Ridiculous things you've only recently realised you've been wrong about your entire life

[Seasidedolly]

I genuinely thought if you pulled the reverse cord on ceiling fans, it would circulate warm air.

My friend thought the yellow average speed cameras on motorways were there to look for missing children.

I had another recent revelation but I can't remember it now

Its not bad that you believed it.

What is bad is why the hell your gran said it! What kind of conversation happened that led to that assertion?!

Glady my granny is a very absurd woman, I cannot remember how it came about but it wouldn't surprise me if she said it as a fleeting comment (in all seriousness)

StrangeLooking - are you thinking of Loos in France as in the Battle of?

Must remember that - fantastic :)

So I was a waitress in my early 20's (will mention at this point that I am a life long vegetarian) and I went in to get the next order. The Chef said 'gammon stake' to which I replied in front of the whole kitchen 'wow, that fish much have been massive!'
😳
About 20 people nearly passed out laughing.

(Turns out that the fact Salmon rhyming with Gammon does not make gammon stake fish)
#VegeterianLogic

Also, 37 and I thought it was Hand Gliding. Hang Gliding sounds like some kind of medieval punishment!

I was most disappointed when I went to the zoo I was 15 which makes it even more embarrassing and saw that penguins don't in fact build their own little igloos to sleep in.....they just have nests like a normal bird
Sodding Pingu lied to me

Iguanatail you have just taught me something. First, second.... It does make sense.

When I was a child in the 80s I used to get very excited about the radio adverts for a three peice suite thinking it was some kind of delicious new variety of humbug or something

Iguana, I've learnt something new today too!

I'm 35, and until recently I thought that capers were tiny fish. They're not apparently. Who knew!

It was the Lord's Prayer, as a child that had me flummoxed. For years, well into my teens, I thought the words were "Our Father,who aren't in Heaven" I used to wonder where he was! ,then was told it was Who art heaven.! Oops :-)

Awww :)

I thought until very recently (2years ago, I'm 45) that afghan coats, from the 70's, were made from afghan hounds !

I thought it was "A load be thy name."

As a child,I mean !

Another prayer-related one is that there's a book called A Monk Swimming. I never read it, but it was quite heavily promoted about 15 (?) years ago, and I used to see it in the bookshops and puzzle endlessly over the title.

It was only years later that I worked out the title came from the main character's mishearing of the Hail Mary. "Blessed art thou a monk swimming."

what an utterly super thread. Made my day . (and jesus tonight there's alot of shit i don't know)

This thread needs to go in classics. It's really made me smile.

i went to a catholic convent primary school so we learnt a lot about jesus etc it confused me that he was born at xmas yet died as a man at easter just a few months apart i was about ten before i realised he was born at xmas and died at easter 33 yrs later.

Was feeling very smug for knowing hang gliding, and Gibraltar and Arkansas and ..... then got pulled up very short indeed at Dontbuy's revelation about New York. Was certain it was about the song. Doh!

I give you in turn the shameful admission that for years I thought 'nano' was a made up kid's word, like gazillion.

When I was at school I thought the Conservatives were also known as the Tory party because it was short for Conservatory.

I've just realised I sort of thought this too, only I'm 28. It was a half formed thought I'd never spoken aloud.* Despite knowing about the Whigs and Tories, I didn't realise those Tories were different from today's Tories, well until I just googled now.

*This plus the "any veh" revelation has made me realise I need to stop making assumptions without actually thinking through properly or checking for facts.

Any veh is funniest thing since plates in tumble drier.

any veh reminds me that many years ago when I was an auditor I had to go through a huge file of sales invoices. They were all printed off from the client's computer system. There was a little box showing the customer's postal address to which the invoice would be sent and another little box that could be used to show the delivery address if that was different. After a while I remarked to one of my colleagues that it was odd that so many orders placed by different customers were being delivered to the same place - were they maybe all using the same delivery company? My colleague asked what I meant. 'Look', I said. 'Here's one - it's going to DEL ASAP.' It took me several moments to work out why my colleague thought this was hilarious.

Any veh would lead to traffic chaos with Germans driving erratically.

I absolutely love this thread.

I have nothing to contributed at the moment as I have evidently blocked any memory of times it's dawned on me that my belief as wrong.