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Original poster

What stupid things have you believed/said/assumed before finding out to your embarrassment you were wrong?

411 replies

CookieRookie · 27/08/2011 13:38

Could do with a laugh today

Here's mine...

1 - I thought a filet mignon was something presented on fire, you know with brandy or something...a flamin yon Blush

2 - I thought rollmops where called roll 'em ups because they're rolled up but I was kind of right with that one.

Not hilarious, though dh did laugh at me til he was nearly sick, but I'm hoping some of you have much better, more embarrassing ones.

OP posts:
cumbria81 · 29/08/2011 20:18

Similar to the "chester draws" above, I receive an email at work inviting me to a summer fair with a "Tom Bowler".

AlfieandAnnieRose · 29/08/2011 20:32

We had a supply teacher for our history class when we were about to take our mock GCSE's. The teacher was a bit quirky and different to our other strict teachers. Anyway we were learning about Florence Nightingale and he said 'Did you know what she was gay?'.

So when a question came up in our mocks - What was the one thing no one knew about Florence Nightingale?' I immediately wrote what I believed to be true! When our real teacher came back and handed back our papers she brought this question up as she could not believe what someone had written, yes i was the only one! She named and shamed me!

olibeansmummy · 29/08/2011 20:35

On the theme of religion, when I was a child I thought Jesus was born at Christmas, grew up really really fast and died at Easter, in the same year!

LRDTheFeministDragon · 29/08/2011 20:42

Pacific that is awesome. And makes so much more sense.

notcitrus · 29/08/2011 20:47

More religion - somehow, despite primary school assemblies and 3 years of Sunday School, I thought belief in gods and religions had died out with the Victorians and now it was just nice tradition.

So then I was interviewed for a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school - never done an interview in my life. I find the first teacher - I only have her name, not subject.

She confirms who I am and her name. Then she leans over and says "Now, dear, what does God mean to you?"
Totally blank, eventually I mutter "Er... not much really, why?"
She tries again. "Well, what sort of people believe in God?"
Phew - I think I know the answer to this one. I've seen Blue Peter go to Ethiopia and stuff.
"People in third world countries who don't know any better."

At this point the RE teacher had an asthma attack and had to be taken to hospital. Blush

notmydog · 29/08/2011 21:11

I always thought wellies are boots you wear OVER your normal shoes, kind of like raincoats for your feet. That was until I got my first pair a few years back. I'm 41.

LunaticFringe · 29/08/2011 21:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PacificDogwood · 29/08/2011 21:26

Tom Bowler, arf Grin - took me a while to get it, too

notcitrus, you are going straight to that Hot Place, aren't you, but you know that Wink.

LRD And I really got it from one of Colin Dexter's Morse books: didn't believe it, looked it up et voila. I shall henceforth use the phrase at every opportune or inopportune occasion and irritate educate everybody with my superior knowledge Grin.
Oh, oh, I could post it in Pedant's Corner, couldn't I?!

PacificDogwood · 29/08/2011 21:27

Lunatic, x-post.
Clark Gable could never be an innocent, no matter what he exactly said Grin[drool]

Xales · 29/08/2011 22:12

Just asked 10 year old DS and he knows about ligers and tigons and which way around they are too! I didn't know Blush

BalloonSlayer · 29/08/2011 22:39

notmydog - galoshes are the wellie-type things you wear over your shoes. I think.

Thumbwitch · 30/08/2011 05:08

Hmmmmmm. Much though I love the "i don't give a dam" referring to some old and very small Indian coin, I'm having troubles with it. According to this page on Wiki, it is folk etymology in Indian English; but doesn't say that is the categoric definition.

It seems that it's been a longheld (2 centuries plus) view that the word involved is "damn", not dam - but who knows!

This has led me on a factfinding mission [saddo] and have followed through the thought about "not giving a tinker's (sorry) cuss" being related to not giving a damn - and have found this:
not giving a tinker's damn/cuss
"The etymology given for this phrase indicates that it is the solder used by tinkers to mend pewter ware.
I always understood that the tinker actually had a small device among his tools that he could use to dam up molten solder and hold it in place over a repair. It was this tool that was actually a tinker's dam and not the solder itself. But I have no basis for this conjecture except having read it somewhere, years ago. If someone doesn't give a tinker's dam (or cuss) the they are reckoned to be completely indifferent to the outcome of an event. Dam (note the lack of a terminal "n") is used today to describe a structure for holding back water; so it was in the days of tinkers. They used to travel the country earning their livings mending pots and pans and sharpening knives. They would mend the pots by filling the leak on the inside with some clay and then repairing the outside with permanent material. When this was done the clay was discarded. The clay stopper was the tinker's dam. The dam was also known as a cuss. Both were worthless, hence the saying.
An alternative explanation is based on the supposed frequency that tinkers swore - so frequent that the value of their 'damn' was worthless. You choose - I prefer the first explanation. "
Found here

So it seems that there really is no definitive answer to this one!

justanothertenminutes · 30/08/2011 10:33

Until my early twenties I thought that an Anchovy was something a bit like an Olive. I've no idea why I thought this but it made for an interesting trip to the Sea Life centre.

Blush
aliceliddell · 31/08/2011 12:23

Oh, the shoals of shimmering olives just off the Azores! (Azores are tasty pickled vegetables served as appetizers. Delicious)

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 31/08/2011 14:50

I am crying at A Kestrel Manoeuvres in the Dark and Henry's "catch these threads - it's their final day!" MN confusion.

I only realised a few years ago that cod liver oil is made from cod. From their livers to be precise. I never even realised it was made from fish, what kind of madman would make medicine from fish?

In my defence I had never tasted it (thank feck) nor seen it written down and would probably have spelt it "codlevroil" :o

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 31/08/2011 14:57

When I first went on a transatlantic flight (in economy ? start as you mean to go on!), it was a night flight. After drinks and dinner were cleared away I sat expectantly, truly thinking that the cabin crew were going to show us all to our night quarters at any moment.

I was nearly twenty. Blush

fegwood · 31/08/2011 16:49

I thought HMV stood for Her Majesty's Videos.

NanBullen · 31/08/2011 18:30

for some reason I have until this year very recently thought that Good Friday was actually called Black Friday.

I have no idea why, possibly because jesus was killed on Good Friday? Was he? I have no clue tbh, I'm always just glad to have a day off!

Longtime · 31/08/2011 20:30

Am crying here LadyClarice!

Carrotsandcelery · 31/08/2011 21:10

LadyClarice- I can't imagine your Shock when if finally dawned on you Grin

justpaddling · 31/08/2011 21:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PacificDogwood · 31/08/2011 21:59

LadyClarice hahahahaha Grin - priceless!

Thumbwitch · 01/09/2011 06:18

NanBullen - yes, Jesus was killed on Good Friday and in the Lord of the Dance song it says:
"I danced on the Friday when the sky turned black..." So that may be where you got it from. :)

LadyClarice, I did laugh when I read your expectant post! Grin

NanBullen · 01/09/2011 09:33

Oh that song takes me back Thumbwitch !

nickelbabe · 01/09/2011 13:54

it was called Black Friday in the old days, actually.
I think (but don't quote me on this ) that Catholics called it Black Friday more often, but I have heard the phrase used in CofE too.