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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

999 replies

ChanandlerBongsLeftShoe · 11/03/2019 16:35

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
LemonRedwood · 11/03/2019 22:59

Pinkbells

That duct tape is not called duck tape.

Except when it is!

To ask the most basic thing you never knew/misunderstood until adulthood
inashizzle · 11/03/2019 23:03

This is getting surreal for me. Real sparks
Ikleboo? I am so going off to try. Eating the wax on babybel dany0509** !

This is funniest belly laugh thread I've ever read. Actual tears laughing

MaybeitsMaybelline · 11/03/2019 23:03

We grew peppers in the conservatory, they were fascinating, but they went green to red, nothing inbetween.

Same with the chillis we grew, green to red.

madcatladyforever · 11/03/2019 23:07

That sprouts grow on a stalk, I found this out in my 40's and was amazed Blush

BlackPrism · 11/03/2019 23:08

@Stormy76 you DO have two tubes in your throat for breathing and eating.

The PP thought there were separate liquid and solid tubes, which is wrong.

SpoonBlender · 11/03/2019 23:09

@bunintheoven88 "Give up the ghost" is to die, the soul leaving the body.

@Hairyhat Goofy is definitely a dog, who is sometimes married to Clarabelle who is a cow. He also owns a dog. That's cartoons for you. Minnie Mouse has stood shrieking on a chair due to a tiny mouse before, too.

slithytove · 11/03/2019 23:09

If I asked for Coke I would not want pepsi
I would in fact reject Pepsi

Itssosunny · 11/03/2019 23:10

PRUNES ARE DRIED PLUMS???!!! WHAT? My whole life is a lie
People, what did you think they were? Grin
I am very curious.

scaredoflabour · 11/03/2019 23:10

I've had to google the Rock of Gibraltar! Blush
I thought the Forth Bridge was so called because it had 4 arches! Blush

SpoonBlender · 11/03/2019 23:11

Peppers do all sorts of colour contortions, depending on the exact breed. I've grown some that went green-yellow-purple-orange, they were pretty spectacular as they didn't change all at once so they spent their time being multicoloured.

Itssosunny · 11/03/2019 23:11

We also had peppers which changed colour from green to red..

BlackPrism · 11/03/2019 23:11

@bunintheoven88 because you're giving up the ghost... your soul, you're letting it go aka giving up the ghost... dying.

Itssosunny · 11/03/2019 23:12

Well, it's normal for the peppers of course.

Graphista · 11/03/2019 23:13

"My daughter, moving from Bristol to Edinburgh refused to belief that she was moving west!" I know this is factually true - now. I didn't know this myself until far later than I care to admit (don't get me started on places which are further north/south than I originally thought) but to be fair it's based on how we're used to viewing the U.K. Map without the global curvature being applied.

I also thought for far too many years that Vietnam and Cambodia were islands based on seeing maps on the news presented as just the country on a blue background - it's most misleading that they did this. It was only upon visiting France on an exchange trip and seeing a national weather report on telly (and I knew France wasn't an island) showed France in a similar way.

However, I have also come across people who, despite having lived in the region, and being a similar age to myself (so I would've thought knew some of the background to the Vietnam war even though not alive during it) and didn't know why Vietnam had a sizeable minority of Catholics.

"We do don’t we? The esopagus and the trachea." Yep only 2 though, I'm concerned a few people might think there's 3, 1 for food, 1 for drink, 1 for air.

The epiglottis makes sure (supposedly) that everything goes where it's meant to. It's a flap that closes over the trachea when you swallow, but if you swallow too quickly etc it can confuse the poor bugger!

Can see where this might go on this thread so...

No the epiglottis isn't the thing dangling at the back of your throat that you can clearly see, that's the uvula, one of its functions is to stop food going up your nose backwards basically, again not always successful, I've certainly had Mishaps if someone has made me laugh when drinking.

