Did it ever take you years to pick up a piece of common knowledge that everyone else knew?

[Zavulon]

My girlfriend and I were talking about this last night, and we both had a great laugh over this topic.

I didn't learn what "registering" (for gifts, for a wedding) was until I had passed 30. I always had it in my mind that the word meant signing up for a time and date for a civil ceremony. One day someone told me his sister was registered at Macy's, and my first thought - which, after I told my lady about this last night, had her in stitches for HOURS - was "Who the fuck would get married in a department store?"

When I asked this guy to clarify, he looked at me like I had just arrived from somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. He then explained what registering for gifts meant, and I was dumbfounded. I immediately saw the practicality in the idea, but thought it was amazingly presumptuous. It wasn't until a while later that I found out how widespread the practice is.

I know it sounds silly, but it just never came up until then. My friends who had gotten married up to that point weren't the type to register, and in fact most of them eloped.

My girlfriend, on the other hand, didn't know that chain letters were illegal until she was over 30. She got one a few years back, and because she's superstitious she sent the ten copies out like she was told. The problem: she sent one of those copies to my sister. My sister didn't take it well, and when she explained to my girlfriend that it was illegal, my lady didn't believe her. My sister had to drum up the U.S. Postal Service website right in front of her to prove her point.

So, did any of you ever learn any piece of common knowledge years and years after everyone else in your age group knew it?

[Catsbrains]

1. HaHa

I didn't know the w in swordfish was silent until well into my twenties. I cringe when I think of all the times I ordered swordfish in restaurants!!

I also didn't know that when you say you are going to "jew someone down" on the price, that it is a racial slur. I honestly had no idea the two were connected. How embarrassing.

[Arugula Latte]

2. Note to Catsbrains:

"Gypped" or however you spell it, as in "that car mechanic gypped me" is also a slur (against gypsies). :)

[KamaAina]

11. As is to "welsh" on a bet, or be an "Indian giver"

I'm sure there are many more...

[petronius]

39. When I was younger, there were some lightweight cloth shoes that were popular

we called them 'jap slaps' or 'nip slips.' I'm not sure if it was because they were imported, or because they were particularly popular with the Vietnamese students...

[merh]

63. As is "paddywagon"

:hi:

[KamaAina]

64. Yeah you rite!

Where the heck you been? Rebuilt yet (one hopes...)? :hi:

[merh]

68. I'm doing much better

moved in new place Tues before thanksgiving :)



I hope things are going well at your end :pals:

[KamaAina]

13. Kinky Friedman always says "christian someone down" instead

:rofl:

Another Kinkster favorite: "I've gotta go take a Nixon."

[last_texas_dem]

16. I had the same experience with using the word "sheisty"

I learned the term from one of my friends in high school who was kind of a jerk and prone to using a variety of racial slurs. However, I never knew "sheisty" was one of these, and I thought it had a nice ring to it. I used it once, and my brother-in-law told me why I might not want to use that expression! (I was in my late teens at the time.) That was kinda embarrassing...

[Kat45]

30. I don't think I even know that word.

How is it pronounced and what does it mean? :shrug:

[last_texas_dem]

32. It's pronounced "shy-stee" and it means something along the lines of "sneaky" and/or "stingy"

My friend would use it when we were playing cards and someone did something that made him mad, and that was the context in which I used it the time that I did.

Looking up some information about it, it looks like it may be one of those words that has outlasted its racial slur connotations but I still wouldn't be comfortable using it. My understanding was that it was connected to the word "shyster" which came from Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and it was usually used as an insult for a Jewish lawyer, but from what I've read its origins seem to be a bit cloudier than that.

ON EDIT: I should add that I have little doubt that my friend was using it in a racist way. He's the only person I've ever known who actually used the phrase, "That's Jewish," to describe someone being stingy. Also, he was (maybe he's seen the light, at least to an extent) a big Bush-lover who probably would have fit in at Free Republic. To his credit, though, he's a Marine who is currently serving in Iraq, so at least he's not a chickenhawk!

[margotb822]

61. I never heard the term

"jew" used as a slur until I got to college. One of my roommates would say it about everything and I finally asked her what it meant. But, I don't really feel that I was missing out by not knowing that!

[MonkeyFunk]

3. It took me 12 years

to find out what my penis was REALLY for. Color me embarrassed!

[PeaceNikki]

5. So you went the 1st 12 years of life without thinking AT ALL!?

Totally kidding. I saw an obvious penis joke that hadn't been snagged up yet.

