[QUOTE=Jake]
There’s a town in MA called Worchester, but pronounced “Wister” or some such. Didn’t know this until a year ago.
Better yet, Google this town and they give you no idea how to pronounce the name of their town! Looking for tourists, perhaps?
[/QUOTE]
Given the bizarre pronunciations of many place names in the US, I don’t see why anyone not from MA should know this. I sure didn’t, until I moved here. Of course I had pretty much never heard of the city until I moved here.
Tourists don’t go to Worcester MA BTW, unless they are really REALLY lost.
[QUOTE=AudreyK]
IIRC, coconuts with their husk are about the same size as pineapples sans crowns, both roughly the size of (American) footballs. Husked ones are grapefruit-size.
[/QUOTE]
Yes but could an African sparrow carry one?
Anyway I’m sure there’s much more recent ingorance I should fess up to, but for the time being I’ll go with: It wasn’t till the 7th grade that I figured out it was “Point of view”. I wrote “Point of you” in an book report. Although I’d like to point out I think my version still makes a certain amount of sense.
[QUOTE=Cluricaun]
Wait, isn’t it “toe the line”, like what old school boxers had to do (think Far and Away)???
[/QUOTE]
You’re essentially correct – the variant specific to prizefighting is toe the scratch, while those toeing the line might be engaged in any one of several activities. From World Wide Words:
[QUOTE=HPL]
I thought pineapples came from pineapple trees as well.
A few months ago, I was asked why I wear my watch on my dominant hand. I replied I was never told otherwise, and at that point I start noticing that most of the people around me wear their watches on their non-dominant hands.
[/QUOTE]
Most people do this because when watches needed winding it was easier to wind (without removing the watch) with the stronger of their two hands
[QUOTE=scott62]
Most people do this because when watches needed winding it was easier to wind (without removing the watch) with the stronger of their two hands
[/QUOTE]
That, and if you wear it on the arm you use most, it gets dinged and scuffed up pretty quick.
[QUOTE=Ludovic]
Up until last year I didn’t realize that the name of the band Lipps, Inc. was a pun. (Yeah, I expect to get a few :smack: s with that post.)
[/QUOTE]
:smack: You learn something new every day.
I always read it as “Lipps, Incorporated,” too. I’m just too literal for my own good sometimes.
[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]
My mother is still convinced (no matter how many times I tell her otherwise) that she has to completely turn the computer off before she’s disconnected to the internet. Also, she seems to think now that she needs to be connected to the Internet to use any other programs (like MS Word).
[QUOTE=Black Train Song]
It took my wife to point out to me (in a rental car) that the little picture of the gas pump in the instrument panel also has an arrow next to it indicating which side of the car the gas fill thingy is on. Who knew? …everyone but me.
[/QUOTE]
I noticed that not too long ago, except that there’s not always an arrow. However, in my 2002 Malibu the dashboard indicator is on the same side as the fill-door, but I noticed in a rental Himself & I got not too long ago that it was the same (albeit the opposite side) - but neither had/have the arrow.
My personal one (which I might have mentioned in the last thread, I don’t remember right now) is that while I’ve been a big fan of cop/lawyer shows & books for years, I never realized that an “indictment” (pronounced/read “in-dict-ment”, phonetically) was the same thing as the word pronounced “in-dite-ment”. Whodathunkit?
I checked my car the other day, my 2006 almost-brand-new car, mind you, and yes—there was an arrow by the gas gauge pointing right. Where the fuel goes in.
