# Aren't you shocked by what some people DON'T know? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 30, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431 "2000-11-30T20:34:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/241 "2000-12-06T17:37:56Z")
I remember learning about prime numbers in the fifth grade. The definition given for primes in the class was “an integer that is evenly divisible only by itself and one (i.e.: with no remainder)”. The teacher went on to declare that although the number “two” was the only even prime that had been discovered thus far, there were an infinite number of primes, so it was almost certain that there had to be another even prime number, but it hadn’t been discovered yet. It frustrated the hell out of me that, try as I might, I couldn’t explain to this goof that _by definition_ there simply could not be an even prime apart from two. Of course, I was 10 years old at the time, and while I understood the concept that (apart from 2) if you could divide an integer by two, it could not be a prime, I didn’t have the language skills to convey this concept to this teacher, try that I might. Either that, or he was[list=a][li]having us on, or[/li] [li]could not admit he might have made an error.[/list=a]Personally, I believe he was just dense. He was a nice-enough guy, but I never respected him as an educator after that.[/li] ~~Baloo ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/242 "2000-12-06T17:50:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by a35362 \* > **I can’t remember what grade I was in when I asked this question: Why is there snow on the tops of mountains, when the mountaintops are closer to the sun? …** Brought this to mind: A few years back during a particularly long hot spell, the local paper interviewed some of the unfortunates who labored outdoors, asking how they coped with the heat. They quoted a roofer who explained that his hellish job was certainly the worst because he was closer to the sun than the rest of us. uh, ok… ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/243 "2000-12-06T19:58:10Z")
I was playing isketch\* with a friend of mine, in the “Movies” room. The person drawing had the movie “Cinderella” and the first thing they drew for us to guess was a pumpkin with wheels. Instantly almost everyone got it. At the end, my friend still hadn’t… he sent me an IM… “what the hell was the pumpkin thing for???” turns out that he’s never seen Cinderella or read the book or heard the story or anything. This kid isn’t someone from another culture or anything, he’s just your average american boy, raised in upstate NY. It freaked me out. How do you get to be in your 20s without having heard the story of Cinderella? \*this is like pictionary, it’s at [http://www.isketch.net](http://www.isketch.net) ---
**Author:** ![Swampwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Swampwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swampwolf)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/244 "2000-12-06T20:28:51Z")
A few years ago, when I was waiting tables, I was notorious for being able to get away with anything. One guy asked me, “hey, do y’all serve zombies here?” (I couldn’t help myself) “Yes, sir. We serve anybody. What would you like to drink?” At this point, he looked at me like _I_ was the stupid one. “Ah want a zombie.” Another woman once ordered a personal pizza. “How many slices is that?” “Six. Well, if you’re really hungry, We can cut it into eight for you.” “…Actually, I haven’t eaten today. Better make it eight.” And then she thanked me for being so accommodating. ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/245 "2000-12-06T20:30:08Z")
> [@](#): > > A friend of mine who works at a bookstore has dozens of stories about the absurd questions and comments he gets, not just from customers, but from fellow employees, like “Can you talk to this customer for me? He’s asking for this book I’ve never heard of – I’m sure we don’t have it – by some guy named Darwin, called ‘Origins of …’ oh, something-or-other.” Or how about the bookstore employee that had never heard of A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. She looked confused, and then started looking through the new age section for me. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/246 "2000-12-06T21:26:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chique \* > \*\*Once had a discussion with a chick who SWORE that all rivers flowed south. \*\* Not such an amazing misunderstanding but I’ve talked to people who are convinced that southern Arizona’s north-flowing Santa Cruz river flows _uphill_. It hasn’t flowed year round for many decades and now only flows during heavy rains and isn’t a tributary of any other river. If flows north from the Mexican border, past Tucson and then it just kind of dissipates in the desert. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/247 "2000-12-06T21:51:36Z")
I started a temp. job once the day after the Northridge earthquake (the one that hit on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1994) with a couple other ladies. When I mentioned the earthquake to one, she hadn’t heard about it. I don’t keep up on current events very well myself, so that wasn’t too shocking. But when I mentioned watching the coverage on CNN, she didn’t know about _that_ either! Even when my cable provider didn’t carry CNN, I had at least _heard_ of it. ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@Me\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Joe)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/248 "2000-12-06T22:00:53Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by blessedwolf \* \*\*A few years ago, when I was waiting tables, I was notorious for being able to get away with anything. One guy asked me, “hey, do y’all serve zombies here?” (I couldn’t help myself) “Yes, sir. We serve anybody. What would you like to drink?” At this point, he looked at me like _I_ was the stupid one. “Ah want a zombie.”\ I hate to break it to you, but a Zombie is a drink. Don’t know everything that’s in it, but it has vodka, whiskey and several other ingedients. Some places don’t serve them because they are deceptively strong and tend to make some people a little loopy after just one or two. I’m afraid, if you were a server, in this case you WERE the idiot… ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/249 "2000-12-06T22:03:00Z")
