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 thought the numbers on the toaster were degrees of “toastiness” only realised in the last 6 months that its minutes!! I’m 45🙈

I really shouldn't admit this as I am a teacher. I believed dinosaurs were mythical creatures like dragons/fairies until my 3rd year placement at university.
I blame my parents for not taking me to museums as a child.

Mind you, when I was small I thought the Give Way signs at the roadside meant the road was about to collapse!
And I didn't realise until a few years ago that a cake slice is for, er, slicing cake. I thought it was just for lifting up the slices. Embarrassing thing to learn at a gathering of OH's family.

My friend, mid-twenties: that raisins are dried grapes rather than growing on raisin trees.

@chipsandgin 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.
This.. going to try that when I change my beds next..

My sister thought that the lines on the side of the motorway (that are slightly bumpy) were there so blind people knew where the edge of the road was when they were driving..

That 'spendthrift' does not mean 'thrifty with spending'.

Hold on a mo - is there not a dome over Centreparcs ?

BikeRunSki
The dome at Centre Parcs exists. One of the contractors we use at work do the roped access inspections.

Only over the pool though, not the entire site

Learning so much reading this thread. 😂😂

That Warren Buffet and Jimmy Buffet are different people, as are Hackie and Joan Collins. I'd never given it a second's thought

Oh, I thought it was a duck. I just asked the kids who said it’s either a duck or a goose.

This thread is great. In my late 30’s I recently learnt that different colour peppers are just at different stages of ripening. I didn’t know the moon thing!!

RockyFlintstone I need an oxygen mask! Bishop Wishoo 😂

I didn't realise until a few years ago that scotts eggs have meat in them, iv been a vegetarian for the last 20 years!!!

It's not wingingit, it is degrees of toastiness, not saying there isn't a toaster made to burn bread but mine goes up to 7, of course it doesn't toast the bread for 7 minutes, it would be burnt to crisps

For a long time I thought that dragons were a type of dinosaur that had become extinct

Is scotts eggs an autocorrect? You know it's scotch eggs right?

I thought the numbers on the toaster were degrees of “toastiness” only realised in the last 6 months that its minutes!! I’m 45

But it isn’t minutes. Imagine doing a piece of toast for 5 minutes. It would be burnt to a crisp.

That Keith Lemon is not a real person but a character created by comedian Leigh Francis - who is a perfectly normal married bloke!!

I agree about toasters, caughtinanet but the expression is burnt to a crisp, not like potato crisps.

I didn't realise until a few years ago that scotts eggs have meat in them, iv been a vegetarian for the last 20 years!!!

And not until this thread that they are called "Scotch Eggs" not Scotts Eggs!

That pathetic fallacy and prophetic fallacy are two separate things.

I realised half way through my English Literature degree

I thought, totally illogically, that using a quill would make you write calligraphy. Nope, just your usual handwriting...with a quill.

Google tells me "Horses can get a lot of sleep while standing up, but they lie down when they require REM sleep. Typically, the amount of REM sleep they require is very small, so they don't need to lie down often. However, many horses lie down just because they feel comfortable or want to do so."

So now we know!

That an ‘outgoing’ President/CEO’ means they are about to leave their position, rather than they are really extroverted....