# 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:** 23
**Author:** ![Jasper\_Kent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@Jasper\_Kent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasper_Kent)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/441 "2012-03-19T01:09:23Z")
I thought it was pronounced “horse dovers.” ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/442 "2012-03-19T01:16:47Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Yeah, I wondered for a long time why I had never seen the word \*ordurves \*in print. I’m not sure how old I was before I knew how to pronounce “yarmulke,” but I know I could drink and vote. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/443 "2012-03-19T01:29:26Z")
On the topic of clock-reading, when asked the time if the time is, say, 2:57 and one is looking at an analog clock, anyone would say “It’s about 3 o’clock.” Yet looking at that time on a _digital_ clock some will say “It’s about 2 o’clock.” :smack: I wonder if the change to digital will change the meaning of “about 3 o’clock.” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/444 "2012-03-19T01:40:56Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Yeah, I wondered for a long time why I had never seen the word \*ordurves \*in print. > mmm Only a year or two ago, watching a TV show with closed captioning, did I realize that “voilà” was that things magicians say, pronounced “whah lah!” I’m glad I never had occasion to read the word out loud to someone, as I would have said “voy luh” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/445 "2012-03-19T01:43:33Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > On the topic of clock-reading, when asked the time if the time is, say, 2:57 and one is looking at an analog clock, anyone would say “It’s about 3 o’clock.” Yet looking at that time on a _digital_ clock some will say “It’s about 2 o’clock.” :smack: Really? I’ve never in my entire life heard someone do this. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/446 "2012-03-19T01:54:59Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > On the topic of clock-reading, when asked the time if the time is, say, 2:57 and one is looking at an analog clock, anyone would say “It’s about 3 o’clock.” Yet looking at that time on a _digital_ clock some will say “It’s about 2 o’clock.” :smack: > > I wonder if the change to digital will change the meaning of “about 3 o’clock.” :dubious: I’ve already run into young people who have no idea what “three o’clock” means in the context of “directly to your right.” ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/447 "2012-03-19T01:59:18Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > As to the OP, I’ve mentioned this one in another thread, but during freshman new student week, we were walking around with some of our fellow students and discovered that one of the girls, who had something like a 1500 SAT (out of 1600 at the time, and pre-1994 rebalancing), thought the compass points were a relative concept. That is, she was confused as to how Lake Michigan was always to the east when you’re in Chicago. “But isn’t east always to your right?” she asked? We looked at her quizically, and after a few more questions, realized she thought north meant “in front,” south meant “in back,” etc. Did she think that North and South America exchanged names every time she turned around? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/448 "2012-03-19T02:03:39Z")
Okay, here’s something I’m shocked (in retrospect) to find that _I_ didn’t know: Flash back to grammar school U. S. history lessons. Somehow I completely missed learning about Lewis and Clark. I guess maybe when I was in 3rd grade it was taught in 4th grade and when I got to 4th grade it was taught in 3rd grade maybe? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/449 "2012-03-19T02:21:33Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Only a year or two ago, watching a TV show with closed captioning, did I realize that “voilà” was that things magicians say, pronounced “whah lah!” I’m glad I never had occasion to read the word out loud to someone, as I would have said “voy luh” or something like that. Of course, if you _did_ say “voy luh” you’d be just as close to the actual pronunciation than if you said “whah lah” - I have no freaking clue why anglophones insist on dropping the V sound on that word, but it drives me crazy. [Voilà](http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french/voil%C3%A0). ---
**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 19, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/450 "2012-03-19T02:35:29Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Only a year or two ago, watching a TV show with closed captioning, did I realize that “voilà” was that things magicians say, pronounced “whah lah!” As **mnemosyne** said, that word has a “V” sound at the beginning. It’s not pronounced “whah lah.” It’s pronounced (roughly) “vwah lah.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/451 "2012-03-19T02:47:28Z")
[QUOTE=mnemosyne] FWIW us Canucks are content to say the War of 1812 was a draw (status quo), though yays, we burnt the White House, don’t we rock, at least a little?! [/QUOTE] No. BRITISH troops, men actually from Britain, burnt the White House. Canadians had nothing to do with it. Claiming credit for it as a Canadian victory is exactly the same as Americans claiming they won the Battle of Britain. But that’s okay, a lot of Canadians think that for some reason. I’m met a stunning number of educated Canadians who don’t know how many provinces Canada has. You have to bear in mind the number is 10, which is just about the most round, simple, easy memorized number we could possibly have ended up with. I also once ran into a group of grad students from Alberta who were under the impression - they were not shitting around - that the capital of Alberta was Calgary. It’s Edmonton. I have to admit, though, people are citing a lot of things in here I wouldn’t classify as common knowledge. The Zeigfried Follies? How to use Track Changes in Word? ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/452 "2012-03-19T02:54:13Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Okay, here’s something I’m shocked (in retrospect) to find that _I_ didn’t know: > > Flash back to grammar school U. S. history lessons. Somehow I completely missed learning about Lewis and Clark. I guess maybe when I was in 3rd grade it was taught in 4th grade and when I got to 4th grade it was taught in 3rd grade maybe? I swear this is a true story. I was at work one day talking with co-workers, one of whom was inordinately proud of his Harvard degree, and who thought that he was subtle enough about it that nobody suspected. The conversation somehow got on to Lewis and Clark, and he allowed as how he wasn’t sure exactly when their expedition was. I immediately said, “1804.” He said, “How do you know that?” I said, “I don’t know, I suppose it’s a matter of what school you went to.” He drew himself up and said, “I went to Harvard. What school did you go to?” I drew myself up and said, “Lewis and Clark Elementary School.” Other schools in my small SE Washington state home town were named for Marcus Whitman, Jason Lee, Sacajawea, and Chief Joseph. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/453 "2012-03-19T02:56:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > No. BRITISH troops, men actually from Britain, burnt the White House. Canadians had nothing to do with it. Claiming credit for it as a Canadian victory is exactly the same as Americans claiming they won the Battle of Britain. How so? Robert Ross was Irish, not British, and he is buried in Canada. During the war of 1812, both Ireland and Canada were unambiguously a part of Britain. (The political entity, not the physical island, obviously.) During the Battle of Britain, Americans were not at all a part of Britain. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/454 "2012-03-19T03:10:41Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > How so? Robert Ross was Irish, not British, and he is buried in Canada. During the war of 1812, both Ireland and Canada were unambiguously a part of Britain. (The political entity, not the physical island, obviously.) During the Battle of Britain, Americans were not at all a part of Britain. Canada was part of the\* British Empire\*, not Britain. They are significantly different concepts. Robert Ross was indeed Irish (and of course he’s buried in Canada not because he lived there, but because he died during the war.) I’m sure there were a few other men in the force who weren’t born in Britain, but it was a British force. Not Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/455 "2012-03-19T03:19:58Z")
10 pages! i’m just shocked at the diverse amount of stuff people are expected to know, and how some seem to equate ignorance with stupidity. ---
**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 19, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/456 "2012-03-19T03:40:04Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > On the topic of clock-reading, when asked the time if the time is, say, 2:57 and one is looking at an analog clock, anyone would say “It’s about 3 o’clock.” Yet looking at that time on a _digital_ clock some will say “It’s about 2 o’clock.” :smack: A lot of these are more ignorance than stupidity. That? That’s just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/457 "2012-03-19T04:14:06Z")
it sounds so far-fetched at first glance, but i suppose it is similar to the reason why the model of pricing stuff at $x9.99 is so ubiquitous. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/458 "2012-03-19T04:52:14Z")
My brother’s friend has trouble keeping time and money straight. He should never struggle to find work if word gets out that he’ll do 100 minute hours for 60 cents in the dollar. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/459 "2012-03-19T05:12:34Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Canada was part of the\* British Empire\*, not Britain. They are significantly different concepts. Well, I would (did) argue that the British Empire was a part of Britain, but in any case Canada was not an independent nation in the period in question, as was the US in WWII. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/460 "2012-03-19T06:47:42Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Really? I’ve never in my entire life heard someone do this. The 2:57 is “about 2 o’clock” example is something I’ve seen a few times in Thailand. Lest I get a charge of bigotry, I try to avoid discussing Thais’ intelligence or lack thereof, but one is often disconcerted here. Another example: When I went to a distant city regularly every Wednesday I enrolled at a video rental store and shopped in the “7 Day” shelves. Obviously that rental period was very convenient for me. “These are due next Tuesday” I was told when I paid at the counter. This seemed very inconvenient – and very wrong – but I knew Thais tend to count like the French (“huit jours” = 1 week). I asked about 1-day Rentals. “Due Tomorrow.” 3-days? “Due Saturday” (with help from fingers). I led them through the days finger-by-finger and, when they (for there were several at the counter now, all making the same mistake) realized the seventh finger would land on Wednesday, not Tuesday, there were shocked looks, as though they’d discovered higher math! The actual charging and receipt printing was done by their computer, so their mistake didn’t actually affect customers. (BTW, the same shop charged almost as much, per day, for the late charge as for a week’s rental, so 9 days would be almost 3 times as expensive as 7 days, and so on. :smack: ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=24)