From an American girlfriend visting London whom I took to see Westminster Abbey. Looking at the chair which is used to crown every king and queen, she asked, “Oh, is that where they get coronated?”. One of my teachers in secondary school (high school) insisted it IS possible to draw a triangle with sides of 2, 2 and 7 (we were talking about regular plane geometry). We were using it as an example of something which is impossible within a given system, and she insisted it was just a matter of ingenuity. What do people make of this one? I was once with a gang of guys all visiting Oxford university prior to sitting the entrance exam. We were making breakfast for ourselves, and we had stuff like a kettle, a toaster etc. I said to one guy, I’ll make the coffee you get some toast on. He asked me to explain how to use the toaster, as he had never used one. Is that fair enough, or is it pretty obvious? I mean, there’s only one place for bread to go, and only one handle to slide down… isn’t it obvious? Whaddya think? BTW, he was the one among us who got in to Oxford! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/250 "2000-12-06T22:19:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Me!! Joe!!! \* > \*\* > I hate to break it to you, but a Zombie is a drink. Don’t know everything that’s in it, but it has vodka, whiskey and several other ingedients. Some places don’t serve them because they are deceptively strong and tend to make some people a little loopy after just one or two. > > I’m afraid, if you were a server, in this case you WERE the idiot… > > \*\* It was a joke son, joke I say. See if you get this one … A grasshopper goes into a bar and pulls up a stool. The bartender walks over to him and says, “You know we got a drink named after you.” The grasshopper looks at him and says, “You got a drink called Irving?” Ba-dum-bum. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/251 "2000-12-06T22:24:40Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Me!! Joe!!! \* \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blessedwolf \* > A few years ago, when I was waiting tables, I was notorious for being able to get away with anything. > > One guy asked me, “Hey, do y’all serve zombies here?” > > (I couldn’t help myself) “Yes, sir. We serve anybody. What would you like to drink?” > > At this point, he looked at me like _I_ was the stupid one. > “Ah want a zombie.” > > I hate to break it to you, but a Zombie is a drink. Don’t know everything that’s in it, but it has vodka, whiskey and several other ingedients. Some places don’t serve them because they are deceptively strong and tend to make some people a little loopy after just one or two. > > I’m afraid, if you were a server, in this case you WERE the idiot… > > \*\* Well…I think he _knew_ that. It’s a play on words, see… ---
**Author:** ![Swampwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Swampwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swampwolf)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/252 "2000-12-06T22:28:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Me!! Joe!!! \* > \*\* > > I hate to break it to you, but a Zombie is a drink. Don’t know everything that’s in it, but it has vodka, whiskey and several other ingedients. Some places don’t serve them because they are deceptively strong and tend to make some people a little loopy after just one or two. > > I’m afraid, if you were a server, in this case you WERE the idiot… > > \*\* Wow! If I gave a shit, I’d be insulted. I **know** it’s a drink. :rolleyes: I spent a few years as a bartender. (by the way, where I worked – because sometimes drink names are different from one region to the next – a zombie is exactly like a Margarita, except it uses vodka instead of tequila, and it rarely if ever gets a salt rim, so there). Are you sure I never waited on you? ---
**Author:** ![HannibalV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@HannibalV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HannibalV)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/253 "2000-12-06T23:11:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gr8Kat \* > \*\*I started a temp. job once the day after the Northridge earthquake (the one that hit on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1994) with a couple other ladies. When I mentioned the earthquake to one, she hadn’t heard about it. I don’t keep up on current events very well myself, so that wasn’t too shocking. But when I mentioned watching the coverage on CNN, she didn’t know about _that_ either! Even when my cable provider didn’t carry CNN, I had at least _heard_ of it. \*\* I can top that. In late April or early May of 1995, while I was a senior in high school, I had the honor of attending an assembly on “the dangers of drinking and driving on Prom night”. This was held outside, in the football stadium with the entire school present. They brought in wrecked cars, made up some of the theatre-types to look wounded, and even had a MediVac 'copter come in to “carry away the wounded”. Anyway, as we’re waiting for the presentation to start, I was listening to the conversation of two girls in front of me. One of them had noticed that the flag was at half-staff and wondered why, aloud. The other said she wasn’t sure, and “yeah, it’s weird–isn’t that, like, disrespectful, or something?” I was then forced to break in to their conversation and tell them about the (then-recent) bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. They were stunned to