To share the stupidest thing I have ever heard

[Sparklfairy]

My friend is away in a country that a few days into her holiday brought in quarantine restrictions upon returning to the UK. No big deal to her, she can wfh and organise deliveries etc.

She just told me she was chatting around the pool and people are confused about when quarantine actually 'starts'. Most have convinced themselves it's the day after you land 'to give them time to go shopping and get food and everything ready and stuff'.

So you're quarantined, but you have a magical window of time where you can get supplies and merrily skip round the supermarket infecting everyone saying 'Oh, I'm not in quarantine until tomorrow'.

I'm not sure if they're spectacularly thick or just so entitled they've twisted the rules to suit themselves. I don't normally get annoyed about CV or what other people do but really!?

The point about St George's Chapel is that it's the Queen's own chapel, so is bound to be C of E.

But I have to admit my post was thoughtless. I think in Britain we sometimes think because we share a language with the Americans we should know all about each others' countries.

By way of apology – I admit that till last week I thought Washington State and California were right next to each other, and didn't realise Oregon was in between. I guess Americans would be entitled to think me pretty stupid, or at least ignorant, for not knowing that.

[quote YesThisIsMe]That story reminds me of this cracker from Snopes sashh.
Anti-immigrant protesters in Washington confront a man who doesn’t look 100% WASP and ask him whether he’s “legal”.
Man is state legislator....and Navajo.
www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-supporters-navajo-legislator-legal/[/quote]
Oh god, my racist uncle emigrated to NZ from the UK back in the 80s.

He now complains about Maori "immigrants", and says they should go back where they came from (which is stupid enough on its own). DBro pointed out Uncle was an immigrant himself. "No I'm not, I'm English!"

DBro does not suffer fools (or racists) gladly, and spent the next half an hour pointing out that Uncle was not born in NZ, so how had he got there? He'd moved countries. What was that process called? Was it called emigrating? Yes it was. So did that make him an immigrant? Yes it did. Uncle would not have it. I thought he was going to have a stroke he was so mad at "being called an immigrant when he was English".

Same uncle also tucks into cake, as a diabetic, while saying to his wife "If my blood sugars are high later, there'll be hell to pay Deborah!" No idea how him eating cake is her fault (she hasn't made it for him, this is out at restaurants, he's ordered it himself), and if he is worried about it he shouldn't bloody well eat it.

We're pretty glad he lives in NZ.

@Grapesoda7

I do remember my son thought that pigs layed sausages like hens lay eggs, he was about 4 though.

Mine too. It was enough to turn him veggie for a while. Not sure why he found eating dead pig so awful yet never questioned where chicken came from

The point about St George's Chapel is that it's the Queen's own chapel, so is bound to be C of E.

We understood that, but the CoE isn't really a thing outside the UK. There's no reason why someone from overseas would have (a) heard of it, (b) know that the queen was the head of it, and (c) know that it was one of the protestant varieties of Christianity.

We all grew up learning about Henry VIII, dissolution of monastries, King/Queen as head of the church etc, but why would someone who wasn't taught that know about it? It isn't a given that the monarch of a country is also the head of its main religion.

This is why what we think is "general knowledge" definitely isn't. What we know is largely dependent on our location, culture and class etc.

@CheshireDing

I worked with a woman who said ‘well we can’t all go vegetarian, we need to eat cows otherwise the world will be overrun by cows’ failing to understand the cows are bred on farmers by humans to us to eat, not just running around wild freely shagging and taking over the world

Conspiracy theory in the making there 😁

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable

The point about St George's Chapel is that it's the Queen's own chapel, so is bound to be C of E.

We understood that, but the CoE isn't really a thing outside the UK. There's no reason why someone from overseas would have (a) heard of it, (b) know that the queen was the head of it, and (c) know that it was one of the protestant varieties of Christianity.

We all grew up learning about Henry VIII, dissolution of monastries, King/Queen as head of the church etc, but why would someone who wasn't taught that know about it? It isn't a given that the monarch of a country is also the head of its main religion.

