# Things you didn't know but everyone else did **URL:** \ **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:** 11
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/201 "2003-02-26T14:37:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Growing up my family could never decipher the penultimate lyric to the “All In the Family” theme song. One day in my twenties I finally put it together from memory: > > Gee our old LaSalle ran great > > Only by driving through Hartford, CT on a college-shopping trip did I learn that some highway exits are on the left and not on the right. Several years later I learned that the signs for exits on the left have the exit number at the top left of the sign instead of the top right. A lot of people couldn’t understand this line as they originally sang it. After a year or so they re-recorded the opening with more clearly enunciated words. But as it was originally sung I couldn’t figure out what they were supposed to be saying. It sounded like an Italian greeting to an American woman: “Giarola, Sarah Grey!” ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/202 "2003-02-26T16:47:32Z")
> [@](#): > > ## \*Originally posted by Elret \* quote: > > ## Originally posted by Achernar This isn’t exactly a pronunciation issue, but I thought “Kim Jong Il” was pronounced “Kim Jong the second”. I also did not get the title Shanghai Noon until I saw it the second time. > > I’m slow. I don’t get it. I didn’t realize it until reading this thread, but it’s a pun on the classic Western film _[High Noon](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0044706)_; _Shanghai Noon_ also happens to be a Western. (I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know if there are any plot comparisons to be drawn between the two films.) ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/203 "2003-02-26T17:32:33Z")
Until recently, I didn’t get the irony of Weird Al’s “Money For Nothing” parody. You know, that a song about crass consumerism and a culture of entitlement would be used to tell the story of The Beverley Hillbillies: money for nothin’. Me dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![lovelyluka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@lovelyluka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lovelyluka)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/204 "2003-02-26T20:46:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chum \* > \*\* > I’ve always pronounced “wolves” with the “l” sound. \*\* I do too, but apparently this is a fairly common thing. OTOH, I pronounce the “w” in sword - something I know is wrong, but reading at too early of an age made it habit. I also have to correct myself when I say geustures; I always, ALWAYS pronounce it like the game “Guess-tures”. :smack: 'Course, I have a good excuse, living in Tennessee near MY-lin (Milan) and CAY-ro (Cairo). ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/205 "2003-02-26T21:56:27Z")
For years I thought herpes were just bugs. In elementary school we played a game where instead of just “boys have the cooties”, we decided “boys have cooties, girls have herpes” and chased each other around like mental patients. That night I remember telling my parents at the dinner table what a fun game we played where the boys had cooties and girls have herpes. They asked me if I knew what a herpe was and I told them it was some kind of bug. Of course no one ever clued me in to the real meaning so it was probably late high school when I finally realized what it was. I had many unknowns about sex in my former years, due to my repressed Catholic upbringing 🙂 The in-and-out thing didn’t really make sense, I just thought a man inserted his penis and left it in there until he was “done” (an idea which I didn’t understand either). LIke others here I though blowjob was just blowing on the penis until he was “done”. “Eating someone out” was completely unknown to me, and I think I remember thinking it was someone eating food off another person’s private parts. My sophomore year boyfriend clued me in otherwise and thought it was the height of hilarity that I didn’t know what any of that stuff was. How was I supposed to know? How did everyone else get this information and I didn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/206 "2003-02-26T22:07:43Z")
“High Noon” - Gary Cooper, I think. Old western. “Shang-High Noon” - Jackie Chan. Kung-Fu western in England. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/207 "2003-02-27T08:14:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > \*\*“High Noon” - Gary Cooper, I think. Old western. > > “Shang-High Noon” - Jackie Chan. Kung-Fu western in England. \*\* Actually, _Shanghai Noon_ was a martial arts western in the American west. _Shanghai Knights_ is the same characters in England. Looks like fun. Lok ---
**Author:** ![Janie\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@Janie\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janie_Jones)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/208 "2003-02-28T17:46:59Z")
I didn’t know until recently that the brand-name disinfectant “Lysol” was a play on words, i.e., _lyse all_. To lyse: a biology term meaning “to kill cells via membrane breakage.” ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/209 "2003-02-28T19:13:01Z")
I never knew the origin of the “Lysol” product name, either. I never learned the card game “Go Fish” as a kid. Nobody ever taught it to me. I didn’t know anything about the game until I recently looked it up on the web. Other card games I never learned were Old Maid or War. For the longest time I thought a skirt and a dress were the same thing. There are lots of French words and phrases commonly used in English that I have never taken the time to learn and commit to my lexicon. Same goes for Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/210 "2003-02-28T19:27:43Z")
