Also there is a song that I constantly misheard:
“All I want to do is buy a gun.
I’ve got a feelin’ I want to hurt someone”
My wife laughed and laughed and laughed… poor me. 
I distinctly remember the first time I saw a ski-mask referred to as a balaclava- it was in an Ed McBain mystery novel, which referred to the criminal pulling a balaclava over his head. All I could picture was a baklava, and I thought that it would make your hair sticky to pull one over your head… I was about 13 at the time.
I remember my “Ooooohhh!” moment about that a few years ago.
Many years ago (12 or 13?) I was reading a book on hiking the GR5 through Europe. In the “things to bring” section, the authors recommended carrying a “balaclava”. I’d never heard of it and decided to look it up later. When I did, I looked up “baklava” and for the next 10 or so years wondered why the authors thought that I should carry a tray of sticky pastries with me whilst I hiked through Europe.
I feel your pain.
I used to always wonder why Vermont was called the Green Mountain State til I realized that “Vermont” means Green Mountain in French.
It took me all this time, years and years of fanship to realize that two of Warren Zevon’s songs have the same intro.
As was mentioned in another thread, he was on David Letterman last night. During a commercial fadeout, I wasn’t quite sure what the band was playing. “‘Desperadoes Under the Eaves,’” I thought. “No no—‘Frank and Jesse James’. Wait…they’re kinda similar, aren’t they? Well, for the first few bars, anyway. But at what point do they diverge?”
Was reminded of this again while reading the other thread. Dragged out my “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” anthology, I played the two intros one after the other.
Holy guacamole. All this time, I didn’t realize the two songs have the same intro. All the way through. Just that “FaJJ” (first song on first album (if you don’t count the 1970 Kim Fowley-produced error of judgement)) is on piano, and “DUtE” is strings.
:::Rilchiam pulls on dunce cap and shuffles into corner to punish self with Michael Bolton, Kathie Lee Gifford, and John Tesh:::
[sub]That’s by listening to their recordings, not by flaying myself with them or anything[/sub]
rostfrei, old bean, you know that mountain range called the “Grand Tetons”?.. 
I never understood what “Leftie Loosie, Righty Tighty” meant until very recently.
Well, I thought (as a little kid! I swear!) that the Parks Canada “Beaver” logo (see http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/ for example) was some kind of pork chop.
On the same note as Miss Gretchen, I always saw the Big Boy restaurant logo-- the neon one they always put in the windows, with Big Boy holding a hamburger-- as a graphic of Siamese twins sharing a body. One head was Big boy, the other head was the hamburger.
What’s particularly bizarre about this is that it simply never occurred to me to wonder why on earth… !
Following a couple of earlier Sandman comments…
…I remember going ‘ooohh’ when I worked out that Foxglove and Hazel’s kid is called ‘Alvin’…which was what Wanda used to be called…
…and I didn’t get the Barbie and Ken joke for ages -and it’s even mentioned! - and it took me even longer to work out that Ken left Barbie for Cindy…
…also I was in the middle of my politics class a few weeks ago when I finally dawned on the dualism of ‘Hobbes’ Leviathon’ (sp?)…
…basically, the Sandman series is, for me, one big ‘ooohh’ after the other…
What Barbie and Ken joke?
I don’t get it. I mean, I can figure out what “eat a beaver” probably refers to…but how does that save a tree?
In * A Game of You * Rose meets a number of the people staying in the building as her, including the ultra-preppie couple, Ken and Barbie (who reapears in * The Doll’s House, * where we learn that Ken has left her for (wait for it…) Cindy!) . It took me ages to realise why that was funny…
…not much, I know, but then I’m a simple person…
My old roommate kept a photo of her four-year-old nephew on our refrigerator door. It took me a good nine months to realize it had been taken on our own porch.
I took a short vacation to San Diego a couple years ago, in which we did some highway driving. I saw signs for “La Jolla,” and I heard people talking about “La Hoya,” and then I suddenly realized that “La Jolla” is pronounced “La Hoya.” All those Beach Boys songs I’d been misunderstanding all these years!
Cause they cut down trees. It’s along the same lines as “Save the Rainforest! Eat a vegetarian!”
[Doctor Hook] When ypu’re in love with a beautiful woman it’s hard [/Doctor Hook]
Hmmmmmmmmm
A while back, Fionn and I were eating at a local Chinese restaraunt. I was bitching about soy burgers, and was about to ask “Hey, I wonder if soy sauce is made from soy.”
Then the sheer stupidity hit me and I jabbed a fork in my eye.
“I heard people talking about ‘La Hoya,’ and then I suddenly realized that ‘La Jolla’ is pronounced ‘La Hoya.’”
Well, and a bolt of lightning just went through MY brain. Thankee.