# 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:** 19\ **Page:** 34
**Author:** ![bittersweet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@bittersweet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bittersweet)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/661 "2004-03-06T13:27:51Z")
Oh, thank goodness this thread is back. I tried searching for it a few days ago to no avail. I now have something to share… I work for a brokerage firm, and just recently came across an account application for a client that works for a Glass Company in IL. He makes approx. $110,000 annually. He listed his occupation as “[Glacier](http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/glacier.html)”, not “[Glazier](http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/glazier.html)”. To be making that much money a year, shouldn’t you at least know how to spell your occupation correctly? Or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Dutch\_George](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dutch\_George](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dutch_George)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/662 "2004-03-06T19:37:21Z")
> [@alexandra](#): > > Someone I know had never heard of Malcom X. > I thought this was bizarre. maybe I’m wrong? She’s British, and about 17 years old. i) He was far, far more of an icon in the US than elsewhere on the planet. ii) I can think of a number of 17 year olds who would have difficulty placing prominent foreign figures who died a generation before they were born. iii) It may be a product of today’s substandard educational system, but there are - believe it or not - many people who can’t even SPELL **Malcolm** X. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/663 "2004-03-06T21:11:44Z")
> [@Dutch George](#): > > i) He was far, far more of an icon in the US than elsewhere on the planet. > > ii) I can think of a number of 17 year olds who would have difficulty placing prominent foreign figures who died a generation before they were born. > > iii) It may be a product of today’s substandard educational system, but there are - believe it or not - many people who can’t even SPELL **Malcolm** X. I knew, sorta, who he was when I was 13 (and British). You’d find that most British 17-year-olds have at least heard of him, although most would probably have trouble telling you anything other than that he was black. **Nathan S** : I can’t believe anyone older than 10 would be surprised that there were banks in _any_ country. > [@bittersweet](#): > > I work for a brokerage firm, and just recently came across an account application for a client that works for a Glass Company in IL. He makes approx. $110,000 annually. He listed his occupation as “Glacier”, not “Glazier”. To be making that much money a year, shouldn’t you at least know how to spell your occupation correctly? It _is_ just possible he’s a slowly expanding block of ice, you know 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/664 "2004-03-07T06:45:44Z")
yeah, but… My thread had _squid_ in it. ---
**Author:** ![robo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@robo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robo99)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/665 "2004-03-07T07:34:51Z")
Was driving with a friend of mine and as we approached Oregon, Illinois I jokingly said something about entering the state of Oregon and she seriously believed me. Geography is just beyond some people. ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/666 "2004-03-07T11:56:43Z")
> [@Dutch George](#): > > i) He was far, far more of an icon in the US than elsewhere on the planet. > > ii) I can think of a number of 17 year olds who would have difficulty placing prominent foreign figures who died a generation before they were born. > > iii) It may be a product of today’s substandard educational system, but there are - believe it or not - many people who can’t even SPELL **Malcolm** X. wow, I made a typo. By the way, I’m not American. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/667 "2004-03-07T14:58:39Z")
> [@Nathan S](#): > > When I quit my law clerk job, many years ago, before moving to Italy, I informed the judge I worked for of my impending move. His comment was “… Italy, do they have banks in Italy…?” I was taken aback. This judge was otherwise a pretty sharp guy and, in my opinion, an excellent judge. I answered that, to the best of my knowledge, the Italians had INVENTED banks. I guess that wasn’t completely true (I think it was the Templars that came up with the system that most nearly reflects modern banking practices), but it was the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment without offending the guy. How could a judge ask whether Italy has banks given the exploits of Andreotti and Craxi? Wow. Wow, wow, wow. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/668 "2004-03-07T19:52:16Z")
I watched _Frida_ with my mom last week, and was surprised to learn that she had absolutely no idea who Vladimir Lenin was, or why the inclusion of his likeness in a mural at Rockefeller Center would be a source of controversy. No clue about Trotsky, either – when the Trotskys arrived in Mexico, she asked “Are they Germans?” :eek: Okay, not getting dialectical materialism I can understand. Being fuzzy about the basic points of the history of communism, okay. But having to ask what’s going on when a bunch of cartoonish fedora-wearing industrial capitalists are complaining about Lenin by name, while his face is prominently displayed in all its Social Realist glory? _Whaaa?_ ---
**Author:** ![sportshoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@sportshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sportshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/669 "2004-03-08T07:55:05Z")
> [@Fretful Porpentine](#): > > My brother once had a social studies teacher who did not know that Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States, insisted that “Bronx” was a slang term and the correct spelling was “Broncks,” and thought Bosnia was in Asia. > > I also used to date a guy who believed that masturbation caused impotence – AND that women not only don’t masturbate, but are disgusted by the very idea. of course girls arent disgusted with masturbation. My girlfriend is never disgusted when she masturbates me. It cures my impotence at once. ---
**Author:** ![Shaggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Shaggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shaggy)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/670 "2004-03-08T17:23:17Z")
My friends co-worker thought that the fastest way to France was to take the bridge from Canada. Why would you waste the money on flying? ---
