# Stupidity you have heard **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 4, 2014, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761 "2014-08-04T05:07:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/281 "2014-08-20T20:48:34Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I was in a Mexican restaruant with friends when one asked “I wonder how they pronounce ‘tequila’ in Spanish?” “El taquila-o.” ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/282 "2014-08-21T14:39:27Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > “El taquila-o.” Touche (pronounced “TUchee”)! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/283 "2014-08-21T15:02:55Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Touche (pronounced “TUchee”)! …like Tommy Smothers. (Archie Bunker: "I don’t need none of your smart French swear words, neither. ") ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/284 "2014-08-28T04:05:58Z")
Today at work a co- worker informed me that Obama has eliminated presidential term limits. Said he used a signing statement like he does for everything else. I haven’t found anything in the news about term limits that could be grossly misinterpreted. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/285 "2014-08-28T05:27:51Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > What, couvade? Sympathy pregnancy is a real thing. It doesn’t mean the wife loses symptoms, of course. > > In sixth grade I went to war with my geography teacher because he declared Central America to be a country. He claimed all those lines on the map were just states. I brought in the encyclopedia entry on Panama. He sent me to detention. I am still furious. I had a minor battle with a substitute teacher who claimed that people from the middle ages weren’t ignorant. What he probably meant was that they weren’t stupid, which I would agree with. But he didn’t say that. He said they weren’t ignorant. They were ignorant. And we are too, albeit perhaps less so. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/286 "2014-08-28T06:36:57Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > I had a minor battle with a substitute teacher who claimed that people from the middle ages weren’t ignorant. > > What he probably meant was that they weren’t stupid, which I would agree with. But he didn’t say that. He said they weren’t ignorant. > > They were ignorant. And we are too, albeit perhaps less so. They were particularly ignorant, because they had “forgotten” a lot of thing the classical world had known. Was this the same teacher as the one who told me that the “AD” in “AD 2014” stood for “after death”? ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/287 "2014-08-29T02:22:30Z")
In the mid-1970s we were living in Kentucky and became friendly with a co-worker of mine and his wife. She was an educated woman in her late 20s who was employed as an elementary school teacher. One day she and my wife were talking about something and she came out with this: “Black people don’t have cats or German Shepherds because they are afraid of them.” My wife (a Yankee) was appalled at this ignorant folklore coming from an otherwise well-spoken person, especially one who was a molder of young minds. My wife replied that she knew a black guy in college who had two cats AND a German Shepherd. According to my wife, the woman never spoke to her again. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/288 "2014-08-29T05:18:14Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > In the mid-1970s we were living in Kentucky and became friendly with a co-worker of mine and his wife. She was an educated woman in her late 20s who was employed as an elementary school teacher. One day she and my wife were talking about something and she came out with this: “Black people don’t have cats or German Shepherds because they are afraid of them.” My wife (a Yankee) was appalled at this ignorant folklore coming from an otherwise well-spoken person, especially one who was a molder of young minds. My wife replied that she knew a black guy in college who had two cats AND a German Shepherd. According to my wife, the woman never spoke to her again. You win. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/289 "2014-08-29T13:06:07Z")
I quibble with some of the examples listed in this thread, such as the woman who didn’t know Denali was Mount McKinley; that’s ignorance, not stupidity. But there’s no such excuse for Rep. Hank Johnson, Democrat of Georgia, who during a hearing on troop buildups in Guam, asked a Navy admiral if the additional troops put the island in danger of tipping over: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/bs23CjIWMgA/hqdefault.jpg "Hank Johnson (Congress D-GA) - Warns Guam May Capsize") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs23CjIWMgA) Hank Johnson, everybody. My state, my party, and, until recently, my representative. So proud. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/290 "2014-08-29T13:17:25Z")
Across the coffee table: The Atlantic is bigger than the Pacific. Beavers are carnivorous. They build damns so fish can breed in the created pond. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/291 "2014-08-29T15:28:03Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I quibble with some of the examples listed in this thread, such as the woman who didn’t know Denali was Mount McKinley; that’s ignorance, not stupidity. That reminded me of a weird combination of knowledge and ignorance. I know someone who thought “Mt. McKinley” was another name for Mt. Rushmore, because, you know, it has the presidents on it. Good for her for knowing McKinley was a president. Most people can’t name anyone who wasn’t president before they were born, aside from Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy. I also saw a post recently defending the choice not to vaccinate, which actually used the argument that all the Brady kids got the measles on that one episode, and they were all fine, and Mike and Carol weren’t too concerned-- therefore, proof it isn’t a serious disease. Actually, that last one got me thinking, and I checked: the vaccine had been around for several years when that ep was filmed, but it wasn’t until an epidemic right around the time the ep was written that the vaccine became commonly used. It went from something like 30% of kids protected to close to 100%. So, the writers probably took the idea from a real-life event. Oh, back to the presidents: saw a comment in the paper by a couple with an infant named Zachary Taylor. They had chosen not to name him after his father, who was himself a junior, because they wanted little Zack to have a name that was “all his own.” ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/292 "2014-08-29T16:33:10Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Across the coffee table: > The Atlantic is bigger than the Pacific. > Beavers are carnivorous. They build damns so fish can breed in the created pond. Rubbish. I’ve never even heard a beaver swear. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/293 "2014-08-29T16:34:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Most people can’t name anyone who wasn’t president before they were born All they have to do is name everyone they know 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/294 "2014-08-29T16:50:24Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > All they have to do is name everyone they know 😛 You can’t put too much coolant in the reactor. ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/295 "2014-08-29T19:08:51Z")
