# 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:** 4
**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 3, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/61 "2006-11-03T03:26:00Z")
[QUOTE=AudreyK] And bananas are bigger only if you take them as a bunch, which is cheating. 🙂 [/QUOTE] **I don’t think so!** They come that way in the store, and pineapples have that bromeliad stuff (see above) cut off in the store and look even _smaller._ Who you gonna believe, Kroger’s or some chump in a Tropical Paradise? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hootie\_McB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Hootie\_McB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hootie_McB)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/62 "2006-11-03T03:45:15Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought everyone assumed that past a certain size, fruits no longer grew on trees. Well, durians and jackfruits grow on trees. They’re like pineapples, only bigger! And if you mated a pineapple with an echidna. As for me, things I only found out this year: Denouement is, in fact, _not_ pronounced de-NOW-ment and Evelyn Waugh is not a she. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/63 "2006-11-03T05:04:56Z")
it wasn’t until my roomate began working as one that I found out there was a difference between an EMT and a paramedic. About that pineapple thing though, thats bizarre. I used to think they grew on trees too, but now that I’ve seen some photos I’m convinced that they’re not even plants. They’re really aliens… Oh yeah, and I still can’t spell luekemia correctly. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/64 "2006-11-03T05:24:15Z")
What’s the difference between an EMT and a paramedic? ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/65 "2006-11-03T05:49:00Z")
Paramedic is a higher certification. I guess it doesn’t make a huge difference to the person having chest pains, or the body being scraped off the rode whether you’re certified as a paramedic or just an EMT. But apparently it’s a big distintion to those who are in the field. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/66 "2006-11-03T05:53:26Z")
And I also can’t seem to spell road correctly either. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/67 "2006-11-03T06:04:34Z")
Pineapple tree [http://homepage.mac.com/juanwilson/islandbreath/%20Year%202006/17-nature/0617-03Hala.html](http://homepage.mac.com/juanwilson/islandbreath/%20Year%202006/17-nature/0617-03Hala.html) Ha ha, tourists, I suppose we locals are somewhat guilty of spreading this when we point out the pineapple tree. Big fruit, [http://www.proscitech.com.au/trop/display/jack.htm](http://www.proscitech.com.au/trop/display/jack.htm) A jackfruit, a relative of the breadfruit, also huge. ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/68 "2006-11-03T06:23:01Z")
Here’s one I still don’t know. Do you call the cart with two handles and a wheel a wheelbarrel or wheelbarrow? I thought it was wheelbarrow like this [http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=200318805&R=200318805](http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=200318805&R=200318805) But then I see this [http://directforsale.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store\_Code=DFS&Product\_Code=EDG000595](http://directforsale.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=DFS&Product_Code=EDG000595) I think most people that I know say wheelbarrel the more I think about it. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/69 "2006-11-03T06:37:14Z")
It’s a wheelbarrow. Which is why you’ll occasionally see them referred to as barrows. Apparently the people who put up your second link don’t know, either. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/70 "2006-11-03T06:41:48Z")
Oh, and bananas don’t grow on trees, either. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/71 "2006-11-03T07:42:32Z")
I’m also surprised how many people didn’t know the pineapple thing. When I was a kid at some point I got one of those kids’ books that tells you all the plants you can grow from mom’s kitchen scraps. Carrots, potatoes, citrus seeds, avocados and - pineapples. I figured every kid got one of those books at some point. I embarrassed myself in college by not knowing there was a difference between flagellation and flatulation. Imagine sitting in biology class and talking about how some micro-organisms move via flatulation. I was pronouncing pine bough wrong until about five years ago a friend corrected me. I thought it was _bow_ as in bow and arrow, not _bau_ as in a “bow down before the King.” ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/72 "2006-11-03T08:45:30Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I embarrassed myself in college by not knowing there was a difference between flagellation and flatulation. Imagine sitting in biology class and talking about how some micro-organisms move via flatulation. [/QUOTE] I know how you feel. I was just in my teens before I found out the difference between the meanings of mastication and masturbation. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/73 "2006-11-03T12:44:33Z")
It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that you could run more than one software program at a time under MS Windows. I used to close each program before starting up a new one. ---
**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 3, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/74 "2006-11-03T13:21:21Z")
[QUOTE=thirdwarning] Oh, and bananas don’t grow on trees, either. [/QUOTE] Fight my ignorance. 🙂 [This is?](http://www.banana-tree.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/75 "2006-11-03T13:25:47Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that you could run more than one software program at a time under MS Windows. I used to close each program before starting up a new one. [/QUOTE] Mom? Is that you? Did you move to the UK and not tell me? ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/76 "2006-11-03T13:25:57Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I embarrassed myself in college by not knowing there was a difference between flagellation and flatulation. Imagine sitting in biology class and talking about how some micro-organisms move via flatulation. [/QUOTE] Okay, now that’s funny. I keep getting a mental image of an amoeba being like a balloon that swells up then zips around when the air is released. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/77 "2006-11-03T13:38:10Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] Mom? Is that you? Did you move to the UK and not tell me? [/QUOTE] Not unless I had a sex change as well. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Push_Up_Bra)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/78 "2006-11-03T13:38:41Z")
[QUOTE=Martha] - that plaid (as in tartan) isn’t pronounced “played”. [/QUOTE] …It’s not? As for the pineapple thing: I never even _thought_ about where they came from until I went on a school trip to Tanzania and saw a huge pineapple field. I tell you what, fresh plucked pineapple is fantastic. Just delicious. Also didn’t know the ‘all intensive/intents and purposes’ thing until just now. Makes much more sense now! ---
**Author:** ![Pocito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@Pocito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pocito)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/79 "2006-11-03T13:39:21Z")
It was only after the Segway transit unit was introduced that I wondered why I had never actually seen the word in written form. I embarrassingly asked several people why that was, only to be informed that the segue\* word I’d been reading my whole life was the same thing. Gah! - pronounced seg-ooey, of course ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785/80 "2006-11-03T13:49:25Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that you could run more than one software program at a time under MS Windows. I used to close each program before starting up a new one. [/QUOTE] One of my most painful moments at work was a couple years back. We were preparing to transfer several factories to a new management software. One of the most important steps was “data and verification”, where we extracted the data from the old programs, loaded them into the new programs, extracted it again from the new programs, and compared the two extracts to make sure that the loads were going right. The first time we’d had to do that, we didn’t know how to use vlookup, so I’d done it by making sure that both files had things in the same order and opening them side-by-side; two coworkers of mine would print one and one of them checked it from what the other one read off the screen. This guy made those methods sound like rocket science. His procedure for verification was: - save each of the two excel files in a different folder - close everything else - open “my computer” and open everything till he reached the first file - double click on it - write down a pair of values from it (for example: HG-36J, 34-35% solids) - close excel - close every folder - open “my computer” and open everything until he reached the second file - double click on it - locate the first value of the pair (HG-36J) and verify that the second value is correct - close excel, etc. We were able to teach him how to create shortcuts from the Desktop, but he would not open two files in Excel at the same time (said he found it confusing) and he wouldn’t let someone else run a mechanical check so he’d only have to look at stuff that “looked funny”. It was painful to watch… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-knew-but-you/378785.md?page=5)