I got the inspiration for this thread from watching Trading Spaces last week. Doug is up on a ladder, and he has various screwdrivers and such inserted in the holes at the top of the ladder.
“How clever!” I cried out, pointing it out to my husband. “That way you don’t have to worry about sticking them in your pocket or getting up and down off the ladder.”
He looked at me like I was a complete moron, then started shaking his head in that, “Jeez, she’s dumb but I love her” way.
Seriously, I never knew what those holes in the top of the ladder were for.
I didn’t know that you couldn’t remove the fabric coverings from couch cushions and put them in the washing machine for cleaning. Based on the responses to the GQ thread I started on the subject, I was the only Doper who didn’t.
(Alas, the thread was swallowed up in the Winter Of Our Missed Content™)
I didn’t know that until now either ivy. The one that comes to mind for me has to do with boxing. When I was little, I asked how one of the boxers wins the bout and was told, “He has to knock that guy clear out of the ring!” I’m not sure at what point I realized this wasn’t true, but I do remember being a teenager and when asked the same question, my first thought was what I had been told initially.
I remember that thread Dooku, laughed until I had tears.
There’s a Dorothy Sayers mystery novel called “Have His Carcase.”
For years, WELL INTO MY ADULT LIFE, I thought that a carcase was some sort of case you put in a car. It made sense, Lord Peter has all sorts of interesting gentleman’s luggage that isn’t so common anymore, and Bunter is always running around packing things up. Steamer trunk, suitcase, carcase, why not?
It turns out (as the rest of the world knows) that carcase is the other spelling of carcass, the former being more common in the UK. I shared this great insight with Mr. Del, who was astonished to learn I was such an idiot. He also pointed out the fact that it is the title of a MURDER MYSTERY NOVEL should have given me some clue.
I found out only a few years ago that Bambi (yes, the Disney cartoon fawn) was a GUY! I could hardly imagine a male character, of any species, named “Bambi,” which is obviously a name for female strippers and porn stars.
What kind of father would allow his son to be named Bambi?
What a WAG is. I’d seen in at least a jillion times on these boards and couldn’t figure out what it was but was too embarrassed to ask. Everyone was using it except me. I figured by the context it was something along the lines of a stab in the dark at something, but I didn’t know exactly what it stood for. Finally I threw my hands up and proclaimed, “to hell with this!!!” and looked it up in an acronym finder. No idea why it took me so long to do so.
Until about 3 years ago, whenever I would open a bottle of soda and it would start fizzing, I ran to the sink, dripping soda all over the floor. One day when this happened, it occurred to me that all I needed to do was retighten the cap. Sure enough this worked perfectly. I’m not quite sure why it took me so long to figure it out. [sub]I’m 64 yo now[/sub].
Without thinking much about it, I sort of absently always thought that all those buses were going to some place called “Laidlaw.” I must have thought it was a really populated place! I only realized the real deal about 10 years ago (I’m 30) when I said aloud to a friend, “Where’s Laidlaw?!!” — exactly at the moment, even before seeing her incredulous look, I knew.
Glad to hear it, that was one of my favorite threads.
Back to the OP. I thought of another one that’s more recent. I realized during the last James Bond marathon that the image we see is a view through a gun. I always thought it was supposed to be an artsy image of the musculature of the eye, you know I’m looking through someone else’s eye…spying? My SO pretty much rolled when I told him this.:o
Until last summer, I did not know that the correct phrase is “BY accident.” I have always said “on accident” and no one had ever bothered to correct me until then, when TWO people burst out in guffaws.
I probably shouldn’t admit that I make part of my living from my writing, huh?
What’s a serger? It doesn’t appear in my dictionary.
