# Things you are shocked people don't know **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 19, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348 "2016-09-19T14:50:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/201 "2016-09-24T03:06:18Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > I work in restaurant, and I’ve encountered people who have done the following foolish things: > > 1. Putting metallic objects in a microwave. > 2. Putting a plastic tray in an oven. > 3. Putting on very thin plastic gloves that we use to handle raw meat (instead of oven mitts), and then attempting to remove very hot metallic trays from the oven. This caused my coworker to scream in pain. > > I’m utterly shocked that anyone could live for at least 16 years (that’s how old you generally have to be in my state to work) in a modern First World country and not be aware that these are bad ideas. 16? I could see not knowing not to do any of the above. 20? Yeah, that’s fishy. Heck, I’m a lot older than those numbers added up, and just a few years ago, I learned the hard way not to grab a hot dish out of the oven with a WET towel. Live steam is hot, folks. 😛 Over the years I have worked with pharmacists who did not know that: Lesbians menstruate Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in blood transfusions Women usually do not produce breast milk unless they have just given birth :smack: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/202 "2016-09-24T03:17:30Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > You’re kidding, right? I’m talking about the VP’s official job under the U.S. Constitution. > > You’d be surprised how many adults will say “he waits for the President to die so he can be President”. :smack: Which reminds me: In 2008, I was horrified at how few people remembered, if indeed they ever knew, that Sarah Palin was not the first female VP candidate on a major party ticket. And interestingly, it was not long after Geraldine Ferraro, who had that honor, made a blip in the news because she said she was taking thalidomide for the multiple myeloma that eventually killed her. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/203 "2016-09-24T03:47:04Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Which reminds me: In 2008, I was horrified at how few people remembered, if indeed they ever knew, that Sarah Palin was not the first female VP candidate on a major party ticket. And interestingly, it was not long after Geraldine Ferraro, who had that honor, made a blip in the news because she said she was taking thalidomide for the multiple myeloma that eventually killed her. That’s one that wouldn’t shock me. The Mondale campaign was pretty forgettable except for having a woman on the ticket and that he got clocked by Reagan. And it was 24 years past. To me, I’d say disappointing, but not shocking. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/204 "2016-09-24T04:56:39Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Yes, yes you do. I should have a breathalyzer device attached to my computer that prevents me from posting before 10am unless I have had a cup of coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/205 "2016-09-24T11:27:12Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > They really should have figured out to NOT Tailgate. > > People will want to change lanes. If there are no spaces (because you morons are tailgating), what do they do? > Yes, they _slow down_! DUH! > What happens to everyone following that person? They all move as far forward as possible before admitting that they really can’t go faster than the car ahead. IOW\_ Now They’re Tailgating. > > Please try to remember: two solid objects (cars, for instance) CANNOT occupy they same space at the same time. > that car wanting to merge will eventually merge - if there had been space available, it would have merged at highway speed, not the 5 mph while we all again do the “One from Column A, One from Column B” routine at the point the one lane ceases to exist. > > And the folks think it will take a computer to figure this out. Sadly, it probably WILL take “The Cloud” (All Hail The Cloud!) to work out spacing. Welcome to the world of photo radar. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/206 "2016-09-24T11:42:35Z")
I stopped being shocked about what average reasonably-informed people do not know (or “know” but are wrong) about one another’s countries, hell never mind that, about other cities and regions within a day’s drive, around 18 when I simultaneously (a) first lived in a different culture and (b) got access to a major library’s periodicals room. It hit me the amount of filtering that went on (and thus the modern “echo chambers” are not new except in scale). I am starting to wonder what traumatic experience did **manson1972** undergo with rocks, though… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/207 "2016-09-24T11:43:45Z")
I’ve always had a pretty good internal sense of which direction is north, south, etc. Even when I have traveled to other places that I’ve never been, I still know which way is which. I’m sure the arc of the sun gives me enough clues subconsciously, but still I know which way is which readily. I have met many people that don’t have any clue which way is which, even in the very town they live in. Maddening. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/208 "2016-09-24T12:13:25Z")
Thinking of it because I just talked with her : A woman who believed that you sow seeds to grow potatoes. OK, some are going to say that how potatoes are cultivated isn’t necessarily common knowledge. Except that she’s the daughter of a farmer who grows potatoes and was raised on the farm. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/209 "2016-09-24T13:58:34Z")
To be fair, the sections of tuber you plant _are_ called “seed potatoes” ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/210 "2016-09-25T15:58:17Z")
