Lighthearted: Have you only just realised something is infact not what you thought?

[coffeehabit]

Didn't quite know how to title this but:

I have always thought the second hand on a clock was, like, first and second. Only just found out it means the seconds..... I'm 52.....

What seemingly obvious things have you only just realised are infact not what you thought?

I also never knew/realised Ricky Martin was gay till he officially came out recently(ish).

I never ever thought about the piggy before ....oh.

@DirtyDennis Swings and roundabouts isn't some good some bad, its different things with the same outcome, so you were right as they are both fun just different ways of achieving it.

Swings and roundabouts = a gain in one thing results in the loss in another. The good with the bad.

Such as getting a really well paid new job lots more money but less leisure time. Getting a bigger house more space but more cleaning/higher heating bills etc.

I thought people were saying 'bleshoo' after someone sneezing, as opposed to the rather more appropriate 'bless you' 🤓

That it's ends meet, not end's meat.

I know there are loads of others

The toaster thing isn’t true on our toaster

Ha! So even when I thought I knew what swings and roundabouts meant, I was still fucking wrong.

I still prefer my original interpretation because swings and roundabouts are both brilliant so to say something is "swings and roundabouts" should mean that everything about said thing is great

I don't understand the original OP. Which hand are you referring to? The hand that denotes the hour, the one that shows the minute or the barely visible third hand that reflects the seconds (if there is one)

And why are they called hands come to think of it, why not 'pointer' or 'arrow' ?

I thought when the little piggy went to market, he was skipping down the road, with his shopping basket.

What? WHAT? WHERE IS THE PIGGY GOING THEN??

What the hell? My day has been ruined ...

Please, please, please someone post something that hasn't already been covered on the eleventh billion similar threads in the past.

I'm not saying I know everything in the world but I read these treads avidly for something new and it's always the same old stuff

Toaster minutes, petrol indicators, pineapples, wide neck baby vests, Southampton, aggregate scores, misheard lyrics, blah blah blah

I have my fingers crossed.

I thought the saying was "to make hen's meat" until embarrassingly recently.

I also only found out last Saturday that Dana International and Dana the Irish Eurovision contestant are not the same person.

Pots and pans. It wasn't until the Great Pottery Showdown programme was on that I realised that pots was short for pottery i.e. crockery/dinnerware. I had always thought the pots in 'pots and pans' was just another way of referring to saucepans.

Very sorry this thread doesn't meet your exacting requirements caughtinanet and that you already know it all.

Maybe a gem of unknown info will be along soon for you.

The full saying makes it clear: What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts. So things will balance/be even eventually.

But the second hand counts the minutes....

Didn't know that about pots! Bet caughtinanet did though

@caughtinanet well I already did Boswell so is it the banana one?!

The second hand on a clock was originally called the second-minute hand, but over time (!) came to be called simply the second hand.

But you can have cooking pots and cooking pans...

I love these threads I don't care they're often repeated.

I'm usually pretty clued up but recently discovered I've been labouring under a mistaken belief myself -

I've been confusing the White House with the Capitol building! No idea when or how the mistake crept in I suspect film/tv based but I'm really struggling to get my brain to accept the correct info!

Once you have an idea it's really hard to correct it!!

"My husband told me the dial on our toaster equates to minutes in use" this is often cited on these threads but it's largely untrue.

Kernobhead think you missed the main meaning which is I suspect why the name was chose for the series - "suits" meaning those in jobs wear they wear suits and who have the power to effect change on society by their actions.

The one that REALLY blows my mind learned from another thread on here is that most world maps AREN'T to scale. The U.K. And indeed many European countries are TEENY! African and Asian countries are bloody massive!

"Toaster minutes, petrol indicators, pineapples, wide neck baby vests, Southampton, aggregate scores, misheard lyrics, blah blah blah" 😂 you forgot Portsmouth, Gibraltar not an island...

Where they wear suits

Ffs autocorrect hates homonyms!

My toaster has two settings with the dial thing. Anaemic or cremated.

I also only got the pun in Shaun (Shorn) the Sheep's name a couple of years ago.