Pineapples don't grow on trees and other misconceptions that MN has revealed over the years

[DadDadDad]

To celebrate that Chat threads will no longer disappear after 90 days, I thought I'd honour that with something that's been a MN staple over the years: curious facts that apparently came as a surprise to some people.

Sad person that I am , I've kept a note of some of these over the years. I won't paste them all into this first post, but feed them in over time assuming anyone shows the slightest interest. Please add your own...

The following are all TRUE. In some cases, you may think "so what?", but remember each one has come up because a MNetter found it surprising or even BELIEVED SOMETHING CONTRADICTORY

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Places

The Channel Tunnel passes through the bedrock underneath the sea, it's not sitting in a tube resting on the seabed.

Edinburgh is further west than Liverpool and Bristol.

Portsmouth is on an island off the British mainland. Gibraltar is not an island.

Casablanca is in North Africa (Morocco).

Timbuktu is a real place (in Mali, Africa).

Dunkirk is in France (not Scotland) - maybe the film will now have got everyone up to speed on that one .

Budapest and Bucharest are different cities.

County Durham is in NE England (County Down is in N Ireland).

Tripoli is in Libya.

The place you hear as 'Arkinsaw' is written 'Arkansas'.

Any more gems from the weekend crowd?

That one about the fuel indicators on cars?

Or did you know that the word helicopter comes from helico (meaning spiral) and pter (meaning wing, as in pterodactyl)?

And the western end of the Panama canal is in the Atlantic Ocean.

Only part of Portsmouth is an island though right? Just checked a map.

I think it's fair to say that geographically, the historic city of Porstmouth is on an island, but these days the urban area that is under the administration of the city of Portsmouth extends on to the mainland. But why ruin a fun, surprising fact with a boring observation about unitary authority areas?

I can't see any reference to the tabs that hold the foil or cling film in the holder so far? Although I've always found it much less faff to do away with the box altogether.

There is also a Tripoli in Lebanon (I didn't see the original thread, so am unsure of the exact connotations of "Tripoli is in Libya )

You knew you can pull baby vests down when they had a poonami, didn't you?
Did you also know you can fold and store jumperoos when not in use? www.whatmummythinks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/IMG_1937-0.jpg

Sorry not so much of a misconception, but the baby vest always comes up on the 'did you know..' threads.

It's fine to split an infinitive in the English grammar for example to boldly go

That Tomasz Schafernaker, that Beeb meteorologist with the Best Name EVER, only learned about 3 months ago that lambs are baby sheep.He's 34.

Dowser banana trees grow and fruit for 5-6 years. It is the stalk that only fruits once. Once the stalk has produced bananas you need to cut it back. The tree will keep producing for years.

That if you sail due east from New York harbour the first country you come to will be Portugal.

Pascha - depends on the quality of the item. If it's a good sturdy box and good quality foil/cling film those tabs do work a treat.

A new one doing the rounds on FB is how to use s box grater - I think it's wrong ie it's not the designers intent but using it on its side so gravity makes the cheese or whatever drop away from the grating side does work.

I've read (but I'm sure more knowledgable mners will correct me if I'm wrong) that time lines are pretty arbitrary and actually not completely evenly distributed.

If due east from New York is Portugal how come the climate is so different? I've not been (yet) but I believe New York climate is fairly similar to uk? Whereas I think Portugal is generally warmer?

Washington DC and Lisbon are pretty much on the same line of latitude (38°).

Edinburgh is further north than Moscow.

Inverness is further west than Plymouth.

That Walkers swapped the colour of their crisps packets round some time in the 1980s (no they didn’t)

Except scores of people from far and wide personally remember the switch. Is everyone linked by some telepathic field in some way that they all have the same memory?

No, it was a different brand that had the colours the other way round, and then that brand folded, I think, so people got confused. I have always associated Walkers cheese and onion with blue. But then, I had an uncle who worked at Walkers.

No, it was a different brand that had the colours the other way round, and then that brand folded, I think, so people got confused. I have always associated Walkers cheese and onion with blue. But then, I had an uncle who worked at Walkers.

I think that may have been Golden Wonder.

"The Watford gap isn’t in Watford, it’s in Northamptonshire."

I have always wondered why it takes so long to get to London after passed Watford gap! Only just realised this right now!

SteamTrainsRealAleandOpenFires Golden Wonder, yes, that was what I was trying to think of.

We used to be able to buy single packs of their crisps but now it's all Walkers except for the speciality stuff. And a quick Google shows them using green for cheese & onion and blue for salt & vinegar. So I reckon people got confused.

Yes the crisps thing seems to have come about as Walkers took over as market leaders from Golden Wonder, who had the cheese and onion and salt and vinegar colours the other way round.

If due east from New York is Portugal how come the climate is so different? I've not been (yet) but I believe New York climate is fairly similar to uk? Whereas I think Portugal is generally warmer?

I've always thought this was to do with the Gulf Stream making Western Europe warmer than it would otherwise be? Happy to be corrected though.

This might hinge on what exactly you mean by kneecap.

Not really, a kneecap is a kneecap, whether it's made of cartilage or bone. Babies have definitely them

Oops, crossposted with MulticolourMophead there!

Does anyone else really fancy some cheese and onion crisps now?

When Berlin was divided into East and West Berlin( ie pre- the wall coming down) West Berlin wasn’t attached to the rest of West Germany. It was marooned in East Germany.

Belvoir is pronounced beaver, something to do with the population being unable to cope with the French pronunciation back in the day.

Johnnycomelately - must admit that's one of the ones I learned far later the other day than was sensible!

For some reason I thought just one length of wall I think I thought Berlin was on the border of both (then separate) countries. And the wall was only needed for the part that bordered with easy Germany.

Something sparked a "erm ok Berlin is totally in what was east Germany" realisation and I then thought so the wall must have had to be right round the West Berlin part.

Led to me learning a whole load of stuff about how Germany was divided post ww2, the Berlin airlift etc

What makes it more shocking is I'm actually a bit obsessed with the Cold War yet this apparently completely bypassed me - indeed the initial investigation was sparked by watching a show about American spies who'd defected to ussr.

That Berlin point reminds me - there is a Dutch town which contains bits of Belgium, and some of those contain Dutch enclaves. Cue all kinds of international border curiosities. This article begins:

In a quiet corner of northern Europe there exists a geopolitical anomaly, where many buildings have an international border running right through them. It’s a place where a person might be in the same bed as his or her spouse, but sleep in different countries. A place where people move their front doors for economic advantage.

Belvoir is pronounced beaver, something to do with the population being unable to cope with the French pronunciation back in the day.

I have some American friends. This did cause slight confusion initially

There’s a Dunkirk in Gloucestershire too.
The French one is really Dunkerque.