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Original poster

Things you really should have known sooner...

516 replies

TheDodgyEnd · 10/10/2017 12:50

I’ve just learned that Casablanca is not in South America at all and is, in fact in Morocco! Who knew 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️
Anyone else got any tidbits they learned far too late in life?

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Spangles1963 · 12/10/2017 21:38

TheDodgyEnd Envy Not envy!

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 12/10/2017 21:32

@Spangles1963 yes I had heard that actually !!! I also know that even in this day and age, certain fish have to be checked VERY carefully for, ahem, damage to certain areas as it’s very common for them to be ‘abused’ - this comes from a very reliable source within the industry! Boak

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4dogs · 12/10/2017 21:30

I didn't realise Portsmouth was an island until I read this thread (I was born there).

I thought Random was a place until I was about 21.

I thought Andover was by the sea. Found out it wasn't when a bf invited me to his parents' home there. He was a bit Hmm when I said I'd bring my swimming costume as presumably we'd go to the beach. I was 19.

I just spent a good few minutes on the chicken crossing the road joke and the penny finally dropped. Finally I get it! I thought it was a retorical question that people came up with silly answers to, the most common of which was 'to get to the other side'. I'm 49 and finally I'm in on the joke Grin.

Heartofglass12345 · 12/10/2017 21:10

Pontypandy is an actual place in wales too, not just made up for fireman sam lol

Heartofglass12345 · 12/10/2017 21:09

If pontetrct was in wales in would be pontyfract hehe

Spangles1963 · 12/10/2017 21:07

TheDodgyEnd - it was do with Portsmouth being a naval town,and when the sailors went on long voyages,they would use a fish with a big mouth,like a skate,to erm,relieve themselves. Grin.

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 12/10/2017 20:52

I think I love you @PeapodBurgundy Grin
I can’t talk at all #ballache

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PeapodBurgundy · 12/10/2017 20:49

@Cozietoesie I was about 12/13 I think when that one cropped up on conversation. Again I can pinpoint my misconception to childhood, but you think I'd have twigged sooner. I'd like to defend myself, and say I'm not stupid, but I can't. Mistakes of epic proportion are commonplace in the world of Peapod Blush

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 12/10/2017 20:48

Gilbert and Sullivan are two people - the librettist W S Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan, from th Victorian era.

Gilbert O'Sullivan is an Irish singer-songwriter.

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 12/10/2017 20:42

@Spangles1963 do tell, pretty please?

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Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 12/10/2017 20:41

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN ARE NOT TWO SEPARATE PEOPLE??? What?!?!

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arrrrghhwinehelpswithteens · 12/10/2017 20:25

ffs. BIRTHED their eggs ....

arrrrghhwinehelpswithteens · 12/10/2017 20:25

ahem. well. For far too long I thought snakes borthed their eggs through their mouths. I blame too many natural history documentaries. These often showed snakes eating eggs. I knew snakes laid eggs. Managed to confuse the two for far too many years.

And the latest one? Which is actually bloody awful. Knew Theriesenstadt was a concentration camp in the 2nd world war. Didn't realise until THIS WEEK, after being a history geek of that period for 37 years, that it was actually a town that the Germans emptied and then turned into a camp.

But the terracotta terrapins has made me laugh out loud ......

allegretto · 12/10/2017 20:03

One person:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_O'Sullivan
Two people:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_and_Sullivan

itusedtobeverydifferent · 12/10/2017 20:00

Spangles 😂

allegretto · 12/10/2017 20:00

*Gammeldragz

For years I thought it was Gilbert AND Sullivan. Apparently they are one person called Gilbert O'Sullivan!*
Grin These are two separate things! Gilbert and Sullivan wrote light operas. Gilbert O'Sullivan is a 1970s singer! Not alive at the same time!

itusedtobeverydifferent · 12/10/2017 19:59

Gammeldragz I consider myself pop music knowledgeable...I thought it was two people too! Blush

Spangles1963 · 12/10/2017 19:59

OMG I just googled 'Is Portsmouth an island?'. There was a little paragraph that said 'What are people from Portsmouth called (Skates) followed by an explanation of why they are called this. I am scandalised!

Gammeldragz · 12/10/2017 19:57

For years I thought it was Gilbert AND Sullivan. Apparently they are one person called Gilbert O'Sullivan!
I thought Portsmouth and Plymouth were next to each other.
I thought Lancashire was as up north as you could get before Scotland. Until at 13 we drove from Lancashire to Scotland!

BiscuitsEqualbiggerknickers · 12/10/2017 19:56

in my mid twenties I found out that crabs walk sideways. I announced at a table of soon to be in laws that the poor crab I saw at the aquarium had a leg missing and couldn't walk forwards, they all just looked at me!!!!

cozietoesie · 12/10/2017 19:49

Which brief period? 2-5, I can just about understand but - say - 30 to 33 is a leetle more........problematic. Grin

PeapodBurgundy · 12/10/2017 19:44

Grin If it's any defense at all, I didn't really think anything much about it. I went to London once as a small child, and remember buying a little white cup of bird seed from a van to feed the masses and masses of pigeons that were about (there's a picture of DM with a huge splatter of bird crap down her coat sleeve Grin . It happened to be winter time, but 3 year old brain put those two pieces of information together. It wasn't until watching a documentary on migration that I realised my fecking huge mistake!
I also thought for a brief period several years that blind people could drive if they had a dog in the seat next to them Blush

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 12/10/2017 19:37

@PeapodBurgundy 😂 did you think they were just going for a city break?!

Thanks for clarification re going on the lam - everyday’s a school day n all that!

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loc · 12/10/2017 19:26

My OH was absolutely flabbergasted when I told him raisins were made from grapes. He had to ask several people to confirm I wasn't just winding him up. (These were the days before google!).

PeapodBurgundy · 12/10/2017 19:24

I've mentioned this on another similar thread, but I was in my mid 20s when I discovered that birds flying south for the winter don't simply go to London Blush