# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/81 "2000-12-01T14:37:22Z")
This is a great thread. When I was in high school speech class, I had to listen to a fellow student give a speech that the ancient Greeks didn’t like violence on their television programs and the Romans did. ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/82 "2000-12-01T14:42:43Z")
In high school, our madrigal choir was hired to sing at a 12th Night banquet that a local church group was setting up. The organizers needed to know how many of each entree to order for us, so our director put this question to the group: “Do you want beef or pork for dinner at the Monday?” only to receive this response from one of the altos: “What’s the difference.” We patiently told her that beef comes from a cow and pork comes from a pig, but each explanation was met with “Yes, but what’s the _difference_?” When the conversation broke down to “Beef MOO! Pork OINK!” we just said hell with it and put her down for the prime rib. ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/83 "2000-12-01T14:44:40Z")
Whoops…that should read “at the _concert_ Monday.” Preview is my friend. Preview is my friend. If I keep repeating that, maybe I’ll remember once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/84 "2000-12-01T14:58:36Z")
> [@](#): > > **asked if New Mexico was a state** [Mr. Burns]There’s a **New** Mexico?[/Mr. Burns] ---
**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 1, 2000, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/85 "2000-12-01T15:12:59Z")
I have tried to be aware of “teaching moments” as my daughter has grown up - slip her a little knowledge when she least expects it. That said, one evening she and I were driving home when someone on the radio said something about virgins. I decided to ask the kid if she knew what a virgin was. When she said “I’m not sure” I explained that it was a girl who’d never had sex. She thought a moment and said “Oh, I thought that was a lesbian…” Presenting me with another teaching moment… May I plead, tho, that she was only about 8 at the time. I’m doing my damnest to make sure she gets these tidbits from me. The school system here is entirely too uptight to deal with certain aspects of reality. (She’s a HS freshman) Oh yeah, and she knows WAY more about the solar system than I do, but I can kick her butt in Algebra. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![doc\_miller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@doc\_miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doc_miller)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/86 "2000-12-01T15:21:16Z")
Hmm, maybe some of these people aren’t as dumb as we think… > [@](#): > > the time of knights and pilgrims Maybe Canterbury Tales, a set of stories told by a group of pilgrims at a time when knights flourished. For that matter, anything set during the Crusades could be expected to have both knights and pilgrims. > [@](#): > > Over 50% of the clerical staff thought that -8 was larger than -3, even after asking them which number they’d prefer in their bank account. -3 isn’t _larger_ than -8, it’s _greater than_ -8. While I don’t think the semantic difference would have made a difference in this case, I know several math professors who will also tell you that -8 is larger than -3. And one of my co-workers not only doesn’t know how many days in which months, but had never even heard the “30 days…” mnemonic. Scott ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/87 "2000-12-01T15:26:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by woolly \* > \*\*Was watching a documentary at university when it was noted (by the actions a suckling calf) that elephants mammary glands are located between their front legs. One of the female members of the tutorial group asked me if there were any other mammals similarly “built”. I suggested she look carefully in a mirror next time. > > Have won bets with several U.S. visitors over the fact that water goes down the plug hole the opposite way in Australia or anywhere else in the southern hemisphere. \*\* Perhaps you should bet Uncle Cecil. He’s written a column averring that water does \* not \* go down the plug hole the opposite way in the southern hemisphere. [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_161.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_161.html) I’ve never been south of the equator (Philippines is closest I’ve come), so I’ve never tested it myself. But my money’s on Cecil. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/88 "2000-12-01T15:45:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lizard \* > \*\*My contribution? Several years ago I worked the midnight shift in a gas station. A pretty Southern girl pulled up, walked inside, and asked her if I could show her how to pump gas. She said (and it was obvious that she was serious) that she had never done it before herself. The kicker? She was _ **26** years old_, and had a Master’s of Library Science degree. She had just bought this brand-new car and driven it all the way from southern Kentucky to my station on the full tank it had when she got it. She had coasted in on fumes. \*\* Ignoring the fact that it isn’t that hard, there are reasons for a 26 year old to never have pumped gas. For example, in Oregon it is illegal for you to pump your own gas. You have to let an attendant do this for you (unless that law finally changed within the last 18 months). For all I know, this is the case in Kentucky as well. Also, I have several friends my age (26) who have never owned a car. They all know how to drive but do not necessarily have a license. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them had never pumped gas (one friend grew up in a household that never owned a car). ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/89 "2000-12-01T15:52:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lizard \* > \*\* > Several years ago I worked the midnight shift in a gas station. A pretty Southern girl pulled up, walked inside, and asked her if I could show her how to pump gas. She said (and it was obvious that she was serious) that she had never done it before herself. The kicker? She was _ **26** years old_, and had a Master’s of Library Science degree. She had just bought this brand-new car and driven it all the way from southern Kentucky to my station on the full tank it had when she got it. She had coasted in on fumes. \*\* Hey, that’s not as bad as it sounds. Here in Oregon, there are no self-serve gas stations at all. I probably wouldn’t know how to pump gas to save my life (Well, I’m not old enough to have my license yet, but still, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Oregonians didn’t know how to pump gas.) Also, when I travel to other states, I will sometimes momentarily forget that there is sales tax. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/90 "2000-12-01T16:32:00Z")