[MonkeyFunk]

19. Not exactly

I remember thinking how much I liked cartoons.

And pop tarts. I liked pop tarts.

The rest is mostly a blank.

[old mark]

48. So,

How did that turn out?

mark

[MsKandice01]

4. I drank White Zinfandel for years...

And I had no idea that it was considered crap until recently. I used to order it proudly while out to dinner with people who were real wine connoisseurs and didn't realize until later how big of a fool I must have looked.

Now, I drink Riesling, which is still just as sweet but at least it isn't pink. :)

[skygazer]

7. Actually, the fools are people who think their opinion is more important than others'

If you like white zinfandel, you should drink it and fuck all what anyone else thinks. I sell wine in a high-falutin' town and I wouldn't think of looking down my nose at what anyone chooses to drink (and plenty of those people like white zin). It's all a matter of personal taste.

[crimsonblue]

26. speaking of wine...

my favorite is pinor noir... any suggestions for the $15-25 range?

[last_texas_dem]

18. I had a similar experience

It wasn't until my early twenties that I learned that there are "food snobs" who look down on chain restaurants and the people who frequent them. While I was growing up, Red Lobster was the place you went for special occasions, and suddenly I'm learning that it's the type of place viewed with great disdain by food snobs. But, oh well, I haven't let this discovery change my eating habits. If I'm going to avoid eating at a restaurant it's going to be based on something I've learned about its service or its politics, not because some food snobs told me I'm not supposed to like it!

[harmonicon]

36. I don't think avoiding chain restaurants is about food snobbery

I think they partly exist because of a bourgeois desire for a certain level of service and cleanliness that people feel they will get from the sanitized atmosphere of these places. People also like to have identical experiences. I won't eat at chain restaurants because they hurt local business, not because I'm a food snob. I'd rather eat at the greasiest greasy spoon or the truckiest taco truck than a TGI Fridays.

[last_texas_dem]

37. I see your point

Like I said in my earlier post, I agree with avoiding places for political reasons like considering what they do to the local economy. But the first people I knew (and honestly, still the majority of the chain restaurant avoiders that I know) who avoided chain restaurants were the types who avoided them based on the idea that anything from a chain would simply destroy their sensitive palates; it was all about their own ideas of "taste" and had nothing to do with considerations of how chain restaurants fit into a broader context, like what effect they have on small businesses.

[harmonicon]

52. I'm with you there - those people totally suck

I'm not above eating at McDonalds, I'd just rather there be a locally run option - often there isn't, especially in places like airports.

[Tikki]

6. I thought it was...

take it for granite...like something was 'rock solid'
...it is actually take it for granted...like it is assumed to be something that is correct.


Tikki

[seaglass]

8. This is really embarrassing. I didn't know until I was toilet

training my son that guys do not wipe themselves after they pee (well, I knew some guys didn't but I thought they just had bad hygiene). In fact, if my husband hadn't seen me teaching my son to wipe himself I never would have known.:blush:

[MsKandice01]

9. I have a feeling there are a lot of mothers...

Who have had the same experience.

[Monk06]

40. My second son learned to pee by watching his mother. He would get off

get off the toilet, take a piece of TP and
dob his little acorn with it.

First time I saw him do it I just about
pissed myself it was so cute.

[JTG of the PRB]

10. I always used to say "for all intensive purposes..."

...until my dad corrected me a few years ago. Seriously, people would say it so fast, I had no idea that it was actually "for all intents and purposes!"

[margotb822]

24. I have a similar one

I used to think it was "Cut off your nose despite your face." But, like you said, people would say it so fast, I didn't realize it was "to spite."

[KamaAina]

12. I only found out recently that there used to be another way to say "catch a tiger by the toe"

with the N-word in place of "tiger". In fact, I believe I found that out right here at the mighty DU! :dunce:

[Madrone]

15. I was going to post EXACTLY that.

Then I saw your post at the very end. I was learn-ed by DU regarding that particular piece of trivia myself!

[crimsonblue]

27. no way?

i now know that.... :(

[Kat45]

28. I'm old enough to remember whan that was around

When I was little, both ways existed, yet somehow I always knew to use the "tiger" one.

[otherlander]

31. I didn't know that until just now.

0_o

[astral]

38. vewy sowwy

that's the way I learned it in kindergarten. But I don't believe I ever actually SAID it.

[hyphenate]

14. It wasn't until

I was in my late teens that I found out what circumcision was all about. Not being a male, and not having any males around me made it something I wasn't acquainted with.

