# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/21 "2012-03-11T00:51:06Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Never heard of Sharon Tate? Now watch Eve get all stabby. Does it help that I’m not an American? Wikipedia tells me she was a victim of a murderer I have heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/22 "2012-03-11T00:52:08Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > Hmm, heard of Charles Manson? Yup. He’s the American Fred West, right? I have vague knowledge of the murderer. Couldn’t name his victims, though. Can’t name Jack the Ripper’s, either, and at least he was on the same continent as me! ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/23 "2012-03-11T00:53:04Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > I once placed a Foley cath into a woman . . . I can only imagine the sound effects . . . ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/24 "2012-03-11T00:54:12Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I was a bit shocked when a 30-something commuter friend had never heard of Sharon Tate It’s too late to fall in love with Sharon Tate. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/25 "2012-03-11T01:03:08Z")
A couple of years ago, I introduced a 60 year old man to Nachos. Yup, corn chips and melted cheese, dipped in salsa. He had never heard of them. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/26 "2012-03-11T01:09:36Z")
yeah, I was talking to the guy changing the oil in my car yesterday, and he had no idea what the Young’s Modulus of naval brass was. what a retard. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/27 "2012-03-11T01:09:52Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > I can only imagine the sound effects . . . I’m missing the joke. Help a lady out? Holy crap I just got it, Foley artists do sound effects for TV/ movies. Boy, do I feel all dumb and stuff right now! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/28 "2012-03-11T01:28:54Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > Never heard of either. Sorry. [\* Falls over in dead faint like Margaret Dumont \*] I do, however, realize that I am _very very old_ and my work is very esoteric, and that not everyone is an expert on old show-biz, so I remember it’s \*me \*who is weird, not everyone else. I saw an ask.con question, “Was the Titanic movie based on a true story?” But I am hoping that was a \*parody \*question. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/29 "2012-03-11T01:34:20Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > I’m missing the joke. Help a lady out? Here, maybe I can help: Schwip…rustle rustle rustle, squeeeeeelch, splooch splooch, hisssss (indrawn breath), screwscrewscrew, splush, tugtugtug. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/30 "2012-03-11T01:54:29Z")
I know who Margaret Dumont is, but I’m a classic movie fanatic, so I don’t count. I had a customer recently who had successfully bred corn snakes. She asked me how long the babies had to stay with the mother to nurse. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/31 "2012-03-11T02:04:57Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I am a \*terrible \*show-business snob–I go all Margaret Dumont and fall over in a faint when someone has never heard of, well, Margaret Dumont. So I am used to people not knowing what or who the hell I am talking about. > > But I was a bit shocked when a 30-something commuter friend had never heard of Sharon Tate or the Ziegfeld _Follies_. (Yes, only I would bring up Sharon Tate or the Ziegfeld _Follies_ during morning-commute chat). You may like this story. Years ago my bookclub was reading Dashiell Hammett. I mentioned this at work, where they had no idea who he was. I said “you know ‘author of the Maltese Falcon, creator of Sam Spade?’” Blank looks, so I dug myself a deeper grave, “lover of Lillian Hellman?” Blanker looks. “You know, Lillian Hellman, writer of ‘The Children’s Hour’? Didn’t any of you go to college?” ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/32 "2012-03-11T02:07:26Z")
I suppose, well, I had a conversation with my ex-wife. She asked me what I thought about the possibility of other life in the universe. I gave my usual response to that - universe big, lots of places life could be so yeah, probably, but I don’t think we’ll ever know. So she asked me if there were other suns, to support life. I took that somewhat metaphorically and said sure, yes, the sun is not a particularly remarkable star, there are plenty more like it. She interrupted me and said “The sun is a _star_?” I stuttered a bit and explained that yes it was, and it looks bigger than other stars because it is much closer to us. I had assumed everyone knew that the sun is a star. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/33 "2012-03-11T02:19:30Z")
When I was in my early 20’s I had a same-aged roommate who had never heard of Richard Nixon. We were both born in the early 60’s and were like 11 when he resigned. At that point it was only about 10 years previous. Even if there hadn’t been Watergate I’d like to think a young adult would know the President from when they were in 5th grade, but certainly one would know the President who was responsible for the pre-empting of their soaps every damn day during the summer of '74! ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/34 "2012-03-11T02:26:38Z")
