# 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:** 13
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/241 "2012-08-28T12:27:46Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Which raises the question: are there kids today who aren’t familiar with analog clocks and thus to whom the words “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” are meaningless? Nah. We still use the terms, just like we still “dial” phones. Now, they may not have much of a clue how the term “clock” got in there, but they still learn that “clockwise” means “walk to your left when you’re in a circle\*”). \*See, see?! Left and right are fargin’ useless! If you’re in a circle going clockwise, you’re moving to the left! Yet somehow tilt it 90 degrees and you’re moving a spigot to the _right_?! This makes no sense! AAARRRRGH! ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/242 "2012-08-28T12:38:56Z")
> [@xanthous](#): > > The Beatles were in my life from birth, so much so that it wasn’t until I was a 35 year old that I realized the play on words that was going on with their name. It just didn’t occur to me. If it makes you feel any better, I’m 59 and had to look up “The Beatles play on words” to figure out what you were talking about. :o I will now go back into hiding. Thank you for edumacating me 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/243 "2012-08-28T12:42:32Z")
😕 If you’re continually turning to the left, you’re going counter-clockwise, not clockwise. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/244 "2012-08-28T12:56:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 😕 > If you’re continually turning to the left, you’re going counter-clockwise, not clockwise. No. Group of people, holding hands, facing each other. Everyone step to your left. The circle is going clockwise. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/245 "2012-08-28T13:14:07Z")
And if sometimes they step left, sometimes right, sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes forward and sometimes back, it’s not a kiddie game but a [sardana](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-qI4lbbrc). While that in itself didn’t take me long to realize, I’d grown up watching those and thinking it looked terribly difficult. Turns out it’s got six basic steps and a person (the captain) calling them, something I discovered when I joined one of the free lessons offered many weekends in popular public spaces throughout Catalonia. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/246 "2012-08-28T20:15:30Z")
Something I just figured out today: 25(ish) years ago, I was looking at the wrapper of a Lowney [Eat-More](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat-More) candy bar and I noticed it said “May contain cherries”. I thought it was very strange that they would sometimes add cherries to the recipe and sometimes they wouldn’t. That didn’t strike me as the same sort of situation as using the cheapest vegetable oil available, for instance. Just today, I finally made the connection that Lowney also made [Cherry Blossoms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Blossom_(candy)), and that they might be recycling broken or misshapen Cherry Blossoms to make Eat-Mores, or that they might be produced using the same equipment. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/247 "2012-08-28T21:38:41Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > No. Group of people, holding hands, facing each other. Everyone step to your left. The circle is going clockwise. Yes, but have everyone face outward and hold hands, then step to the left. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/248 "2012-08-28T21:57:26Z")
> [@fatbaldguy](#): > > yes, but have everyone face outward and hold hands, then step to the left. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!! 😉 stupid no all caps software. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/249 "2012-08-28T22:22:59Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > No. Group of people, holding hands, facing each other. Everyone step to your left. The circle is going clockwise. Not from the perspective of someone lying on the ground in the middle of the circle, looking upwards. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/250 "2012-08-28T22:26:29Z")
_sob_ ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/251 "2012-08-28T22:43:40Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > _sob_ Yes but: This very thing trips people up with electrical connectors all the time. The pin order reverses depending on if you are looking at the face of the connector or the back (where you solder the wires) or at the male or the female half. Even when I know this from painful experience, double and triple check sometimes I still get it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/252 "2012-08-29T13:44:38Z")
That’s why they usually have numbers or other identifiers on the back of the connector where you do the soldering. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/253 "2012-08-29T13:49:00Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Not from the perspective of someone lying on the ground in the middle of the circle, looking upwards. Plus if everyone is facing the outside, stepping to the right is going clockwise. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/254 "2012-08-29T13:53:19Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > That’s why they usually have numbers or other identifiers on the back of the connector where you do the soldering. And how many times have you soldered all the pins on the connector, then realize you forgot to put the shell of the connector on the wire first? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/255 "2012-09-02T02:33:09Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > I’ve always disliked it, too, for using “left” and “right” for something that’s twisting in a circle: for every part that moves “righty”, there’s a part moving an equal amount “lefty.” If I stick my hand out to hold, say, a doorknob, the part of the hand (and the knob) I can see is the top of it. Ergo, if I say I’m turning my hand to the right, I mean that I’m turning the top of my hand to the right. It isn’t really relevant that the hidden part of my hand is moving to the left. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/256 "2012-09-02T09:57:03Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > If I stick my hand out to hold, say, a doorknob, the part of the hand (and the knob) I can see is the top of it. Ergo, if I say I’m turning my hand to the right, I mean that I’m turning the top of my hand to the right. It isn’t really relevant that the hidden part of my hand is moving to the left. Exactly. The “righty-tightie” phrase definitely privileges the “going over the top” aspect of doing tasks, but this works for most situations, because human arms and hands are below their eyes, so we usually manipulate tools below our plane of gaze (but not always – I sometimes mess this up when changing a light bulb above my head, especially with my left hand). ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/257 "2012-09-02T11:51:05Z")
> [@Just\_Ed](#): > > Here’s one I just realized _yesterday_, regarding Pink Floyd’s _The Wall_ - after over thirty years and various formats (LP, cassette, CD, MP3) of listening to this thing, I happened to be looking at a lyrics site that had not just the song lyrics, but most of the back-chatter effects listed as well, and - the album is [circular](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_wall). Somehow I never picked up on it, but the last words (spoken over the closing theme) after the wall is torn down are “Isn’t this where . . .” and the album begins with " . . . we came in?" over the same melody. Thanks for this one. I never would have figured that out. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/258 "2012-09-02T12:20:06Z")
> [@Merhouse](#): > > If it makes you feel any better, I’m 59 and had to look up “The Beatles play on words” to figure out what you were talking about. :o > > I will now go back into hiding. Now, did you find a convenient place to hide? And is there room for someone else? ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/259 "2012-09-02T12:46:04Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Not from the perspective of someone lying on the ground in the middle of the circle, looking upwards. Please stop. I’ve a hard time already telling apart my right and my left. The right is the side where the hand I use to write is situated, the left, the other side. Clockwise and counter-clockwise, the path of the sun in the sky and how **panache45** ’s father turn off the water can’t be expressed in terms of right and left without detailled explanations about whose or what left or right you’re talking about and where I’m supposed to be standing or facing in relation to what or whom at which point I’ve probably forgotten where the hand I use to write is and don’t know anymore where is my right and where is my left anyway. So, just point in the correct direction or mimic, please. ---
**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:** [September 2, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506/260 "2012-09-02T14:39:42Z")
I love these threads because they always provide some new revelation or other. My latest… toadstool. Because it looks like it could be a little stool… for a toad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-that-took-you-too-long-to-realize/630506.md?page=14)