# D'oh! Late realizations.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 2, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030 "2008-02-02T23:22:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/21 "2008-02-03T03:28:09Z")
Before. Be Fore.
After. Aft er.
Sail much?
Lieutenant. Lieu Tenant. In lieu of who? Tenant of what?
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### Author:  [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/22 "2008-02-03T03:32:10Z")
From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant#Etymology)
> [@](#):
>
> The word lieutenant derives from French; the lieu meaning “place” as in a position; and tenant meaning “holding” as in “holding a position”; thus a “lieutenant” is somebody who holds a position in the absence of his or her superior (compare the cognate Latin locum tenens).
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### Author:  [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/23 "2008-02-03T03:42:06Z")
First time I made it south enough to see them, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the fast food restaurant name chick-feel-ah could possibly mean.
And it sounded dirty…
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/24 "2008-02-03T06:15:52Z")
Well yeah, **Rysto** , I said as much. Just a really wierd word for a military position, meaning wise. A more appropriate definition/use of the complex word would be in terms of someone who maintains a piece of property for you when you’re not there - a property manager.
Of course, if we get into silly military titles, we have to start with “Private”, move through “Major” and end with “General”. 😉
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### Author:  [@Purgatory\_Creek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purgatory_Creek)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/25 "2008-02-03T12:02:49Z")
Most of you might be too young to envision this, but I was in my early 20’s before I realized that the ubiquitous Fallout Shelter signs were–well, **signs** and not chutes that opened up to catch children who fell out of windows above them. I do remember idly wondering one day why so many of them appeared on windowless walls, but my attention wandered and I never followed up.
Many years later, I bought an old Fallout Shelter sign at Ax-Man, and I have it on my office door to remind myself that I definitely do not know everything.
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### Author:  [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/26 "2008-02-03T15:01:14Z")
I’ve mentioned this before, but…
…for the first fews years after it was passed, I thought that The No Child Left Behind Act had something to do with all the “This Bus Has Been Checked For Sleeping Children” signs I suddenly started seeing on school buses everywhere.
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### Author:  [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/27 "2008-02-03T15:44:21Z")
It took a long time for me to become aware that Walgreens and Wal-Mart didn’t have the same parent corporation-- years after both chains showed up in my area. I find a lot of people still think they’re related. Perhaps it’s a vestige of having grown up with Woolco/Woolworth, Ayr-Way/LS Ayres, and SS Kresge/Kmart locally.
For years, I spelled fluorescent as flourescent. I did a science fair exhibit on light bulb efficiencies, technologies, etc., in junior high, ranked fairly high and exhibited at some larger fair. All with a giant, misspelled poster headline, and rampant misspellings in my paper and body of my poster. Not one person ever pointed it out, no red marks in my papers. I was in my 20s when my eyes alit on some light bulb packaging that had the correctly-spelled word and actually _noticed_ the spelling. Oops.
Every once in a while now I’ll suddenly realize a food I’ve consumed for years has animal product in it, which sucks for a vegetarian. I guess mentally I’ve grandfathered things into my diet, and while I know to read the ingredients of anything new, it doesn’t dawn on me that I have never looked at the ingredients list of long-term favorites. Reading the Altoids tin after a good 15-year mint habit was my saddest “d’oh” moment.
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### Author:  [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/28 "2008-02-03T16:14:24Z")
It took about ten years of hearing the Sleepy’s jingle, “Call Sleepy’s for the rest of your life,” before I realized they meant rest as in sleep, not rest as in forever. (or at the very least they intended the pun).
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/29 "2008-02-03T22:00:54Z")
[QUOTE=Rube E. Tewesday]
You must have had some interesting experiences in restaurants.
[/QUOTE]
I did, if you mean “interesting” to mean “humiliating.” It would have been worse, but for years I was not very good at realizing I was being flirted with. :smack: Looking back, I can see that my life as a young man could have been much more entertaining.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/30 "2008-02-04T00:42:01Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera]
Well yeah, **Rysto** , I said as much. Just a really wierd word for a military position, meaning wise.
[/QUOTE]
No, it’s not. The lieutenant holds the position of command in lieu of the captain (or the next lieutenant up, who holds the position in lieu of the captain).
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/31 "2008-02-04T01:06:05Z")
I thought until I was 20 that misled was pronounced “Myzelled”.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/32 "2008-02-04T02:19:09Z")
[QUOTE=Student Driver]
SS Kresge/Kmart
[/QUOTE]
:eek: !
I repeat, :eek: !
I’m 36 years old. We had both a Kresge and a K-Mart in my hometown for DECADES. And this is the very first time the relationship has ever crossed my mind.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/33 "2008-02-04T04:39:58Z")
I was probably about 20 when I figured out submarine…sub-marine…below-water. To give myself some credit, before then I had never really given it much thought.
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### Author:  [@maikai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maikai)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/34 "2008-02-04T05:17:06Z")
[QUOTE=BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]
First time I made it south enough to see them, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the fast food restaurant name chick-feel-ah could possibly mean.
And it sounded dirty…
[/QUOTE]
Me too!
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### Author:  [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/35 "2008-02-04T05:21:15Z")
[QUOTE=BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]
First time I made it south enough to see them, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the fast food restaurant name chick-feel-ah could possibly mean.
And it sounded dirty…
[/QUOTE]
I’ll join **pulehoopo** with another “Me, too!” Of course, I’m the one that was laughed at in fourth grade for actually pronouncing breakfast: Break. Fast. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/36 "2008-02-04T15:13:50Z")
Story of a friend of mine. Our church has this kind of ratty little building on the property. It was used for church purposes, but mostly was purchased for the land (I think).
Anyway, it suffered water damage and was not worth repairing, and has been sitting there declining.
It was announced in church that the local volunteer Fire Department would be using the building for exercises one day a week, every other week, for the foreseeable future. So don’t worry if we see firetrucks on the property.
My friend thought “That’s odd. Why do the fire department people want to do exercises there?” She was thinking aerobics or push-up type exercises–despite having been on the trustees and planning board, and knowing all about the planned exercises–in the sense of drills performed by fire department personnel, so they know how to knock down walls, open windows, and retrieve people lost in the building–which will culminate in the building being burnt down, at some point in the future.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/37 "2008-02-04T15:23:25Z")
Until a couple years ago I didn’t realize that Oyster crackers are small enough to have a satisfyingly even crunch experience without crunching them individually into the soup/chili like you would a saltine. They’re a lot harder to crunch up than saltines!
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/38 "2008-02-04T15:46:26Z")
I put together and annotated version of Ira Levin’s “Rosemary’s Baby” without realizing the title had something to do with “Mary’s Baby.” It dawned on me about six months after I’d finished it. :smack:
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### Author:  [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/39 "2008-02-04T16:35:13Z")
I remember being about 9 or 10 years old. I was reading a novel with a character named Penelope. I pronounced it Penn-elope. My mother gently corrected me.
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### Author:  [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doh-late-realizations/436030/40 "2008-02-04T16:47:58Z")
Arby’s = R.B. = **R** oast **B** eef (sandwiches). I won’t even tell you how old I was when I made that brilliant connection.
StG
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