Do you ever wonder how you ended up with such massive gaps in your general knowledge?

[whippet]

I do.
Especially if I visit a museum or gallery with the kids, and they ask me a historical question...

I seem to have somehow missed whole centuries of history, and find it really difficult to match up social, political and cultural periods.

Do you bluff and quickly read the guide, or go home and look things up?

Everyone in the family still takes the piss out of FIL, who came home one day many years ago and announced in amazed tones that amber was actually fossilised tree sap.

DH keeps the laptop under the sofa for moments like these - instant access to Wikipedia y'see

OMG whippet, i remember exactly the moment our dragon German teacher at school flustered when explaining 'mir ist heiss' and 'ich bin heiss'. PMSL at the memory