**Author:** ![sportshoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@sportshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sportshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/671 "2004-03-10T08:58:15Z")
My father is a retired police officer. His big boss, the chief of police got a flat tire one day. He stood there looking a bit lost when a lady came up to him offering him her bicycle pump to try to pump up the tire. His reply was “Lady I appreciate your help but I can’t do anything with your bicycle pump, your pump is for a womens bike and mine is a mens bike.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/672 "2004-03-30T18:57:27Z")
I know I’m reviving an older thread, but I heard a hall-of-famer yesterday. I was walking behind two guys and the sun was directly in front of us. Then I heard one guy asking the other if that was the same sun they had seen earlier today because it wasn’t in the same place. To his credit, his friend didn’t call him the stupidest human being that ever walked the Earth and instead pointed out that the sun moved in the sky during the course of a day. ---
**Author:** ![Sami41](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Sami41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sami41)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/673 "2004-04-01T01:56:54Z")
> [@Zarathustra](#): > > Hey hey hey, there, a fertilized egg is NOT A CHICKEN! A fertilized egg is NOT ALIVE!! Eating a fertilized egg is NOT MURDER!!! What are you, some kind of fundamentalist? I will defend my RIGHT TO CHOOSE TO EAT A FERTILIZED CHICKEN EGG come hell or high water!!! A rather morbid friend of mine refers to eggs as “chicken abortions.” I mentioned that to a vegitarian co-worker who eats eggs, just to egg her on (sorry) and she replied, “yes, but I’m pro-choice.” Good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/674 "2004-04-01T02:19:44Z")
> [@Elenia25](#): > > Hey I only knew that from the \*They Might Be Giants \* song! I blame you, and whoever revived this thread but damn if I don’t have that song in my head… And sad enough, I learned it, and Particle Man, from one very funny episode of Tiny Toons. ---
**Author:** ![quothz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/da6949/32.png) [@quothz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quothz)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/675 "2004-04-01T03:36:23Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > I don’t have the article now, but before the Olympics in Atlanta, it was reported in the Albuquerque Journal that several people calling from New Mexico to order tickets had been told that they could not make a credit card order from outside the U.S. I remember that. I seem to recall some comedian setting up a “New Mexico Consulate” in Atlanta as protest. I once recieved an email from Yahoo! Maps in response to an inquiry, telling me they didn’t cover areas outside the U.S… ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/676 "2004-04-01T04:43:31Z")
> [@Admiral Borg](#): > > This happened to my former English teacher about 5 years ago. > > She went to a KMart-type store around Easter, at which time the store had an aisle devoted to Easter items. More specifically, aisle 9. When my teacher got to the aisle, there was a special sign, decorated in Easter colors, and flowers, and eggs etc.; and the letters were in this light violet color. The sign read, “Isle 9”… Widh I could see what she’d do if she walked by a prominent jewelry store in our city, which, amongst the lovely things in the windows were a dozen or more little, elegantly hand-printed placards saying, “To close out a estate.” Especially when the jewelers continued to use them as the weeks and months passed. You’d think a customer or two might have pointed out that it’s _AN_ estate. What? They couldn’t afford to have new ones made? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/677 "2004-04-01T04:50:37Z")
> [@Tikki](#): > > Widh I could see what she’d do if she walked by a prominent jewelry store in our city, which, amongst the lovely things in the windows were a dozen or more little, elegantly hand-printed placards saying, “To close out a estate.” Especially when the jewelers continued to use them as the weeks and months passed. You’d think a customer or two might have pointed out that it’s _AN_ estate. What? They couldn’t afford to have new ones made? Reminds me of a time (maybe this belongs in the Coincidences thread) that I was sitting at the bank, looking at one of their posters hanging on the wall. I can’t remember the exact phrase, but it was something to the effect of "Your house has it’s [sic] needs too. I was sitting there reflecting on the sadness of a national bank making such a silly error in its advertising when a woman popped up from the back, bearing a brand new sign, with the error corrected. I thought it was pretty cool that the bank was replacing all of its signage for a stray apostrophe. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/678 "2004-04-01T06:42:46Z")
One student in my 9th grade art history class asked the teacher why “old statues always show people’s gentiles”. Yes, gentiles. (She meant, of course, “genitals”.) In 11th grade biotechnology class, the following discussion took place: Teacher: “What’s the most sensitive [to the touch] organ in the human body?” … Teacher: “Here’s a hint: It’s on about 50% of the population.” A (classmate): “The clitoris!” Teacher: “That’s correct.” J (another classmate): “The clitoris is sensitive to the touch? Hmmmm…” J supposedly gets/got a lot of ass, too. :eek: Guys like this make me sad–they give the rest of us a bad name. I mean, how difficult is it to figure out, really? Even I know what it is and where it is, and I’ve never even made it to first base. ---
**Author:** ![quothz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/da6949/32.png) [@quothz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quothz)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/679 "2004-04-01T16:49:45Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > Here in New Mexico, we call them “arroyos,” but non-natives aren’t expected to know that. I had to look it up when I moved out here. What made me feel stupid were all the “Ditches are deadly!” bumper stickers. I couldn’t figure out what the hell those were all about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431.md?page=33)