What dumb thing has taken you forever to realise?

[muchalover]

Nights in white satin song was playing in the car today. A favourite song of mine so I was singing along and it dawned on me that the word is "nights," not "knights".

Whole song makes much more sense now 😳

I had a similar issue with "Toyota, the car in front" but it's a Nissan I'm behind (or other car brand).

And in the film Winnie the Pooh where the gopher says "I'm not in the book" and I thought it was the phone book😬 for decades!

I promise I'm intelligent.

Omg. Me too.

Mine is that in our local there is a fire door that says “push bar to open”. I was about 20 before I realised that they meant the long metal thing on the door. Not the bar where the drinks were sold. I did think it wouldn’t be very safe in a fire to have to run back to the bar to get the door open.

Same- they're known as 'dandelion clocks'. But also, I wonder why we never see them in transition? Like I've only ever seen a fully white fluffy one or a fully yellow dandelion. How and when do they change??!! I've just watched a YouTube video on it which is actually pretty cool but definitely haven't seen one halfway between one or the other.

Just googled this , I've also imagined everyone stumbling about in some sort of gloomy half light whenever it's mentioned 🙄🤦‍♀️

You what now??? So those knights weren't wearing white satin whilst astride their steeds??? Bloody hell..

I know it’s Nights in white satin but even now I can’t shake off my image of the impractically dressed chaps on the horses

Mind blown.

That's brilliant 😂

The penny didn't drop that nearer the equator daylight, and nights would be more equal in length. In my defence, I've not travelled further south than Greece, nearly 40 years ago, so I never thought about it.

I imagined long light summer evenings. I'm dim, obviously.

I thought Hyperbole was said as it looks until very recently.
I'm just glad I never had reason to say it out loud.

@Housenoob The dandelion flower closes with its yellow petals and then only reopens when the petals have changed to seeds, which is why you wouldn't see one that was half yellow/half white.

I spent years wondering how the police would know whether it was robbers driving and that they needed to follow the van, or if it was just the poor securicor person trying to do their job and getting constantly pulled over! One day I read it and it just clicked. My red face probably contributed to global warming

I think I even mentioned it to my Dad once when I was a teenager and he gave some sarcastic reply that years later I realised he thought I was taking the piss!

Other things have mostly been pronouncing words I'd only seen written. I remember saying gesture as
guest-ture when I was a teen at school and nearly dying from the embarrassment of the resulting laughter. I still, 20 odd years later, read it as guest-ture in my head.

The other is hyperbole. Surely it should be hyper-bowl. Like the bole of a tree!? I thought someone was on a wind up the first time I heard it said

I learnt this from my daughter who was about 7 at the time of telling me🤣

This one is fantastic!

haha! I also used to think this for years - I thought it was a popular name even though I didn’t know anyone called Anon

That artic lorries weren’t special lorries that delivered in the Artic and Alaska😁

I've embarrassed myself many times mispronouncing words I've only seen written. When getting the HPV virus as a teen the nurse asked me if I understood what it was for and I confidently said it was for the Human Pa-pillow-ma Virus. She didn't laugh, but I cringed after when I heard it pronounced correctly.

My family did laugh when I expressed a wish to travel to America and visit 'Yose-uh-mite'

Me too!😂

I wondered why there were so many women called TIA, too

In the North East, they say 'bad', to mean poorly/Ill.
So, "Jonny's, not coming to school today, he's bad".
V confusing if you're not from there.

That the Toyota is a better car than any other. (i.e. the car in front of the competition).

Thank you. I had never noticed that one!

Yes. It is to deter anyone from either staging a hold-up at the roadside, or hijacking the van and driving it off.

The last Roman to leave turned off the lights! 😄

I’d been driving for over a decade before realising this wasn’t actually a sign reminding me to wear my seatbelt 😳

That the little piggy going to market wasn't going shopping.😥