Ever been shocked at what some people don't know?

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Toxgoddess

We were throwing a baby shower for a co-worker who was pregnant with twins. As I was paying for twin-themed decorations at the local party supply store, the cashier asked me if they were identical.

"They are a boy and a girl." "Yea, but are they identical?"

I was speechless.

Hey, the "identical twins of different genders" trope is one of my pet peeves; the Enyd Blyton series and The Iron Mask are almost the only times I can recall seeing twins in a book (much less visual media) where:

* their being twins isn't used as a source of confusion every three lines,
* and they're not "identical except for the plumbing".

That sort of movies doesn't even qualify for popcorn, popcorn wilts in their presence...

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

Related thing: In algebra, expressions with multiple layers of parentheses are supposed to use (...) and [square brackets] and {curly braces} for the different layers, as in:
a * {b * [c + (d - e) * g] - h} * k
but in computer languages, this is written with parentheses only:
a * (b * (c + (d - e) * g) - h) * k
and it has become more common to see that done in math classes too.
(And yes, they should use the centered dot or no symbol at all for the multiplication too, but I didn't want to bother looking the magic code to enter a centered dot.)

Heh, apparently my American teachers were just too computerized... I'd been thinking about this when I went home last night but forgot to post. We were used to the "different kinds of brackets" notations, but our American teachers used only parenthesis, which is sort of confusing if you're used to layered brackets. One of the Koreans asked whether it was OK to use different kinds of brackets and had to explain it slowly before the teacher said no.

We didn't use square brackets, which were reserved for other uses; we used a sort of square braces (like the brackets but with a 'beak' like the curly braces have).

[shantih]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

OK, now this is really weird. I hit the wrong button on the XBOX controller tonight, and we ended up watching a 2008 movie in which Klinefelter's Syndrome guest starred as an Important Plot Device.

OoooOOOOOOooooo.

Gotta love serendipity!

[grude]

Originally Posted by DiosaBellissima

Ok. Like. There were no chickens, right? Then the Mesopotamians made chickens. And now we have chickens."

This is worded oddly but does make sense.

<Did the Mesopotamians domesticate chickens, such that before this the chicken as we know it did not exist?>

[Lynn Bodoni]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

Well, color me stupid! I've been around a few years longer than you, and this is the first I've ever heard what "notions" are (although I've seen the word used a few times in stores, where it couldn't possibly have meant "ideas").

ETA: And furthermore, what is "toilet water" (or "terlet water") anyway, as used a few posts above?

I've always known what notions are, in the sewing context, as soon as I was old enough to sew, about eight or so. But my mother and grandmother both sewed quite a bit. I do remember being puzzled that the word notions had two meanings.

Toilet water is like perfume, but weaker. There's definitions of what is perfume and what is cologne and what is toilet water. This is why a scent might cost $10 for a big bottle of it, but $90 for a tiny bottle. The big bottle is toilet water, and is quite weak. The tiny bottle is perfume, and should be used very sparingly. At any rate, "toilet" in this case means "the act of dressing and/or grooming oneself", not "potty".

[septimus]

Originally Posted by grude

This is worded oddly but does make sense.

<Did the Mesopotamians domesticate chickens, such that before this the chicken as we know it did not exist?>

Humans developed domestic animals like chickens but invent may be the wrong word -- early breeding was probably mostly inadvertant.

The big problem here, however, is that chickens did not originate in Mesopotomia:

The history of chickens (Gallus domesticus) is a bit of a puzzle. They were first domesticated from a wild form called red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), a bird that still runs wild in most of southeast Asia, likely hybridized with the grey junglefowl (G. sonneratii. That occurred probably about 8,000 years ago. Recent research suggests there may have been multiple origins in distinct areas of South and Southeast Asia, including North and South China, Thailand, Burma and India.

The earliest attested chickens in the West, according to Wikipedia, seem to be in Egypt's 18th dynasty.