Look, I don’t expect the average Joe to know this. But when the Program Manager of a Federal Government contract doesn’t know whether the contract they are managing is Time and Materials or Firm Fixed Price, I stand there trying to remember to breathe. And then, when I tell them which it is and they shrug their shoulders and snort that it makes no difference to them I shudder visibly. To their credit, when I explain the difference and what it means about how they should be managing the contract, they generally do look appropriately shocked and frightened. In my over 25 years in this business I have run into maybe three PMs who knew and understood all this before I took the time to explain it to them. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/211 "2016-09-25T18:06:59Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > To be fair, the sections of tuber you plant _are_ called “seed potatoes” Also, it _is_ possible to grow potatoes from seed. Not all varieties produce seed, and what they grow into is kinda pot luck, so virtually no-one but plant breeders bother. It’s generally known as ‘true potato seed’ to distinguish it from the normal ‘seed potatoes’. Anyway, my example: I got into a conversation with a girl at work about pet fish last week. She said she used to have them, but they kept dying, and she didn’t know why, she fed 'em. I asked what sort she had. “Dunno, the ones they sell at the pet shop” I asked “just goldfish, or was it a tropical tank?” “Tropical?” “Did you have a heater?” “Don’t think so. Think we had goldfish, we got a whole bunch of different ones. We got clownfish once, you know, like Nemo? They looked really cool but they just died” So yeah, apparently one of my co-workers kept fish for some time without knowing some lived in cold water, some needed heat, or that some needed salt water. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/212 "2016-09-25T18:25:33Z")
Ignorance about the earth going around the sun or political stuff from 10 years ago is one thing, but it makes me furious when people keep _animals_ in such ignorance they’re killing them. Usually in awful and horrific ways (like starving them to death, or giving them the wrong “atmosphere” to breathe by trying to keep a salt water fish in fresh water). ---
**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:** [September 25, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/213 "2016-09-25T18:28:26Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > So yeah, apparently one of my co-workers kept fish for some time without knowing some lived in cold water, some needed heat, or that some needed salt water. And even if she had known this, she may have just boiled the water and poured in some table salt. ---
**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/214 "2016-09-26T05:17:07Z")
I’ve had 8th graders with no learning disabilities who didn’t know odds from evens; the triangle from other shapes; which are mountains, rivers and lakes on a map; twice or half; $1 facts like 4 quarters or 10 dimes; ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/215 "2016-09-26T06:41:46Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > To be fair, the sections of tuber you plant _are_ called “seed potatoes” That would be in English, but what are they called in French? The poster was **clairobscur** , so I’m guessing the language was French. In Spanish the potatoes you set aside to plant are called _patatas de siembra_, planting potatoes: the word _semilla_ (seed) isn’t anywhere in sight. Never mind 8th graders, **MsKaren** : I’ve known many adults who couldn’t read a map at all. It’s one of those skills which need to be taught but too often are not. As soon as my brothers got old enough that I could handle them and the maps at the same time, Dad set me as the navigator: I didn’t understand why (I was in the back seat) until I needed to use Mom as a nav. She can read the map OK so long as nothing is moving, but giving directions to a driver is a different skill: she can only remember about half the time that “right on the map” is not the same thing as “right as the car goes”. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/216 "2016-09-26T08:50:41Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > That would be in English, but what are they called in French? The poster was **clairobscur** , so I’m guessing the language was French. > > In Spanish the potatoes you set aside to plant are called _patatas de siembra_, planting potatoes: the word _semilla_ (seed) isn’t anywhere in sight. Oh, right, true - probably something similar then (“sprouted tubers” was what I could find on French gardening sites), in which case, yeah, I’d expect a farmer’s kid to know better. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/217 "2016-09-26T08:55:42Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > … until I needed to use Mom as a nav. She can read the map OK so long as nothing is moving, but giving directions to a driver is a different skill: she can only remember about half the time that “right on the map” is not the same thing as “right as the car goes”. Some of us, to manage navigating, have to turn the map around at need, to match the direction of travel. Regarded with great contempt by the truly adept map-practitioners… ---
**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:** [September 26, 2016, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/218 "2016-09-26T10:25:37Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Some of us, to manage navigating, have to turn the map around at need, to match the direction of travel. Regarded with great contempt by the truly adept map-practitioners… Not “contempt” at all, but surprise that some people need to do this. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/219 "2016-09-26T19:26:19Z")
That you generally mount a horse on the left side. No I’m not actually ‘shocked’ people don’t know this, I was just funnin’. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348/220 "2016-09-26T20:03:52Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > That you generally mount a horse on the left side. > > No I’m not actually ‘shocked’ people don’t know this, I was just funnin’. 🙂 I grew up in West Texas and still did not know that until I was an adult. Do horses really care? What would happen if you tried mounting from the right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-are-shocked-people-dont-know/766348.md?page=12)