Dds friend had an odd moment when watching oitnb...those that have seen it likely know what episode I mean. Her mother/school whoever had managed to not ensure that yes women have 3 holes. She was too embarrassed to ask her mum, so asked dd (who she thought also didn't know) to ask me (I'm an ex nurse), dd was really shocked her friend didn't know this, turned out there was quite a few other key female biology facts she didn't know.

"look at a map maybe? How in any way is it an island?" We've also yet to have someone finding out Portsmouth IS (mostly) an island. Always makes me think of Joey in friends not knowing Staten Island and Long Island are islands.

I'll be the first one to recommend www.sporcle.com
to the geographically challenged, I apologise now for the hours you will waste there.

"And when I met DH we went to a very posh restaurant and I ordered the Whore's Doors." 😂😂😂😂😂

"That Goofy is a cow not a dog!
I'm in my 40s and only just learned this. Perrrlease!" Erm...

www.snopes.com/fact-check/goofy-cow-or-dog/

I've a few mad Disney fans on FB this was being shared a few years back.

"I didn't realise that Rice Krispies were made from actual rice. I thought they were just called that because they looked a bit like rice." Ok. Cornflakes aren't made from corn as we know it in the uk but maize.

"Couple behind me:
Woman: where's schengen?
Man: it's an area in China
Woman: ah, yes." And we wonder why brexit happened 😂

"However, I also used to think that prawn crackers where made the same way i.e. puffed up real prawns" I'm going to ask before I address this - what do you think they're made from/how do you think they're made?

Haffiana · 11/03/2019 23:13

We grew peppers in the conservatory, they were fascinating, but they went green to red, nothing inbetween.

Yes, when I lived in the Middle East we had them growing in the garden, and most plants made green then red/sometimes dark red or purple. We also had light green/yellow (and also white), and the orange ones were a completely different variety.

Commercial bell peppers are NOT picked at different stages of ripeness from green through yellow the orange then red. This seems to be a complete internet hoax/myth. www.thisisinsider.com/are-all-peppers-the-same-plant-2018-9

Some of the 'facts' on this thread are as incorrect as the misunderstandings!

Itssosunny · 11/03/2019 23:13

Woodlice and silverfish are crustaceans and relatives of prawns.

fluffypudcats · 11/03/2019 23:14

Dad had lymph nodes removed last year. They took out ~60 from his neck!! Turns out we have around 800 of them! I thought we had around 8

FindPrimeLorca · 11/03/2019 23:15

The writers of Puff the Magic Dragon have consistently denied over several decades that the song has anything to do with drugs. My DPs used to have a live Peter Paul and Mary album in which Peter prefaced it by using the same reasoning to prove that The Star Spangled Banner is riddled with drug references.

Hairyhat · 11/03/2019 23:17

Well that shows my ignorance then. I was totally taken in when told Goofy is a cow! Blush

Ouch44 · 11/03/2019 23:22

I was in my 30s before I realised that one night in the stages of the moon there is no moon! Can't remember the name now.

I was at ILs and they said "it's dark there's no moon out tonight". I asked if it was hidden by a cloud or below a hill. Took me a while to get it! How did I never notice!!

Ouch44 · 11/03/2019 23:23

Also, what is the pink Duracell bunny about??

Ninkaninus · 11/03/2019 23:23

Uhm I think people are referring to the rabbit vibrator, not vibrators in general...

But if the energiser bunny has been around since the seventies then it does predate the rabbit vibrator, so I guess that one’s just a coincidence!

x2boys · 11/03/2019 23:24

Not until adult hood I went to a very religious convent primary school ,Xmas and Easter were always very important ,it took me until I was about ten to realise that Jesus was,nt born at Xmas and than died at Easter just a few months later there were 33 years in between .

user1473878824 · 11/03/2019 23:25

@44PumpLane you need to watch the house warming party episode of Spaced, or have too many times!!

Drunkatthepetrolstation · 11/03/2019 23:26

@ILoveBray I loved Bray too. Was so sad when he died. Did he ever come back to life? I Always hoped he did but lost track.

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