# Things everyone should know about but probably don't. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 17, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150 "2012-05-17T00:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/41 "2012-05-18T05:06:07Z")
> [@OldnCrinkly](#): > > I think everybody should know how to swim. I’m surprised how many adults do not. +1 Something as common as a pool should not pose a lethal threat. Learn to swim. [sub]learn to swim, learn to swim, learn to swim, learn to swim, [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/42 "2012-05-18T05:27:46Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > Learn to swim. By staying out of the water my risk of drowning dramatically decreases. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/43 "2012-05-18T06:06:05Z")
To quote Harry Callahan in **Magnum Force** : “_A man’s **got** to know his limitations._” But, alas, most people don’t and end up looking foolish. Turning to specifics, everyone should know basic facts about the universe in which we all live, like it’s 13.7 billion years old, our sun is one star among hundreds of billions in our galaxy, and there are hundreds of billions of other galaxies! ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/44 "2012-05-18T06:17:49Z")
> [@I\_Know\_Nothing](#): > > Wash your hands after using the restroom. Unless you’re eating jalapenos. Then wash your hands **before** and after. I learned this the hard way. Except it was with habanero chicken wings. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/45 "2012-05-18T06:32:13Z")
Wash your hands before eating. Don’t eat the pretzels from the bowl at the bar because the previous patrons probably did not wash their hands. After the age of 45, never assume it is a fart. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/46 "2012-05-18T07:47:40Z")
Presidents and Presidential candidates are not magical wizards. They can not simply wave a magic wand and make gas $2 a gallon again. There are a whole bunch of other things the President can not do but this one sticks out in my mind the most. Also, your local elections matter too ya know. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/47 "2012-05-18T08:11:56Z")
Who their real father is. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/48 "2012-05-18T08:25:59Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > You can give Benadryl to a Golden Retriever with an allergic reaction to a bee sting, just like you’d give to a human, and save a $200 ‘Emergency Vet’ bill… Not sure you should give one to a CAT, though. Might relate to the size issue as posted by **Sister Vigilante** , but I don’t know. My mother gave one to a cat once, and it went all foaming, spitting crazy for awhile. Poor thing got better, though. /She also gave us spoonfuls of Vick’s vaporub when we were kids. Don’t do that. //My sister got old enough to read and told her it says not to do that on the bottle. ///We survived to adulthood anyway. Somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/49 "2012-05-18T11:14:16Z")
That the average starting price of winners of a particular past horse race is no guide to the winners of the next running of the race. (You may/ may not be surprised how often this is used on _professional_ racing shows). ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/50 "2012-05-18T12:53:51Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > Facebook is a fad. It may be a huge and overpowering fad, but it will fade away as everything else does. > > Telling someone you don’t have a FB page is like telling them you don’t have a SSN. > > Facebook is a website, not a mandatory part of human culture. I think it would probably be more useful to know that Facebook will evolve or be replaced by something that serves a similar purpose, but does it better. I don’t think think social networking is a fad any more than TV or telephones. However, I do agree that it will have to change to keep up in the coming decade or so. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/51 "2012-05-18T12:56:34Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > What a standard deviation from the mean is, and what “statistically significant” means. Well, a lot of other stats stuff too, but we can start there. Agreed. Continuing on that theme: correlation is not causation. Also, a basic understanding of [cognitive biases](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias) would go a long way. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/52 "2012-05-18T13:25:38Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > By staying out of the water my risk of drowning dramatically decreases. One does not always end up in the water on purpose. ---
**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:** [May 18, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/53 "2012-05-18T14:03:34Z")
Everyone should know CPR (and how to properly perform a Heimlich, for that matter). And everyone should know how important it is to do it early and do it right. Everyone should know that deaths do not “come in threes”. Well, they do if you divide them up that way. To me, for example, deaths come in seventeens. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/54 "2012-05-18T14:11:43Z")
Everyone who works with MS Excel beyond just looking at output should understand at least how VLOOKUP works, and preferably OFFSET and MATCH. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/55 "2012-05-18T22:35:49Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > If your instrument panel in your car has a picture of a gas pump and an arrow, the arrow is telling you what side of the car the gas tank is on. You’re welcome. I figured that out, but how do I open the gorram petrol cap?! > [@DocCathode](#): > > I disagree. > > I looked after my Uncle Max (He was in his nineties and had Parkinson’s) for years. He was a great short order cook. He was full of interesting stories of how the world used to be.\* I always advise people to get to know their elderly relatives. He love women, Jack and coke, and neapolitan ice cream. > > I currently work part time as a home health aide to another man with Parkinsons. He’s a former English professor and fascinating to talk to. Well that is not the same situation that I, or many other people who are Carers are in. It’s not all about sitting listening to someone reminiscing about the good old days. I have to contend with my mother persistently trying to get me to make tea for her hallucinations, as well as picking her up off the floor when she falls - and she thrashes about when I’m trying to lift her, so she’s fucking my back and shoulders up. I know a woman who’s Caree was ‘twice the size of her’ and she had to lift him in and out of bed without a hoist for several years, before she was finally given a manual hoist that she had to jack up and down herself. He got bedsores and she used to have to turn him over every two hours for months to prevent them getting infected. Have you seen an infected bedsore? Or how’s about the woman who’s father had Dementia and thought she was his girlfriend and tried to sexual assault her? Or perhaps you find the idea of cleaning up after an elderly person who’s doubly incontinent a delight? Or the elderly person who shits in any receptacle they can find as long as it’s not the toilet? Or the incontinent elderly who hide their soiled clothing and you can’t figure out where the smell is coming from? Or the elderly dementia addled old man who got lost coming home from the shop and was found dead in a field a mile away? They must have been such fun searching for him. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/56 "2012-05-19T00:07:05Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > One does not always end up in the water on purpose. Often in those cases, floods and tsunamis for example, ability to swim is meaningless. I also stay away from the edges of cliffs, from burning buildings, and from lions. But one day they may be the cause of my death. Oh well, gotta die of something. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/57 "2012-05-19T00:29:34Z")
The basics of a computer, and the basics of working with a computer. The different between “logging off” and actually rebooting, what click and drag means, such things like that. Hell, I think it should be a mandatory class for Jr. High kids. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/58 "2012-05-19T03:31:15Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > By staying out of the water my risk of drowning dramatically decreases. Ok, so you missed the \*Tool \* reference, but some day the water may come to _you_. Hence the Tool reference. Not intentionally going into water does not preclude you actually being immersed in water at some point, by choice or not. Flooding happens to the point where non-swimmers may die, pools are everywhere, and any international travel usually involves being over water at some point. Learning to swim is a basic survival skill, regardless of when or if you may ever use it. I personally find it shocking when people say they can’t swim. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/59 "2012-05-19T03:35:54Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Everyone who works with MS Excel beyond just looking at output should understand at least how VLOOKUP works, and preferably OFFSET and MATCH. Can you expound on this? I use Excel every day, but I never get deep into complicated formulas or any of the other super-user features. I’m pleased enough when I can truncate a number, or use a keyboard shortcut to insert today’s date. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150/60 "2012-05-19T03:45:38Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > Barack Obama is an American. I think most of us already know that, but the question is, what kind of american is he? _Is he a god-hating Muslim communist from the northern People’s Republic of Canuckstan_ or _Is he a Drug pushing gangster from the southern Narcorepublic of Mexico, who spends his every waking minute trying to work out how to nanny away hard-working true Americans’ booze and tobacco._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everyone-should-know-about-but-probably-dont/622150.md?page=4)