[Senegoid]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

At any rate, "toilet" in this case means "the act of dressing and/or grooming oneself", not "potty".

In that case, "toilet" would be pronounced "twa-LAY" I assume.

[Mijin]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

Toilet water is like perfume, but weaker.

<penny drops>
Yeah for some reason we use the french expression in the UK: "eau de toilette".
Can't believe I read "toilet water" and didn't make the association...

[Dendarii Dame]

After any natural disaster, such as a blizzard, earthquake, etc., a neighbor's mother would say, "I knew it! Ever since man walked on the moon, things haven't been right!"

One wonders why she thought they happened prior to 1969.

[bup]

Originally Posted by appleciders

Turns out that she was a Minnesotan and had never been exposed to the concept of tides. Ouch.

That's nice of you to try to excuse her, but Minnesota is on Lake Superior. Major league tides.

My boss didn't know Hawaii was a state - thought it was a territory. In his defense, he only recently became a US citizen.

[Lumpy]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

(And yes, they should use the centered dot or no symbol at all for the multiplication too, but I didn't want to bother looking the magic code to enter a centered dot.)

I don't suppose a symbol menu could be built into the board's reply editor? So you could just click and add stuff like ‰ ™ ¢ © ® ° ² · ½ etc.?

[Lumpy]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

At any rate, "toilet" in this case means "the act of dressing and/or grooming oneself", not "potty".

The ceramic fixture is a "toilet bowl".

[Silver Tyger]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

Well, color me stupid! I've been around a few years longer than you, and this is the first I've ever heard what "notions" are (although I've seen the word used a few times in stores, where it couldn't possibly have meant "ideas").

I can see not knowing what 'notions' are if you don't sew. It's things like needles, thread, small scissors, etc - the small little things you stick in your sewing box. I might be surprised that someone didn't know what they were, because I've been exposed to it, which a lot of these seem to fall under. (I think they're fair fodder for this thread though). It's a matter of ignorance not stupidity.

One of my coworkers didn't know how vaccines work. Note, we work in a medical supply company. (Admittedly it has nothing to do with vaccines, but still).

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

Originally Posted by Isamu

Not a snark, but maybe because they're smart enough to know that there is no document that does what you say it does. The smarter ones must have conversed and came up with what they thought you must be talking about.

Granted, I oversimplified. But the phrase, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" is generally taken to mean that the United States Government shan't prohibit the printing and sales of books or prevent people from reading them.

This was a basic talk about censorship to a group of high school students, not a law-school lecture on the First Amendment.

[DiosaBellissima]

Originally Posted by grude

This is worded oddly but does make sense.

<Did the Mesopotamians domesticate chickens, such that before this the chicken as we know it did not exist?>

On the last page, a few posters tried to give her a similar benefit of the doubt, but I assure you that she was still confused after class and asked several of us for clarification. Her point was most certainly that there was nothing even vaguely resembling a chicken roaming this great planet of ours-- then, one day, the Mesopotamians pulled a god and made chickens--- then, and only then- were there chickens.

[Ana Byrd]

I once knew a girl who said with confidence that all the Beatles died of drug overdoses. She knew all their names, but not that three of them (at the time) were still alive or that the other one had been shot.

[Thudlow Boink]

Originally Posted by Lumpy

The ceramic fixture is a "toilet bowl".

The bowl is only part of the fixture; there's also the tank. Overseas, it's also the room in which the fixture is located; hence the thread 'whats the big deal with the word "toilet" in the US? '


I've never actually seen "toilet water," but I know about it thanks to the family story of when my mother was a girl and she got a bottle of toilet water for her birthday, and her kid brother ... poured it in the toilet.

[Silophant]

Originally Posted by bup

That's nice of you to try to excuse her, but Minnesota is on Lake Superior. Major league tides.

Lake Superior's tides are only a couple inches high. They're lost in the waves to any casual observer.

[mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

In that case, "toilet" would be pronounced "twa-LAY" I assume.