The “Designated Driver” only drinks less,so they’re the soberest person in the car.😕 ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/296 "2014-08-29T19:51:56Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > I know this guy who thinks of himself as a real science buff; he’s always doing things like trying to figure out the equations for time dilation at a non-Earth locus. > > So one day, we were talking about gravity which is his big field of expertise. And he told me that gravity comes out of a hole at the North Pole, and distributes around the surface \*\*\* over land!\*\*\* > > He said, “Why, how do you think it works?” Shortly after college graduation I was speaking to an undergraduate acquaintance I had met probably during my Senior Year. He certainly seemed intelligent enough in other discussions, including the pros and cons of campus policy. Even when I disagreed with him I felt he was very intelligent and could formulate well enough. Until one time. He was sure that gravity would continue to increase going down through the earth, reaching “infinity” at the very center (where the radius=0). There was no way I could convince him that the inverse-square relation was only valid from the surface on up. And that a different formula, one that would lead to a gravity intensity of ZERO at the very center, would operate. I mean, come on! The gravitation of particles in a hypothetically perfectly spherical earth would cancel out. We have a hypothetically perfect oblate spheroid instead, which would still have a perfect cancellation due to symmetries involved. Even the real world version could never have infinite gravity at the presumed center, and it would be close to zero. Beyond THAT, if he were right, a black hole would form, with unpleasant results we have never experienced. * * * Speaking of seemingly intelligent speakers (and its really mind-blowing when **they** say something flatly wrong, especially when it “should” be obvious): Once I was speaking with an M.D. who was an Eastern Orthodox convert, in a group setting. The subject of calendars came up. I should have known better than to broach the topic at all in such a group, but I mentioned that in the Soviet Union there was an approach to _ **Calendar Reform** _ that was different than the Gregorian Reform, but also produced a more accurate calendar. In his usual monotone, without a trace of defensiveness, he matter-of-factly informed me that the Julian Calendar was more accurate than the Gregorian. _ **!!!** _ What’s worse is that, instead of showing the better part of valor, and changing the subject, I had to try to convince him and others that the opposite was true. (Only one other fellow, who was a history expert, was not hostile to my points.) At one point I tried to describe the Vernal Equinox shifting backward through the days, which occurs something like 26x faster with the Julian. (This is very significant, because “Easter”/Pascha is based on the first full moon after which the V.E. is supposed to have happened.) But I made the mistake of describing the facts in a terrestrial-appearance form (= Geocentric frame of reference). I was informed, by a younger but equally bright friend (who later decided to pursue the priesthood, and succeeded) that the earth goes around the sun. Thank you. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/297 "2014-08-29T23:20:06Z")
> [@FUTBOL!](#): > > At one point I tried to describe the Vernal Equinox shifting backward through the days, which occurs something like 26x faster with the Julian. (This is very significant, because “Easter”/Pascha is based on the first full moon after which the V.E. is supposed to have happened.) But I made the mistake of describing the facts in a terrestrial-appearance form (= Geocentric frame of reference). I was informed, by a younger but equally bright friend (who later decided to pursue the priesthood, and succeeded) that the earth goes around the sun. > > Thank you. :rolleyes: I don’t know if it matters, but in terms of the placement of Easter, for Roman Catholics and all the protestants that came from the Roman Catholics, whether they like to admit it of not (because it would include, say Apostolic Pentecostals) celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after (or on) the day of the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Eastern Orthodox have one more requirement. It must also be after the beginning of the Jewish Passover. Most of the time, the days coincide anyway, but occasionally, in the spring after a Jewish leap year (when we have an extra month) Passover starts pretty late. Anyway, this periodic shifting forward of Easter based on the Jewish calendar is what keeps Easter from ending up in the middle of a blizzard. Depending on one’s theology, a calendar that periodically syncs up with the Jewish calendar might be “more accurate.” Personally, I get tired of hearing about it, and I like having my holidays left alone, but Christians just seem tickled pink when Easter and Passover sync up, and love to tell me about it, like they’re giving me good news. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/298 "2014-08-30T00:19:41Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#): > > The “Designated Driver” only drinks less,so they’re the soberest person in the car.😕 Sounds fine to me. When I was married I was ALWAYS the designated driver, but I’d still have 2 to 4 beers depending upon the duration. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/299 "2014-08-30T00:45:57Z")
An acquaintance was appalled that a bar she was entering displayed a sign that read “No Colors”. She thought such blatant discrimination was eliminated decades ago. mmm ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761/300 "2014-08-30T01:44:10Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I don’t know if it matters, but in terms of the placement of Easter, for Roman Catholics and all the protestants that came from the Roman Catholics, whether they like to admit it of not (because it would include, say Apostolic Pentecostals) celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after (or on) the day of the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Eastern Orthodox have one more requirement. It must also be after the beginning of the Jewish Passover. Most of the time, the days coincide anyway, but occasionally, in the spring after a Jewish leap year (when we have an extra month) Passover starts pretty late. Anyway, this periodic shifting forward of Easter based on the Jewish calendar is what keeps Easter from ending up in the middle of a blizzard. > > Depending on one’s theology, a calendar that periodically syncs up with the Jewish calendar might be “more accurate.” > > Personally, I get tired of hearing about it, and I like having my holidays left alone, but Christians just seem tickled pink when Easter and Passover sync up, and love to tell me about it, like they’re giving me good news. Christian Easter and Passover _have_ to sync up up, otherwise the story makes no sense: Jesus was allowed to be taken down from the cross for burial because of the extreme holiness the Jews ascribed to that particular Sabbath. The normal practice for crucifixion was to leave the body on the cross and let the carrion birds peck away at the scraps, which made the punishment so very undesirable (and presumably, to be crucified at a cross-orchard like Golgotha would be particularly icky because one would be placed among the festering corpses already hanging there). For Jesus to have died on the cross and later come down from the dead would have been a really strange pass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidity-you-have-heard/694761.md?page=16)