zweisamkeit, what nationality are you? Maybe the term is more prominent in some countries than others. Or maybe it’s an older term that doesn’t get used much any more. All I know is, as a 30 something American it’s been pretty rare to hear that word.
I don’t know if he knew the literal meaning or not. I know I didn’t. And if anybody brought it up he probably would have just said something like, “Well, after you go you wash your hands, right?”
Awesome!
I’m American and I’m 28. Now, perhaps the quirk is that I went to Catholic schools for K-12. Some of the education style was a bit more old-fashioned (yes, we had a distinct grade for handwriting from grades 3-8! We also learned how to diagram sentences, which was apparently unusual for the public schools around here). Maybe that’s related to using “lavatory”.
Lavatory has always struck me as a word people use to sound more high class or more “proper”. It doesn’t surprise me that it was predominantly used in a Catholic school.
In this part of the world, the “Bathroom” is the room where the bath (and the shower) are. Sure, there’s usually a toilet in there too (at home), but somewhere like a school? It’s not a bathroom, it’s a lavatory, loo, toilet, etc.
Yes, here too at home a bathroom has a bath and/or shower, but a lot of Americans call rooms that have toilets bathrooms. And if somebody has to poop or pee it’s not uncommon for them to say, “I have to go to the bathroom.” regardless of whether they’re in a house or anywhere else.
Damn. Really?
I thought that a “cunt” was a penis for quite a while. I also thought that a “dick” was a dictionary.
“I want to put my dictionary in your penis.”
In Australia and the UK, the “toilet” is the room; in the US, it’s the fixture in the room. This has caused some minor confusion.
One time in Jr High some kids claimed that another creamed his pants. I thought they meant that he pooped his pants.
Okay; until I saw that WKRP in Cincinnati episode where Les Nessman dumps live turkeys out of a plane or helicopter, assuming they could fly, if asked I, too, probably would have assumed they could fly. I have seen wild turkeys fly, although they seemed to be pushing the envelope of their natural abilities in doing so.
And if I had thought about the aerodynamic properties of farm-bred turkeys with their insignificant wings and giant bazooms…well…as Monty Python said, “They did not so much as fly as plummet.”
I had no idea until a two minutes ago that Stevie Nicks is a woman. I’m 31.
Did you know that Gene Wilder is a man? 
I guess I never made too many long distance phone calls when I was younger, but I was in college before I knew you had to dial (in the US) a 1 before the area code and number. That explained why I never got my grandparents when I called them.
Wait, Stevie Nicks is a woman? Learn something new every day.
Did you know that Jerry Lewis & Jerry Lee Lewis are not the same person?
There was some comedian who made a joke about what it would be like if they were the same person, “Goodness gracious MY BALLS ARE ON FIRE!!!”
Well, it was funny when he said it.
I liked lno’s version (in Annie X-mas’s link above) better: “Goodness gracious great balls of HEY LAAAAAAADY!”
I thought Carly Simon was black until I saw her on tv about 10 years ago.
She sounds like a MoTown singer on You’re So Vain
Well, I found out quite some time ago, but I didn’t realize this for a while, and still need to think about it.
It doesn’t help that Lindsey Buckingham has a freakin’ girl’s name. (Obviously, I get the two of them reversed in my mind.)
What kind of monster has to be goaded into hitting Chevy Chase?