# Stuff you were embarrassed that you didn't know **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 19, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206 "2010-11-19T06:42:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/41 "2010-11-19T21:49:19Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > I know about the group, and I know a song or two from them, but not anything that relates to this thread. Probably a reference to [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=586144), where people made reference to a TMBG song, and then refused for multiple posts to explain when asked. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/42 "2010-11-19T21:54:05Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I wonder why so many of us just assumed that pineapples grow on trees? Fruit grows on trees and that’s just the way it is. I don’t see too many strawberry trees, but so what? or Coconuts grow on trees, and they’re exotic, and pineapples are exotic, therefore… ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/43 "2010-11-19T21:59:06Z")
Just the other week I learned that the small sea creature is an _anemone_ not an _anenome_. I have said it wrong all my life and no one has ever corrected me. I guess the few times I came across it written I didn’t notice the spelling. I’m not sure I have ever needed to write the word until it was in the NYT crossword the other week. I was stunned. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/44 "2010-11-19T22:33:29Z")
**Nava** , it never occurred to me that people in other parts of the world might not get that “Auld Lang Syne” means it’s New Years, which probably makes the whole rest of the thing a little confusing - there’s always champagne, and traditionally people kiss at midnight, and all sorts of little thing. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/45 "2010-11-19T23:28:24Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Second grade, but I thought of myself as an advanced student. We were new kids in town. When the fastidious principal of the new school was showing us around on the first day, he said, “Now I’ll show you all the **lavatory**.” There was a teacher I once had, it might have been in middle school, or maybe grade school, who told us to only call it a lavatory. We couldn’t call it a restroom because we didn’t go in there to rest, and we couldn’t call it a bathroom because we weren’t going in there to take a bath. :rolleyes: Another one I thought of, although I think I mentioned it before; I use to think that ALL guns fired bullets. Yeah, I heard of shot guns. I thought they fired bullets :smack:. I thought that shot guns fired bullets that broke up into little pieces, instead of a gun that fires a bunch of small lead balls. I only figured things out after the Dick Cheney hunting incident. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/46 "2010-11-19T23:43:15Z")
I only found out that my toaster has a little crumb trap at the bottom of it when I read it in a similar thread here in the last year or so. Where did I think the crumbs went? I don’t know, probably whisked away to some magical kingdom. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/47 "2010-11-19T23:45:49Z")
I had never heard of the Duesenberg brand of cars until just this week… the person who mentioned it claimed the phrase “it’s a doozy” came from it. Of course I did a little research and found that although these cars _were_ called Dueseys, [the phrase predates them](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-doo2.htm). Strangely enough, just after learning of them for the first time, I watched a Family Guy episode where they mentioned a Duesenberg car in it. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/48 "2010-11-19T23:48:33Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m enjoying this thread while sitting under my pineapple tree. What I came to mention. ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/49 "2010-11-19T23:48:35Z")
I always seem to be tripped up by words I’ve known forever from reading but have never pronounced correctly. My stepmother and stepsister thought it was very funny when I pronounced Celtic like the basketball team, though even when I look in the dictionary it seems both are appropriate. Just about two days ago someone told me novella has a long o. I always worry about all the times I may have said words wrong and people were too polite to say anything. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/50 "2010-11-20T00:24:44Z")
