# Ridiculous misinterpretations you've made **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 28, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746 "2016-12-28T00:28:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/21 "2016-12-28T19:02:20Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > There is the syntactically ambiguous: “Flying planes can be dangerous.” Also how do you interpret the perfectly grammatical sentence: “The horse raced past the barn fell”? > > The horse _that was_raced past the barn fell. If you replace “raced” by “ridden” a verb whose preterite differs from its past participle, the difficulty disappears. I had a different interpretation considering that ‘fell’ is a geographic term for a type of field ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/22 "2016-12-28T20:13:00Z")
“John Doe sued!” To my mind, that means, John Doe, went to court, lost, and now has to pay a bunch of money. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/23 "2016-12-28T20:32:34Z")
For a long time I thought that “fish taco” was a euphemism. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/24 "2016-12-28T21:09:06Z")
> [@Rich\_Mann](#): > > For a long time I thought that “fish taco” was a euphemism. Me too. It doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that would be tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/25 "2016-12-28T21:15:02Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Me too. It doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that would be tasty. Uh… ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/26 "2016-12-28T21:52:06Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Uh… _Neither_ meaning sounds tasty, I should clarify. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/27 "2016-12-28T22:29:09Z")
When I was little, I thought that “paying taxes” meant paying taxes on your entire net worth, every year. I.e., even if you have zero income for a year, but a savings account with $100,000, the government will raid your savings account. Moreover, I misunderstood percentages. So I thought that if you were taxed 25% of your personal wealth, that within four years, the government would raid you of everything and leave you destitute, penniless, even if you technically \*earned \*nothing during those four years. I thought life was a frantic race to earn more wealth than Uncle Sam could plunder you of it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/28 "2016-12-28T22:49:53Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > When I was little, I thought that “paying taxes” meant paying taxes on your entire net worth, every year. I.e., even if you have zero income for a year, but a savings account with $100,000, the government will raid your savings account. > . It is and was done somewhat like that for a time, in other nations especially. My misinterpretation- I thought “coffee cake” was made with coffee and since I hated coffee during my early years I wouldn’t touch it. In my defense, there\* were \*some coffee cakes made during that time that did have coffee in them, perhaps i ate some when I was young and so… ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/29 "2016-12-28T23:03:57Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > I had a different interpretation considering that ‘fell’ is a geographic term for a type of field Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/30 "2016-12-29T00:07:47Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > My misinterpretation- I thought “coffee cake” was made with coffee and since I hated coffee during my early years I wouldn’t touch it. In my defense, there\* were \*some coffee cakes made during that time that did have coffee in them, perhaps i ate some when I was young and so… Here’s another doubly relevant example. My sister made coffee cake that called for a cup of coffee; …so she opened the coffee can up, scooped out a cup and added it to her cake. :eek: Perfectly reasonable conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/31 "2016-12-29T00:14:56Z")
Nobody has yet mentioned “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves”? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/32 "2016-12-29T01:47:39Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > When I was little, I thought that “paying taxes” meant paying taxes on your entire net worth, every year. I.e., even if you have zero income for a year, but a savings account with $100,000, the government will raid your savings account. When I was little I thought people lived in televisions and radios and that sex was illegal, so I’m actually kind of impressed by the maturity of your childhood delusions. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/33 "2016-12-29T02:22:12Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > The signs on the side of the road that say, “Slow children at play” used to made me think they were warning drivers to be on the lookout for retarded kids. We had a similar one in the neighborhood where I grew up: “Slow Deaf Child”. Aww, poor kid. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/34 "2016-12-29T02:50:58Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Nobody has yet mentioned “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves”? One of my favorites! ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/35 "2016-12-29T03:24:47Z")
This is similar to **Patx2** ’s misinterpretation. I heard on the radio that a “man was shot outside of a church”. I interpreted this as if someone was inside a cannon (like the [Zacchini Brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zacchini_brothers)) and was literally _shot outside_ of a church. I could not imagine why: 1. they put the cannon inside the church 2. the guy didn’t break the stained glass windows when he was “shot outside”. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/36 "2016-12-29T03:48:22Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Fancy Ass Cookies. > > That’s what I read on the box sitting behind my friend’s head as we perused the dollar store kiosks. > > Then she shifted, and I could read the rest of the label : fancy assorted cookies. I had a temp job once that involved entering the information from handwritten forms into a database. When I got to a form where the bank’s name was written out as “ASS BANK” I assumed this was an unfortunate acronym but since I had no idea what it stood for I entered it as written. After entering more forms and seeing more bank names, I realized this must have been someone’s abbreviation of \*Associated \*Bank. Which just goes to show that when you _assume_, you make an _ass_ out of _you_ and…a Midwestern banking company. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/37 "2016-12-29T03:56:47Z")
Too late to edit, but I wanted to add that there’s a _This American Life_ episode ([293: A Little Bit of Knowledge](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/293/a-little-bit-of-knowledge)) with a segment on children’s misunderstandings. It’s Act One of the linked episode, titled “Small Thoughts In Big Brains”. ---
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/38 "2016-12-29T04:50:02Z")
When I see a sign on a door that says “This door is alarmed” I sometimes think that someone should tell it to calm down. When a recorded voice in your car says “Your door is ajar” is it saying that your car door is a broad-mouthed cylindrical container made of glass? ---
**Author:** ![Vicsage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e68b1a/32.png) [@Vicsage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicsage)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/39 "2016-12-29T05:35:28Z")
When I see a sign that says “For Sale By Owner”, who else could sell it? ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746/40 "2016-12-29T07:26:52Z")
When I was in jr high, my sister was in actual high scool, which let out earlier than the jr high. So she was always home when I got home. ANYway, one day I got home and barely got the door opened and she rushed towards me from the living room (where she was watching mtv) and asked me excitedly “DO YOU KNOW WHAT ‘LEGO MY EGGO’ MEANS!?!??!” After a few moments of thinking I was falling for some horrible joke or prank, I slowly replied “Let go of my Eggo?” “OHMIGOD YEEEESSSS!!! I just finally got that! I always thought it was just some funny rhyming slogan all this time!!!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-misinterpretations-youve-made/775746.md?page=3)