[rockymountaindem]

17. Chain letters are illegal?

Well, there ya go. I didn't know that one. I think my family's got a grand total of two in my whole lifetime.

[MountainLaurel]

20. I didn't know about thank you notes

Until I graduated from high school and our "senior announcements pack" came with a set. Never as a child was I exposed to anyone writing thank you notes, not in my immediate or extended families, not among my friends, never.

[LibDemAlways]

21. Self-delete

[LibDemAlways]

22. When I was maybe 6 or 7 I heard someone

suggest to my mom that they should form a carpool. I thought that was a great idea - a car with a pool in it. It wasn't until I was about 10 that I figured out what they were talking about.

[margotb822]

23. I used to think drinking and driving

meant any drink. I used to freak out when my mom would drink coffee or tea while driving!

[last_texas_dem]

25. Haha, I had the same experience

I remember being seven or eight years old and coming to my mom all concerned because she'd been driving with that cup of ice water again!

[datasuspect]

50. I used to think drinking and driving

was a skill

[crimsonblue]

29. When I was 8, I wanted my grandma to be buy me a "coed naked" ballcap...

I didn't figure out what it meant until I was 14.. It totally explained why she acted possessed when I showed it to her!

[last_texas_dem]

34. I remember when I was about five years old

I wanted this pair of green dice that I saw at a gas station that had the Playboy bunny logo on the package. I remember my dad seemed kind of bothered and wouldn't let me buy them, but wouldn't explain to me why. Hey, I just liked them 'cause they were green and had a rabbit on the package! I figured out a couple of years later why he had reacted that way.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

35. No comprende "coed naked" ballcap. n/t

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## DON'T DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

==================
GROVELBOT.EXE v4.1
==================



This week is our second quarter 2008 fund drive. Democratic Underground is
a completely independent website. We depend on donations from our members
to cover our costs. Whatever you do, do not click the link below!

[PermanentRevolution]

77. That's a horrible anecdote, GrovelBot... n/t

[Lil Missy]

41. Yeah. Shortly after I met my ex,

she had me over for a fancy dinner one night, flowers, candles, the whole works, and mentioned that "Aunt Flo" would be visiting over the following weekend.

I thought she was buttering me up to join her that weekend to meet her family from out of town. Till she explained what it meant. I was so embarrassed. :blush: :blush: :blush:

[Nevilledog]

42. Windshield temperature.

I musta been about 10 before I figured out they were actually saying WIND CHILL temperature. I secretly thought adults were some kinda stupid to link the temperature to how cold the glass was on the car. Go figure.

[Lil Missy]

43. LOL! My grandfather was one of them! He insisted it was the WIND SHIELD index!

He insisted it was a measure of the wind blowing against the car wind shield, and went to his grave believing that.

We tried to explain that to him a hundred times, to no avail. But I think he was just being ornery.

[Nevilledog]

44. Now that I look back...

I wonder why I never asked my folks how the temperature was figured out BEFORE cars were invented. I can't believe I missed that one cuz I was a real sma

[krispos42]

45. I didn't make the connection between the written word "chic"...

(chick) and the spoken word, which sounds like "sheik", until I was watching an episode of "Queer Eye" and they gave their guy an apron that said "Greek Chic" on it. :blush"

[Broken_Hero]

46. Watchamacallit....

I didn't realize until I was about 12yrs old what Watchamacallit meant...

ETA:My father would use the word, and he would usually associate it with people, for example...

"You know Jim...Jim...hmm, Jim Watchamacallit!"

I always thought, that the Watchamacallit family was pretty damn BIG. Cause just about everyone was one, cause my dad couldn't remember a last name to save his life.

[goldcanyonaz]

47. This too shall pass. As much as I hate to admit it.....

It is true. I still freaking hate that saying@

[datasuspect]

49. i wasn't potty trained until my second year of college

[datasuspect]

51. when i was maybe three i thought the word "circumstance"

was "circus stamps"

i was obsessed with circuses back then.

[raccoon]

53. When I was a kid, maybe 7 or 8, I was scandalized to find out that you are

BORN NAKED!


Other than that, I've always had a lot of book smarts but not much people smarts. In my middle age, I am finally learning some people smarts. I guess better late than never. :-)

[SCantiGOP]

57. my little sister

was about 5 and asked if the way you told the sex of a newborn was whether they were born with pink or blue clothes.

[raccoon]

60. Maybe it's an SC thing! nt

[applegrove]

54. I didn't know Walmart was a bad place until years after everybody else. I was out of the loop so to

speak.

