# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/141 "2012-03-12T02:14:18Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > I went to a Catholic school. One day in class, one girl asked, apropos of nothing, ‘Is the Pope Jewish?’ > > She’d mistaken the skull-cap he wears for a yarmulke. I think that’s the puchline of an Israeli joke. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/142 "2012-03-12T02:15:56Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > After the incident with “technical” guy, for a few days I asked many of my acquaintances and none knew of the Gregorian reform. :dubious: Did you ask them if they’d heard of “the Gregorian reform”, or ask them if they knew how to tell if a year is a leap year? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/143 "2012-03-12T02:21:59Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > It’s kind of cheating, but I came away with some true gems from Cameroon. People had a decent excuse for not being up on things (but then again, we aren’t talking about some kind of lost tribe) but it’s just a mind trip to work with such a different base of knowledge where your basic assumptions don’t really work in the same way. > > I’ve been asked, in all seriousness, about the precise location of Canada. All the asker knew was that it was in Northern Africa somewhere, probably near Egypt. The assumption was that you could probably take a bus to that place where all the white people come from. I’ve also been told that the United States is a very nice city in Paris. > > A friend had a student named “Adolph Hitler.” People didn’t have a lot of fondness for the French, and they knew that Hitler killed French people, so he must have been an okay guy. I was constantly having to convince my students not to draw swastikas on their notebooks. > > A high school student asked my friend that if he went to US, at what point would he turn white, and wanted to know how that whole process worked. He knows it worked for Michael Jackson, but why didn’t 50 Cent turn white when he moved to America? > > Many, many people expressed that I must be brave to live in the US, what with all the gang wars and terrorism. They said they were glad they lived in Africa where they don’t have to deal with all that violence. Also, there is a widespread belief that the US has a huge vampire problem, and again people are pretty thankful that they don’t have to worry about vampires in Africa. > > Once I was called in to proctor and exam on a 120 degree day. It was about as hot as it ever gets, and I was sweating buckets and fanning myself furiously. The teacher I was working with was utterly fascinated. He then asked me “Can you feel the heat, too?” It turns out he thought that white people just didn’t experience heat in the same way, and were relativel indifferent to the extremely hot weather. > > It’s complicated. Oliver Sachs has a lovely essay on stereoscopic vision in **The Mind’s Eye**. Basically there is a lot of variation on how people use stereoscopic vision. Some people live in a richly stereoscopic world, and being one-eyed fundamentally changes the way they experience everything. Others- even people with two perfectly healthy eyes- never use it much and rely on other cues to judge depth. I’m among the latter-I have a dominent eye, and closing the other eye does absolutely nothing to change my vision. Good post **even sven**. I an reminded about my former SIL who had to help orchestrate a jail-break for a Mandril under her care (the largest species of monkey) out of a Nigerian jail. The locals swore it was a local murderer who was trying to avoid capture by using ju-ju to turn himself into a monkey. She didn’t dispute that point but promised that he would be dealt with much more harshly once he got back to their system and it worked. Africa has some crazy shit but it depends on the place in question. I am not following the 2-D versus 3-D eye examples either. I like having two eyes but I am hardly disabled by having one covered. I can do anything normal with just one with little change and I am pretty sure I can see in 3-D in regular life just fine with one. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/144 "2012-03-12T02:22:23Z")
I’ve had more than one Asian immigrant or student visa holder confidently inform me that the US has 52 states. When I said there’s only 50, they chuckled at my ignorance. ---
**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 12, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/145 "2012-03-12T02:38:48Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Did you ask them if they’d heard of “the Gregorian reform”, or ask them if they knew how to tell if a year is a leap year? I think I asked something like “1900 is a multiple of 4; was it a leap year?” and did a follow-up when they answered “Yes.” None of the people I asked was aware of exceptions to the multiple-of-4 leap year rule. (“Gregorian reform” was just shorthand for the post, though once again I’m reminded how ambiguous my “perfectly clear” writing often ends up. :smack: ) This astonished me, but then I’d read half of Asimov’s first 99 books and, it seemed, half of them mention the leap year rule. 