# Things everyone knew but you **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785 "2006-11-01T21:32:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/21 "2006-11-02T07:32:21Z")
I didn’t know that Arkansas wasn’t pronounced as spelled until I was in the tenth grade. In my defense, I lived in England until the year before. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/22 "2006-11-02T12:41:03Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] Pineapples grew on trees for me until this thread, right here. [/QUOTE] And me. So what, they grow underground like potatoes? ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/23 "2006-11-02T12:54:04Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] And me. [/QUOTE] I never thought about it. But now that I do - why don’t they grow on trees? They _look_ like they ought to. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/24 "2006-11-02T13:01:54Z")
[QUOTE=Surok] …why don’t they grow on trees?.. [/QUOTE] Because they just _don’t_. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/25 "2006-11-02T13:17:10Z")
Until I was in midle school I thought the Salem Witch trials occured in Salem, Oregon. The strange thing is, I knew all about Salem, Ma and knew all about Salem, Ore and that one was colonial and one was from the western expansion. For some reason, when the Witch trials would come up Salem, Ore would pop in my head. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/26 "2006-11-02T13:27:38Z")
I just found out we don’t get French benefits! ---
**Author:** ![Rock\_n\_Roach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Rock\_n\_Roach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rock_n_Roach)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/27 "2006-11-02T14:04:45Z")
I thought tome was pronounced as two syllables with the second syllable having a long “A” sound. When my coworker pointed this out I was stunned. I still prefer my pronunciation. So pineapples don’t grow on trees…who’d have thunk it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/28 "2006-11-02T14:49:29Z")
[QUOTE=Spidey] Just a few years ago (age 19) I learned that the pimentos in olives were actually peppers stuffed in there, as opposed to naturally occuring. I knew that olives had pits, I just didnt make the connection for some reason. [/QUOTE] That’s ok, my brother had the same revelation about anchovies in olives when he was 25. One day we were preparing the salad, he opened the can, started adding olives to the salad, stared at the olives in the can and said “do they have to take the pits out before putting the anchovies in? I mean, they don’t have a tree that grows fishies inside its fruit, right?” “Right on both. Have you gotten any sleep lately?” My boss discovered last week that subcontractors depend from the HR department of the subcontractor company (the people who pay our salaries), and not from the HR department of the subcontracting company (the people who get charged for our work). In other words, their HR policies don’t all apply to us. What gave us all a bad case of the rolleyes is that she doesn’t miss a chance to remind us that “you’re just a subcontractor”. Sometimes I catch public announcements on the radio, about declaring So-and-so dead because he went for tobacco back in '38 and hasn’t been heard of again. This usually happens when So-and-so’s grandchildren discover that they can’t split Grandma’s house because she never legally owned it… Gramps did and he went for tobacco 70 years ago. The oldest date I remember hearing was something like 1906. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/29 "2006-11-02T15:04:12Z")
So I asked my SO, “What do pineapples grow on?” And he said bushes. :smack: I always, always thought they were on trees. I mean it wasn’t a long involved thought process, but still. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/30 "2006-11-02T15:12:46Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] I didn’t know that Arkansas wasn’t pronounced as spelled until I was in the tenth grade. In my defense, I lived in England until the year before. [/QUOTE] Well, in your defense, in the state of Kansas the Arkansas River is pronounced Ar-KAN-zus. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/31 "2006-11-02T15:20:42Z")
[QUOTE=Rock n Roach] So pineapples don’t grow on trees…who’d have thunk it. [/QUOTE] Boy, there’s a tree you don’t want to walk under late in the growing season. “Hmm.. what’s that whistling sound?” 😕 :rolleyes: :eek: KLONNNNG! ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/32 "2006-11-02T17:03:36Z")
[QUOTE=pimaspinner] \[For the masses yet to be educated about pineapple birth.](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=pineapple+plant&btnG=Search+Images)\ [/QUOTE] Well, I will be dipped. Guess I learned something today. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/33 "2006-11-02T17:43:21Z")
[QUOTE=Ethilrist] Boy, there’s a tree you don’t want to walk under late in the growing season. “Hmm.. what’s that whistling sound?” 😕 :rolleyes: :eek: KLONNNNG! [/QUOTE] Well, there was another guy who would have come up with the theory of Gravity Before Newton, but sadly, he was sitting under a pinapple tree. ---
**Author:** ![False\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/34 "2006-11-02T20:09:07Z")
An informal poll among my coworkers (all well-educated, learned, travelled people) came up 50/50 as to the pineapple tree controversy. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/35 "2006-11-02T20:10:27Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] I didn’t know that about pineapples, either. I mean, they just seem like they grow on trees. I’ll try the So. [/QUOTE] Whacha talkin’ 'bout, Willis! :mad: Pineapples come from pine trees, of course :o ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/36 "2006-11-02T20:12:47Z")
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen] Until I was in midle school I thought the Salem Witch trials occured in Salem, Oregon. The strange thing is, I knew all about Salem, Ma and knew all about Salem, Ore and that one was colonial and one was from the western expansion. For some reason, when the Witch trials would come up Salem, Ore would pop in my head. Weird. [/QUOTE] and they were burned at the stake, hence Salem cigarettes. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/37 "2006-11-02T20:26:50Z")
[QUOTE=Shai’tan] I’m deeply ashamed to admit that I thought ponies were “adolescent” horses, i.e. not fully grown yet. I’m certain that this was taught to me as a child so I suspect that a number of members of my family believe this. Someone mentioned this recently in a thread about “stupid things you’ve overheard” and I had to look it up. (For the record I was aware that Shetland Ponies were a breed of small horse, but thought they were named ponies because they resembled immature horses.) **Feel free to heap your ridicule upon me.** [/QUOTE] Nope. Because, having missed that thread you speak of, I thought the same thing. So you were ahead of at least one other person on that subject. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/38 "2006-11-02T20:29:48Z")
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen] Until I was in midle school I thought the Salem Witch trials occured in Salem, Oregon. [/QUOTE] I had a Middle School teacher who was fired for telling us that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/39 "2006-11-02T20:36:31Z")
I was in my early twenties when I realized that no one is ever “towing the line”. I could never figure out \*why \* you would tow a line and to where it would be towed. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/40 "2006-11-02T20:41:45Z")
If you really want to, you can plant the leafy top of a pineapple in a pot, and it will eventually grow another pineapple. The words on a gravestone, it turns out, are an epita **ph** , not an epita **th**. :smack: I was past fifty before I found that out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785.md?page=3)