[PassingFair]

55. This is embarrassing....

When I was in my late teens, I had a little spinning
top on my desk that went back and forth, endlessly.

Someone had given it to me as a gift.

One day, a broker walked in and asked my how it worked...
was there a magnet in there or something?

I didn't know WTF he was talking about, I HADN'T EVEN
GIVEN IT A THOUGHT.

Basic physics had gone completely ...SWOOSH....over my
head.

Yeah, I believe in perpetual motion. :crazy:

I must have fallen asleep during the whole Foucault's pendulum thing.

:crazy:

Saw the damn thing YEARS later in France, and I was STILL ashamed.

[Iggo]

56. Yep. "Nice guys finish last."

Took me 30 years to figure that one out, and boy was I imperfectly pleased.

[SCantiGOP]

58. actually

that one came from a baseball manager, and was later adapted to have a sexual connotation.

[SCantiGOP]

59. two

I had just never thought of it, but I was in high school when I realized that pasta was made and not grown. The other one I'm told about from my childhood. I first heard of a Caesarean birth. I asked what it was and was told how they cut the mother's stomach open to get the baby out. My response was, how in the world would they get it out otherwise?

[PermanentRevolution]

78. Wait a minute...

You mean this video's a hoax?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyUvNnmFtgI

I'm so disillusioned...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

62. I became the laughing stock of my junior high school after I

referred to the two options available in our cafeteria as chocolate and vanilla milk. :blush:

[LynzM]

70. Middle school sucks, eh?

I got laughed at so much, too... :hug:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

65. When my daughter was four years old and got her first Barbie

I asked my wife, "So, what, can you buy accessories and that sort of thing?"

She just rolled her eyes and asked, "You've never been down the pink aisle at Toyz R' Us, have you?"

[LynneSin]

66. I swore that Gay really did mean 'Happy' until I was about 14 years old

:shrug:

[Godhumor]

67. Snopes has shown me how ignorant I can be, even after all these years

I cannot tell you the number of times I've told a story that I FIRMLY believed before looking up whether they were true or not on snopes.com (almost all are not true, by the way).

Fingernails and hair grow after you're dead? Not true

Chevy released the Nova in Spanish language cultures even though it meant "No Go"? Not true

McDonalds once owned worm farms? Nope

And so on, ad nauseum.


My most embarrassing admission is that I am still surprised every time I see that Afghanistan is not in South America. I know where it really is, hell I taught world geography, but my mind keeps telling me that it sounds like it belongs in South America.

[latebloomer]

74. WHAT??

I loved that story about how the marketing of the Nova in Latin countries was a total bomb! It came with a whole list of similar disasters, like putting pics of babies on baby food jars in some foreign country, and the people wouldn't buy them because they thought they were eating babies! I wonder if that one was true. So disappointing!

And are you SURE about the nails and hair?

[Godhumor]

76. Oh I'm sure

There is the appearance of growth because the skin loses it's water. Essentially, our skin tightens so the hair and nails appear longer.

http://www.snopes.com/science/nailgrow.asp

Like I said, Snopes has humbled me.

[Shakespeare]

69. Yes. After 7+ years on DU, apparently I am a troll.

Who knew? :shrug:

[Left Is Write]

71. Undoubtedly yes, but I can't think of anything at the moment.

[Chan790]

72. Not me but...

my youngest brother used to steal urinal cakes to put in his bedroom because he liked the smell. This went on until he was about 8 and it occurred to him (finally!) that other people had peed on them.

[latebloomer]

73. EWWW!!!

[Flaxbee]

75. I had no idea that the word "lynch" had such a horrible history

and meant what it means. No freaking clue. To me, it just meant to hang something up.

So I was extremely horrified after I used the term at a college international students' club meeting, and was pounced on and verbally beaten to the curb. I had lived a sheltered life, also raised by a woman who was not overly racist but racist nonetheless.

I also didn't understand that some Catholics have statues of saints in their cars - was on a date and yanked the statue out of its base (accidentally).

My parents weren't real big on diversity education - my mom is a rather narrow-minded, European/Protestant values kind of person, and my dad is so open minded that it just never occurred to him that I should know a FEW things to avoid humiliating social situations.



edited to fix a few grammar issues

[Puzzle]

79. I can't balance a checkbook.

Devising a lesson plan to teach just that was on an exam I took once, and the prof had to give me an alternate assignment since I didn't know how to do it. Still can't.