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Original poster

What dumb thing has taken you forever to realise?

734 replies

muchalover · 26/08/2023 19:45

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.

OP posts:
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Mumtobabyhavoc · 26/08/2023 22:42

Was in the hardware store to buy some zap straps (zip ties) and there was a display for these other self-sticking hook and loop straps. What a great idea! Got home, opened package and realized they're velcro. 🤦‍♀️

Hohofortherobbers · 26/08/2023 22:42

I always assumed what was advertised on the side of the lorry was what was inside. I didn't question this until I commented to dh whilst on the motorway how much cress might be in the gigantic articulated lorry alongside us advertising cress on the side. I had never considered how impractical this would be for a haulier to have the incorrect lorry for a delivery Blush

NeedSleepNow · 26/08/2023 22:44

Babbleoff · 26/08/2023 21:55

Have just googled this and cant actually get over how its pronounced! Hyper-belly??? Not hyper-bowl??!

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I just googled this one too. I had no idea!

JudgeJ · 26/08/2023 22:44

Calmdown14 · 26/08/2023 22:26

Took my 40 year old friend on a long journey recently and she said "don't they measure the distance to the services accurately".

I must have looked slightly confused so she expanded" "27 miles and 36 metres. It's very precise!"

We had a good laugh that no, one is 27miles and the next one 36.

In her defence we are from a part of the country without motorways!

We have driven a lot in the US and it took a couple of trips to realise that if the next junction on the map as 245 and the one marked after it was 265 there weren't 20 little junctions between, it meant there were 20 miles between them.

noodlezoodle · 26/08/2023 22:45

EnjoythemoneyJane · 26/08/2023 22:29

That you don’t have to break your front teeth trying to wrestle the cover off a new solid stick deodorant. You just wind the stick up. This is knowledge I acquired embarrassingly recentlly; I’m in my 50s 😳.

Also on another of these threads years ago someone said they’d only just realised that underwater tunnels (like the channel tunnel) are dug in the actual ground beneath the water. Total penny drop moment and made me realise I’d always subconsciously imagined fish swimming on the other side of the walls as I’m driving through. I’m not completely stupid, honest.

Not all tunnels! The Transbay tube really is just laying on the bottom of the San Francisco Bay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transbay_Tube

Transbay Tube - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transbay_Tube

DragonFly98 · 26/08/2023 22:45

FcukTheDay · 26/08/2023 22:34

Oh my days! This has ruined my childhood, here's me thinking that the piggy going to market was going shopping. How did I not know!?

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He wasn't shopping 😳 I too did not know this.

MarchXX · 26/08/2023 22:45

I'm sitting here giggling with tears streaming down my face. DH is bemused Grin.

For years I thought Bat out of Hell was battery hen and when I was told the correct name I didn't believe it. It still sounds like battery hen!

Artichokepiglet · 26/08/2023 22:46

Mushroo · 26/08/2023 20:59

Song lyric wise, I only recently found out it’s not ‘my love has got no money, he’s got his trombolese’, which I blindly accepted without ever questioning wtf a trombolese is.

It’s actually ‘he’s got his strong beliefs’.

My husband thought it was 'he's got his stromboli' (a kind of rolled up pizza)

determinedtomakethiswork · 26/08/2023 22:46

iwantawisteriathisyear · 26/08/2023 21:21

I only realised recently that thunder and lightning weren't two completely separate things. I didn't know that the thunder was the noise of the lightning. I haven't confessed that to anyone. Until now Blush

Mind blown.

BellaBellla · 26/08/2023 22:47

Cabinet1278 · 26/08/2023 22:21

I used to think the world was in black and white because of the films and photographs… makes me cringe now

Similarly I used to think people 'in the olden days' walked at double the speed we do now.

Shortpoet · 26/08/2023 22:48

A friend of mine mentioned she was surprised that DJ TBA was listed as playing so many sets in the schedule for the next month at the nightclub we often went to.
She hadn’t realised what a big name he was, but given how popular he is we should definitely go and see him.

(DJ to be announced - I.e. booking not finalised yet)

EvelynKatie · 26/08/2023 22:49

I went to Yosemite this year and it did take me a while to get my head around the proper pronunciation when discussing where I was going on my holiday!

rainbowlou · 26/08/2023 22:49

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 26/08/2023 19:49

I always read "epitome" as "ep-ih-tomb" and it was only a couple of yrs ago the penny dropped and I realised it's "eh-pih-toe-me" 🤣 I say the word fairly often too but I'd never written it before when I realised.

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve done the same and also with the word albeit 🙈🙈

Misty84 · 26/08/2023 22:50

I never remember how to pronounce Yosemite or Hyperbole therefore avoid saying them!😑

Lastnightschips · 26/08/2023 22:50

Another one for ‘knights’ not ‘nights’…

determinedtomakethiswork · 26/08/2023 22:50

sugarplum33 · 26/08/2023 21:34

@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.

Mind blown again.

VintageBlossomHill · 26/08/2023 22:51

Redavocadoes · 26/08/2023 21:22

"You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille
With 5 hundred children, and a crop in the field"

Eventually I realised it was 5 hungry children...

I used to be really confused by this when I was a child. @Redavocadoes Five hundred children!

Mustardforest · 26/08/2023 22:51

Only this week I learned that not only are eggs not classified as dairy, but Tenerife is actually a country NOT a popular city in Spain.

Cost me my space in the pub quiz team 😆

WorkingOnMyMindset · 26/08/2023 22:51

@MWB29 looks like many of us confused by this!

I just assumed it was an instruction for the POLICE to FOLLOW THIS VAN! in the event of suspicious, erratic or unusual driving!

RenoDakota · 26/08/2023 22:52

I used to see those 'heavy plant crossing' signs and wonder how heavy those plants must be to warrant their own signs.
In my defence, I was a child at the time. The penny dropped when I was about 15.

determinedtomakethiswork · 26/08/2023 22:52

ClaraBourne · 26/08/2023 21:50

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

Argghhh.

JudgeJ · 26/08/2023 22:53

Mustardforest · 26/08/2023 22:51

Only this week I learned that not only are eggs not classified as dairy, but Tenerife is actually a country NOT a popular city in Spain.

Cost me my space in the pub quiz team 😆

Our quizmaster once asked a question about Edward the eleventh, we told him it would be a long time yet.

utterflapdoodle · 26/08/2023 22:53

@Lifeisgood1 You're not the only one! 😂

What dumb thing has taken you forever to realise?
Highdaysandholidays1 · 26/08/2023 22:53

I used to think the name Penelope was said 'Penny-lowpe', or at least that's how I said it in my head when reading books about a girl called Penny-lowpe when I was little.

Extremely embarrassing, I spent a lot of time puzzling about tampons getting wee on them when I was about 11, didn't realise there were separate bits going on, even though my mum swears she explained it all perfectly. Obviously missed that bit of sex ed...

My children still tease me about the time I asked why eggs from the supermarket don't hatch, I kind of imagined if you warmed them up, they might...

I have a PhD...

BlastedSkreet · 26/08/2023 22:53

MWB29 · 26/08/2023 20:04

When I used to drive past security vans that had ‘POLICE FOLLOW THIS VAN’ written on the back I thought it was a command for any passing police cars to start following the van 😂 I was 28 when I realised it was a warning to possible robbers!

Oh my god. As in they are tracking it!

I thought the same as you! I always used to think it was a bit odd, commanding police to follow it, while it went about its business.

also Knights in white satin. I used to think that was very impractical.

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