What things do you know is wrong, but still stupidly believe for a moment when you think about it?

[Soubriquet]

Mine is Mexico

I know it’s near the equator. I know Canada is north of America. Yet everytime I think of Mexico, I randomly think it’s North America before I have to remind myself no, it’s south.

That if you flushed the toilet on a plane whilst still sat on it (why? first of all) all of your insides would be sucked out.

Or that the toilet waste is just dropped out of the bottom of the plane - like they used to (or still?!) do on trains!

I have, often over the years, convinced myself that singer Paul Young died of a heart attack in the 90s. I do not know why.

Periodically I feel compelled to check on him, and I am delighted to report that as of this evening he is alive and well.

Thanks to this thread I have discovered I have been mixing him up all this time with Paul Young, lead singer of Mike and the Mechanics who tragically died of a heart attack in 2000. So thanks OP!

I have to think really hard when talking about lions and tigers to remember which is which.
Once you have a block on something like this you have to really over think it.

This post hurts my head

Yup, me too!

I always think there are 52! Maybe I’m getting it confused with weeks in the year… 50 just seems too easy.

I have just had a good google on this unpalatable subject, and it seems planes don't and MOST trains don't (although this is a more recent thing). At no point did your insides ever get sucked out though. I blame my mum for this scary myth.

I always think there are 52! Maybe I’m getting it confused with weeks in the year… 50 just seems too easy.

Lots of folk also get confused with that, too. It's amazing how many people firmly believe that every month is exactly 4 weeks long, when that's only actually true 3 48ths of the time.

Eight weeks' worth of daily medicine doses will be prescribed to cover two months, people budget for only 28 days in each month etc.

Yet everybody knows there are 52 weeks and 12 months in the year, but never seem to think/worry that 52 divided by 12 equals more than 4.

See username. I still can't believe that they exist but Unicorns are scoffed at

"Nobody cares about the Dakotas!"

I have just had a good google on this unpalatable subject, and it seems planes don't and MOST trains don't (although this is a more recent thing). At no point did your insides ever get sucked out though. I blame my mum for this scary myth.

I just looked again, after vaguely remembering a past news story, and it appears that, although planes don't routinely/deliberately drop toilet waste from the sky, sometimes it does leak out and fall anyway. It's euphemistically known as 'blue ice' ✈️💩 🤮

metro.co.uk/2021/10/20/man-splattered-with-poo-after-plane-drops-its-load-on-his-garden-15453735/

Ketchup should be illegal on a Sunday dinner.

But now I'm determined to go out in red shoes and big hat just to shock the neighbours

There was a song by The The called Heartland when I was a teen that included the lyric ‘this is the 51st state of the USA’ which I always sing to remind me that it must mean there are only 50.

Suriname is not in Africa. The UK is on the same latitude as Newfoundland and Labrador, which is a bloody freezing part of Canada that sometimes has polar bears on it. There is a tiny exclave (separate bit) of Russia wedged between Lithuania and Poland.

These are things that are right, but sound wrong

The only reason i remember there is 50 states of the USA is Hawaii 50. It was the 50th and last state plus a TV programme.

In answer to a previous poster, Putin stepped down to become prime minister for one term while his shill, Dmitry Medvedev was president. It was still Putin calling the shots. He then did some legal shit and stepped back up.

The UK is on the same latitude as Newfoundland and Labrador, which is a bloody freezing part of Canada that sometimes has polar bears on it.

Also, Cardiff and Edinburgh are on the same line of longitude - the UK map that we're used to is very much 'straightened up'.

When I was a kid back in the seventies moira Stuart was always on the news reading out about attacks on government forces by rebel guerrilla armies (usually in Africa somewhere). Could never understand why primates were going bonkers like that, or how they managed to operate AK47 machine guns. Not the brightest kid you ever met

When I was a kid back in the seventies moira Stuart was always on the news reading out about attacks on government forces by rebel guerrilla armies (usually in Africa somewhere). Could never understand why primates were going bonkers like that, or how they managed to operate AK47 machine guns. Not the brightest kid you ever met

Don't do yourself down - just about every kid thought that! To be honest it's a good thing, as a child, to be in a position where a word only brings to mind an impressive animal rather than a homophonic word referring to humans (well, men) waging war - if you're fortunate enough to be in a country/area where you aren't in the thick of it.

That hyperbole is said hyper-bowl not hi-per-bo-lee. It should be bole like a tree bole, surely?!

Also pseudo. I always read it as sway-doh. And once, said it out loud at work, in a meeting. As it left my mouth I just wanted to cram it back in again

I have a strange mental mix up between Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus. I can never quite seem to remember where each one is.
Also as a child growing up in the West Midlands I could never understand how the capital of Poland (Warsaw) was just down the road from us (Walsall) 😳.

Not sure if this is quite what you asked because I only found this out a few days ago, but I always thought Brunei was in the Middle East. It's not even close.

The Falkland Islands are Scottish.

Every time I hear "Falklands", I picture somewhere like the Hebrides on the west coast of northern Scotland

I couldn't fathom how the South American Argentinians managed to get so far north without being noticed.

Then I remember the penguins

@Soubriquet

Mexico is part of North America. There's a free trade alliance called, the "North American Free Trade Agreement" or "NAFTA" between the US, Canada and Mexico.

I'm thinking it's confusing to many because countries south of the United States are commonly referred to as "Latin America" and that includes Mexico.

@PlanetNormal

I'm from El Paso, Texas, which is a city across the Rio Grande from Cd. Juarez. I will have to admit that I never thought of Juarez as north of San Antonio or the cities along the Gulf Coast, specifically Houston. I just call them "east" of El Paso, just as most of those residents say El Paso/Cd.Juarez are "west" of them. Strangely, Corpus Christi, Laredo and Brownsville I consider them "far south Texas". Go figure 🤷🏻‍♀️