Never, in any dialect of French, as the word doesn't exist in that language- it's always toilette.

Originally Posted by Mijin

<penny drops>
Yeah for some reason we use the french expression in the UK: "eau de toilette".
Can't believe I read "toilet water" and didn't make the association...

I think it's rather hilarious that some people (seemingly Americans) have taken a literal translation of the phrase and use it. Though to be fair, I don't know what else I'd call it in English - I don't think I've ever referred to it without switching to the French term, and would probably just call them all perfumes. For me, calling it "toilet water" was always a silly joke!

[MLS]

'Twas years ago and there was going to be a lunar eclipse in the early winter evening, starting just around quitting time. I commented upon it others in the office. "Ooooh, don't look at it!" warned a (very) blonde young lady. She didn't know exactly why but said she just knew it was dangerous. In my best schoolteacher mode, I asked her what caused a lunar eclipse. "Hmmmmm. Isn't that, like, when the sun gets between the earth and the moon, and casts a shadow?" I swear this is 100% true.

[Leaffan]

Originally Posted by MLS

'Twas years ago and there was going to be a lunar eclipse in the early winter evening, starting just around quitting time. I commented upon it others in the office. "Ooooh, don't look at it!" warned a (very) blonde young lady. She didn't know exactly why but said she just knew it was dangerous. In my best schoolteacher mode, I asked her what caused a lunar eclipse. "Hmmmmm. Isn't that, like, when the sun gets between the earth and the moon, and casts a shadow?" I swear this is 100% true.

Fuck. The first lunar eclipse I saw there were people taking pictures of it: with the flash on! Which doesn't make any sense in many ways.

[pbbth]

Originally Posted by BobArrgh

A few years ago, I worked in the marketing department of a technology services company. I was on a team that had to come up with a new marketing campaign for our company, which could provide tech services both in the US as well as internationally.

I came up with what I thought was a nifty concept that played on the names of famous cities. One of the ideas was:

"You need to manage your network in St. Petersburg? No problem. Oh, you mean St. Petersburg, Russia? Still no problem!"

Another was, "You need to track your shipments to San Jose? No problem. Wait. San Jose, Costa Rica? Still no problem!"

The campaign was shot down, mostly because the other 4 people on the team were arguing over "St. Petersburg". Only two people had heard of the city in Florida, and only one had heard of the one in Russia. None of the people on the team realized that there were two cities with that name.

I didn't even try with the San Jose one.

FWIW, these were college graduates working for a fairly large company in the Midwest.

A couple of months ago my MIL called us to let us know that she was planning a vacation to St. Petersburg. I said that I thought Russia would be a fabulous place for a vacation and asked why she decided to go there and she paused for a second before saying, "No, not Russia. Florida."

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Leaffan

Fuck. The first lunar eclipse I saw there were people taking pictures of it: with the flash on! Which doesn't make any sense in many ways.

It makes me chuckle, too, but the truth is, most of those cameras (depending on when you grew up) have automatic flash modes. Not that some people wouldn't turn on the flash anyway, but I bet it's mostly the automatic flash kicking in.

[Scumpup]

Originally Posted by F. U. Shakespeare

This isn't a specific example. But it really galls me when in a discussion, I cite a well-known event or figure from recent history, and the person responds by saying they don't know who/what I'm talking about, "because it was before my time". Gee, somebody should invent something, maybe call it, I dunno, a "history book", to deal with this perplexing problem

I once was discussing current events with an otherwise bright, politically engaged 20-something college grad who used this defense to explain why she didn't understand my reference to "Goldwater's presidential candidacy". I replied that I followed the campaign closely as a grizzled, politically-savvy five-year old.

So, without running to wikipedia or a history book, what can you tell us about Alton B. Parker's presidential campaign? Though you were a kid, Goldwater was part of your time. Share with us your knowledge of Parker, who was from before your time.