🆒 The original “technical” guy seemed to think the leapness of 1900 was left to individual opinion. :smack: I said “Look. Suppose someone went to sleep on Feb. 28, 1900 and woke up the next morning to buy newspapers. Do you think some of the newspapers had ‘Mar 1’ and some Feb. 29’?” He still wasn’t convinced. ---
**Author:** ![eldowan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@eldowan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eldowan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/146 "2012-03-12T02:46:14Z")
One day I went to eat at a seafood place by the mall, in TX. On the menu was a dish: fish served on a cedar plank. Now, I’ve known cedar since childhood, and to be fair, the waitress was the stereotypical blond ditz, so i asked her what kind of wood is the cedar plank made from? She responds “I don’t know, let me ask the chef.” I smile and nod. She returns from the kitchen and says “He says its on cedar wood.” So, after eating, we go to the mall, and i decode to stop random people and ask them the question. I was in disbelief that people were ignorant of what cedar was. I posed the question similar to this: if you were being served fish presented on a cedar plank, of what type of wood would the plank be made? Of 3 people I stopped, only two knew what cedar was. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/147 "2012-03-12T03:28:23Z")
> [@eldowan](#): > > One day I went to eat at a seafood place by the mall, in TX. On the menu was a dish: fish served on a cedar plank. > > Now, I’ve known cedar since childhood, and to be fair, the waitress was the stereotypical blond ditz, so i asked her what kind of wood is the cedar plank made from? > > She responds “I don’t know, let me ask the chef.” > > I smile and nod. > > She returns from the kitchen and says “He says its on cedar wood.” > > So, after eating, we go to the mall, and i decode to stop random people and ask them the question. I was in disbelief that people were ignorant of what cedar was. > > I posed the question similar to this: > if you were being served fish presented on a cedar plank, of what type of wood would the plank be made? > > Of 3 people I stopped, only two knew what cedar was. I think I am missing something. Cedar? In Texas? Where cedar trees grow wild all over the place? ---
**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 12, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/148 "2012-03-12T03:47:41Z")
> [@sahirrnee](#): > > I had a friend who would eat only canned fruit and vegetables. He refused to eat any fresh produce because it grew out of the ground and it was dirty > and bugs had crawled on it. I asked him where he thought canned fruits and veggies come from and he said a factory. I asked where he thought the factories got them and he said they manufactured them. I’m reminded of the Warner cartoon with the two chipmunks who found themselves in a canning factory. It showed where canned mushrooms came from: the mushrooms were scraped off the steaks into the cans. I have to admit some ignorance here. I once thought that truffles the chocolate confection were so named because they contained truffles the extremely expensive edible fungus. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/149 "2012-03-12T04:04:38Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Also, there is a widespread belief that the US has a huge vampire problem, and again people are pretty thankful that they don’t have to worry about vampires in Africa. I don’t know about you, but I consider Twilight to be a _very_ serious problem. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/150 "2012-03-12T04:12:50Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > [QUOTE=Dr. Drake] > > “Hence the name” only works for British people because of the R. Growing up, it never occurred to me that Eeyore was supposed to represent the donkey’s sound (hee-haw). Even though we read all the Pooh books as kids (I was almost named Christopher Robin), I never understood Eeyore’s name 'til I was an adult. [/QUOTE] Weird. Just the reverse for me - I never understood why the donkey on the opening credits of Hee Haw was laughing. Eeyore made perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/151 "2012-03-12T04:26:13Z")
My mom keeps writing me about her friend who is taking a sabbatico from his job. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/152 "2012-03-12T04:31:48Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I think I am missing something. Cedar? In Texas? Where cedar trees grow wild all over the place? . . . and where a segment of the TV weather report is dedicated to reporting how bad the cedar pollen is on a given day? On the other hand, if this were someplace like Lubbock or El Paso, I wouldn’t be surprised if those guys had never seen a _tree_, let alone a cedar tree. