Things you really should have known sooner...

My husband didn’t believe moleskin trousers were not made from moles...

Capers are the unopened flowers on a bush called caperis. Pretty white fluffy flowers when they do open! My aunt grows them.

Starkid glad it’s not just me who thought that!

Turquoisesea - Same!! It looks like they're in a staggered seating area haha

I always thought when I watched university challenge (admittedly I haven’t seen it often), that the two rows of contestants were actually sat one on top of the other as that’s how they show them on screen before they buzz in with their answers. I thought some of them had to go up a little ladder to get to the top section. DH pointed out they were both sat on either side of Jeremy Paxman and they just did that to show who buzzed in first. I had no idea!

Mine is v embarrassing. Many moons ago I was with my pals dancing to YMCA. I complimented my friend on how good she was as I always forgot the actions. She then explained the dance moves were the initials I have now nailed it.

My geography and history in general is dismal actually. I barely know where any countries, counties or cities are, their borders etc.

It took many years to learn Rome is not in Greece, but in fact Italy.
I think it's to do with the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans both being things you learn about a lot in school history, featuring films etc, and I just combined them in my head

Also I thought Dunkirk was in Scotland.

I'm not proud. I'm better in other areas, but geography and history are big no-no's. Still managed a B-grade GSCE though, haha

Portsmouth is not the uk's only island

I give you:

Canvey Island - two ways on and off
Mersea Island - one way on and off - depending on the tide, sometimes you can't get on or off for an hour or so.

Classics? This thread is fun, but it doesn't quite feel that it's soared to the heights of being a classic. Standards obviously falling around here.

I worked with someone who wasn’t great at geography.

She was surprised to learn that Hong Kong is, in fact, not the capital of Poland.

Someone also once mentioned someone visiting the Middle East and the same girl asked ‘is that the Middle East of this country?’

Thanks DadDadDad all is right with the world again

You thought Torquay was in Japan..........

How??

Gherkins has reminded me of one I found out this year, a marrow is actually a courgette that hasn't been picked from the plant at courgette stage, if you leave them growing on the plant they become marrows.

I think I found out about it on here but it might have been elsewhere, I then checked about 4 websites before I believed it, and started telling everyone and not one person I told already knew it go on, someone is going to prove it's false now aren't they

I have just learnt from a previous poster that Portsmouth is an island !! I grew up down there and visit regularly !!!

I also watched a couple of episodes of game of thrones before I realised it was fantasy and not based on ancient historical events . This realisation only came about when I started to question why we no longer train ravens to deliver post !!

My sister (until mid twenties!!!) thoughts herons swam and herrings flew

I was with then BF at a zoo when I was 30. He wondered why the penguins had clips on their wings. I said it must be to stop them flying away. I got an A in biology A level

*Gherkins are not a separate type of vegetable that grow as gherkins.
*
I still actually think this is a trick to fool us all well, I have been debating this recently as I picked up a jar of what I thought was gherkins. Got home and it said cucumber. I know it's a type of cucumber and I next time i am in the supermarket I expect to get one with gherkins written on. I don't know if they are the same thing. not to drip feed, it was pickled.

Once I saw the headline "sade had reformed". That's sent me on google spree only to find out that Sade is not a musician but a band and all the music is by a band with the lead singer, even though her name is Sade day and she is from Yorkshire.

Try again:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_did_the_chicken_cross_the_road%3F

Amethyst - but your original sense was right: the chicken crossing the road joke was a meaningless non-joke (so that was the joke). I believe the "spiritual" interpretation of it is a more recent attempt to be clever.

There's a nice Wikipedia article (complete with photos of chickens crossing roads ): [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_did_the_chicken_cross_the_road%3F]]

Segue means to transition from one thing to another, like between two topics of conversation, and is pronounced segway. No connection to the motorised transport Segway but it is pronounced the same.

I know what both words mean. And that they are separate words but for some reason my brain didn't click that 'segue', when written down, was the transition version.

I can't believe I've only just got the chicken joke and I'm 33! I thought it was just a crap joke like 'Why did the boy eat a banana? Because he was hungry.'

I was quite old before I figured out that bank holidays came from bank workers having the day off, I always had a vague idea of everyone sitting around having a nice time near riverbanks or something!