, you have somebody in a no-win situation."

Yes, I know what it means. I asked where the expression came from. "I don't know why they call it that," is an answer, but telling me what it means does not answer the question I asked. Rewording my question, however, will only get me that, "I already answered you."

Does anyone get what I am saying here?

Yes the masters would get the slaves and tie ropes to their wrists and pull them over the top of a barrel to thin their flesh

People are afraid of the truth so hard that they have forgotten how to see it

Your post cracked me up. Yes, I get it. I try to catch myself before I do it to other people, because it is maddening-- especially if you are asking how to do something and they just tell you that it can't be done.

I was at a store last night and asked if they had any Nook e-readers. The guy told me to get a Kindle. I didn't ASK that. I HAVE a kindle. Maddening.

My mother does something similar. I swear she is incapable of giving a straight answer.

Ask her a question and she will talk in circles about something of a similar topic that may have caught her interest but never gives me an answer. That's assuming she answers to begin with.

This happens to me a lot, particularly on a website whose purpose is to answer questions. Often, I'll get over a dozen replies to my question with various degrees of derision or people answering what they feel is the better question, but no actual attempt to answer my actual question.

hahahahaha!

I get annoyed by that too. I also get annoyed by people who say that they have a question but then give you a statement. I encountered this a LOT in my internship:

"I have a question."
"OK."
"You didn't include the implant in your presentation."

*face palm*