# Embarrassing Epiphanies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 4, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561 "2004-02-04T22:56:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/81 "2004-02-08T16:09:35Z")
I had a girlfriend once whose very smug, know-it-all personality must have given her _lots_ of embarrassing epiphanies.
When we were dating, I was doing doctoral course work in applied statistics, and was considering doing my dissertation on actuarial research on satellite orbital debris (aka ‘space junk’): with all the comsats going up, orbital debris is increasing, and I thought it might be useful to analyze orbits for risk.
The resulting actuarial data would allow insurance companies to sell debris-damage policies to companies that launch satellites. (I didn’t finish a doctorate, and I’ve since learned there are various reasons making this not especially valuable research).
When I mentioned the topic to her, she laughed out loud, and said it was the stupidest idea she’d ever heard.
When the subject came up again a few weeks later, it turned out that she thought I was proposing that insurance companies could make lots of money offering insurance to _people on the ground_, in case a falling satellite hit them.
It was _my_ turn to laugh out loud.
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### Author:  [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/82 "2004-02-08T17:09:48Z")
> [@t-keela](#):
>
> You gotta watch out for those epiphanies **Ex-M**
Thanks **t-keela** , that was a fascinating exposition of the ‘peace symbol.’ Similar basic symbols crop up in various places over the course of human history. It’s interesting that an “invention” (the semaphore/crow’s-foot construction) was actually an old runic symbol.
I was going to introduce an abbreviation, NNUTS, which stands for “nothing new under the sun” but I’m afraid it would be misunderstood as a derogatory comment rather than one of recognition and agreement. It seems like a fairly common conclusion when discussing origins of concepts and symbols.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/83 "2004-02-08T17:13:51Z")
**Khiadra** , the free [Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary](http://www.m-w.com) includes an audio guide.
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### Author:  [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/84 "2004-02-08T17:22:09Z")
No sweat **Ex** 😉
[In this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4526392#post4526392)
we’re discussing the origin of paddy-wagon. So I have this epiphany, something completely different from what is usually offered. Probably totally wrong but it predates the other origins so who knows.
We live in a finite world so we’re bound to repeat old ideas given enough time. I seem to recall a quote “There are no original thoughts”. Can’t recall who said it though. Probably lotsa folks. 😃
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### Author:  [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/85 "2004-02-08T17:53:23Z")
> [@AskNott](#):
>
> For a while, I was embarrassed that I had been saying BAY-nul instead of buh-NAHL, as all the smart people on TV said it. Then I looked it up, and I was right the first time. Ha!
Where did you look it up? It _is_ buh-NAL.
Now I’ve joined the thread, I thought Christ was Jesus’ surname. He was Jesus Christ, son of Mary and Joseph Christ.
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### Author:  [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/86 "2004-02-08T18:42:46Z")
I’m going to tell on an ex now.
We were driving by an abortion clinic and there were some protesters outside. They had cribs and baby dolls and wore black. One guy held a sign that read “Baby Death House”. I’m anti-abortion but think it’s silly to make a fool of yourself like this so I muttered under my breath “freaks. . .”. GF asked why they were freaks and I told her. She sat in silence for a few seconds and then said:
“Oh, I thought it was a store to buy funeral items for dead babies.” :rolleyes: Get it? “Baby Death House”?
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### Author:  [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/87 "2004-02-08T18:53:26Z")
I am 54 years old. I eat a lot of rice. As far back as I can recall, I’ve been aware of the existence of Rice-a-roni\*. Apparently, however, I have never actually eaten Rice-a-roni. Just this weekend, at the grocery store, I was looking for seasoned rice, and I noticed that the ingredients for a particular type of Rice-a-roni were rice and vermicelli. “How odd,” I thought. Then I looked at other types of Rice-a-roni, and they too were a combination of rice and vermicelli. Epiphany time: "Ah, Rice-a-_roni_\* is a combination of rice _and pasta."_ I honest to god did not know this; I thought it was just flavored rice.
\*the San Francisco treat
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### Author:  [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/88 "2004-02-08T19:09:05Z")
> [@jesleigh](#):
>
> You know the Sarah Lee slogan, “Nobody does it like Sarah Lee”
> Nope, its “Nobody doesn’t like Sarah Lee”…
Hehe, you know, I believed it was “nobody doesn’t like Sarah Lee” from the beginning, but then one day I misheard it as “nobody does it like Sarah Lee”, and I decided, “Hey, THAT makes a lot more sense!”
I told my friends "Wow, I always thought it was “nobody DOESN’T LIKE Sarah Lee!” and they all laughed, because they were all so certain it was “nobody does it like Sarah Lee”.
Then the next time I heard it I realised I had been right all along. I don’t know if I ever told my friends this.
Anyway, here’s my personal epiphany. When I was young, my mother would speak of tossed salad, and she spoke quickly, so until I was about 12, I honestly thought it was called “taw salad”… but I had no idea what a “taw” was. Then I saw it written down and… _click_ ohhhhh!
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### Author:  [@madline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madline)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/89 "2004-02-08T19:28:06Z")
OH am I soooo glad you started this thread. I have had the most awful time of things when it comes to grammar. I am one of those who know exactly how to spell and pronounce more words than most. I am not perfect and appreciate it when someone corrects me, but my mother was a very intelligent woman and insisted on us using proper english (although she never taught us manners. Go figure).
I have had two temp jobs in the past 6 months and have worked for the most Godawful grammarless women I have ever known. The first one I would try to help. Not understanding why she shied away from me after a couple weeks. Eventually when I left I thought she was always mad at me for something. Clueless me discussed this with my sister who picked up on it in our discussions and said…“that’s why she was always mad at you, she hated that you were always correcting her! Women hate that!”
