# Stuff that took you too long to realize **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 5, 2012, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506 "2012-08-05T09:37:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/181 "2012-08-16T20:32:06Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > It’s almost as bad as that moronic poem about the months, whose cadence and rhyme works with pretty much any combination: “Thirty days hath December, May, July, and November.” The only way to remember it is to already know the answer you need. But after hearing the poem recited just a few times, “Thirty days hath December” would sound just as obviously wrong as “Bob be nimble” or “Kate and Phil went up a hill”. There’s thousands of different ways to fit the letters of the alphabet into that song, but it’s still useful in helping little ones learn the alphabet. It’s the repetition that helps learn it, and most people can memorize a short poem more easily than a list of facts. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/182 "2012-08-16T21:11:00Z")
> [@Dr.Love](#): > > [This might help](http://lifehacker.com/232828/macgyver-tip-use-your-knuckles-to-remember-each-months-days) Haahaaa! I couldn’t make sense of the post either, and was seriously questioning my reading comprehension skills, after trying several times. Then, I clicked this link and the truth was revealed. My chunky fists are too fat to make the knuckles show up correctly! The rhyme won’t work for me! Don’t know rather to laugh or cry. Just shaking my head. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/183 "2012-08-16T22:00:38Z")
> [@jim\_58694523](#): > > It’s only complicated if you think about it. Or if you’ve never driven a car. Or if you’re just bound and determined to make it complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/184 "2012-08-17T00:33:44Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Last year, for some reason, a chiropractor gave a presentation in the breakroom at work for anyone who would submit to it (actually they bribed us with sandwiches). I wish I would have recorded it- the guy claimed to have cured a kid’s peanut allergy. Precisely why you should stay away from chiropractors. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/185 "2012-08-17T01:23:22Z")
I don’t think my mom took me alone at age five to her country of origin for six months vacation, and my dad didn’t come because he was not interested. In fact I wonder if that was a “vacation” at all in fact. :smack: I just realized that NOW at age 29, thinking about the circumstances under which I saw a cartoon on TV. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/186 "2012-08-17T01:30:26Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > Here’s how to remember whether a month is short or long: > > Make a fist with your right hand. Start at your outside (pinky) knuckle. > > Pinky knuckle = January (long) > Between pinky and ring finger = February (short) > Ring finger knuckle = March (long) > Between ring and middle fingers = April (short) > Middle knuckle = May (long) > Between middle and index fingers = June (short) > Index knuckle = July (long) > > Now, switch over to your left hand, but continue counting from right to left. > > Index knuckle = August (long) > Between index and middle fingers = September (short) > Middle knuckle = October (long) > Between middle and ring fingers = November (short) > Ring finger knuckle = December (long) > > Hope that helps! I always preferred that one too, though it’s better if you can show it to someone. But the easiest thing is to rememeber that all the months go 31-30-31-30-31-30, with two exceptions: February, which is easy - everyone knows it’s short; it counts as a thirty, and August, because Augustus Caesar couldn’t stand his month being shorter than Julius’s. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/187 "2012-08-17T01:50:23Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > > [@Olentzero](#): > > > > Actually, the Sun travels in a clockwise direction if you’re facing south, pretty much from anywhere on the Earth’s surface. > > > > The concept of clockwise actually comes from the movement of shadows cast by objects in direct sunlight, which (conversely to the above) is observable if you’re facing north pretty much from anywhere on the Earth’s surface - from that perspective the sun appears to move counterclockwise. > > Well, sorta. It’s just that if you’re facing South anywhere south of the Tropic of Capricorn you’ve got your back to the midday sun, and you’ve got to look back over your own head to see it - you could sort of describe that as “clockwise” if you really wanted to, but it’s a stretch; and the shadows in those latitudes aren’t moving clockwise. (Also applies anywhere south of the Equator for half the year, and anywhere south of the Tropic of Cancer for at least some of it.) Yeah, **Olentzero** , if you’re below tropical latitudes in the southern hemisphere, you are normally looking north to see the sun. All your words about shadows are related to the same thing as the sun’s movement around a clock face, so are kinda beside the point about clockwise. It’s just saying the shadow travels clockwise around the gnomon, which it must do because the sun is also travelling clockwise, but once again, only if the sun is south of your gnomon. Think about the old bushcraft saying of which side of a tree the moss grows. In the southern hemisphere it should be the south side of the tree, in the northern hemisphere it is the north side. Mind you, in the rain forests in New Zealand, the shade is dense enough and the moisture high enough that you can get moss all round the tree. ---
**Author:** ![mmmbeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mmmbeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmbeer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/188 "2012-08-17T02:54:45Z")
Green olives are simply underripe black olives. Like tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![mmmbeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mmmbeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmbeer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/189 "2012-08-17T03:15:07Z")
Aluminum foil boxes and others have little holes in the end that you push in to keep the roll from coming out of the box. Never knew they were there until recently. Very handy indeed. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/190 "2012-08-17T05:23:35Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > But after hearing the poem recited just a few times, “Thirty days hath December” would sound just as obviously wrong as “Bob be nimble” or “Kate and Phil went up a hill”. There’s thousands of different ways to fit the letters of the alphabet into that song, but it’s still useful in helping little ones learn the alphabet. It’s the repetition that helps learn it, and most people can memorize a short poem more easily than a list of facts. All I can tell you is that I’ve heard that poem recited hundreds of times; I’m in my forties, and I couldn’t get it right without reconstructing it mentally first (we’re only talking about eleven number-word pairs [everybody remembers Feb], it’s easier just to memorize the answer than learn the poem – at least for me). In a small sampling of coworkers a few years ago when we were discussing the same thing, about half got it right, half substituted a wrong month that fit the rhyme or cadence (usually May for June, sometimes December for November), and two had no idea what I was talking about. I think the reason May gets put in there is because people get used to it being right after April. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/191 "2012-08-17T05:45:08Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > But the easiest thing is to rememeber that all the months go 31-30-31-30-31-30, with two exceptions: February, which is easy - everyone knows it’s short; it counts as a thirty, and August, because Augustus Caesar couldn’t stand his month being shorter than Julius’s. August has had 31 days since before anyone cared who Augustus was. ([Julian calendar - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar#Sacrobosco.27s_theory_on_month_lengths)) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/192 "2012-08-17T06:19:08Z")
