You mean you didn’t know it was a reference to the two options available for self-stimulation? 
I was about 9 or 10 when I learned that “deadly” stunts in movies were faked.
I mean, I used to think that the guy being blown out of a skyscraper window and splattering on the pavement below was a real guy.
I just assumed that movie directors paid a person a large sum of money, say a million dollars (seemed like a lot of money when I was a kid), about a year in advance of shooting the “deadly” scene. Then, the guy (or gal) would actually die in the shooting of the scene. I also thought that a lot of terminally ill people would sign up to do this sort of thing, too.
I guess that as a young lad I thought that money was such a powerful inducement, that you could get some poor person to kill him/herself in exchange for year of living like a millionaire.
For some reason, I also just thought that there would never be any legal complications about such a scheme.
Okay, so this is the nerdiest one ever, but bear with me.
In college, I took an Electricity and Magnetism class for my physics degree - it was a really small class, and we were all seniors. Well, all the calculus was jibberish to me, so I just cranked through and didn’t think about it. Finally, he starts talking about potential, “V”, and the equations associated with it. Three weeks later, I stopped in class, and said, “Hey - that V is for voltage!” My professor put down his chalk and dismissed the class 30 minutes early, too disillusioned to continue.
For a less nerdy example, I teach remedial math at the high school level, and one of my seniors, while looking at a greater than symbol, said, “This big end of the symbol points at the bigger number! That’s a good way to remember. Lucky it worked out that way.”
Sigh. I now know how that professor felt.
I already put in my $0.02. I just wanted to
WELCOME zimmdogg to the boards! 
It took me years to realize that “Nice People Swallow” wasn’t just a way of mean people getting back at nice people.
I was well over 30…ok…um…over 40…when I finally put together the fact that not only do “kissing ass” and “brown nose” both mean the same thing, they are also more directly related.
DUH.
When I became an altar boy at about 10, I was distressed to find that one of my jobs was to ring a little bell at key points in the service. I had heard the ringing before, and always thought that God arranged it.
Russell
Listening to an acapella version of “Walking in Memphis” and it finally registered that he’s saying “Ten feet off of Beale”. As in Beale Street, which, to be fair, I’ve only recently found out as being a significant place in Memphis.
Here’s something I found out recently while watching the Food Network -
According to the host (don’t remember who he was, but ironically, I remember him looking like Buddy Holly) the sauce was named first. They named the bean after the sauce they made from it.
:: slight pause while Tygr actually decides to do a little research for a change ::
Ah-ha. Looks like the Kikkoman site bears this story up. Kind of.
Okay, I swear this is true. I would watch old movies with my dad and I thought that the whole world was actually black & White in those days. Even though I had black & white tv and movies as a kid. I dunno why.
Also, I couldn’t figure out why anyone would hire sleeping car porters. If they’re gonna sleep, they can’t have the job!
I’m visiting Houston, driving south to see a friend’s parents, look out the window to my right and see ‘Texas Instruments’
and think
“Golly, I didn’t know they were down here.”
That wasn’t the only time. The wife and I are driving across the Great Salt Lake, I again look off to my right and see a sign for ‘Morton’s Salt’ and have the exact same thought occur to me.
Sue Bill Watterson!!!