To ask the most basic thing you never knew/misunderstood until adulthood

[ChanandlerBongsLeftShoe]

I feel like a completely ridiculous excuse for an adult but the other day I found out the difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie.

I am in my 30s and gobsmacked (also feel a bit stupid now it's so obvious). I genuinely thought they were the same thing.

Is there anything you discovered as an adult that was just common knowledge to everyone else? Or perhaps there's a phrase you've found out you have been saying wrong all this time etc...!

Help me feel a bit better.

I was 38 when I realised the moon doesn't emit its own light and 'shine' like the sun.

The Ancient Greeks thought the moon was brighter than the sun, because the sun only shone in the daytime when it was light, but the moon shone at night when it was dark.

Many years ago there was a singer called Alma Cogan. I used to think she was a man called Al McCogan. To be fair, she had quite a deep voice.

That the moon could have a dark side. I thought pink floyd had made it up.

Fairly recentlyI had the delight of telling a friends (utterly lovely and completely brilliant) adult daughter that peanuts grew underground. World. Rocked.
.

@wineoclockthanks
Good job I didn't post the answer because I would have spelled it incorrectly as I did in my message to you😂

I think you had the freezing gel to numb the pain of the injection. I def had that when i was young.

I only recently realised the songs in Bugsy Malone were not the children singing, but were adults!!!

It was only very recently I found out (on mumsnet) albeit is said all be it

I'm 47

What are dates?

Until I was in my teens I thought bones and skeletons were two separate body parts.

Until about 3 weeks ago I thought all people who had a PhD were professors. I told DD the consultant I’d seen was a Professor, like her DH. She told me DH wasn’t a professor but that he had a doctorate. DSIL was really chuffed I’d thought he was a professor.

Worked out that the reason my king size & my superking duvet covers always seemed so badly fitting is that both the duvet & covers are wider than they are long and the stitching on the actual duvet goes horizontally when you put the covers on.

Suddenly, now I’ve worked it out they all fit (I’ve spent nearly thirty years with bunched up duvet at the head and foot & flappy material at the sides by putting the duvet into the covers wrong 😳).

ChanandlerBongsLeftShoe How did you find this out?

These have made me laugh!!

Did you know that black olives are in fact green olives which have been left longer...

I used to think Sean Bean was pronounced 'seen'....

I also used to think that 'mow a meadow' from the rhyme was an actual place...

My OH actually thought that wasps made chutney.

Well they sort of make figs

DH used to think ‘abroad’ was a place, so when people said they were ‘going abroad’ it was an actual location/destination.
When a parking sign says ‘four hours. No return within five’ I always thought it meant REALLY you had to return within five hours... not that you couldn’t return to the same parking lot for Atleast five hours. Explains all my parking tickets

Only found out 2 years ago, that the lead singer of HAWKWIND (silver machine!) was Lemmy from Motorhead!

One of many singers and not one of the longest serving so I think you can be forgiven for not knowing that, unless you happen to be a Hawkwind super fan and know all the others in which case you should be ashamed of yourself

DuchessOfPhysics

of course, it has just occurred to me that you might mean Bray in Berkshire not Bray Bray big bad Bray

Sorry I'm confused about what you mean....

My username is referring to an (absolutely gorgeous) character from a 90s TV show called The Tribe.

But who or what is Big Bad Bray....? Do tell

I used to think that 'jaywalking' was what prostitutes did as opposed to the kerb-crawlers looking for them.

Went to USA in my 30s and only then did I fully understand my mistake.

My 18 year old dd told me in conversation about the Queen and her husband.... Prince Charles..! She couldn't believe it when I told her he was the Queen' s son! I asked her who she thought Prince William and Harry were then in relation to the Queen??? Then the penny dropped.

Only got half way through so apologies if this has been said - the reason gas smells in the home is due to chemicals being added. This was done to a help people identify a leak and b to try and stop suicide

You know those parking signs that say blah, blah, something,, (this tells you how much did know about them) No return for two hours
I thought that meant you had to leave your car there for at least two hours.

I think a vegan shepherds pie should be called Allotment Pie.

Which makes me wonder WTF do cows have to do with Cottages?

I know this is a lighthearted thread but some of the ignorance displayed here isn't just embarrassing it's downright atrocious. Africa a country?

Are the Elgin marbles not spheres?! I am 38 😱 xx