To have just got 'lefty Lucy, tighty righty'?

[passemoilevin]

Lefty LOOSEY! Not Lucy! I say it every time I'm unscrewing a screw. Never understood the whole Lucy thing until I just heard ant or Dec say it on IAC. Lightbulb moment!

Share your last similar ridiculously obvious realisation

[StatelessPrincess]

I thought cat burglars stole cats. Until yesterday

[MissionItsPossible]

I can't believe the amount of people that aren't getting that lefty loosey tighty righty doesn't work. Imagine a tap and imagine a clock. If you are told to turn the tap left from the position of 12 o'clock and told to turn the tap left from the position of 6 o'clock it's different directions

[MayFayner]

I'm surprised how many people had to sing hymns/carols at school without the words on an OHP. Must've been a nightmare!

Dsis thought
Gloria, Gloria, in excelcis Deo
Was
Gloria, Gloria, in a Shell Station

all throughout primary

[minimonkey11]

Always thought the cadburys fudge advert song was ‘it’s full of peppery goodness’ so i didnt try one for years as i couldnt understand why anyone would want a peppery chocolate bar!

[SnugglySnerd]

mimimonkey I thought that too. What is it then if not peppery?

[IndigoApple]

Cadbury!

[Rebeccaslicker]

Ha, it's full of Cadbury goodness, no?

So, palm oil and broken promises these days

[Frogletmamma]

Neurotic woman is right about the horses doovers. Its my in laws doing it on purpose to bamboozle outsiders!

[NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1]

Not me but a man I once worked with complained that he was being used as "an escape goat"

[thegreylady]

When I was little we used to sing a hymn which started,”Jesus bids us shine” the refrain always struck me as odd....”He is cross with Connor and I know why!”
I used to give a knowing look at Connor Leary and remember seeing him pinch a ha’penny from Miss’s desk (1950).
I forgot about this until recently when I told dh and asked what on Earth it was about. When he stopped laughing he explained,
“You in your small corner and I in mine!”
Sorry Connor

[blackteaplease]

It doesn't matter which way the thread on the screw is facing, you turn your hand/screwdriver the same same way until you are finished. Left to loosen and right to tighten, hence the easy to remember rhyme.

[NewtsSuitcase]

I dont think anyone is disputing that righty tighty lefty loosey works but explaining that for some of us it isn't the natural logical conclusion since our brains take the shortest route towards our left or right hand (IYSWIM).

My DF discovered this to his peril when he took me out for my first driving lesson 25ish years ago. He was shouting right right right and since the shortest route to my right hand was to turn the wheel anticlockwise by 45 degrees to my right hand I was very much turning left! I ended up mounting the pavement on a lorry park (deserted private land), slashing two tyres and having to walk home five miles.

he bought me driving lessons after that . I am safe on the roads now honestly!

[soupforbrains]

I say righty righty etc to myself to remember and obviously I know I'm thinking of the 'top' of the clock and once I start I keep going.

BUT I don't understand all the people who just keep repeating 'turn your hand right' and other such things to those who have pointed out the illogic of the phrase. The picture someone drew perfectly demonstrates how if you start off thinking of any point on the screw/tap/nut that is in the bottom half of the clock face the rhyme is wrong.

I think a PP is right that there is some instinct in most of us that tells us to start at the top. But as a child I used to get confused and infuriated by the phrase.

My dad taught me to think of 'aunty Lucy' instead. "Anti-Loosey" I.e. anti-clockwise to loosen. Which helped. And now as an adult I'm fine with righty tighty lefty loosey.

[OneFlewOverTheDodosNest]

I'm another who thought daft ha'p'orth was about an idiotic orang-utan... until about 3 seconds ago.

[Everhopeful1]

I thought I was the only person who looked at a light/sunshine to make a sneeze come...... apparently it's a 'thing' & loads of other people do it.....

[Everhopeful1]

Just remembered another, my partner had arranged a plumber friend to come round, his mate 'Jamaican Head'. It was only when he left I asked my partner why he was called that..." It's his name" he said...... the penny slowly dropped he was calleds Jim Aitkenhead.

[spaghettiforhair]

It was also only last year that I realised Interpol are international police


Yeah I knew that, always known it was that

[TheLittleShirt]

My daughter aged about 6 asked me why there were no boy seagulls, I asked what she meant. It turned out she thought the birds were called seagirls. I also thought fingers of fudge were peppery!

[Cominghomenothome]

I wondered for ages what ‘jelly deals’ were 🤣 my mind was blown when I was told they were actually jellied eels!

[allegretto]

I didn't realise you struggled to make ends meet, I thought it was a struggle to make hen's meat.

[MadRainbow]

Mine was "soddusoffus" until I was about 25... my mum did laugh when the penny FINALLY dropped

[Tiggerstail]

My daughter sings “ring a ring of Rosie’s, talking to the bogies”

She’s 8!!!

[GreenTulips]

thought I was the only person who looked at a light/sunshine to make a sneeze come......

Shout PINEAPPLE to stop the sneeze, it works.

[thenovice]

My DH has only just realised it's not "General Custard"!

[marymoosmum]

I didn't realise KFC stood for Kentucky Fried Chicken until I was about 18, my mum didn't either until I mentioned it and she was in her 50's.