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?

Only smarties have the answer

That took me a while

73kittycat73

^

You've only recently had your first sunburn?!

@AngeloMysterioso I thought the same. The bishop of Southwell has a Crozier made out of a narwhal tusk. I thought it must be a joke as they don't exist. Apparently they do!

What about Southampton?

The meaning behind 'This little Piggy'.

Not sure what it is about Southampton. Thought it was Portsmouth that appears on these threads (the fact it's an island). What to know what the lesser know fact about Southampton is now!!!

Swings and roundabouts still a bit contentious. According to the law of the dictionary I'm right.(there's gains and losses):

www.google.com/amp/s/www.collinsdictionary.com/amp/english/swings-and-roundabouts

idioms.thefreedictionary.com/it%27s+swings+and+roundabouts

(Because obviously I'm never got anything wrong - honest.)

I do love this type a thread. Yes lots of repeats (and the toaster dial arguments) but there's always going to be something new.

I'm another one who until very recently thought it was me-me, not meme.

Reading books to dc made me realise that if I say 'chicken' in a sentence I actually say 'chicking'.

I didn’t realise until I’d had my own kids that the Spot books were not just named after the dog’s name.
You Spot the dog (because it’s a lift the flap book) and he had a spot on his back.

I just found out that Jehovah's Witnesses don't say bless you because it means you think somebody has lost their soul so they say pardon you instead. Every day is a school day.

I have also learnt that some people on this thread come across as arrogant know it alls.....

Who, except maybe Satan, would use setting 5, if it generally was minutes?

A pyromaniac?

I thought meme was pronounced mee mee too!

Going back to the red/yellow/green peppers thing, (I'm very proud to say that I knew this!) Is it the same for olives? Meaning that black olives are just more ripened green ones?

Oh and I only learned how hyperbole is pronounced a couple of weeks ago. I'm 45

How DO your pronounce meme???

It rhymes with 'gene' , Richard Dawkins invented it to be the equivalent of gene but passed via society rather than through offspring.

The swings and roundabouts is, "what you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabout"

Oh come on how would a person studying higher level biology think that a female animal has their nipples cut off in order to sterilize them?! Common sense and cop on clearly need to be taught at school

I'm supply and I often get called into teach the anatomy and physiology part of BTEC level 3 and access courses. I have lost count of how many times I have taught that blood is in fact always red and not blue, and that when you cut yourself and blood meets air is not 'oxygenation'.

the stars are there all the time. yip,I know! // i fell for "come out at night"..the told me i was gullible,i believed them.til my 9yr old educated me.

Going back to the clock/watch thing, I'm pretty sure my grandparents used to describe the hands as:

Hour hand = hours
Second or minute hand = minutes
Sweep hand = seconds

I've just Googled and the term sweep hand seems to be used when it glides smoothly, rather than ticks across the face of the watch.

Oh come on how would a person studying higher level biology think that a female animal has their nipples cut off in order to sterilize them?! Common sense and cop on clearly need to be taught at school

She didn’t think it was done in order to sterilise them, but alongside the sterilisation. Still an eejit though!

the late great Dave Allen on 'teaching kids how to tell the time' :)

@AlecTrevelyan006 ah yes, I love that sketch. And shows just how confusing the whole thing is.

Genius sketch 👍

When I teach time (which is sooo annoying to teach) I get the children to look at the size of the word to remind them which hand is which. Minute is the longer word so the longer hand. I have a picture somewhere that helps illustrate this.

I used to think that Jonathan Swift and Dean Swift were two different people, and how modern Dean’s parents must have been to call him that in the 18th century.

I didn’t understand the saying ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ until I was in my thirties ... I thought it was referring to some esoteric concept about stitching the fabric of time itself

I know the same stuff gets trotted out on these threads but they still make me laugh - I like the alternative meme pronunciations

LarkDescending

I heard about that while listening to More or Less on R4. Listening to her interview was excruciating!

NiteFlights, that’s kind of adorable. Dean Swift, Gary Shakespeare, Trevor Wordsworth, Neville Byron.