[JohnT]

Alton B. Parker ran for President

... in a year divisible by 4,
... in an election dominated by the Republican and Democratic parties
... was a white male
... was a US citizen and met the Constitutional requirements for being President

What do I win?

[corkboard]

I've been shocked by others' cluelessness many times in my life, but I've come to chalk it up to the fact that growing up, I was told frequently by my father that I was a moron, so I always just assumed if I knew something, everyone else must know it too. So one time I was reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac and must have mentioned it to my dad. He asked what it was about- "you know, Kerouac, taking road trips, beat poets, etc." He was looking at me blankly. "You know- Jack Kerouac." Blank look. "Who's that? What are 'beat poets'?" That was the first time I realized I knew things he didn't know, but it sort of blew me away.

I was surprised to learn my girlfriend- who had already sort of established herself as intellectual and more classically educated than me- had no idea who Harry Connick was. This was around the time when Connick was pretty popular- a few years after the soundtrack to When Harry Met Sally..., his acting career was taking off, I think he had been on the cover of Newsweek, and so on. That's when it started to hit home- maybe I'm the freak, here.

Since then, I've started to come to terms with the fact that I'm not as much of a moron as I always thought, and also that I have a (somewhat frustrating) ability to remember arcane trivia. Which actually makes me seem smarter than I think I am.

[Lionne]

Originally Posted by pulykamell

I don't think I've ever used any of those features. I imagine I'd be able to figure it out, but off the top of my head, I don't know how to do any of that.

Originally Posted by hajario

Same here. I've used Word for like fifteen years and I've never had occasion to use those features. I've only ever seen the collaboration features a small handful of times.

Originally Posted by pulykamell

Hell, I've used it for about twenty years and scored a perfect 100% on my temp agency's Word proficiency exam (though this was in 2003-4, so maybe it wasn't that widely used at the time), and I've never used it nor even seen it (to the best of my recollection.)

Well, I guess it's just me! I must play around with Word more than most people then...what's the point of having this wonderful software if you don't use 90% of it?
Never mind that Excel still scares me...

[hajario]

Originally Posted by Lionne

Well, I guess it's just me! I must play around with Word more than most people then...what's the point of having this wonderful software if you don't use 90% of it?
Never mind that Excel still scares me...

I mostly use it to write documentation for equipment and processes at my job. I also used it to make my resume. I do these on my own so I don't need the collaboration tools, these are not published so don't need footnotes and for whatever other reasons, I don't need a ton of stuff that's shoved in to that bloated product. It does a great job for what I need it to do and I prefer to waste my free time on a different set of wasteful things.

[Alias]

A kid was in our shop one day looking at the ferrets. She looked over at me knowingly and said, "I know that if a ferret bites you and you bleed, the ferret develops a taste for blood, and they're just gonna want more and more and more and more." It gave me an image in my head of a "Little Shop of Horrors" sort of situation playing out with a little girl and her ferret.

The other day someone was admiring the baby macaws I'm hand-raising, and asked where they came from. I told her I own the parents, but I hand-feed the babies after 6 weeks so they'll be tame pets.
She stared at me for a minute, and said, "But where did you get the parent birds?" I told her I'd purchased them from another breeder in the area who was getting out of the business. "But where did SHE get them?" she asked. I told her I didn't really know, but I assumed she had purchased them at some point as well. The woman stared at me for a minute, and finally came out with, "But where did the FIRST macaws come from?"

[E. Thorp]

Originally Posted by panache45

Even though we read all the Pooh books as kids (I was almost named Christopher Robin), I never understood Eeyore's name 'til I was an adult.

And I never understood it until today.

[DiosaBellissima]

Originally Posted by Alias

The woman stared at me for a minute, and finally came out with, "But where did the FIRST macaws come from?"

When the Mesopotamians invented chickens, it really was just a screw up on their way to inventing macaws.

[Laggard]

Can't think of anything too awesome. I did have an co-worker who was convinced Mexico was part of Central America.

