AIBU to ask you to tell me things that you learned way too late in life *lighthearted*.

[Tinkofhousepan]

I started talking with a friend who emigrated to the states a few years ago for work. He lives in New York. We were discussing me going over for a holiday as I've never 'done' NYC. Started discussing the time difference between there and here 5 hours which surprised me as when I went to California the difference was larger 8 hours I think.

This lead to me being informed that the two states are on totally opposite ends of the country.

This is my thing I learned late, ive gone 26 years assuming florida and California were next to each other, And i have learned today that Florida is on the same side as NYC. AND IS AS FAR SOUTH AS TEXAS??? I also learnt that Washington is the most northern state on the side of California, where as Washington DC is just below Maryland and right next to Virginia, which is not at all in the middle part of America where I assumed it to be . I didn't learn USA geography at school, but surely I should have picked this up before now, especially considering I have been to both California and Florida!

Anyone else never realised this? Or is it just Me!

@PanPanPanPing Shots. I didn't get it either so I Googled. It appears that it means that the temperature is so hot that the heat from the sun is cracking the flag(stone)s.

Well, we aren't the only ones and I think I prefer the windy version

"Wind scraped the corners
awnings flapped hinges squeaked.
And in the empty air
flags cracked like whips."

books.google.co.uk/books?id=DKDyxjdELaEC&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=wind+cracking+flags&source=bl&ots=vpygXIjUkQ&sig=bMLwhWToWPAXEJ-_sv2-0MM6SjE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr1oGm_8XZAhXOZlAKHe6wBkgQ6AEIPDAC#v=onepage&q=wind%20cracking%20flags&f=false

shotsfired I'm intrigued, what did you think the 1st, 2nd thing was about?

And I think the Taylor's, and dressing on one side is about extra fabric.
When I was a child my mother was a dressmaker. She had a curved zip in her work box, and when I asked, she told me it was a taylor's zip, for a gentleman who dressed to the left. ( she was very embarrassed, and referred to a penis as the man's thingy)

@Ohyesiam shotsfired I'm intrigued, what did you think the 1st, 2nd thing was about?

I think I just assumed it was some historic thing that just 'was', without any real explanation! Would also occasionally wonder why it wasn't 3st or 14rd

(But conversely, the pineapple thing was never a big deal to me, I always knew, so I don't get why so many people are so utterly amazed by it. I guess we just don't know what we don't know!)

It was only recently that DH snapped and said: "FFS, why do you say it like that? In that stupid French fake accent?

I'm not bringing the thread down, promise, but that doesn't sound very nice, to be honest.

if you want to get ahead at work, network, network, network. I have seem some not very bright people soar in workplaces because they smile a lot and they network

I agree completely with this ^^, I've seen it time and time again. However, I've equally learned that way isn't for me. I feel compromised and stressed by that approach, so I've learned that I can reject it and succeed on my own terms.

It took me a lot of my 20s to realise what my friends really meant when they said they couldn't afford to do things. I used to pay for them all the time, you know, just before they went travelling / bought a property / got married. (Hand to head.)

One from me - I had lived for at least 3 years, near Paisley in Scotland, before it occurred to me that there might be some connection between the mills in Paisley, and why paisley pattern is called that.

One from dh - I had to tell him that there are not two tubes coming down his penis - one for sperm and the other for urine. I had to find a diagram to show him that they both come down the same tube!

That if weighing out something very messy, like golden syrup, the obvious way is to stick the whole tin on the scales, set the weight to whatever you need, e.g. 100g, and then take out golden syrup until scales are back to zero.
Was like a light bulb moment when this finally dawned on me. Did wonder how thick I must be for it not to have occurred to me before.

I thought the lyrics to Wig Wam Bam were
Wig Wam Bam gonna make you my man
Wam Bam Bam gonna set you on fire
...
as opposed to the totally normal and not psychotic "gonna catch you if I can" .. DP delights in singing this to me when I'm being a bit crazy.

That the hoses on petrol pumps are made to stretch to either side of the car.
Not at all petrol stations. They do at my local Tesco, but not at the Shell service station near me.

Punta I've been enlightened! I wondered what this phrase meant,and had assumed that it was to do with adding extra material or cutting the material in a more 'accommodating' way,rather than to do with etiquette when measuring up!

Not lighthearted - that sometimes it is necessary to stop beating a dead horse. Let people go.

which side do you dress?
both reasons stated here.embaressment factor for tailer
ANd when they are real tailored trousers and have to "lay" properly some men do need them cut differently/since men have worn baggie pants/shorts for years and few get their trousers to actually fit them the practice is not well known.levi jeans for years(dont know if they still do) had a bit more fabric on the left than the right/left jaying being more common.
a bespoke or made to measure suit is a thing of beauty/thats why all the celebs look so fine in crazy expensive suits
arnoldzwicky.org/2013/03/21/dress-leftright/

being more common

That the petrol gauge has a little picture to show you (with the arrow) which side to fill up on. I'd owned a car for about 15 years before realizing this and only found out on facebook

The petrol pump gauge thing definitely isn't true (it points R on my car and the fuel cap is on the L), so I now want to know what the arrow actually means!

Learned right here on MN that people who live and work in London work really really hard as opposed to the rest of us who obviously only work a wee bit hard

I don't get these threads where people post boasting how ignorant they are - not knowing where Florida or California are on the map isn't really something to be proud of.

Or put it another way, I've learned to late that some people like to revel in their lack of knowledge as if it were something funny.

Oh, the irony. The phrase glasshouses and stones comes to mind. It would be a good idea to learn the difference between to and too before coming on here and criticising everyone else for being stupid.

That I don't need to have the air on in mu car until it warms up!! I like another MN thought it was like a tap where you let it blow out until it warms and not doing do would be slower. It isn't. It makes absolutely not the slightest having it on zero air whilst on hottest setting and waiting until my temperature gauge says the car has warmed!
Only proviso is when I use Air Con to heat the car quicker then have the air on.

What's that *cannotmakemymindup^?

Sorry stripeysocksanddocs for all the typos.
I should add been driving for 14 years only just learnt for this winter.

No I didn't mean that @cannotmakemymindup (didn't notice typos!!). I mean what do you mean?

In order to get the blowers warm you don't need them on max to start with? I'm not getting the temp gauge thing (i've a old car so wondering if it's a new fangle thing in the last decade ).

The air blowers get their heat from the engine. Until the engine is warm the air will not be hot, no matter how much you turn them on.

Ok, mine is a bit smutty but I swear it’s true.

Until I was mid-twenties, I thought that gay men had sex by rubbing their Willies together and couldn’t work out what was so exciting about that. I had never heard of anal

@stripeysocksanddocs as boulebaker says.
Without a temperature gauge be a bit more of a guessing game as to when the engine is warm and you can turn the blowers on but yes to the explanation ^^

Justmarried