Fifth grade. Darren Peoples owed me 20 cents. I owed him 15. I said “Just give me a nickel, and we’ll be set.” Wouldn’t do it. HAD to have my 15 cents actually handed to him. HAD to then turn around and give me 20 cents. I’ve never understood that. WAG on the elephant/knee situation: Maybe the elephant is the only creature that has four knees that bend in the same direction? ---
**Author:** ![HannibalV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@HannibalV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HannibalV)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/91 "2000-12-01T16:34:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mblackwell \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Search your memory real hard, Hann. Are you sure you just didn’t read about this somewhere? > > I know that is an old joke, but something similar actually happened in one of my middle school health classes. A girl asked if semen was sweet. The teacher’s answer was some joke about never hearing about any scientifc studies on the subject.\*\* OK…thinking, thinking…back those many years…I think the teacher said “That’s not an appropriate topic for discussion” and quickly moved on. And, as I’m thinking of this, another thought pops into mind: could the girl in question have heard of the urban legend and wanted to perpetuate it? ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/92 "2000-12-01T16:43:09Z")
Fifth grade. Darren Peoples owed me 20 cents. I owed him 15. I said “Just give me a nickel, and we’ll be set.” Wouldn’t do it. HAD to have my 15 cents actually handed to him. HAD to then turn around and give me 20 cents. I’ve never understood that. WAG on the elephant/knee situation: Maybe the elephant is the only creature that has four knees that bend in the same direction? ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/93 "2000-12-01T16:44:51Z")
My browser said the connection timed out on my first post! I swear by all that’s holy! ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/94 "2000-12-01T16:45:33Z")
Overheard in a fancy Chicago restaurant: Older man: “I’m going deer hunting in Iowa next week. The hunting season doesn’t open in Illinois until the week after that.” Pretty young thing: “So they do it that way to give the deer the time to migrate to Illinois?” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/95 "2000-12-01T16:53:21Z")
“The same person once asked me for the year of my birth and when I said 1940, asked what branch of the service I was in during World War II.” —Tell 'er you were in the Baby Brigade. At the magazine where I work, we recently ran a story by Cathy Cronkite. The 20-something editor had no idea Cathy’s dad Walter had once been on the tee-vee . . . And I have discovered to my horror that she also remembers Gilda Radner as “oh—that cancer lady, right?” ---
**Author:** ![Kaytee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Kaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaytee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/96 "2000-12-01T17:02:04Z")
I was once in an Irish theme pub in London and a group of very noisy American girls walked in. One of them asked the other, very loudly if this was indeed an Irish bar (I would have thought the Shamrock decoration and free-flowing guinness gave her a clue). Her even brighter friend replied loudly “It can’t be - the British and the Irish are at war” Oh dear ---
**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 1, 2000, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/97 "2000-12-01T17:04:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xizor \* > \*\*[Mr. Burns]There’s a **New** Mexico?[/Mr. Burns] \*\* I live in New Mexico, and these are some questions people who are thinking of visiting have actually asked me: “Do I need to get a special driver’s license?” “Will I need a visa (or passport)?” “Do many of the people speak English?” 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. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/98 "2000-12-01T17:22:24Z")
Things I have had to explain to people over the age of 20: Monty Python is not a ‘he’ Neither is Pink Floyd. Granola is what they use to make the snack bars; a gondola is what they use on the water in Venice. Patton was a general in WWII; Gerorge C Scott is an actor. There’s a difference. The Blair Witch Project is NOT a true story! The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is NOT a true story! The Amityville Horror is NOT a true story! George Bush and George W. Bush would not be the first father/son elected to the Presidency. (I had to drag out the encyclopedias to prove this one.) Bill Cosby is a highly successful stand-up comedian and sit-com star. He is NOT just the guy from the Jello commercials. Aerosmith’s ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady’ was not written for the movie Mrs. Doubtfire, just as ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ was not written for the Lion King (a friend heard this song on the radio and commented how one bit of a song from that movie has gotten so popular) :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/99 "2000-12-01T17:23:23Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ll be damned if I can figure out how she grew up with a giant, ugly Hitler-sized hole in her knowledge of the world. Very disturbing. Ever hear the phrase ‘Ignorance is Bliss’? Maybe Hitler is a good example of that. > [@](#): > > One girl, sitting in the back of the classroom, raised her hand and said the words that I will remember the rest of my days: > “So why doesn’t it taste sweet?” Then she runs out of the room, not hearing the professor’s answer: ‘Because the tastebuds for sweet are on the front of the tongue.’ ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431/100 "2000-12-01T17:26:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Why, isn’t it obvious? You must have been in the infantry! **Scratch1300,** you have no idea how much I enjoyed that, once I figured it out, that is. I guess I am as slow as the person I was laughing at. At the same company, there was another person who had no idea that Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had ever worked as a team. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arent-you-shocked-by-what-some-people-dont-know/43431.md?page=6)