# Little things you learned today **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 9, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895 "2010-03-09T20:09:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/41 "2010-03-11T19:44:06Z")
I learned that if you toss your old dining room set out to the curb, it’ll be gone within minutes by anyone who happens to drive by with an SUV and spare room in the back. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/42 "2010-03-11T20:04:40Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I learned that if you toss your old dining room set out to the curb, it’ll be gone within minutes by anyone who happens to drive by with an SUV and spare room in the back. Heh, that’s pretty much a given with any furniture that isn’t covered in feces or on fire, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/43 "2010-03-11T21:27:23Z")
You’re gonna let a little feces stop you? Slacker! A little Fabreeze and that’ll fetch a go 20 bucks on craigslist! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/44 "2010-03-11T22:10:32Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > You’re gonna let a little feces stop you? Slacker! A little Fabreeze and that’ll fetch a go 20 bucks on craigslist! Not me. If I think I can make money off of it, I’m going to grab it regardless of the condition. After the stuff I’ve been through, feces is low on my list of things that bother me. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/45 "2010-03-12T03:38:26Z")
I learned that Arthur Royale Brown almost certainly did not shoot down the Red Baron, that he was probably shot by ground fire. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/46 "2010-03-12T14:42:09Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > I learned that those crinkly paper toilet seat covers in public restrooms can be used as blotting paper if your face is oily. Before or after their intended use? ---
**Author:** ![Kickback\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cdc98d/32.png) [@Kickback\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kickback_Joe)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/47 "2010-03-12T16:34:01Z")
I learned that my 8th grade son really really cares about his grades.😃 He walked into my room this morning at 6am and asked if I would take him to school early (7:30) today. He said he needed to meet with his teacher to straighten out his grade before they were finalized and posted this morning at 8am for end of quarter. Evidently he checked his grades last night online and freaked out because a teacher gave him a 4 out of 100 which dropped his grade to a 68%. He said he should have gotten a 94. Knowing he actually cares about his grades was a good thing to learn today. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/48 "2010-03-12T23:57:19Z")
I learned that the Lone Ranger’s last name - er, the _character_, not the actor - was the same as mine. I’m related to the Lone Ranger! ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/49 "2010-03-13T00:49:02Z")
I learned the reason for the ‘traditional ninja garb’ (the all black). See, normal ninjas, their main disguises were peasant garb. Ninjas were assassins, and thus they were almost always hired to kill upper class people. No self-respecting aristocrat in Feudal Japan would ever fraternize with a peasant, and thus a ninja wearing peasant garb would be invisible in plain sight in a high-class dwelling. Meanwhile, in traditional Japanese theater, there were many scenes that required the use of stagehands during the scene itself. In order to distinguish the stagehands from the actors, the stagehands would wear all black–the same color as the backdrop–and the audience would simply pretend that they didn’t exist. At one point, a playwright wrote a play about a ninja, and at one point in the play, the ninja dressed up as a stagehand (off-screen) walked on stage, attacked one of the actors, and then unmasked himself. The audience was genuinely shocked by this, since they had been so trained to ignore anyone in all black that they didn’t see him before he unmasked–it was as if he was actually invisible. After that, of course, the standard stage shorthand for a ninja became the all black, with other cues distinguishing him from a stagehand. And this is why we think of ninja as having wore all black. Brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/50 "2010-03-13T00:52:22Z")
Dansko shoes are great. That’s what I learned. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895/51 "2010-03-13T01:19:15Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > I’m learning how painful a sinus infection is. I’ve never had one before and a lot of people say they have a sinus infection every time they have a cold with sinus pressure. So I thought a sinus infection was pretty similar to a cold. > > No. This is like someone stuck a vacuum in my sinus cavity and the bone and tissue in my face is collapsing like a raisin. A raisin with spikes in it. And like someone has knocked half my top teeth out of place and cut up my gums, and like my ear may just burst at any moment. Similarly, I learned that what I thought was a middle ear infection was actually not an infection. It was just that my eustachian tube had completely closed, my middle ear had filled with liquid, and my ear drum was trying to burst. Antibiotics will not help with this. Vicodin, prescription strength decongestant, and an antihistamine to stop the drainage does. Also, if you put cold water in your ear canal to help the pain of an ear drum trying to rupture, it makes you very, very dizzy. At least, it did me. But it did help with the pain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-learned-today/531895.md?page=2)