things you didnt know, but should... mine is rice :/

[RainbowsAndFrogs]

i honestly have just had to google how rice is made. i wasnt sure if it was man made or grown. i know
i knew but wasnt 100%

honestly i have A levels and generally educated, although apparently not as much as i thought?

please tell me im not alone!

@amispeakingenglish

It was only a few years ago that I realised the teams in University Challenge didn't actually sit in tiers.

Ha ha ha, have you not seen that episode of The Young Ones? Wasn’t it Vyvan who kicks through the floorboards into the lower tier to boot one of Footlights college?

My Astra automatic you can override the auto and use gears. I think technically they’re known as semi autos but most autos have this feature now. Never used it, I considered it when I drove into a flood and realised I was losing revs but decided it was too late to work out how to do it and accepted my fate!

@LadyFlumpalot
Thank you so very much for sharing that dancing Jews YouTube video! It has made my day...there is still hope in the world!

@Tinselandbaubauls

I thought palm oil came from gorillas hands 🤦‍♀️ I’ve no idea where that came from. I’m nearly 50 and usually fairly bright 😂

well if olive oil comes from olives, and palm oil from palms, where does baby oil come from ? !!

@sashh my Ford S max did, our Citroen C4 Picasso does, many Honda models do but not my CRV.

The gears in an automatic car is called a triptronic gear box. I had a 2007 automatic volvo that could switch to manual gears and my mums 2007 Peugeot also has this ability, so not just new cars. Not sure if it exists in all automatics tho......and now I've typed it I'm doubting my knowledge. I might have to google it just to be sure.
I CAN change wheels, oil, washer fluid etc on cars but I also choose to pay a very nice mechanic to keep an eye on it all. Also drive a car with lots of warning lights when I need to look at these things

My mum used to think that beeswax came out of bees' ears. She knew that this piece of knowledge was questionable, on account of the fact that bees don't have discernable ears, so the harvesting of beeswax would be a desperately forensic procedure. She couldn't stop herself believing it though, and she shuddered at the thought of the stuff.

Ages ago somebody was giving out Mince pies at the hospital where I work. One of my colleagues (who may or may not have been a doctor) refused his ‘because I don’t eat beef

Was it a language/cultural thing? I know more than one first generation immigrant who thought this - fair enough, really!

Hebrides - I am another who is glad that someone else got to read the passage out in class, as I thought it was He-brides rather than Heb-rid-eze. Still remember this close call nearly 30 years later!

Not eating mince pies because you don't eat beef makes sense to me. Doesn't (sweet) mincemeat have suet in it?

@wellthatsunusual

Not eating mince pies because you don't eat beef makes sense to me. Doesn't (sweet) mincemeat have suet in it?

That's quite a different matter. Mincemeat mostly these days contains vegetarian suet (which is obtained from the fat that surrounds a vegetable's organs, to the best of my knowledge), and is nothing to do with actual meat that's been minced.

Although it is bloody confusing and stupid.

I only recently realised that gherkins (yum) were pickled cucumbers. I thought they were a different vegetable.

Much hilarity ensued when I expressed my surprise after reading it on a jar. Who knew?

@Thecobwebsarewinning one that isn't mine but seen on a thing where travel agents were reporting the daftest complaints they've had

A British couple holidaying in the Caribbean, became friendly with a couple from Florida. Complaint? That their new made friends flight "home" was a far shorter flight than theirs! It apparently took some time and directing them to look at a map of the world to get them to understand it was because their friends had a far shorter distance to go!

It's mentioned in this article along with some other crackers but I've seen the tale told in more depth

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.loveexploring.com/galleries/amp/69553/the-worlds-most-ridiculous-travel-complaints-ranked

I'm just remembering as a customer service person myself I've had complaints such as

"We were overcharged, nobody told us there's an extra charge for whatever vat is supposed to be for"

Don't even get me started on the number of people who think or at least claim they can get one item free as its part of a bogof or 3 for 2 deal!

