Back when I was in high schol, I once asked who won the Civil War.
I was also convinced that Alaska was an islan, because it’s always seperate on maps.
I’ve yet to live either down.
Shows what you know. It’s an alligator.
Speaking of alligators, it wasn’t until college that I was embarrassed to learn that alligators and crocodiles are not the same thing. I always thought they were two names for the same animal.
Back in 1991, I was at a very cute guy’s house making mix tapes, and said that it was really cool how the CD player could read the music right through the colors on the top of the CD. :o
I’m still turning pink, thinking about it.
HA! You’re both wrong, it’s Pacman.
No no no! It’s a shark.
When I was a Freshman in high school, I was thinking of taking some college classes over the summer. This required taking a placement test. I then had to explain to my Geometry and English teachers that despite being in advanced classes and on the honor roll I needed some extra help because: I didn’t know a thing about A) fractions or B) parts of speach. Even now, six years after high school and despite 3 years of math and Latin and 4 years of english, I still don’t know fractions and I get confused about any part of speech that isn’t a noun. Somehow though, I aced the placement test and went on to do well on my SAT’s.
When I was in 5th grade, my teacher was running an experiment to see how well we remembered things. She had one student stand up in front of class for 30 seconds and then leave the room. We had to tell our teacher what the girl was wearing. One student said a plaid skirt. I asked what plaid was. Everyone laughed at me.
When I was 16, a cute boy from work was driving me home. He asked me if I liked Cake (the band). I said yes. My favorite was strawberry. He was really nice about it though. He only laughed a little. In my defense, I don’t like that kind of music.
Once, my mother was commenting on some horses in a movie. She said she hoped they weren’t really hurt during filming. I told her not to worry, I was sure the horses had stunt doubles. I was 13 when I said that. I was 15 before I understood why she laughed.
My god, I could go on forever. I’m constantly making myself look like an idiot.
I’d been living in Hong Kong for several years before I realised that Beijing and Peking weren’t different places. I was pleased that only one person witnessed my query when having to enter a password at a university 10 years ago: “Why aren’t the letters appearing on the screen? I’m only getting asterisks.”
Once, when I was about ten or eleven, I was riding with my mom in her car when out of the blue I asked her how it was that the first man and woman figured out how to have sex and if they just noticed one day that the penis fits inside the vagina. She just gave me an odd look and kept on driving but then, a minute or two later, I asked her “What’s the man supposed to do when he sticks his penis in the woman? Pee?”
My mom lost it and almost crashed the car. Thank god she’s seemingly forgotten about it in the intervening decade.
You mean they aren’t? :eek:
Only today, while talking about music with my dad, I learned that there is a difference between Beck and Jeff Beck. Kinda embarassing to be instructed on pop culture by your 65 year old father. However, he used to think that Sonny Bono and Bono from U2 were the same person, so he’s not going to push his luck.
You are *so * wrong. Alligators or sharks would have visible teeth. I’d be willing to believe it might be a Pacman, if I wasn’t so old I remember < and > from the pre-Pacman era.
I’ve probably got thousands of’em if I think about it a bit. The most recent was a pronunciation error.
While I’ve absorbed the concept thoroughly, I’d never discussed it conversationally. So when I attempted to resolve a dispute concerning interpretation of data, I invoked Occam’s Razor (the simplest solution wins for the moment) as “Awk-ams” Razor, and was quickly corrected by a staff geophysicist who told me it was “Oh-cams” Razor. I had to yield; I’d never actually heard anyone else say it out loud.
We live and we learn.
I’ve always heard it pronounced as “Awk-ams.”
In college, for some reason, someone was explaining to me what went into a Molotov Cocktail. After listening, I answered “and then you drink that? really?”
Jeez, what’s with you ignorant people? 
It’s not “Awk-ams” or “Oh-cams”. It’s “OCK-ams”. That first syllable rhymes with “clock”.
I’ll think of some major brainfart of mine, soon.
AESIRON- Some times they do, but it’s usualy $10 extra
Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice.
About 6 months ago I realized that William Penn and William Tell were different people.
Some guy shot an apple of his kid’s head, then founded Pennsylvania, and then had an entire Overture written for him.
Coulda been the same guy.
In high school I once had a very lovely conversation with my (then) boyfriend about car racing.
Him: “You know most people go to car races just to see wrecks.”
Me: “Rex who?”
I kept it up for about 15 minutes, honestly wondering who the heck this Rex guy was that was famous at car races. He finally decided I was kidding around and thought it was hilarious. I played along.
But I still didn’t get it; I only got it much later, long after the conversation was over, after much deliberation.
He talked about it for years and even wrote “Rex who?” in my yearbook Senior year. Unless he reads this he will continue to believe I was joking.
I hope you also know about Jerry Lee Lewis. G
Thought of another one.
There are times when I’m very slow on the technological up-keep. When I was a junior in high school (say, four years ago), a friend of mine wanted to copy some CDs that I had. I said OK and he later said, “I’m almost through burning them.”
I thought he meant really burning them. With fire. I had to have it explained to me that burning was another word for copying. They all looked at me like I was insane, totally confused as to why I had been angry.
It took me a second to realize you were talking about William Penn there. I had to reread it once or twice to finally understand you weren’t talking about William Tell and Penn Jillette.
I’m an idiot.