hear of it, though one admitted she thought she remembered hearing something about it. ---
**Author:** ![Born2Read](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cdc98d/32.png) [@Born2Read](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Born2Read)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/254 "2000-12-07T00:17:06Z")
Some of the things I or my coworkers have been asked at the Reference Desk: Do you have any information about Cushing’s Disease? (Is given a medical reference book) Does it matter if it’s for my dog? I need some information about the Civil War. I have an encyclopedia at home, but it only covers up to World War II, so it doesn’t have anything. A patron asks for a book on Nostradamus, marvelling at his great powers. Foolish librarian comments “Not bad for a guy from 400 years ago”. Patron dumbfounded that Nostradamus is dead. Do you have any books on the bionic plague? Sometimes it can be pretty humorous, but I try to put people on the right track. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/255 "2000-12-07T00:47:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lolagranola \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Yes, while there is an Ontario, Canada, it is a Providence… > > I assume that was a typo, and you meant province? \*\* Ooops. If Ontario were a Providence, then it would be in Rhode Island, which we all know is off the coast of Grease, starring Olivia Fig Newton-John. ---
**Author:** ![Suo\_Na](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Suo\_Na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suo_Na)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/256 "2000-12-07T02:01:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dave Swaney \* > \*\*Oh, and you people from places where it routinely rains would be shocked at the number of kids who can’t really explain the idea of a conduit, and have absolutely no idea of what a culvert is. From their expressions, it could be an airplane engine part. This is from living in the greater L.A. basin, where there aren’t any country roads or ditches or culverts under the roads to prevent flooding. \*\* You’re kidding, right? LA has some of the biggest culverts I’ve ever seen. They call them rivers. IMO, if it’s concrete-lined and dry most of the year, it’s a culvert. My anecdote: Last week I was in a nature store, looking at the toys. Two women came up beside me and started playing with some water-filled toys (I didn’t see exactly what they were). One woman said, “Why would they put polar bears in there? That’s stupid, everyone knows polar bears don’t swim!” ---
**Author:** ![straykat23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@straykat23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straykat23)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/257 "2000-12-07T02:36:46Z")
A bunch of co-workers talking about how much we enjoyed the Harry Potter books. One woman said (rather defiantly), “Well, if they’re so good, how come nobody ever wrote them before?” ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/258 "2000-12-07T04:36:45Z")
1. A sewer or drain crossing under a road or embankment. 2.a. The part of a road or embankment that passes over such a sewer or drain. b. The channel or conduit for such a sewer or drain. So I think that technically, if I read this right, I don’t think the L.A. area “rivers” are culverts because they aren’t sewers or what I would call drains. The kids I taught called them “canals.” ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/259 "2000-12-07T05:55:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dave Swaney \* > \*\*…I don’t think the L.A. area “rivers” are culverts because they aren’t sewers or what I would call drains. > > The kids I taught called them “canals.”\*\* Here in New Mexico, we call them “arroyos,” but non-natives aren’t expected to know that. I was once on a long trip and noticed my car’s oil pressure was a little low, so I stopped to check the oil. It looked fine, if a little dark considering I’d had it changed a couple of days before. After I’d reached my destination, a few hundred miles later, the pressure was even lower, so I checked it again. Still looked fine, if a little darker. The next morning, I checked again in the light, but it looked full - then I turned the dipstick over in the course of putting it back and noticed that the other side had NO oil at all on it. Still being dense, I drove the car to a mechanic, who told me that I had a serious leak from the drainplug and the car had almost no oil in it at all. The dipstick was scraping the side of the tube as I put it in and picking up old oil on just one side. The car survived in spite my idiocy. ---
**Author:** ![Meleemancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Meleemancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meleemancer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/260 "2000-12-07T10:06:56Z")
I had hoped to iclude a cite with this one, but I can’t find any news site with a large (and far back) enough public archive… suggestions? Anyway… this isn’t as ignorant as many others I’ve read here, but the fact that this particular ignorance had nasty consequences is my reason for posting. So… Accodring to an AP (London) story published around August 31, a pediatrician living in Wales had her home vandalized by a vigilante band who saw her job title and confused it with the word pedophile. Apparently there was widespread attention about the subject of pedophilia (a prominent incident a short while before) in England and some people decided to try and do something about it without knowledge. (shakes head) That’s just so freakin’ horrible. This is just a summary of a summary, so I may be missing some facts that make this seem less bad; if anyone (any British Dopers who’ve heard this from a better source around?) can bring them to light, please do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431.md?page=14)