When the penny drops about dumb things that you should have known!

[malificent7]

For ages I thought there was a poster called Tia. I always used to think it was a bit weird that they would sign their name....not very anonymous. Now I realise it means thanks in advance.
I am 45.

I worked with a colleague who was sent out alone on a client visit - something which we tried to avoid as much as possible as her sense of direction was not the best. About half an hour after she was supposed to have arrived, she phoned the office to say that she was lost and could we help - this was before the days of Satnavs, but she did have a mobile phone.

Me: "OK, are there any road signs?"
Colleague: "Yes, I'm on a dual carriageway and there are some signs..."
Me: "Good ... Tell me what the next sign says"
Colleague: "Um ... LOOSE CHIPPINGS"
🙄

No. High fidelity sound means the quality of sound will be excellent, i.e. very faithful to the sound quality of the music or speech that was recorded.

14 nights?

Ar(k)tos. Well done. I'll give you that one. But surely Latin is a more common base for a deriviative.
Hence "ursine" .
Soz for the derail

An Iranian friend (living in the UK) has a dog. Her BF had had an accident and needed a lot of care and she was under a lot of stress with her job.

She told me that they'd set the dog to the farm.

I reacted.

Her BF's uncle genuinely lives on a farm. She'd never heard the expression.

Delia Smith actually explains this in one of her books. I remember thinking, “Who the bloody hell would need that explained?!” Now I know 😁

😳

I love the word sennight for 7 nights.

I briefly thought about using it instead of week in a one-woman mission to bring it back into common parlance.

Then I realised I'd just sound like a twat.

Yes it's a shortened form of fourteen nights. The same as when we say sennight to mean one week, it's a shortened form of seven nights.

That is has it is pronounced in French.

I found that out last year when our machine stopped draining, I have never cleaned out a washing machine filter in the over 20 years of having one in my own house, there was the thinnest piece of plastic in there causing the issue.

Why do so many people repeat this story as thought it's new and happened to them? If they didn't put the Ausfahrt and the Einbahnstasse stories together every time it wouldn't seem so made up, but you never read one without the other.

"My brother thought Ausfahrt was a very big city for the same reason and a friend couldn't find her car but told the Gerrman policeman she's parked in Einbahnstrasse, one way street."

Sure, but the words Arctic (and Antarctic) are derived from a Greek word.

@Dotjones that's what I meant!

You were right. Your someone was wrong. Signed, someone old enough to know 😁

PS I expect they think you tow the line too. You don't, you toe it (ie stand exactly up to itbut don't step over)

It's 'another think', not 'another thing' - this always comes up on these threads too!

Me too on this one!

No, no no! It is think. It has been debated to death.

But if you think it's thing then you have another think coming.

I used to think it was Scottish for some reason I don't know why.

My granddad always thought that Slade sang "did your granny always tell you, hang your old socks on the bed" so that Father Christmas would come and fill them.

F

My brother did something very similar in Germany. “Ausfahrt must be a huge place!”

We're veering into Pedant's Corner now. But what annoys me is Low and Behold. I see that a lot on here.

My BFF is from Australia. She'd never heard of Banoffee pie until she moved here some 20 years ago. The name had to be explained.

This one is my absolute favourite 😁

This is, hands down, my favourite fact of the year so far!