In hotels shocking number of people don't understand the need for checking out on time "well can't the maid just do our room last?" Etc

I often mention on such threads by brothers "epiphany" regarding his understanding of USA fear of ussr during Cold War and particularly the Cuban missile crisis. The discussion involved getting out a large world atlas (pre internet days( for parents to show him just how close Cuba was to USA!

Dd upon reading a passage of Harry Potter to me first pronunciation of hermione was herm-Ee-won bless her. I corrected her but to be fair it's hardly a common name!

When I was younger I mispronounced Alicia in Mallory towers to mum as A-lick-I-ah - again which mum corrected without fuss. I'd never met an Alicia it wasn't a popular name in either my or mums generation I don't think.

MY brothers not BY brothers obviously - flaming autocorrect!

but in UK, VAT-inclusive prices must be shown where VAT is or might be chargeable.
eg, if a trade counter also sells to consumers, prices may be shown both with and without VAT, but a consumer must be able to ascertain, without asking, how much they will have to pay for an item.
VAT-exclusive prices alone may only be used where the business sells only to trade customers, ie VAT is not payable.

@alexdgr8

but in UK, VAT-inclusive prices must be shown where VAT is or might be chargeable. eg, if a trade counter also sells to consumers, prices may be shown both with and without VAT, but a consumer must be able to ascertain, without asking, how much they will have to pay for an item. VAT-exclusive prices alone may only be used where the business sells only to trade customers, ie VAT is not payable.

but not in the us. there the tax (different in every state) is added at the till. it's mightily annoying if you have a limited budget and have to fish for pennies in your pants at the till.

@ShelbyCherryBlossom

"Blood is thicker than water" actually means the complete opposite of what everyone uses it for. It means that the blood spilt between soldiers in battle is thicker than the water of the womb, so basically friends who stand by you are more important than those you're related to.

Only learnt this recently after my grandpa kept saying it and I googled its origin. I love telling people now that I know!

It’s not, you know. The earliest medieval usages make it very plain by specifying that ‘Kin-blood’ is thicker than water.

@Fizbosshoes

havent RTFT Until a few years ago I thought silicon valley was named that because so many people had plastic surgery there

I thought that too.

On a related subject, I thought that silicon and silicone were more or less the same thing, but they are completely different. I thought it was the same sort of thing as shit and shite.

Apologies to @sashh my @ should have been for @drinkingwineoutofamug - honest question and relevant to thread: does it taste the same from a mug - OK if mulled I guess.

Dh always calls a baby horse a fowl. (Not foal... for some totally only known to him reason)
Well did until our 6 year old loudly informed him “It’s a HORSE Dad! Not a chicken.
And they aren’t gross they are beautiful.”

My youngest (3) can’t be talked out of the thought that small dogs aren’t cats.
Anything under a certain size in her eyes is a cat. (Her limit is about her knees)

“Hey! That’s not even a dog. That is just a CAT! Why are you walking a cat??”
Has been yelled to someone as they walked by with his French bulldog on a lead.

That Robert Palmer is dead

My youngest (3) can’t be talked out of the thought that small dogs aren’t cats

Mine did that but younger, before he could talk. He used to toddle after small dogs shouting meow meow and pointing.

"Blood is thicker than water but love is thicker than blood"
I love that sentiment in relation to adoption- DH was adopted - he hit the jackpot. His family are so loving.

It's actually in the lyrics of some country and western song- that's where I heard it first.

A friend on a cruise to the South Atlantic got chatting to a couple of Americans.
They eyed her layers of fleece and goretex and said they had had to buy coats in Patagonia because they had only brought summer clothes.
How had my friend known it would be cold, they wondered, since it usually got hotter the further south you went?
I can't believe they hadn't looked at or taken in the pictures in the brochure if nothing else.

I have just had to look up silicon vs silicone

@LadyEloise

"Blood is thicker than water but love is thicker than blood" I love that sentiment in relation to adoption- DH was adopted - he hit the jackpot. His family are so loving.

It's actually in the lyrics of some country and western song- that's where I heard it first.

sting - seven brothers