NOW I work for a woman who can’t even say what she wants to say!!! When I have to write a report and she tells me what to write I cringe. But I never submit it until she is out of sight. Then I hurriedly correct it and send. Once while we were listening to the radio this guy came on and did the same thing she does with grammar. He put a “t” on the end of all his s-words. I started to say OH God That drives me nuts. She says…“what does?” I stop for a second and realize…ooops
“I think it is so CUTE when people do that”
{{{{{CRINGE}}}}
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### Author:  [@angelicate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/angelicate)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/90 "2004-02-08T19:59:44Z")
> [@Ex Machina](#):
>
> And for several years I saw the logo on Superman’s chest as just a group of strange geometric figures instead of an ‘S’. (I think that notion was played upon in the Superman movie.)
I was about 8 or 9 when the Batman movie came out, and along with it, lots of merchandise. I wasn’t particularly interested in Batman at all, so when I saw these black shirts with a big yellow logo, all I saw was the yellow and didn’t look at the black space inside it and thought it was a shirt with a big logo of awful, misshapen teeth.
Then I saw the movie, and it clicked.
I did the same thing with the cross-stitch picture my grandma has in her house. I asked her what it was, and she said that it said Jesus. I thought that it must say Jesus in some other language or something, because I couldn’t read it. Finally, I glanced at it one day and looked at the black space between the white symbols and saw it. [http://www.stellaluna.org/temp/jesus.jpg](http://www.stellaluna.org/temp/jesus.jpg)
I just now “got” Rice-a-roni. I never thought about it till now, just thought it was catchy.
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### Author:  [@Nickel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickel)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/91 "2004-02-08T20:37:57Z")
I always thought ‘pipe cleaners’ was a stupid name for those fun arts and crafts materials until the day I discovered that they were called that for a reason. Oh my God! They were a pipe cleaning tool first, they just happened to be fun to twist and shape into mothers day gifts! So many years in the dark…
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### Author:  [@Akaadji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaadji)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/92 "2004-02-08T22:10:15Z")
I have another revelation that belongs in this thread, courtesy of Nintendo Power magazine…I was reading through the letters, and there was one about NES games not saving, and I finally found out why games that don’t use memory cards are called battery-backed…_shakes head_
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/93 "2004-02-08T22:25:22Z")
> [@Jabba](#):
>
> > [@AskNott](#):
> >
> > For a while, I was embarrassed that I had been saying BAY-nul instead of buh-NAHL, as all the smart people on TV said it. Then I looked it up, and I was right the first time. Ha!
>
> Where did you look it up? It _is_ buh-NAL.
You’re [both right.](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=banal)
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### Author:  [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/94 "2004-02-09T01:21:34Z")
> [@sunfish](#):
>
> Also: I was a 5th-year grad student before I ever actually “saw” the face of the man on the moon. I don’t know why, but I always figured it was just an expression. :o
I always thought the “Man in the moon” was this…
[http://www.planetfusion.co.uk/~pignut/see\_man.html](http://www.planetfusion.co.uk/~pignut/see_man.html)
You mean there is a face there too?
Off to google moon images…
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### Author:  [@The\_General\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_General_1)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/95 "2004-02-09T01:42:53Z")
I got one that’s very funny, but it was my little brother, not me.
I speak oddly. I use words that other people would not. Probably because I’m legally a genius (that’s another story). I was talking to my brother, and used the word “moniker.” He had no idea what I meant. It turned out that he thought the word was pronounced “monkey-yer.”
He still pronounces it incorrectly every once in a while. :wally
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### Author:  [@The\_General\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_General_1)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/96 "2004-02-09T02:05:07Z")
> [@brainfizz](#):
>
> It’s surprising the looks you get until you realize that “Grand Prix” is pronounced somewhat differently to how it’s spelt.
It’s French. In French, about half the letters are silent. What do you expect from a country that thinks snails are tasty? :rolleyes:
But then, I’m from Texas, where all food can be deep fried and/or BBQ’ed. And I mean all food. I’ve had deef fried ice cream, grilled eggs (I’m not sure how they did that), and chicken-fried buffalo.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/97 "2004-02-09T02:08:10Z")
I found out just a few years ago that what I had called “bumblebees” all my life were actually “carpenter bees.”
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### Author:  [@Marine\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marine_One)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/98 "2004-02-09T02:39:49Z")
Cinderella’s real name is Ella.
This dawned on me a couple of years ago.
She’s around _cinders_, her step sister’s named her **Cinderella** to be mean.
I just thought it was an exotic sounding name.
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### Author:  [@Kulau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kulau)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/99 "2004-02-09T04:32:52Z")
I went to a school for seven years where we had a sports uniform made by the popular New Zealand athletics brand, Canterbury. The logo is 3 C’s joined together and if you stare at the spaces between the C’s, you can see the heads of 3 kiwis (the birds, not the fruit), NZ’s symbol…
[http://www.canterburyclothing.co.nz/images/ccctee.gif](http://www.canterburyclothing.co.nz/images/ccctee.gif)
I must have seen that logo many times every day for seven years but I only ever saw the C’s. One day in my final year I was sitting in a huge group of my classmates, quietly watching school sports when it suddenly dawned on me. Of course, in my amazement, I exclaimed my revelation really loudly, much to the amusement of everyone sitting around me. Apparently I was the only one who hadn’t realised. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Erika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erika)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarrassing-epiphanies/227561/100 "2004-02-09T06:06:29Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Am I the only person who had a total disconnect the first time they heard some talking about “euthenasia?”
>
> Needless to say, they were not refering to Korean Boy Scouts.
I spent several hours _very_ confused in 11th grade about that. And it took a good while for me to get it straightened out.
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