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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have reached the age of 38 without knowing

443 replies

lougle · 08/01/2018 15:57

That pineapples don't grow on trees, but grow in the ground? I'm well educated, went to university (twice), but I had never thought about where my pineapple had come from, and it never occurred to me that the 'chopped' end was on the bottom and not the top!

What didn't you know until recently?

OP posts:
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11
ShakeShakeTheMuffin · 08/01/2018 16:49

According to Wikipedia, Holland is actually a region of the Netherlands. Although it's used informally as a term to refer to the entire country.

That was news to me.

I recently learned on MN that the Virgin birth and immaculate conception refer to different pregnancies! Blush I didn't realise that the immaculate conception refers to the conception of Mary and not Jesus.

PortiaCastis · 08/01/2018 16:49

Croissants did not originate in France but in Vienna

Barbie has a last name she is in fact. Barbara Millicent Roberts

I found these useless bits of info out last year

ChristianGreysAnatomy · 08/01/2018 16:50

bookaboo there was a thread about faux washing up stations and stunt pineapples a while back. Vair amusing. I guess that's what is being referenced.

Original poster
lougle · 08/01/2018 16:51

Thanks for clarifying the Holland/Netherlands mixup, and apologies to any natives. Geography has always been my weakness!

*"Charolais

What the hell do you people do all day long? The ignorance is astounding."*

Well, I can deal with your critical illness, if required, and work as part of the intensive care team that saves your life. Or I can interpret complicated documents and tell you what they mean, or I can look at policies and procedures and help make a strategy for implementation, or I can gather data and interpret it, looking for anomalies and reporting on the implications of them.

But, until recently, I didn't know that pineapples grew on the ground, and I didn't know that Holland wasn't a country, and I didn't know that hyena's gave birth out of their clitori. Fortunately, none of these were lifesaving facts, so I think we're ok Smile

OP posts:
FreddieClaryHorshieLion · 08/01/2018 16:51

*only buy them as "show pineapples" and have never eaten one.^

What is a "show pineapple" ? Please don't tell me you buy it just to brighten up your fruit bowl & then chuck it away?

Yes...

DH insists on using pineapples as Christmas decorations. It’s apparently been done in his family for several generations. (I have no idea whether that’s actual the truth / likely but anyhow...)

And whilst we do try to eat / use up the pineapples after Christmas... there are just too many. 😒

DullAndOld · 08/01/2018 16:52

I was convinced that 'remuneration' was a typo until I was at least 30 ('renumeration' surely?) and spelling is the thing I am good at...

64BooLane · 08/01/2018 16:53

I remember on one of these threads from years ago, there was a MNer who (iirc) said her husband used to think all women - every one of us - got their periods at the same time. “That time of the month”, I guess.

He thought this until they met and she set him straight. He was in his thirties. ShockGrin

NC4now · 08/01/2018 16:53

Until very recently I thought a kipper was a kind of fish.

mustbemad17 · 08/01/2018 16:53

ShakeShake you have just educated me on the Mary & Jesus thing. Never knew that

maras2 · 08/01/2018 16:54

Maras the thick.
Age 64 and just retired.
University educated.
Mother and grandmother.
Is ashamed to admit that I had no idea about the provenance of pineapples. Blush
lougle Seems like every day's a school day. Grin

reallybadidea · 08/01/2018 16:54

Banana plants are technically herbs.

Amaretto liqueur is made from apricot kernels.

meredintofpandiculation · 08/01/2018 16:55

I think we're only ignorant about things outside our normal lives. I don't know. I think we all differ in how interested we can get in things. I know all sorts of minute detail about things that really wouldn't be part of my day to day life if I wasn't learning about them, and I'm "blessed" with a flypaper memory to which all sort of rubbish adheres, never to be shaken off, yet I'm completely ignorant about vast swathes of modern culture. So I don't think it's as simple as whether it's part of our normal lives or not.

Playdohnut · 08/01/2018 16:55

Show pineapples were a thing! You could rent them in the 18th century to show off how rich you were.

Trills · 08/01/2018 16:55

you might be right that hyenas are only children

If each female hyena can only have one baby hyena then we'd run out of hyenas pretty fast.

MrsSthe3rd · 08/01/2018 16:55

Brilliant Grin

*I remember on one of these threads from years ago, there was a MNer who (iirc) said her husband used to think all women - every one of us - got their periods at the same time. “That time of the month”, I guess.

He thought this until they met and she set him straight. He was in his thirties. *

Fekko · 08/01/2018 16:56

I thought the correct mumsnet term was ‘stunt pineapple’.

Now I really have no idea what hyeenas are laughing at...

mustbemad17 · 08/01/2018 16:57

Not sure how it is in the wild but i do know that in conservation hyenas can have more than one cub. Pretty sure they usually only have one at a time tho!

moreshitandnofuckingredemption · 08/01/2018 16:58

Freddie how many do you buy?!

Chowmum · 08/01/2018 16:58

Some people collect immense amounts of trivia, true, but I don't think those of us who don't should be accused of "astounding ignorance" for not picking up said trivia.

meredintofpandiculation · 08/01/2018 17:00

*you might be right that hyenas are only children

If each female hyena can only have one baby hyena then we'd run out of hyenas pretty fast.*

I wasn't really serious, any more than the previous poster was! And someone else quoted something to say that the "split lips" of the clitoris heal. Cats' penises have barbs on them, but it doesn't seem to deter the females from having multiple litters...

mustbemad17 · 08/01/2018 17:01

I feel like i need to go back to school...i didn't know cats' penis' had barbs on!!

Original poster
lougle · 08/01/2018 17:03

Pineapples were a status symbol in the 18th Century, and you could hire them for parties. The bigger the pineapple, the wealthier you were. They were exotic and had to be shipped to the country. Apparently (I saw on Antiques Roadshow) they used to be rented and the same pineapple would be seen at all the houses on a particular Street, week after week.

And kippers are a fish - it's herring.

OP posts:
apostropheuse · 08/01/2018 17:03

Thank you for educating me about pineapples. I've always presumed they grew on trees similar to coconuts!

Thankfully this lack of knowledge hasn't caused me too many problems in my 56 years! Grin

DadDadDad · 08/01/2018 17:04

The other fact that always comes up on these kinds of threads is that Portsmouth is on an island (not the British mainland).

FreddieClaryHorshieLion · 08/01/2018 17:04

Show pineapples were a thing! You could rent them in the 18th century.

So these people from the 18th century are responsible for me knowing more pineapple recipes than I thought existed before meeting DH?

I’ve always been doubting DH’s claim about pineapples being traditional Christmas decorations tbh 😂 oops.
I initially assumed that it must be a ‘UK thing’ but I’ve never heard of anyone else doing that...?

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