# Ever been shocked at what some people don't know? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 10, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416 "2012-03-10T22:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/261 "2012-03-14T14:54:20Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Turns out that she was a Minnesotan and had never been exposed to the concept of tides. Ouch. That’s nice of you to try to excuse her, but Minnesota is on Lake Superior. Major league tides. My boss didn’t know Hawaii was a state - thought it was a territory. In his defense, he only recently became a US citizen. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/262 "2012-03-14T14:56:52Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > (And yes, they should use the centered dot or no symbol at all for the multiplication too, but I didn’t want to bother looking the magic code to enter a centered dot.) I don’t suppose a symbol menu could be built into the board’s reply editor? So you could just click and add stuff like ‰ ™ ¢ © ® ° ² · ½ etc.? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/263 "2012-03-14T15:00:59Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > At any rate, “toilet” in this case means “the act of dressing and/or grooming oneself”, not “potty”. The ceramic fixture is a “toilet bowl”. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/264 "2012-03-14T15:13:18Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Well, color me stupid! I’ve been around a few years longer than you, and this is the first I’ve ever heard what “notions” are (although I’ve seen the word used a few times in stores, where it couldn’t possibly have meant “ideas”). I can see not knowing what ‘notions’ are if you don’t sew. It’s things like needles, thread, small scissors, etc - the small little things you stick in your sewing box. I might be surprised that someone didn’t know what they were, because I’ve been exposed to it, which a lot of these seem to fall under. (I think they’re fair fodder for this thread though). It’s a matter of ignorance not stupidity. One of my coworkers didn’t know how vaccines work. Note, we work in a medical supply company. (Admittedly it has nothing to do with vaccines, but still). ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/265 "2012-03-14T15:14:41Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Not a snark, but maybe because they’re smart enough to know that there is no document that does what you say it does. The smarter ones must have conversed and came up with what they thought you must be talking about. Granted, I oversimplified. But the phrase, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” is generally taken to mean that the United States Government shan’t prohibit the printing and sales of books or prevent people from reading them. This was a basic talk about censorship to a group of high school students, not a law-school lecture on the First Amendment. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/266 "2012-03-14T16:12:23Z")
> [@grude](#): > > This is worded oddly but does make sense. > > \ On the last page, a few posters tried to give her a similar benefit of the doubt, but I assure you that she was still confused after class and asked several of us for clarification. Her point was most certainly that there was nothing even vaguely resembling a chicken roaming this great planet of ours-- then, one day, the Mesopotamians pulled a god and made chickens— then, and only then- were there chickens. ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/267 "2012-03-14T16:18:28Z")
I once knew a girl who said with confidence that all the Beatles died of drug overdoses. She knew all their names, but not that three of them (at the time) were still alive or that the other one had been shot. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/268 "2012-03-14T16:37:42Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > The ceramic fixture is a “toilet bowl”. The bowl is only part of the fixture; there’s also the tank. Overseas, it’s also the room in which the fixture is located; hence the thread ‘[whats the big deal with the word “toilet” in the US?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=522728)’ I’ve never actually seen “toilet water,” but I know about it thanks to the family story of when my mother was a girl and she got a bottle of toilet water for her birthday, and her kid brother … poured it in the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/269 "2012-03-14T16:50:47Z")
> [@bup](#): > > That’s nice of you to try to excuse her, but Minnesota is on Lake Superior. Major league tides. Lake Superior’s tides are [only a couple inches high.](http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/newsletter/2003/11/neverending_motion_lake_superiors_wetlands.html) They’re lost in the waves to any casual observer. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/270 "2012-03-14T17:16:40Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > In that case, “toilet” would be pronounced “twa-LAY” I assume. 😛 Never, in any dialect of French, as the word doesn’t exist in that language- it’s always _toilette_. > [@Mijin](#): > > \ > Yeah for some reason we use the french expression in the UK: “eau de toilette”. > Can’t believe I read “toilet water” and didn’t make the association… I think it’s rather hilarious that some people (seemingly Americans) have taken a literal translation of the phrase and use it. Though to be fair, I don’t know what else I’d call it in English - I don’t think I’ve ever referred to it without switching to the French term, and would probably just call them all perfumes. For me, calling it “toilet water” was always a silly joke! ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/271 "2012-03-14T17:40:01Z")
'Twas years ago and there was going to be a lunar eclipse in the early winter evening, starting just around quitting time. I commented upon it others in the office. “Ooooh, don’t look at it!” warned a (very) blonde young lady. She didn’t know exactly why but said she just knew it was dangerous. In my best schoolteacher mode, I asked her what caused a lunar eclipse. “Hmmmmm. Isn’t that, like, when the sun gets between the earth and the moon, and casts a shadow?” I swear this is 100% true. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/272 "2012-03-14T17:47:30Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > 'Twas years ago and there was going to be a lunar eclipse in the early winter evening, starting just around quitting time. I commented upon it others in the office. “Ooooh, don’t look at it!” warned a (very) blonde young lady. She didn’t know exactly why but said she just knew it was dangerous. In my best schoolteacher mode, I asked her what caused a lunar eclipse. “Hmmmmm. Isn’t that, like, when the sun gets between the earth and the moon, and casts a shadow?” I swear this is 100% true. Fuck. The first lunar eclipse I saw there were people taking pictures of it: with the flash on! Which doesn’t make any sense in many ways. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/273 "2012-03-14T18:07:46Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > A few years ago, I worked in the marketing department of a technology services company. I was on a team that had to come up with a new marketing campaign for our company, which could provide tech services both in the US as well as internationally. > > I came up with what I thought was a nifty concept that played on the names of famous cities. One of the ideas was: > > “You need to manage your network in St. Petersburg? No problem. Oh, you mean St. Petersburg, Russia? Still no problem!” > > Another was, “You need to track your shipments to San Jose? No problem. Wait. San Jose, Costa Rica? Still no problem!” > > The campaign was shot down, mostly because the other 4 people on the team were arguing over “St. Petersburg”. Only two people had heard of the city in Florida, and only one had heard of the one in Russia. None of the people on the team realized that there were two cities with that name. > > I didn’t even try with the San Jose one. > > FWIW, these were college graduates working for a fairly large company in the Midwest. A couple of months ago my MIL called us to let us know that she was planning a vacation to St. Petersburg. I said that I thought Russia would be a fabulous place for a vacation and asked why she decided to go there and she paused for a second before saying, “No, not Russia. Florida.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/274 "2012-03-14T18:25:24Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Fuck. The first lunar eclipse I saw there were people taking pictures of it: with the flash on! Which doesn’t make any sense in many ways. It makes me chuckle, too, but the truth is, most of those cameras (depending on when you grew up) have automatic flash modes. Not that some people wouldn’t turn on the flash anyway, but I bet it’s mostly the automatic flash kicking in. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/275 "2012-03-14T18:49:06Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > This isn’t a specific example. But it really galls me when in a discussion, I cite a well-known event or figure from recent history, and the person responds by saying they don’t know who/what I’m talking about, “because it was before my time”. Gee, somebody should invent something, maybe call it, I dunno, a “history book”, to deal with this perplexing problem > > I once was discussing current events with an otherwise bright, politically engaged 20-something college grad who used this defense to explain why she didn’t understand my reference to “Goldwater’s presidential candidacy”. I replied that I followed the campaign closely as a grizzled, politically-savvy five-year old. So, without running to wikipedia or a history book, what can you tell us about Alton B. Parker’s presidential campaign? Though you were a kid, Goldwater was part of your time. Share with us your knowledge of Parker, who was from before your time. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/276 "2012-03-14T18:53:47Z")
Alton B. Parker ran for President … in a year divisible by 4, … in an election dominated by the Republican and Democratic parties … was a white male … was a US citizen and met the Constitutional requirements for being President What do I win? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/277 "2012-03-14T19:20:04Z")
I’ve been shocked by others’ cluelessness many times in my life, but I’ve come to chalk it up to the fact that growing up, I was told frequently by my father that I was a moron, so I always just assumed if\* I\* knew something, everyone else must know it too. So one time I was reading \*On The Road \*by Jack Kerouac and must have mentioned it to my dad. He asked what it was about- “you know, Kerouac, taking road trips, beat poets, etc.” He was looking at me blankly. “You know- Jack Kerouac.” Blank look. “Who’s that? What are ‘beat poets’?” That was the first time I realized I knew things he didn’t know, but it sort of blew me away. I was surprised to learn my girlfriend- who had already sort of established herself as intellectual and more classically educated than me- had no idea who Harry Connick was. This was around the time when Connick was pretty popular- a few years after the soundtrack to _When Harry Met Sally…, his acting career was taking off, I think he had been on the cover of Newsweek_, and so on. That’s when it started to hit home- maybe I’m the freak, here. Since then, I’ve started to come to terms with the fact that I’m not as much of a moron as I always thought, and also that I have a (somewhat frustrating) ability to remember arcane trivia. Which actually makes me seem smarter than I think I am. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/278 "2012-03-14T19:35:18Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever used any of those features. I imagine I’d be able to figure it out, but off the top of my head, I don’t know how to do any of that. > [@hajario](#): > > Same here. I’ve used Word for like fifteen years and I’ve never had occasion to use those features. I’ve only ever seen the collaboration features a small handful of times. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Hell, I’ve used it for about twenty years _and_ scored a perfect 100% on my temp agency’s Word proficiency exam (though this was in 2003-4, so maybe it wasn’t that widely used at the time), and I’ve never used it nor even seen it (to the best of my recollection.) Well, I guess it’s just me! I must play around with Word more than most people then…what’s the point of having this wonderful software if you don’t use 90% of it? Never mind that Excel still scares me… ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/279 "2012-03-14T19:44:02Z")
> [@Lionne](#): > > Well, I guess it’s just me! I must play around with Word more than most people then…what’s the point of having this wonderful software if you don’t use 90% of it? > Never mind that Excel still scares me… I mostly use it to write documentation for equipment and processes at my job. I also used it to make my resume. I do these on my own so I don’t need the collaboration tools, these are not published so don’t need footnotes and for whatever other reasons, I don’t need a ton of stuff that’s shoved in to that bloated product. It does a great job for what I need it to do and I prefer to waste my free time on a different set of wasteful things. ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/280 "2012-03-14T19:52:46Z")
A kid was in our shop one day looking at the ferrets. She looked over at me knowingly and said, “I know that if a ferret bites you and you bleed, the ferret develops a taste for blood, and they’re just gonna want more and more and more and more.” It gave me an image in my head of a “Little Shop of Horrors” sort of situation playing out with a little girl and her ferret. The other day someone was admiring the baby macaws I’m hand-raising, and asked where they came from. I told her I own the parents, but I hand-feed the babies after 6 weeks so they’ll be tame pets. She stared at me for a minute, and said, “But where did you get the parent birds?” I told her I’d purchased them from another breeder in the area who was getting out of the business. “But where did SHE get them?” she asked. I told her I didn’t really know, but I assumed she had purchased them at some point as well. The woman stared at me for a minute, and finally came out with, “But where did the FIRST macaws come from?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=15)