Not only is it not a given, it’s actually pretty bizarre. Someone automatically because head of a faith, when they may have no faith. In fact, is it the only example?

It’s a very specific part of UK history, expecting them rest of the world to know is pretty UK-centric!

ReceptacleForTheRespectable

All good points, as was your earlier point about it being Catholic when it was built.

As per my second post above, my first post was thoughtless, and I apologise for it.

I dont think you need to apologise!

This thread is quite an eye opener though, as it really demonstrates how we all tend to assume that the things that we happen to have been taught are obvious / common sense / general knowledge.

A teacher colleague who was teaching about Captain Scott and had literally no clue about the differences between the Arctic and the Antarctic! She didn't even know which one was which. 🤦‍♀️ How did she ever pass her training?!

My ex husband's twelve year old niece and her friend had such muddled sex education they didn't know they had vaginas. The teacher had called it their front hole. Neither of them knew babies come out the same place where they are created.
Once during a rather mad argument, my sister accused me of giving our mum pelvic floor weakness due to being a big baby. She was the eldest, rather large, and left mother's womb the by the same passage.
Every thirteen year old should have to watch the scary Lamaze movie in school. A baby is delivered. One girl fainted; another ran out to be sick. I was surprised the baby wasn't covered with bloody muscular like kittens. Seeing this makes sex much less attractive.

@WendyMAD

The point about St George's Chapel is that it's the Queen's own chapel, so is bound to be C of E.

But I have to admit my post was thoughtless. I think in Britain we sometimes think because we share a language with the Americans we should know all about each others' countries.

By way of apology – I admit that till last week I thought Washington State and California were right next to each other, and didn't realise Oregon was in between. I guess Americans would be entitled to think me pretty stupid, or at least ignorant, for not knowing that.

This protestant/ catholic distinction was all about Henry VIII's wish to remarry so s of very little relevance to most people on Earth. The distinctions between these particular sky fairies are so small that for most people they are an irrelevance.

@MrsZola

A teacher colleague who was teaching about Captain Scott and had literally no clue about the differences between the Arctic and the Antarctic! She didn't even know which one was which. 🤦‍♀️ How did she ever pass her training?!

To be fair Captain Scott wasn't exactly clued up about the Antarctic either.

@Ericaequites omg that reminds me! Not stupid but memorable, upon getting our sex Ed classes at school there was one lad being very vocal and class clown and "wahey we get to see a vagina" about it all (as an adult I now understand this was likely bravado and trying to joke his way through)

So all fine during the conception part, still mouthing off but the fairly graphic (but not overly so) birth part? He passed out cold!

We were in the science lab so sat on stupid science lab stools no backs or arms and it was my first experience of someone going down on a hard surface (my mums prone to fainting at sight of blood but that always happened on carpet at least if she didn't make it near to a chair or she'd drop herself down as safely as possible if she felt it coming on or knew a bleeding child was headed her way!)

Absolute sickening thud! How he didn't crack his head to this day I've no idea!

Of course after his clown act he got the piss ripped out of him for weeks by the other lads. Poor kid.

@PolkadotGiraffe it was a TAD more complicated than simply Henry viii marrying the ow! That's very much the dumbed down version! There were political, financial and related issues about issue - as in heirs that were actually his main concern.

He needed to create a legitimate Male heir as well as needing to increase income, power etc at what was an extremely volatile period of history in Europe.

I'm a lapsed Catholic myself being agnostic these days at best and wavering towards atheism on occasion, but religion has never simply been about belief, it's been about power, control and management of populations.

Graphista- At thirteen, the whole thing is shocking for most. I want teens to wait as long as possible to have sex. However, teaching proper names for anatomy, discussing different methods of contraception (Hint: Catholic Roulette does not work!), their use, and how to obtain same is key. Talking about technique and female pleasure is embaressing, but watching porn to learn is far worse.
The depressing US MTV show Presgnant at 16 shows exactly how hard it is to have a baby while still in secondary school. It has lowered teen pregnancy rates in certain locales.

