Things I’ve just learnt

[hopeful777]

I just found out you can’t put a chopping board in the dishwasher unless you want it to break 😕

as my family are now laughing at me, it made me wonder what other things have people learnt in adulthood that maybe others assume should be intrinsically known?

Stonehenge was a very advanced piece of engineering which was lined up with the heavens in the same way as the pyramids. Have you ever considered how those massive slabs were transported with no lorry?

@Rubyflint

I had the same with a wooden chopping board. I assume the glue melted?

Recently I was trying to save time and microwaved a bowl of tinned potatoes. Big mistake. There was a mighty bang as the potatoes exploded all over the inside of the microwave.

There is no glue. Wood is a slightly porous material and when you wash it, water soaks in (which is why your wooden spoons take longer to dry than anything else).

In a dishwasher, the drying cycle is very hot. The water soaked into the wood turns to steam (expanding in the process) and the force of the expansion splits the wood apart along one of the grain lines.

Oh, and I always thought the popping noise from thirsty houseplants was the air trapped in the dry soil coming up to the surface. But I like the idea of the plants making their own noise better...

@TatianaBis

Stonehenge was a very advanced piece of engineering which was lined up with the heavens in the same way as the pyramids. Have you ever considered how those massive slabs were transported with no lorry?

I was being tongue in cheek. Of course Stonehenge is a masterpiece of engineering, and very few people realise that it is the same age as the Great Pyramid.

I am 66 and have just this second found out a caper is not a small fish!!

@Melm22 I used to pronounce WH Smith wrong when I was a kid too.

I am still baffled about why anyone would think a caper was a fish. Have you never seen a caper? Or eaten one?

I did read somewhere that capers are hand picked.

Is it really that ‘baffling’? Capers aren’t like cheese or bread or pasta - they’re not that common an ingredient. If you’ve never ordered anything with capers in it, you might not know what they look like. If you have been under the misapprehension that they are fish and you don’t eat/like fish, you’re unlikely to suddenly think one day ‘Maybe I should order capers at least once, just in case they’re not fish after all’.

@WomanStanleyWoman

Is it really that ‘baffling’? Capers aren’t like cheese or bread or pasta - they’re not that common an ingredient. If you’ve never ordered anything with capers in it, you might not know what they look like. If you have been under the misapprehension that they are fish and you don’t eat/like fish, you’re unlikely to suddenly think one day ‘Maybe I should order capers at least once, just in case they’re not fish after all’.

Yes, but why would you be under the apprehension they are fish in the first place?

Exactly @PleaseBeSeated

Oh I don’t know what that is. Must be a fish.

But several posters have thought the same 🤔

Yes, but why would you be under the apprehension they are fish in the first place?

Aren’t they served with a lot of seafood dishes?

I remember the first time I saw them on a menu I had to check if I could eat them (I’m vegetarian). I don’t think I assumed they fish, but I didn’t assume they weren’t an animal product either.

I was being tongue in cheek. Of course Stonehenge is a masterpiece of engineering, and very few people realise that it is the same age as the Great Pyramid.

The stones and the original 'design' are that old (aren't all stones ancient, though?!) - but it's only been continually standing as we know it now for about 100 years. Before that, a number of the stones had fallen down and were re-set in concrete about 60 years ago. Sounds ridiculous, but true.

That Elvis did not sing "Lonely This Christmas". I was shocked.

@JayAlfredPrufrock

I am still baffled about why anyone would think a caper was a fish. Have you never seen a caper? Or eaten one?

I did read somewhere that capers are hand picked.

Most people in Britain will have only eaten them in tartare sauce. Which I've only ever seen served with fish.

Capers in the UK are also tiny compared with the ones you get in Italy.

If Elvis didn’t sing it who did?

@Malibuismysecrethome

If Elvis didn’t sing it who did?

The group Mud. (I had to check.)

And the Shetland Isles are nearer to the Arctic Circle than Oslo.

I remember during the MPs expenses scandal reading about Alistair Carmichael, the MP for Shetland, having to list his closest railway station on his expense claims (this is apparently a standard thing to avoid unnecessary flights). He put ‘Bergen, Norway’.

^ thank you! I’m amazed

@Soubriquet

When this little piggy went to market, he wasn’t popping off down to the shops

You mean my nursery rhyme book where the little piggy is wearing a headscarf and pinafore and carrying a little shopping basket, was lying to me!?

@WomanStanleyWoman

And the Shetland Isles are nearer to the Arctic Circle than Oslo.

I remember during the MPs expenses scandal reading about Alistair Carmichael, the MP for Shetland, having to list his closest railway station on his expense claims (this is apparently a standard thing to avoid unnecessary flights). He put ‘Bergen, Norway’.

That reminds me of something I read years ago, here probably, about people being advised that their nearest bank branch was about to close but there was another one a few miles away they could use. The customers had to point out to the bank that it might be a few miles as the crow flies but this was in a mountainous region (Welsh valleys, I think) and by road it was much further, and not possibly on a direct bus/train route.

You mean my nursery rhyme book where the little piggy is wearing a headscarf and pinafore and carrying a little shopping basket, was lying to me!?

No, Phos. Please don’t worry. These are little piggies who go out and about and come home again shouting whee! Whee! Whee!
These are little piggies who, as PP mentioned, eat expensive roast dinners. The little piggy wasn’t sent to market. He wasn’t taken to market. He went of his own accord. He will come home again. Trust me!

'Most people in Britain will have only eaten them in tartare sauce.'
That's quite a bold assertion. I think capers are more well-known than that.
And in any case, how does being served with fish mean they are themselves fish?

Most people in Britain will have only eaten them in tartare sauce. Which I've only ever seen served with fish.

?? You can do them with chicken, veal - ('piccata'), potato salad, pasta, tomato sauce. I always have a pot of capers in my fridge.

Fresh tuna with tomatoes, onions, garlic, olives and capers is great.

Yeah, I've been vegetarian for 30 years, and I eat capers in salads, mostly -- as you say, @TatianaBis, they're excellent in potato salad or anything you want to add some zing to.

And in any case, how does being served with fish mean they are themselves fish?

It doesn’t. They’re not fish. But it might go some way to explaining what is clearly quite a common misconception.

I am another who thought that a caper was a small fish until I read this thread.