And when my sister was 10 I heard her ask my dad where Nazi Germany was on a map of Germany. She'd heard Nazi Germany enough that she thought it was a city. But she was all of 10 though. She can be excused.

[Laggard]

Originally Posted by Alias

"But where did SHE get them?" she asked. I told her I didn't really know, but I assumed she had purchased them at some point as well. The woman stared at me for a minute, and finally came out with, "But where did the FIRST macaws come from?"

I would take that as her asking what part of the world Macaws are native to.

[Little Nemo]

Originally Posted by Laggard

Can't think of anything too awesome. I did have an co-worker who was convinced Mexico was part of Central America.

I'm going to say that's not entirely unreasonable. Yes, the most common definition of the term is the region between Mexico and Columbia. But it could be defined as the region between South America and the bulk of North America.

[keeganst94]

Originally posted by bup

That's nice of you to try to excuse her, but Minnesota is on Lake Superior. Major league tides.

Um, I live on Lake Superior, and while I'm sure there is a small tidal effect it isn't perceptible, and is definitely not "Major league".

[~Olive~]

I recently had to explain to someone the difference between a male chicken and a female chicken ...

I was asked recently when is winter in hawaii ...I said it is winter... NO it can't be ...it is too hot for winter ...I had to explain in deep detail for him to understand ...

[Laggard]

Originally Posted by keeganst94

Um, I live on Lake Superior, and while I'm sure there is a small tidal effect it isn't perceptible, and is definitely not "Major league".

Yeah, tidal action in Lake Superior is something like one to four centimeters.

[TonySinclair]

Originally Posted by Sandra Battye

How about boobies?

Thanks, don't mind if I do!

[Alias]

Originally Posted by Laggard

I would take that as her asking what part of the world Macaws are native to.

See, that's what I thought at first too, but it seemed like she was trying to figure out which one of us breeders braved the jungles to steal them from the wild.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

I've posted this before (and I'll probably post it again)...

I was listening to a radio program and they related a story about a woman who phoned the local road commission requesting that they move a 'Deer Crossing' sign farther away from her property. She did not like the deer crossing the road so close to her home.


mmm

[Alias]

I listened to something on NPR once about race relations. The lady referred to the dark skinned Africans as African American Africans.

[MaxTheVool]

Originally Posted by Laggard

Can't think of anything too awesome. I did have an co-worker who was convinced Mexico was part of Central America.

Not ridiculous or uncommon.

[hajario]

Originally Posted by Alias

I listened to something on NPR once about race relations. The lady referred to the dark skinned Africans as African American Africans.

That reminds me of the famous story of one of Nelson Mandela's first large press conferences after won the election in South Africa. An US journalist asked him what it was like to be the first African-American to win election to a major post in South Africa.

[F. U. Shakespeare]

Originally Posted by Scumpup

So, without running to wikipedia or a history book, what can you tell us about Alton B. Parker's presidential campaign? Though you were a kid, Goldwater was part of your time. Share with us your knowledge of Parker, who was from before your time.

I don't know who Alton B. Parker was.

Having written that, I looked him up on wiki. It describes his legacy as one of undeserved obscurity, due to the fact that there were two first-rate candidates, and the other (Teddy Roosevelt) was more colorful.

If you're comparing his relevance to today's political landscape with that of Goldwater, IMO, you got nothing.

The modern conservative movement was energized in the wake of Goldwater's landslide loss. Goldwater's stance on the role government should play in Americans' lives was considered extreme in 1964, but became much more mainstream in the 16 years preceding Reagan's election.

Even more importantly, Goldwater's opposition to federal intervention to ensure civil rights of all Americans, and the fact that he later changed his mind, shows that opposition to government isn't as simple as it might seem to a young conservative (the person I was talking with describes herself as very conservative - she should know who Goldwater was.)

Were you just trying to bring up an obscure detail from history to try to make me look ignorant? Or is there some enduring importance about Parker that the wiki page doesn't talk about?

