# Basic facts you learned late in life that you didn't really know. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 19, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711 "2010-02-19T23:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/101 "2010-02-22T09:37:06Z")
Suppose it helps to add the damn link! > **[Placenta recipes, eating your placenta](https://www.mothers35plus.co.uk/placenta-recipes.htm)** > > Placenta recipes, including roast placenta, placenta lasagne and placenta spaghetti bolognaise. Uses for your placenta. ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/102 "2010-02-22T09:51:05Z")
At the age of 23… well, this should explain everything. > **[Do you wash dishes with hot water or cold water?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=544078)** > > …when you’re at home. I believe I’m one of the rare types who washes with cold water. Most would argue against it, but I get things done the same way as others. Also saves on the electric bill. How do you wash your dishes? What’s your reasoning to... It seems I’m not as ‘rare’ as I think I am… I am the one and only. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/103 "2010-02-22T09:54:31Z")
Nope, I have a friend who washes his dishes in cold water. You are not alone! ---
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/104 "2010-02-22T12:54:42Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Sad thing is, my dad was an avid hunter and fisherman when he was alive. But my parents never married and I never really went hunting with him, so we rarely talked about guns. > And as for everybody talking about shoe laces. I learned to tie them…I think I’ve heard it described using the words bunny ears. Loop each lace, twist them together and pull (or something like that). I was in my late 20’s or early 30’s before learning the other, some say more sophisticated, method. But I don’t care and sometimes will do it one way, and sometimes another. I’ve heard that boys learn one way and girls learn the other. I wonder how true that is. I learned the correct way and then goddamn Sesame Street came along and put up a cool thing about tying laces with bunny ears. So aged about six I tried that and whaddayaknow it worked. So I tied laces like that for years. Repeatedly. When all this time I could have tied them once and been done with it. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/105 "2010-02-22T13:40:28Z")
> [@Doody\_Pants](#): > > At 37 I realized that the sandwich shop Subway had nothing to do with the NYC subway system but was so named because some people called those long sandwiches ‘subs’… heh. Growing up in NY, the only Subways I every saw were close to the actual subway… I didn’t realize the Subway/subway sandwich connection until leaving the city and finding out that hardly anyone around here knew what a hero was. Really? I thought subway systems were somehow inspiration for the sandwiches… the shape of the trains or something. Afterall, plenty of shops around here have the subway map wallpaper. Also, what’s a “hero” when not talking about the likes of Superman? ---
**Author:** ![KittenKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kittenkat/32/306_2.png) [@KittenKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KittenKat)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/106 "2010-02-22T15:18:19Z")
> [@mecaenas](#): > > Really? I thought subway systems were somehow inspiration for the sandwiches… the shape of the trains or something. Afterall, plenty of shops around here have the subway map wallpaper. Also, what’s a “hero” when not talking about the likes of Superman? I believe that _sub_, when referring to a sandwich, is short for submarine, and that the sandwich is called such because it is the same basic shape as a submarine. I think _hero_ refers to the size of the sandwich, and indicates that it is too big for an average joe type to eat all at once. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/107 "2010-02-22T16:02:36Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Nope. I somehow got the idea as a child and no one ever told me differently, probably because sheep/goat fucking doesn’t come up often in conversation. I did know that ponies were not baby horses and that pineapples don’t grow on trees from a very early age though. But sheep and goats don’t look ANYTHING alike. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/108 "2010-02-22T16:58:46Z")
I always though ‘hero’ was a bastardization of the proper Greek spelling, ‘gyro’. > [@Glory](#): > > But sheep and goats don’t look ANYTHING alike. 😕 And they’re frequently mentioned in children’s literature and shown on tv. Hard to miss this one IMO. It’s like thinking turkeys are big chickens. Or ponies are baby horses, LOL. A lot of the misperceptions on this thread are about plants or animals, two things which I’ve had a keen interest in from a very early age, as well as having a father who taught at an agricultural college, and growing up around farmers. I’ve probably known the difference between sheep and goats since I was 3. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know, but I know a shitload about plants and animals. I don’t think this is normal though, especially for people who grew up in cities or suburbs. > [@](#): > > Did you never hang out with drunken farm kids with weird bachelor uncles? Nope. People all over the Midwest seem boringly normal to me, compared to those in rural areas in the East. I’d never met a hick until I moved to central PA! I had also never seen so many mullets in one place… ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/109 "2010-02-22T19:23:35Z")
> [@Glory](#): > > But sheep and goats don’t look ANYTHING alike. 😕 Krusty: No, it’s a goat. You know, one of them lady goats. Selma: There are no lady goats: a lady goat is a sheep. Hibbert: I believe she’s right. Otto: You’re crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/110 "2010-02-22T19:41:31Z")
> [@groo](#): > > For about 44 years, I tied my shoes in a sub-optimal way, using what I now know was a granny knot. [Then I read this](http://lifehacker.com/5451765/ditch-the-granny-knot-to-tie-your-shoes-more-efficiently) and, for the past three weeks, have been living the high life, with shoes that stay tightly tied all day long, even my running shoes, which I no longer need to double-knot. Looking back, I can’t believe I let myself live that way. Weird… I tie a perfectly cromulent reef knot – which I just double-checked, and even tried tying it the opposite way from what I normally do which did result in a vertical granny knot – and my laces still come untied when I run. I suspect it has something to do with the round (instead of flat) laces on my running shoes. But I still have to double knot my shoes for running, or they come undone after about 2 miles. I didn’t even know there was a “wrong” way to tie shoelaces. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/111 "2010-02-22T20:20:23Z")
