# Things that you didn't know and other people did **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 30, 2016, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270 "2016-09-30T06:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/21 "2016-10-03T20:44:25Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Am I the only person here who had to play Marco Polo naked? I’m going to start doing this so I can combine it with my protests for Harambe. Guy: Marco! Me: Dicks out for Harambe. Polo! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/22 "2016-10-04T12:28:02Z")
Here’s one: Advent calendars. Never heard of them until middle age. I think I had just become barely aware of them before _Bad Santa_ came out so I was intrigued by the bits in that regarding them. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/23 "2016-10-04T18:49:34Z")
I never heard of “Marco” “Polo” as a thing until a current TV ad which is very confusing and concerns a product I’m not interested in. Never knew it was based on game until this thread. Now I’ve heard something that may explain why a llama is watching from the sidelines. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/24 "2016-10-04T19:00:32Z")
I can’t remember not knowing of the game Marco Polo. I was pretty impressed to find out they were playing that game so long ago that some guy was named after it. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/25 "2016-10-04T19:22:27Z")
I never knew what this [gizmo](http://www.chanel.com/en_US/fragrance-beauty/cms2export/Site1Files/P137800/S137805_XLARGE.jpg)was until recently. I thought it was some fancy kind of paper binder, but it’s actually an eyelash curler. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/26 "2016-10-04T19:28:02Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > I never knew what this [gizmo](http://www.chanel.com/en_US/fragrance-beauty/cms2export/Site1Files/P137800/S137805_XLARGE.jpg)was until recently. I thought it was some fancy kind of paper binder, but it’s actually an eyelash curler. It’s also used by gynecologists in Lilliput. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/27 "2016-10-04T19:28:19Z")
Marco Polo was one of those childhood games that no one remembers learning, we all just knew how to play, like freeze tag, Mother may I? and red rover. I didn’t know instant mashed potatoes were a thing until I saw them at a friend’s house when I was an early teen. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/28 "2016-10-04T20:53:55Z")
I knew of Rock, Paper, Scissors, but not how to play until a few years ago. I had to play to break a tie in a bar trivia game. I lost since I knew zero about strategy. I haven’t played since, so I doubt I have improved. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/29 "2016-10-04T20:56:40Z")
I didn’t know that it was common in the south for women to change their middle name to their maiden name after they got married. Jane Alison McKinney would get married and change her name to Jane McKinney Roberts. It apparently happens all the damn time and I was made to look like an idiot when I had no idea it was a thing. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/30 "2016-10-04T20:58:11Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > I didn’t know instant mashed potatoes were a thing until I saw them at a friend’s house when I was an early teen. I had the opposite experience. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/31 "2016-10-04T20:58:26Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I didn’t know that it was common in the south for women to change their middle name to their maiden name after they got married. > > Jane Alison McKinney would get married and change her name to Jane McKinney Roberts. > > It apparently happens all the damn time and I was made to look like an idiot when I had no idea it was a thing. Not just in the South. My mother, from Maine, did the same thing in 1954. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/32 "2016-10-04T21:06:00Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I didn’t know that it was common in the south for women to change their middle name to their maiden name after they got married. > > Jane Alison McKinney would get married and change her name to Jane McKinney Roberts. > > It apparently happens all the damn time and I was made to look like an idiot when I had no idea it was a thing. Are you talking about legal name changes? I thought it used to be common practice for every married woman in the US to be referred to as Mary MaidenName MarriedName before married women began retaining their maiden names. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/33 "2016-10-04T21:11:05Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Are you talking about legal name changes? I thought it used to be common practice for every married woman in the US to be referred to as Mary MaidenName MarriedName before married women began retaining their maiden names. changing your name when you get married (or divorced) is a legal name change. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/34 "2016-10-04T21:17:21Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > changing your name when you get married (or divorced) is a legal name change. And this wasn’t common practice everywhere? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/35 "2016-10-05T10:56:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > And this wasn’t common practice everywhere? Definitely not! Says the Spaniard who still doesn’t know what the heck half the games named in this thread are (I’ll google them later). ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/36 "2016-10-05T12:19:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Are you talking about legal name changes? I thought it used to be common practice for every married woman in the US to be referred to as Mary MaidenName MarriedName before married women began retaining their maiden names. I knew they would legally change their name and adopt their husband’s surname as their own. What I didn’t know was that part of that process also involved them changing their MIDDLE name as well to their (now) maiden name. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/37 "2016-10-05T16:26:56Z")
I didn’t know how to scream until I was 6. I could yell of course, but I couldn’t make that from-the-throat scream noise. Until Grade 1 when we had small hill outside our class that the kids would all toboggan down and I heard the other kids screaming down the hill. I actually had to teach myself how to scream. (I also thought that boys couldn’t scream, only girls could.) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/38 "2016-10-05T16:36:20Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Definitely not! > > Says the Spaniard who still doesn’t know what the heck half the games named in this thread are (I’ll google them later). I meant everywhere in the US. Clearly Spanish naming is more complex. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/39 "2016-10-05T16:47:55Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > 1. Air brakes are default-on and power-release. It wasn’t always that way. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270/40 "2016-10-05T17:24:13Z")
I couldn’t whistle or snap my fingers until middle school. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-you-didnt-know-and-other-people-did/767270.md?page=3)