> [@CraterLayer](#): > > I had always thought that trees and other plants got most of their mass from the soil, and figured that the soil wasn’t disappearing around trees due to dead leaves. After growing a large orange tree in a pot and not seeing any change in the level of dirt, I realized my thinking of long ago was wrong. Boy was I surprised to discover that trees are formed out of thin air! The composition of the dirt changed, though, partly through your actions, partly from the tree absorbing nutrients it can’t get from the air and partly through the actions of smaller organisms (some may have been visible, such as grass or lichens growing on the dirt, and some won’t have been). A tree isn’t made only of C, H and O. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/193 "2012-08-17T06:22:18Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > If the theater is in the round (audience sits on all sides), then you generally use compass directions or assign one spot “12” and use clock points. Maybe you can answer a question for me. I’m familiar with the concept of theatre in the round but I’ve never seen a performance done that way. How do they handle actors entering and exiting the play? Do they just walk in and out through the audience. Is there a hiding spot in the stage where they go when they’re not on? Or do they only stage plays in this format where there are no entrances and exits? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/194 "2012-08-17T06:31:11Z")
There are usually aisles separating the audience into sections which the actor can exit through. Theaters in the round are not usually huge so it’s not like the actor has to take a 2 minute hike up a flight of stairs the way they might in a proscenium (not that shows done proscenium style often exit via the audience) or thrust stage. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/195 "2012-08-17T08:43:57Z")
**Kiwi Fruit** and **Malacandra** - let’s look at a couple things here. First let’s play around with a compass rose; pretend you’re standing at X. ```auto N | | | W-----X-----E | | | S ``` No matter where you are on the globe (with the possible exception of the poles, where things get freaky), if you’re facing north the sun rises on your right and sets on your left, _moving counterclockwise_. If you’re facing south, the sun rises on your left and sets on your right, _moving clockwise_. This would be most readily apparent if you’re standing on the equator at either of the equinoces, of course. Secondly, I said nothing about the shadows except that their apparent movement across the ground (and then sundials) in the northern hemisphere is where we get the concept of clockwise and counterclockwise from. Before I posted in this thread the first time I looked for pictures of sundials in Australia, and clearly they’re constructed to reflect the fact that shadows move counterclockwise south of the equator. In order for them to do so (and for shadows to move clockwise north of the equator) _the sun has to be moving in the opposite direction to the movement of the shadows_ - i.e. counterclockwise facing north, and clockwise facing south. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/196 "2012-08-17T09:11:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Maybe you can answer a question for me. I’m familiar with the concept of theatre in the round but I’ve never seen a performance done that way. How do they handle actors entering and exiting the play? Do they just walk in and out through the audience. Is there a hiding spot in the stage where they go when they’re not on? Or do they only stage plays in this format where there are no entrances and exits? > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > There are usually aisles separating the audience into sections which the actor can exit through. Theaters in the round are not usually huge so it’s not like the actor has to take a 2 minute hike up a flight of stairs the way they might in a proscenium (not that shows done proscenium style often exit via the audience) or thrust stage. There may also be [vomitoria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomitorium) (or “voms”) leading from the stage under the seats. For an idea of how this would work, look [here](http://www.opera-stl.org/myos/my-uploads/2012/07/03/houseoverhead-680.jpg). It’s not theatre in the round (just a thrust stage), but you can probably extrapolate from there. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/197 "2012-08-17T09:34:38Z")
OK, you know what? Skip my last post entirely. I keep going over this in my head and I’m not even sure _what_ I think now. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/198 "2012-08-17T11:47:19Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > August has had 31 days since before anyone cared who Augustus was. > ([Julian calendar - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar#Sacrobosco.27s_theory_on_month_lengths)) It doesn’t matter - it’s just an easy way of remembering it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/199 "2012-08-17T12:54:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Maybe you can answer a question for me. I’m familiar with the concept of theatre in the round but I’ve never seen a performance done that way. How do they handle actors entering and exiting the play? Do they just walk in and out through the audience. Is there a hiding spot in the stage where they go when they’re not on? Or do they only stage plays in this format where there are no entrances and exits? > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > There are usually aisles separating the audience into sections which the actor can exit through. Theaters in the round are not usually huge so it’s not like the actor has to take a 2 minute hike up a flight of stairs the way they might in a proscenium (not that shows done proscenium style often exit via the audience) or thrust stage. Yep. [Here’s a sample seating chart.](http://www.theatreinchicago.com/seating.php?theatreid=19) There’s usually an announcement before the show begins that the actors and stagehands use the aisles for entrances and for moving scenery/props in and out, so please, don’t block the aisles or wander around without an usher to assist you. (The ushers know when the aisles are going to be needed, and they’ll help you in or out in between the dangerous times.) Do you see the actors coming on and off? Sure. Generally it doesn’t matter, or it’s even done on purpose for effect. Sometimes they move around during a blackout and you don’t see them (much) until the lights come back on. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/200 "2012-08-17T14:24:11Z")
Also, bear in mind, theatre in the round is generally done with minimal sets and scenery as large pieces end up obstucting a lot of seat views, so most is done with a few set blocks and hand props. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506.md?page=11)