# Things you didn't know but everyone else did
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 12, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673 "2003-02-12T21:55:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/1 "2003-02-12T21:55:41Z")
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.
Anyone one else have a late “epiphany?”
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/2 "2003-02-12T22:09:16Z")
I didn’t know that sergers existed until a couple of years ago.
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/3 "2003-02-12T22:15:16Z")
Until sometime around my 30th birthday, I never knew that if you turned a t-shirt inside out before washing it, the imprint would last longer.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_Sandwhich)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/4 "2003-02-12T22:15:43Z")
Until 1995 (age 17) I thought a confessor was one who confessed, rather than the one a person confesses to.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/5 "2003-02-12T22:19:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Libertarian \*
> \*\*I didn’t know that sergers existed until a couple of years ago. \*\*
😕 What’s a serger? It doesn’t appear in my dictionary.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/6 "2003-02-12T22:24:46Z")
[Sergers](http://www.store.allbrands.com/serger.html)
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/7 "2003-02-12T22:30:40Z")
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™)
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### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/8 "2003-02-12T22:36:50Z")
If you can’t wash them, why do they have zippers?
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/9 "2003-02-12T22:43:11Z")
So they can be dry-cleaned.
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### Author:  [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/10 "2003-02-12T22:59:27Z")
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.😛
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### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/11 "2003-02-12T23:40:06Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@maralinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maralinn)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/12 "2003-02-13T00:00:51Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/13 "2003-02-13T00:11:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cichlidiot \*
> \*\*I remember that thread Dooku, laughed until I had tears.😛 \*\*
It’s funny now. It wasn’t so funny then. 🙂
(My wife still has no idea anything out of the ordinary has ever happened to “the Hendredon.”)
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### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/14 "2003-02-13T00:18:44Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/15 "2003-02-13T00:34:15Z")
Does this fit here?
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].
Bob
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### Author:  [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/16 "2003-02-13T00:38:42Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/17 "2003-02-13T01:26:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dooku \*
> \*\*It’s funny now. It wasn’t so funny then. 🙂
>
> (My wife still has no idea anything out of the ordinary has ever happened to “the Hendredon.”) \*\*
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
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### Author:  [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/18 "2003-02-13T01:54:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by tesseract \*
> \*\*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. \*\*
I guess I’m still in the dark on this one…
Have no idea of what you are talking about.
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### Author:  [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/19 "2003-02-13T01:57:49Z")
Uh… where is Laidlaw?
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?
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### Author:  [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/20 "2003-02-13T02:11:53Z")
[www.laidlawschoolbus.com](http://www.laidlawschoolbus.com)
I have a friend that works for them. Bus mechanic. Well paying job, good working conditions.
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