When DH was a student, he had a job as a tour guide at a famous Scottish castle, taking various groups around. Two favourite questions (from American visitors) “where’s the tennis court?” And “how much does the castle weigh?” . ;-)

As a 17 year old apprentice secretary I was doing some audio typing dictated by a very stern scary solicitor and he said a word I didn't understand. I asked his secretary what a "fernelli" was. She said she didn't know and had never heard it before. She asked me to repeat what he was saying. I explained that he was dictating a name and was saying "N fernelli Smith". I thought it was some weird Latin word for a punctuation mark.

I felt very silly when she explained that he was saying "N (for Nelly) Smith"

In a local supermarket. Tub of meatballs. £5 each and special offer £10 for 2!!!!! Tbf the beef chilli is £5.50 though it only recently had also been £5 with same special offer

In a local supermarket. Tub of meatballs. £5 each and special offer £10 for 2!!!!!

That's not so daft.

Back in the late 1950s my dad worked for a grocer, they had tins of fruit that were not selling, the grocer put the fruit together with evaporated milk and a price about the the cost of buying them separately and they sold.

@MrsClatterbuck

In a local supermarket. Tub of meatballs. £5 each and special offer £10 for 2!!!!! Tbf the beef chilli is £5.50 though it only recently had also been £5 with same special offer

I was once doing a charity bake sale in school (I was staff, not pupil). A sixth former who got at least B at GCSE Maths came up and asked the price. As a joke I said '30p each or three for a pound'. He actually gave me the £1 for three thinking he was getting a deal! I felt embarrassed for him as I explained and gave him the change.

@Fink that’s funny but I don’t think it’s stupidity. The child would expect you, the adult, and person selling, to be correct. It’s not something they’d expect you to joke about, or be wrong about. So I don’t like that a stupid lack of basic maths, but just them not thinking about it in that situation.

@Bathtubgin that's really interesting. Dp is an only child and his parents didn't conceive for fifteen years. We are now 35 and two years into ttc. I always thought it was me tho.

Back when I met my DP we were having a conversation about weird animals like the Platypus. I told him that I really loved narwhales and he laughed at me, like full belly laughed and told me that narwhales aren't real 🙄 literally argued about it for a good half an hour and couldn't convince him. About a week later a documentary was on with narwhales the shock on his face was hilarious.

I had a friend at uni. She had very little general knowledge, if they didn’t do it at school, it never happened. I remember arguing about Charles Mason, which she told me I had made up or seen a movie with that story. I wish I could remember more but it was constant.

Hint: Catholic Roulette does not work!

Haha

I'm actual living proof of that!!

I was pregnant at 18 myself due to pill failure (taking Absolutely correctly I was paranoid! Plus no meds or upset stomachs or anything) ended in mc and after that I doubled up (condoms and pill) unless actively ttc

I've been criticised on here AND in real life for how open and brutally honest I've been with dd about sex, consent, pregnancy, stis etc especially as I've nursed aids patients (and I DO mean aids not hiv positive)

Dd is almost 20 and no grandkids! (Small yay! ) she's just returned to studying and actually has said she's sworn off men for now (we'll see how long that lasts though)

I was just saying on another thread I may have been a bit TOO good at preparing her as she dumps at the drop of a hat (or at least at the drop of an annoying noisy eater!)

She certainly doesn't tolerate sexist, entitled arses which means she's already doing a damn sight better than I was at her age!

@MrsClatterbuck Funnily enough that's something else I've drummed into dd

Not to accept special offers at face value but calculate if they're actually cheaper

You know that scene in friends where mr geller says

"10% of your pay check, where does it go?"

And Monica and Ross auto respond

"In the bank"?

Well by the time she was 8 we had

"What is advertising for?"

"To make you spend money/buy things you don't need to!"

The child would expect you, the adult, and person selling, to be correct

Why? I'd expect a child of that age to understand salesmanship and sarcasm and quickly be able to size up the reality of that situation