Oops. Many years ago I ran a D&D adventure with a “gibbering mouther” in it, and pronounced it with a hard G, as I’d always done in my head. A friend kept calling it a “jibbering mouther,” and I was too polite to correct him, but I carefully pronounced it with the hard G, hoping he’d pick up on the correct pronunciation. That’s a little embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/51 "2010-11-20T00:31:46Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > There was a teacher I once had, it might have been in middle school, or maybe grade school, who told us to only call it a lavatory. We couldn’t call it a restroom because we didn’t go in there to rest, and we couldn’t call it a bathroom because we weren’t going in there to take a bath. :rolleyes: What did he think “lavatory” means? Literally, washroom. You are sometimes going in there to wash (your hands) but mostly not. Even “toilet” doesn’t even really, at the root, discuss the actual purpose of the room. There is no polite, accurate word for a room you go to to urinate and defecate. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/52 "2010-11-20T01:26:12Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Probably a reference to [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=586144), where people made reference to a TMBG song, and then refused for multiple posts to explain when asked. I assumed it was a reference to “Istanbul (not Constantinople)”… ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/53 "2010-11-20T03:31:25Z")
For some strange reason, I always thought “gentrified” meant a neighborhood is heavily populated by senior citizens until about a month ago when I moved to Chicago. Probably a mental connection with the word geriatric. And add me to the list of people who thought Pineapples grew on trees. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/54 "2010-11-20T03:34:32Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I assumed it was a reference to “Istanbul (not Constantinople)”… Nah, it was “James K. Polk.” Until this thread, I pronounced gibber and gibberish differently. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/55 "2010-11-20T03:51:26Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Long outstanding in-joke about people here who thought pineapples were like coconuts and grew on trees instead of bush-like plants. (Me included!) > [@tdn](#): > > Fruit grows on trees and that’s just the way it is. I don’t see too many strawberry trees, but so what? > > or > > Coconuts grow on trees, and they’re exotic, and pineapples are exotic, therefore… … Coconuts do not grow on trees also! 🙂 > [@](#): > > Botanically, the coconut palm is not a tree since there is no bark, no branches, or secondary growth. > **[About this Reading Room | Science and Business Reading Room | Research Centers...](https://www.loc.gov/research-centers/science-and-business/about-this-research-center/)** > > The Science & Business Reading Room at the Library of Congress serves > as the gateway for science, engineering, business, and economics > research. Science and business specialists serve the Library’s mission > to engage, inspire and inform... ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/56 "2010-11-20T04:04:29Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Just the other week I learned that the small sea creature is an _anemone_ not an _anenome_. I have said it wrong all my life and no one has ever corrected me. Woah, woah, woah…what?! :smack: Okay, that. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Oops. Many years ago I ran a D&D adventure with a “gibbering mouther” in it, and pronounced it with a hard G, as I’d always done in my head. A friend kept calling it a “jibbering mouther,” and I was too polite to correct him, but I carefully pronounced it with the hard G, hoping he’d pick up on the correct pronunciation. > > That’s a little embarrassing. I blame it on the gibbering gibbons. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/57 "2010-11-20T04:28:50Z")
I read a book about the Vietnam War, and they kept making references to some machine called a Citroen…Only later did I learn that it was a French brand of automobile :smack: My adolescent mind kept visualizing some kind of…Jetson’s type UFO thing. That people in Saigon were hovering around in little UFOs during the Vietnam War. Simply could not figure out it was just a type of car. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/58 "2010-11-20T04:34:23Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > … Coconuts do not grow on trees also! 🙂 Oh, ffs. Next you’ll be telling us that a banana is a herb! ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/59 "2010-11-20T10:18:17Z")
It was only a few days ago that I realized that this emoticon: :smack: doesn’t mean “high five” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206/60 "2010-11-20T10:40:16Z")
I was a teenager hanging out with a friend watching some other guys play pool. One of them kept talking to the other constantly calling him holmes. I didn’t realize it was just something you called somebody, I thought that was his actual name :o. The next I was talking to my friend on the phone and I mentioned one of the guys playing pool, “I can’t think of his name, although I think his last name was holmes.” :smack: What was worse was that the next day my friend was using the term, so he knew what it meant but didn’t tell me about it making me feel like a fool when I realized it wasn’t an actual name. I also use to watch “What’s Happening” I didn’t think about it in terms of, “Hey man, what’s happening?” When I saw the title, I thought it was just a statement, same as saying, “Things that are going on.” Damn! I was so uncool :(. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-you-were-embarrassed-that-you-didnt-know/561206.md?page=4)