> [@maisoui](#): > > I was 27 before I learned that you could open the tab on a take-out cup lid and fold it back on itself and it would snap in and stick open. 39 here and just learned that. Doubly embarrassing since it was preceded by me ranting about the horrible design and complaining how the flap doesn’t stay open and no perforations were designed in, so when I tear off the flap, it always leaves a ragged edge that coffee drips messily out of…“If only they designed a stay-open flap!” I proclaimed :smack: Cue my wife then showing me the technique, and her apologetic defense to the friends in the car “No, really, my husband is smart! Really!” ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/112 "2010-02-23T00:23:48Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > That’s what it’s called in Korean too! (Dog’s madness, not hondsdolheid.) A lot of Koreans are surprised when I mention that my cats need rabies shots too. Ditto Chinese: 狂犬病 “crazy dog disease.” ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/113 "2010-02-23T01:33:47Z")
About the sheep/goat thing, they’re not _that_ far apart. They can interbreed, usually unsuccessfully, but not always: > **[BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Funny creature' toast of Botswana](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/813466.stm)** > > The unusual case of a goat-sheep hybrid is reported by veterinarians in Botswana. While we’re fighting ignorance here, mules aren’t always infertile, either: > **[Mule | Fertility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule#Fertility)** > > A mule has 63 chromosomes, intermediate between the 64 of the horse and the 62 of the donkey. Mules are usually infertile for this reason. > Pregnancy is rare, but can occasionally occur naturally, as well as through embryo transfer. A few mare mules have produced offspring when mated with a horse or donkey stallion. Herodotus gives an account of such an event as an ill omen of Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480 BC: "There happened also a portent of another kind while he was still at Sardis—a mule ... ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/114 "2010-02-23T04:07:48Z")
> [@Glory](#): > > But sheep and goats don’t look ANYTHING alike. 😕 What, everything you thought was true when you were 4 turned out to be true? 😛 I just decided one day as a child that [this must be the boy](http://www.abfboergoats.com/images/meat.jpg)and [this must be the girl](http://www.travel-destination-pictures.com/data/media/67/cute-sheep_1008.jpg). After all, [boy cows](http://witchdoctor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/bull.jpg)have horns and [girl cows](http://yellowallpaper.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/cow.jpg) don’t and they are referred to as bulls and cows. [Boy deer](http://www.mo.gov/mo/mophotos/wildlife/WI_BigBuck_Bohmie_052405.jpg) have horns and [girl deer](http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/wma/images/matador_sisk_pen_white_tailed_doe_smaller.jpg)don’t and they are referred to as bucks and does. It was obvious to me as a child that goat/sheep was the male/female of that species. It made total sense in my mind. It just happened to be something that I never ended up discussing with anyone and since I didn’t live in an agricultural area I didn’t get a lot of hands-on experience with sheep or goats. Hell, lots of people on this very board admitted at one point or another thinking that the cats were girls and the dogs were the boys and they look less alike than sheep and goats. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/115 "2010-02-23T04:27:44Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I’m 42. Up until a few years ago, I thought the band with Paul McCartney and John Lennon was spelled _The Beetles_, and was named after the insect. Till last week, \*\*Mr. Caricci \*\*(44) thought that the bug was spelled beatle. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/116 "2010-02-23T04:56:14Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > As for the tying your shoes thing, I seem to have some sort of mental issue. I’m 29 and I’ve never been able to tie my shoes that way. I’ve always used the bunny ears method. Tie the base knot, then make two loops and tie a knot with them, double knot if you have round laces, it rarely unties on it’s own. No, no–don’t double knot them! Then you have to pick at the knot to get it lose. Better yet, since you’re used to the bunny ear method, this should be a piece of cake for you. I present the [double slip knot](http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm). That sucker will stay tied \*and \*you can untie easily by pulling a tail. You’re welcome. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bacon\_Salt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Bacon\_Salt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bacon_Salt)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/117 "2010-02-23T07:08:48Z")
I second the double slip knot. Nothing will accidentally loosen that knot. Plus, it looks a little neater than the standard knot. > [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Never, ever fuck with a man who has a pony, and friends with same. This is the lesson of history. May I use this as a sig? ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/118 "2010-02-23T07:37:05Z")
I was in high school before I figured out reckless was not wreck-less. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/119 "2010-02-23T07:42:00Z")
Like apparently many a person, it was quite late in life before I realized “misled” was not the past tense of a verb “misle”. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711/120 "2010-02-23T11:53:51Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Hell, lots of people on this very board admitted at one point or another thinking that the cats were girls and the dogs were the boys and they look less alike than sheep and goats. Really? When? I remember a post in the “Yes that person really is that dumb” thread that was running recently about cats and dogs being the male/female versions of one species, but I don’t remember seeing it as a commonly held view amongst people here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-facts-you-learned-late-in-life-that-you-didnt-really-know/529711.md?page=7)