Living in Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes and long cold winters, I’m always surprised when a native Minnesotan doesn’t know how to swim or ice skate. Those were the 2 main things we did as kids. I guess I’ll also add ride a bike. That, of course, is for anyone, not just a Minnesotan.
:eek: Is there an anecdote behind this? I’m just wondering how one would discover that those around them are having difficulties with this task…
Spell. I am a voracious reader so I’m very good when it comes to spelling. Probably not last-round-spelling-bee good, but spelling errors leap off the page to me.
I’ve run across people who can’t seem to figure out that that June is the sixth month, July is the seventh month, etc. They have to do that knuckle-counting thing. I also know how many days each month has but some people don’t.
Someone asked me the other day how to spell “acquaintance”. I laughed and said, “spell it any way you want, then let auto-correct fix it for you”. She then, red faced, told me that her attempt wasn’t close enough for auto-correct to even make a guess.
I have that problem a lot. I found that voice recognition can usually spell it right, so I’ll try that when I’m stumped.
Pretty much this. I’m astounded while reading the comments section in ANY publication on the internet. There are people who seem to be making intelligent comments yet can’t grasp:
Lose - Loose
Do - Due
There - They’re - Their
Your - You’re
Than - Then
Whole - Hole
Poll - Pole
Roll - Role
I’m sure there are many more. And don’t get me started on punctuation, especially apostrophes. Obviously these people went to school. So what the hell is wrong with them?
I had a 20’s something co-worker ask me how to address and send an envelope. I was so amazed I just stared at her, speechless. She literally had never done it before, and did not know how to do it. I showed her, and told her how to mail it.
The mind boggles.
That’s…weird. That’s not even a matter of not being able to estimate durations; you don’t have to do that, because the ticket has that information printed on it.
That’s more like “doesn’t know how to read the manual.”
Yeah, this. I mean, there was a time when, if you wanted to know things, you had to find a library, find the Encyclopedia Britanicca… now all you have to do is get your phone out, but some people seem incapable of doing even that.
My contribution - Estimate he weight of things with reasonable accuracy by, you know, picking them up.
j
Ummm? I’m a savant about dates. No, not historical dates. Dates of things that happened in my life. I asound my sibs, I can describe the weather, day of the week and what peoole were wearing.
IRL, right now, I’m not sure what day it is, go figure.
Also, I’m expert level closet cleaner. People invite me to their house for this. Running outta room? I’ll fix you right up. Just know in advance most of that junk is leaving here permanant like.
Good one. People think I’m the Office Machine Whisperer around here, but the instructions are right there on the display.
Which reminds me, someone took a Sharpie and wrote on the fax machine, “paper face down”, nearly on top of the embossed symbol showing the paper orientation. Then someone else added a post it with the same information. 
Another one is awareness of the 4 cardinal directions. It is pretty rare that I couldn’t tell you what general direction I am facing, whether indoors or out.
There are a couple of places that I go that kinda confuse me - and that always makes me (very mildly) uncomfortable. We visit a family property in Michigan, where the small lake is at somewhat of an angle. Looking out the front windows, I have to intentionally remind myself where the sun will rise and set. Also, being from Chicago, the one basic directional rule is that the lake is always to the east. In Michigan, when heading towards the lake you are going west. Always messes me up.
Chicago is such a strict grid, that it probably really reinforces directional awareness.
It sorta surprises me that some people have no idea which way is north, and don’t care that they don’t know.
Locating your self in a mental map is one that I find easy to do. If I’m driving somewhere new I’ll spend a little time checking the map and locating my NSEW and few key landmarks and roads and then I’m pretty much good to go and at least have the confidence to get somewhere near. Not that I don’t take a wrong turn now and again but the point is that the environmental and sign cues around me very quickly stand out and tell me that I’m wrong i.e. “Oxford should not be getting closer, Aylesbury should be” or “The sun shows I’m travelling west and there was no road that should take me west” or “I’m gaining altitude and shouldn’t be”
I’m usually at a loss on this unless there are distinct landmarks like mountains. Drop me in a strange city (or even this city, in a strange neighborhood) and tell me to head north or die, and I’m a corpse.
I’m always struck by how many people can’t cook simple foods. I used to think it was just lazy men who claimed this so they wouldn’t have to help in the kitchen, but apparently there are those who simply don’t get it or have no intention of learning this basic survival skill.
Figure out distance in Toronto. Toronto is laid out on a regular grid with a distance of 100 chains between major streets. A chain is 66 feet, so fortuitously 100 chains is almost exactly 2 km, it’s 11 m longer.
Knowing you are on or near a major E/W and N/S street allows you to quickly determine in your head how far it is. From my house to City Hall I go 2 major streets south and 1 major street east = 6 km. If I plug the addresses into Google I get between 5.8km (walking along the hypotenuse for part of the trip) or 6.0km if I stick to E/W/N/S only. The only challenge is knowing which streets are the baselines for the original city plan.
Cook stuff.
I don’t mean prepare an intricate dish from rare and exotic ingredients using specialized techniques or anything like that, but merely being able to produce palatable food in a reasonable amount of time and effort. In my experience, unless someone’s a self-identified foodie/cook, their food is going to be some combination of (pick 3):
[ul]
[li]Overcooked[/li][li]Undercooked[/li][li]Lacking salt[/li][li]Lacking spice/herbs[/li][li]Made from pre-made ingredients (canned soup)[/li][li]Made with some kind of terrible substitute ingredient that just doesn’t work (fat free, salt-free, low-fat, etc…) because you can’t substitute that ingredient.[/li][/ul]
Even after 36 years, it amazes my husband that I can do this. GPS is nice, but before we go to a new place, I’ll pull up a map to get an idea of how long it’ll take to get there, and what landmarks or street names will indicate we’re getting close. We’ll be going on a cruise to Bermuda in the spring, and by the time we get there, I’ll have a pretty good idea of what sights are within walking distance of the ship.
We’ve lived in our county for 15 years now. I don’t know every highway and byway, but if I see stopped traffic ahead, I feel confident that if I turn off the main road, I can get us home without having to ask for directions. Spousal unit can’t wrap his head around that.
Some years back, he called me from a city where I used to live, told me where he was and asked how to get where he wanted to go. I’d never been to that particular area, but I could “see” it in my head and was able to get him headed where he needed to go. GPS has spared me such calls in recent years.
Apparently you are familiar with my wife’s cooking.
Basic rules for use of punctuation, and use of the apostrophe-s for possession. I no longer am astonished by the horrible use of punctuation I see on a daily basis anymore; I just chalk it up to ignorance and lack of care. As a result of my itty-bitty punctuation superpower, I’ve often wound up being tapped to be a proofreader. 
Also, regarding swimming: I cannot swim. It wasn’t due to lack of access to water or lessons when I was a kid – my parents had me go through lessons three or four times. Without fail, I did OK until the time came to put my face underwater, at which point I would panic, freak out, and get highly upset. (Also, I was extremely skinny as a kid, and not particularly buoyant.) Eventually, my parents gave up on the idea, and I never cared to pursue it further. That said, a few years ago, a friend of mine took me to a pool for an afternoon, and she got me to the point where I could completely submerge myself, and open my eyes. So, who knows, I might learn to swim sometime.