Things that you've thought that were in fact absurd

[Pacificplaza]

Inspired by another current thread: what things have you thought to yourself, and accepted as true, which on telling someone else have quickly transpired to be completely ridiculous?

E.g: I always thought that when drinking a hot beverage, that the misty effect observed should you happen to glance down into the cup was your EYEBALLS getting STEAMED UP in the manner of a pair of glasses. When I casually mentioned this at work everyone kindly pointed out that I was just... seeing the steam.

My car is an old banger with no air con, just the air blower. For my entire life until my ExDP corrected me, I thought you had to 'run' the hot air until it turned from cold to hot eventually in the same way you do the tap. Rather than just turn it on once the car's warmed up. The hours I must have spent grimly tolerating a stream of freezing air in winter .

I'm not normally a simpleton by the way, I've got degrees and stuff and mostly manage to function.

So please tell me I'm not alone!

DiscoDiva I think your son sounds great! I like a kid with a keen sense of the absurd. That kind of thing would make my son laugh too - not at me, but about the idea of trying to see out the back of a long aircraft from a rear view mirror in the cockpit (with the cockpit door closed and no rear windscreen). Like your son, my kids seem to know all kinds of stuff that I've never even thought about!

While I knew that Bill Clinton was governor of 'Arkansaw' I thought there was another place called ( and pronounced phonetically) Arkansas.

Imsomniac - so with Poopy's observation, I'm imagining the assistant in Tesco being a short moustachioed Spanish man who just kept saying "Que? Que?"

To the person who thought traffic lights were changed by people, you're not wrong! I work at a place where people do exactly that. It's not every set of traffic lights or anything, but real people monitor traffic using cctv cameras and can adjust traffic light sequences etc if they need to.

cantsee Arkansas really confused me too! Especially as there is also Kansas which is Pronounced phonetically.

My brother convinced me that creme eggs were real eggs coated in chocolate (so he could eat mine). I cried when I won one at school (I was only 4 or 5 in my defence and hated eggs!) I firmly believed Egypt was in the middle east until I was an adult.

Mallorca and Majorca were different places (I am still a bit confused about those, I'm sure I have been to both

Maybe you've been to Mallorca/Majorca AND Menorca? Which is definitely a separate place

I never knew that West Virginia was a completely different place to Virginia. I only found out a few months ago and I am ...not 20 any more.

I firmly believed Egypt was in the middle east until I was an adult.

Errrr...

Mallorca and Majorca were different places (I am still a bit confused about those, I'm sure I have been to both

I bet you went to both ON THE SAME TRIP 😄😉

Egypt is considered part of the Middle East. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East

I know Egpyt is in Africa, and I don't know if there's an "official" definition, but the fact it borders Israel and is clearly involved in Middle East geopolitics suggests it makes sense to consider as part of the Middle East.

Potato salad was mentioned. My DM knew potatoes went into potato salad, but didn't know they needed to be cooked when she made one.

A family member was recently surprised to learn that not all cars have the indicator stalk on the left of the wheel and the wiper stalk on the right, sometimes it's the other way round. (I was the one driving their car, and of course ended up indicating with the wipers rather often.)

Neither 'absurd' as such, but incorrect at least.

When we used to record an LP onto a cassette, I used to think that once you pressed the 'record' button and the LP was playing/recording onto the cassette, that you had to be silent, because otherwise your voice would also be recorded!!!

It was like that on some older systems - I used to have the tape to prove it! @gingergenius

I thought for years on MN that DS stood for Devil's Spawn and DH for Demon Husband

I thought mumsnet was a kind of dark humoured place, and I loved that....

If you have been to Majorca you have been to Mallorca. They are exactly the same island. Majorca is the English spelling of it and Mallorca is the Spanish spelling.

Anyone else now got that old Heineken ad stuck in their head with a reverse-My Fair Lady: "The war-tuh in Ma-Jawca doesn't taste like what it oughta!"

mistermagpie that was me! And I'm ridiculously happy to learn that my 5 year old self was sort of right.

DontCallMeCharlotte I thought that about radios too!

I mean, Mallorca is the official and accepted Spanish spelling. There could be the occasional regional variation as there is more than one version of Spanish (Castillian v Catalan?).

Americans do have soap operas, but they tend to be on during the day instead of the evening. And almost everyone on them is ridiculously attractive. Days Of Our Lives is a real show, although Joey from Friends wasn't really on it.

@yolofish
Some hot chicken sex to brighten up your afternoon!

You're welcome!

I thought ducks, swans and geese were the same animal. I thought the ducks were the babies, swans were females and geese were males. My teen ds told me I was wrong last week

My ex at uni, thought consummation of a relationship was the step before engagement...so when his elder brother was wondering how to convince his girlfriend he wanted to be serious, my ex suggested officially consummating their relationship in front of both sets of parents. He also never quite got that Christmas was always on the 25th of December every year.

I was once given 3 of something when I was small and the person had said 'you can have a couple'. I went through another 10 years thinking a couple meant 3

DadDad. Tut tut - you've got it slightly wrong, it's "the war'ur in Majawca don't tayste like wo' i' ou'a" . But - hahaha

gingergenius what a video! I love that the guy at the start was a cock who was literally cock blocking the other cocks!

I see it just me or does chicken sex look really badly designed? They stand on their backs?? And sort of shuffle in the general direction of her arse. They don't seem to be there long enough for anything to get where it needs to be.

@BackieJerkhart apparently it's all a bit wham bam. Up to 30 times a day! Randy buggers! Who knew!l?