what stunningly obvious pieces of knowledge escaped you for years and years?

[thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat]

I managed 25 years of life without knowing who Pele was. I managed 36 years without knowing a dodge was a kind of american car. dh managed 25 years without realising that the name The Beatles was a play on the word beat. how do educated well-read people manage stuff like this? and don't you love it when you learn something like that?

Yes, I still mumble "Off their own ba..." Misled = mizzled and albeit = albay.

Used to think you could only be a judge if called Justice

Oxford English Dictionary has it as di try tuss

Parasol from the latin parasole, shield the sun.

Have never heard it said de trit us

Glass used to and may still be made from sand.

That the those little ships in bottles are inserted flat, then once in cotton is used to pull it up IYGWIM.

that if you chop up a chilli pepper never itch your eyes straight afterwards.

I always thought Gibraltar was an island...I've learned loads of things off this thread

I thought Gibraltar was an island and all the bits joining it to Spain was land reclaimed from the sea!!!

Until I got pregnant I assumed that breastmilk came out of one tiny hole in the centre of the nipple and not from the whole of the nipple. Felt really stupid when I found out, like suddenly being told I had a third nostril or something

No MT! The naval is where the umbilical cord was attached to the person when it was a foetus.

You know that right?

Tamum, hahahahahaha at John Craven and the sprouts! and at edam having an immersion heater and at suzywongs owl bottoms, hilarious thread, thanks everyone!

Oh god, I've remembered, I used to take my clothes to the launderette and when the light came on on the washing machine next to the 'add conditioner' button, I thought you had to add fabric conditioner at that exact moment! so I used to sit there watching and waiting for the light to come on. Wasted many an afternoon just watchnig the washing machine, I must have looked like a loon.

I can't think of anything that I personally was astounded to discover at the minute,but I have known people who thought the following.

That you needed a passport to visit the Isle of Wight.
That if you had a laddder long enough you could climb to the moon,as it was only 4 miles away.

That Hitler was a goalie for the German team & that Himmler was a defender,during Euro96.

That Chihuahua dogs were called Chi- hewer-hewers.

Another friend asked me if the total eclipse of the sun would be during the day or during the night.

Have just read this whole thread absolutely crying, hilarious, the two messages below were the funniest for me, really made my day.

I thought the 'skin contact' things I found had been stuck on me after giving birth were because I had requested 'skin on skin contact' after delivery and the midwives had 'labelled me' But then I was totally out of it.

by Tigertum

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this is not quite the same but worth a go

A few years back, for some bizarre reason, we and another couple were talking about owl pellets and how owls can only bring solids up, not down as they have no bottoms.

My friend looked aghast and said "really? Well how do they have sex then?"

Needless to say we looked askance at her husband.

by suzywong

that if a man pays you a lot of attention, it generally it means he wants to go to bed with you

the John Craven/John Lennon confusion was one of my posts, about an old friend of mine

it still makes me laugh out loud if I think of it

suzywong's is HILARIOUS

I recently learnt that the word 'Arctic' is derived from Arktos, 'the bear' in Greek, due to the Great Bear constellation above the North Pole, meaning there are Polar Bears (natch) in the Arctic but not in the Antarctic. Guess you all knew that!!!

I love Mirage's friend asking if the eclipse of the sun would be at night or during the day! PMSL

I think I've turned my immersion heater off now and we still have hot water...

You know that road sign with the car with stones flying out from under the wheel,that roadmenders put out to warn you of loose chippings?Well,it was only a few weeks ago that I realised that it was actually a car on the sign.Until then,I'd thought it was a picture of some kind of roadmending equipment like a jackhammer or something.I was sitting in a traffic queue gazing idly at the sign when I realised what it actually depicted.

I also only found out that sheep have no teeth on their upper jaws,a few months ago.I grew up on a farm & we had hundreds of sheep & I didn't know that.

pmsl at this, it's really cheered me up tonight!

Until a few weeks ago, I thought that Poseidon was based on true events, much like Titanic.
Until I was pregnant, I too thought that babies were connected to the mums belly button. It wasn't until I watched The Absys that I found out that til a baby is born they breath fluids - I honestly did not know.

My sister did not know what flies came from maggots til the other day. Also, when I was younger, I wrote a christmast list asking for 'various paraphernalia' as it was a new word I'd learnt. My sister said to my mum that she'd been looking everywhere for it and couldn't find it. We still tease her about that. Also she thought that woodlice were armadillios. Dont ask.

My younger sister used to get annoyed when she'd call me a daughter of a bitch but couldn't work out why I didn't find it offensive but my mum did.

God, what else?? Must think... oh somebody mentioned it but my sister was whinging the other day that she couldn't do her washing because she was waiting for my dad to fix her water heater. I explained she could use her washer because it heated the water - ie water doesn't come out the tap at 30, 40 & 60 degrees. She'd been lugging her washing to my mums for a month. I about peed myself laughing.

do you know what? whilst I can appreciate that their lack of bottoms is totally irrelevant I'm not entirely sure I know how owls do have sex

I found out as a teenager that tounge meat was actually cows tounges, I just thought it was a funny name.

I used to pronounce anxiety - ang-she-ty