> [@FrillyNettles](#): > > As a veterinarian, I am quite regularly reminded that most people don’t know very much about physiology. But a stand-out moment for me, and likely more than a few other vets, is when a client told me that neither of her dogs needed to be reproductively altered because _“They’re brother and sister. They would NEVER do THAT!”_ It is no wonder we slaughter millions of dogs for lack of homes with the ignorance I have seen on dog forums, ‘‘My dog is bleeding from its vagina?’’. I sometimes wonder if they even have a clue on where human babies come from. Other stuff. I once had a man with a masters in chemical engineering ask why cars needed antifreeze. For a long time I was heavily involved in the upkeep of a church, mostly professionals, doctors, lawyers, teachers, business people. Dummies. One aggravating thing was the use of the 2 prong adapters. Time after time I found a 3 prong plug plugged into an adapter and then plugged into a 3 prong outlet defeating the protection of third prong. I reduced the problem by converting all the 2 prong outlets to 3 prong. Even with no 2 prong outlets in the whole church, people still used the adapters. People that think it is Ok to round off the head of a metric bolt because it is metric. There is plenty of stupidity displayed here as in the recent thread on apostrophes. Come on didn’t you study that in school? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/35 "2012-03-11T02:31:04Z")
One of my coworkers, who started more than six years ago, does not know how to put our cordless Spectralink phones on hold. ---
**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 11, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/36 "2012-03-11T02:40:41Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I saw an ask.con question, “Was the Titanic movie based on a true story?” But I am hoping that was a \*parody \*question. I suppose they could have been wondering whether the whole DiCaprio/Winslet plot was based on real people… ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/37 "2012-03-11T02:41:02Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > A couple of years ago, I introduced a 60 year old man to Nachos. Yup, corn chips and melted cheese, dipped in salsa. He had never heard of them. Dipped in salsa? Surely you mean the cheese was melted on the chips under the broiler–& not some melted “cheese” concoction. These are [nachos](http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2008/01/nachos-101.html). Well, that’s a point of Tex-Mex, Mex-Mex culinary history–not everybody is a purist. As far as other examples of ignorance–there are too many to count. Lots involve geography. Am I the only one whose family subscribed to National Geographic? Or who ever decorated a wall with maps? ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/38 "2012-03-11T02:46:58Z")
When I was in my 20s I met a woman who was a middle school social studies/history teacher. I can’t remember exactly how it came up, but somehow me (or someone else with us) mentioned the “third President” (of the United States.) She asked who it was. I was shocked and was like, “it was Thomas Jefferson…you know, Thomas Jefferson.” I was even more shocked to find out she didn’t know that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence or pretty much anything else about him. She did know he was on the 5 cent coin. So twice in my life after that I’ve been in situations where I’ve had occasion to be in conversations with middle school or high school social studies/history teachers and that earlier incident is brought up. One of the those two was likewise unable to identify who the third President was, and the third was able to, after thinking for 30+ seconds remember it was Jefferson. I’ll be the first to say that knowledge of trivia is interesting but not really the same thing as being intelligent or educated. In many contexts “who is the third President” _is_ just trivia, but at the same time, for people who teach middle school and high school kids I feel knowing who the third President is should sort of be just an assumed thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/39 "2012-03-11T02:53:29Z")
Ah, Trivial Pursuit with some friends, wife (now ex #1) was on the other team. The question? Name the continents. Yep. 3rd grade geography. They got 6 right away, don’t remember which, exactly. The 6th one they remembered was ‘Antarctica’. So, logically, they decided the 7th must be ‘Arctica’. ---
**Author:** ![BadAtSports](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BadAtSports](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadAtSports)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/40 "2012-03-11T02:59:25Z")
When I had gestational diabetes, my sister told me I could eat apples. Me: “Actually, apples are loaded with sugar… I can’t really eat any fruits.” Her: “Apples have sugar in them?” Me: “Yeah, what did you think makes them sweet?” Her: “I don’t know, I just thought they were filled with vitamins…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=3)