[Senegoid]

Originally Posted by Alias

The woman stared at me for a minute, and finally came out with, "But where did the FIRST macaws come from?"

I know what you're thinking, but it ain't so! It's macaws all the way down!

[Filbert]

I just went to a pub quiz with my housemate- and am slightly in shock- one of the questions was 'name 10 of the 12 countries in South America'. I always have trouble remembering which are Central and which are South, so started going through 'What do I associate with the Amazon' and such like.

My housemate says 'Isn't that in Africa?'
Yes, she meant the Amazon. Apparently, it's in Central Africa now.

Then she says 'Oh! What countries are the Himalayas in? They're in South America!'

I went to the same school as her, I know she had geography lessons....





We lost the quiz.
Incidently, she's British, we have them here too.

[F. U. Shakespeare]

Scumpup, your reference also reminds me of a commercial in the mid-1970's featuring William E. Miller. He was Goldwater's running mate in 1964, but his obscurity since the election made him a good choice for American Express' "Do you know me?" campaign. You don't need to know who William E. Miller was to be conversant with modern American politics. Not so Goldwater.

Also, Goldwater remained in the Senate until 1987, and even after he retired, I remember it was big news when he repudiated his oppostion to civil rights law (and later expressed support for gay rights). So he was still around when my young conservative friend was younger.

[Senegoid]

Originally Posted by F. U. Shakespeare

Even more importantly, Goldwater's opposition to federal intervention to ensure civil rights of all Americans, and the fact that he later changed his mind, shows that opposition to government isn't as simple as it might seem to a young conservative (the person I was talking with describes herself as very conservative - she should know who Goldwater was.)

Goldwater's (AuH₂O, the newspapers called him) took a very libertarian stance. Later in his life, this arch-conservative became a very vocal supporter of gay rights.

Washington Post article of July 28, 1994:

At 85, after a life in politics spanning five decades (he retired from the Senate in 1987), Mr. Conservative has found himself an unlikely new career: as a gay rights activist. While that's not his sole pursuit – he returned to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify in favor of scenic overflights of the Grand Canyon – in recent years he's championed homosexuals serving in the military and has worked locally to stop businesses in Phoenix from hiring on the basis of sexual orientation. This month he signed on as honorary co-chairman of a drive to pass a federal law preventing job discrimination against homosexuals. The effort, dubbed Americans Against Discrimination, is being spearheaded by the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the influential gay lobbying organization.

[grude]

I had someone insist the city Port Of Spain was in Spain, now that is understandable at first glance. What is not understandable is insisting I am wrong when I repeatedly say it is no where near Spain, it is in Trinidad!

[Scumpup]

Originally Posted by F. U. Shakespeare

I don't know who Alton B. Parker was.

Having written that, I looked him up on wiki. It describes his legacy as one of undeserved obscurity, due to the fact that there were two first-rate candidates, and the other (Teddy Roosevelt) was more colorful.

If you're comparing his relevance to today's political landscape with that of Goldwater, IMO, you got nothing.

The modern conservative movement was energized in the wake of Goldwater's landslide loss. Goldwater's stance on the role government should play in Americans' lives was considered extreme in 1964, but became much more mainstream in the 16 years preceding Reagan's election.

Even more importantly, Goldwater's opposition to federal intervention to ensure civil rights of all Americans, and the fact that he later changed his mind, shows that opposition to government isn't as simple as it might seem to a young conservative (the person I was talking with describes herself as very conservative - she should know who Goldwater was.)

Were you just trying to bring up an obscure detail from history to try to make me look ignorant? Or is there some enduring importance about Parker that the wiki page doesn't talk about?

It would have put your first post in a different light if you had troubled to mention there that this young person styles herself s very conservative. That you did so now strikes me as very convenient. Parker is important in the same way that Goldwater should be important to the young person as you originally described her: the loser in an election decades before you were born.