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Original poster

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

324 replies

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 25/07/2006 22:03

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?

OP posts:
throckenholt · 26/07/2006 08:35

ah - see I was never any good at anagrams - and dome to that I am not sure I even know who/what Axl Rose is (a rock band maybe ?)

Tutter · 26/07/2006 08:35

singer of guns n roses

throckenholt · 26/07/2006 08:36

ah - contra is against - para is for

throckenholt · 26/07/2006 08:37

hmm - I have heard of guns n roses ...

CarolinaMoose · 26/07/2006 08:39

That a courgette is a fruit. People point out that tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables but loads of "vegetables" are actually fruit (peppers, green beans, aubergines...).

Kittypickle · 26/07/2006 08:47

I hated having baths and usually had showers until I was 22 as I thought they were very uncomfortable. Then someone pointed out that the taps wouldn't stick into my back if I sat at the other end.

That if you are smoking (in my sillier, younger days) in the back of a convertible with the roof down pelting down the motorway at goodness knows how many miles an hour, there is no need to ask where the ashtray is.

BettySpaghetti · 26/07/2006 08:52

Missed this thread last night -what an education I'm having this early in the morning!

treacletart · 26/07/2006 08:52

I had a friend at university who thought that a vegetarian pizza shouldnt contain mushrooms because mushrooms were fungus and therefore meat (?!)

throckenholt · 26/07/2006 08:53

I once saw a frightening film whn I was a kid with the main character called Agatha (Frankenstein maybe ?). For years I was convinced anything by Agatha Christie would be a horror film and would never watch them.

Now I know better, but just find them boring, so still don't watch them

MrsBadger · 26/07/2006 08:54

I thought that sprouts grew in the ground too, like tiny tiny cabbages
was flabberghasted when I first saw them actually growing.

Also thought for years that Heidi etc lived in a challett, and a 'shallay' was something completely different.
And that Cheshunt was actually called Chestnut.
And after getting the hang of Worcester, Towcester, Gloucester etc believed that Cirencester was pronounced Chichester and they were the same place.
And that Billericay was in Ireland not Essex - thought it must be a long commute to get to school in London...

throckenholt · 26/07/2006 09:02

Chestnut ? I thought it was Chesunt ?

MrsBadger · 26/07/2006 09:03

aha, I'm not the only one!

you spell it Cheshunt
you say it Chesunt
and chestnuts are the things you roast on braziers

foxinsocks · 26/07/2006 09:15

lol at this

I remember the old thread with John Lennon - there were loads of other slebs that people didn't realise had died aswell!

FWIW, I think I have an immersion heater and I have never checked whether it is on or off but we have a british gas man who comes once a year and hopefully, he has done what he's supposed to do to it

foxinsocks · 26/07/2006 09:15

british gas man who comes round

bakedpotato · 26/07/2006 09:33

I believed until recently that if a job ad stipulated that you had to apply 'in writing', you had to handwrite your application, which would then go to the graphologist in personnel

NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2006 09:38

Mushrooms are umami. But not meat.

DumbledoresGirl · 26/07/2006 09:40

I am amazed at how ignorant my felow Mners are!

harpsichordcarrier · 26/07/2006 09:43

"Cirencester was pronounced Chichester...."
remind me never to ask you for directions MRsB

harpsichordcarrier · 26/07/2006 09:43

"Cirencester was pronounced Chichester...."
remind me never to ask you for directions MRsB

brimfull · 26/07/2006 09:43

is it harpsichord?

MrsBadger · 26/07/2006 09:45

in my defence I'd got over most of those mistakes by the time I was eleven...

Northerner · 26/07/2006 09:48

I didn't know taht about the beatles either.

Am really emabarassed to post this but I didn't realise identical twins ahd to be the same sex (Durr!!!) untill I asked a lady with boy/girl twins 'are they identical'???

Oh how stupid I felt.

Work with a girl who during a religous discussion asked how Jesus died. Durr!!!

FlameSparrow · 26/07/2006 09:52

Loving this thread

What do they do in golf??

pmsl @ the 2 women who were the same one.

Detritus completely confused me, but for different reasons - met DH, and he had made what he called "Deetrius" from Discworld... tried reading the books later and thought "Oh! He means Detritus!" (To be fair, he is dyslexic. Hours of entertainment there - the best being him trying to read Harry Potter aloud to me, and he just could not get his head round Hermione).

Beatles - I spelt beetle wrong at school for years - I blame my parents. Oooh, and I remember my first year at senior school, seeing the word "Britons" written, and suddenly being convinced that I had been spelling Britain wrong (and had the bright idea of changing to Briton for a test). It would have been slightly less embarrassing had I not been at a grammar school!

harpsichordcarrier · 26/07/2006 09:53

oh and I thought Persephone was pronounced purse-see-fone.
and canapes can-apes

NotAnOtter · 26/07/2006 09:55

what is axl rose an anagram for? sorry brain fuzzy!