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/153 "2012-03-12T04:35:35Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I have to admit some ignorance here. I once thought that truffles the chocolate confection were so named because they contained truffles the extremely expensive edible fungus. They don’t? I’ve always turned down truffles because I hate mushrooms. Let’s see… Prior to September 11, 2001, I had no idea what the World Trade Center was. When I first heard the news, I thought it was somewhere in China. What might make this significantly more shameful is the fact that I visited the World Trade Center a year prior… just a drive by on a bus tour, but still. As a college freshman I could not have defined or explained what ‘‘capitalism’’ was. (There was a lot I didn’t know prior to college. I was raised by intelligent people, but they weren’t intellectuals. It blows my mind when I meet teenagers who read philosophy, independently study world history or become engaged in politics. I never conceived of those things at that age.) My husband over the years has demonstrated delightful ignorance about cooking. First there was the time he tried to make mashed potatoes… pushing the potato masher impotently down into a bowl of raw potatoes. ‘‘Help,’’ he said. Then there was the profound revelation that putting a lid on a pot of water will make it heat more rapidly. It’s odd the things we retain and the things we forget or never learn in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![eldowan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@eldowan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eldowan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/154 "2012-03-12T05:09:53Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I think I am missing something. Cedar? In Texas? Where cedar trees grow wild all over the place? > [@Koxinga](#): > > . . . and where a segment of the TV weather report is dedicated to reporting how bad the cedar pollen is on a given day? > > On the other hand, if this were someplace like Lubbock or El Paso, I wouldn’t be surprised if those guys had never seen a _tree_, let alone a cedar tree. Exactly my point. Now this is just north of Houston, and I grew up on a farm maybe 2.5 hours away. It’s not like cedar is like obsidian or anythong. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/155 "2012-03-12T05:50:57Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Even though we read all the Pooh books as kids (I was almost named Christopher Robin), I never understood Eeyore’s name 'til I was an adult. Yeah- guess what this thread just made clear to me. I mean- if someone asked why he was named ‘Eeyore’, I might have been able to tell them immediately but it’s just something I’ve never consciously thought about. Also, I may have figured it out but (n)(n) would have at least momentarily given me pause. ---
**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 12, 2012, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/156 "2012-03-12T07:42:29Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > I only have the vaguest idea of who Winnie The Pooh and Eeyore are. Winnie is a bear, he likes “hunny,” there’s a kangaroo involved. Eeyore is an anteater or something. (Edit : maybe an Aardvark? I get them mixed up.) The human boy is Christopher Robin. Beyond that, I got nothin’. I presume they go on adventures? > > Male, 38, raised in the USA. > > Joe DUDE! Have you and your generation never read the CLASSICS? Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne. Piece of [_Puppy and I_](http://allpoetry.com/poem/8518983-Puppy_And_I-by-A.A._Milne): [QUOTE=Puppy and I by A. A. Milne] I met a Puppy as I went walking; We got talking, Puppy and I. “Where are you going this nice fine day?” (I said to the Puppy as he went by). “Up to the hills to roll and play.” “I’ll come with you, Puppy,” said I. [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/157 "2012-03-12T08:09:57Z")
I think quite a few of these are misunderstood humor or sarcasm, mental fatigue, or language barriers. I can imagine a few things I have said, from others perspectives, could definitely show up here. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/158 "2012-03-12T08:40:44Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I think quite a few of these are misunderstood humor or sarcasm, mental fatigue, or language barriers. > > I can imagine a few things I have said, from others perspectives, could definitely show up here. Not my first-cousin-once-removed. That gal is stooooopid. Another example: She once claimed that Alaska and Hawaii are both right off the coast of California. After all, that’s the way it was in the big wall map they had back in fifth grade. So I got my atlas and showed her a map that included everything in its correct place. Her reaction: “Well yeah, everything’s more spread out in this map, 'cause they’ve got more room. That doesn’t prove anything.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/159 "2012-03-12T09:49:49Z")
Some day, maybe when I’m 70 or so, I’m going to start asking people how they even manage to feed themselves. Clearly, getting a utensil to their mouths is far too complicated. Do they eat with their hands, or just stick their faces into their plates?? On the animal related note (which could be a thread in itself), one reason I could only handle working at a daytime vet’s office was the incoming phone calls. A common one, I swear, was “can I get that shot for the temper for my dog? He’s mean.” I heard this more times than I care to recall, and that was more than 10 years ago. It still irks me. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416/160 "2012-03-12T09:53:10Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > 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? Hey, I love NatGeo, but I also have a NatGeo map of languages in the Iberian Peninsula which makes me get all twitchy… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-dont-know/615416.md?page=9)