There’s a car commercial with a woman driving her car, first with the puppy and the guy, then the hippy and the dog, then the businessman with the dog, then her alone with the dog–I thought those were all supposed to be the same guy. Duh. The song playing is talking about boyfriends, so I figured out that they were all different guys. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/211 "2003-03-01T00:50:27Z")
I have a friend who is a missionary kid, and grew up with American parents in France. He said he didn’t know that English used “nonchalant” until he saw it on his college entrance exams to go to U. of Virgina. He knew immediately what it must mean, because he knew it in French as a native speaker, but he’d never heard it in English, although he has a perfect American accent. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/212 "2003-03-01T03:38:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Royal Nonesuch \* > > Growing up my family could never decipher the penultimate lyric to the “All In the Family” theme song. One day in my twenties I finally put it together from memory: > > Gee our old LaSalle ran great > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > A lot of people couldn’t understand this line as they originally sang it. After a year or so they re-recorded the opening with more clearly enunciated words. I was among the confused. It wasn’t until season 3 and their third take of the song that it became understandable. If you compare the versions, in the first two they weren’t pronouncing the “d” in “old” or the “t” in “great” very clearly. Before I heard it spoken, I thought “epitome” was pronounced “epp - i - TOAM”. Just a couple of days ago I was watching a program about Greece on the History Channel. I heard the word “Boeotia” pronounced “bee-OH-shuh”. I had to check a dictionary before I was convinced that was right. I had always pronounced it to myself as “boh-EE-shuh”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/213 "2003-03-01T04:52:30Z")
I thought Dubya was George Bush Jr.'s nickname too. I couldn’t begin to tell you the number of times I’ve mispronounced words I have read and never heard spoken. I once embarrassed myself singing in my loud, drunk voice to Sting’s Every Breath You Take, by Puff Daddy. ---
**Author:** ![ladycarrie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ladycarrie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladycarrie)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/214 "2003-03-01T19:26:09Z")
That some turkeys can fly and that only the males gobble and that they are really fast. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![lothos2002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/df788c/32.png) [@lothos2002](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lothos2002)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/215 "2003-03-01T22:45:22Z")
Count me in the Weird Earl’s. I always thought it must be a contributor from way back (the very often mentioned “AOL Days”) and that they kept the name in honour of him or something. :o I had no idea that hens only lay one egg a day, I thought that they did a basketfull all the time, since that’s what it always looks like in colouring books. I’m still not sure if this is right, though… :dubious: Oh, and another thing. How _is_ “awry” pronounced? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/216 "2003-03-02T01:14:19Z")
A conversation with my Brother regarding misconstrued lyrics brought forth the usual: There’s a Bathroom on the Right, CCR 'Scuse me while I Kiss this Guy, Hendrix And the _menage a trois_ song, Groovin. SIL asks what we’re talking about, and reveals that she always thought it was: _“Life would be ecstasy, you and me and Leslie”_. SIL did not share our levity. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/217 "2003-03-02T13:49:15Z")
“Uh-rye” ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/218 "2003-03-07T03:20:48Z")
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I recalled something I learned just a few months ago. I was having a discussion with someone in a chat room about music when the discussion turned to The Beatles. I spelled the band name “Beetles” and the other guy spelled it “Beatles.” I eventually noticed the discrepancy and it suddenly dawned on me – for the first time in my life (I’m 35) – that the band name is spelled Beatles. I swear to God I never knew it up until then. I then realized that it was a fun play on words; Beetles spelled with the word “Beat.” I still can’t believe I’ve never realized this. Am I the only one? ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/219 "2003-03-07T06:27:22Z")
I never noticed that either. That’s actually quite clever. I knew the band was Beatles and the bugs are beetles, but for some reason I never noticed a difference. I’m glad I get to find this out at the tender age of 19 and not, say, 35. You’ve bravely sacrificed your own dignity to save me from your own horrible fate. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_of\_the\_CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Earl\_of\_the\_CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_the_CC)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/220 "2003-03-07T20:50:09Z")
**Lobsang** , I can’t believe I’m the first to praise this brilliant post of yours. > [@](#): > > I didn’t know I had a crumb on my face until someone told me That’s GENIUS! …Eh hem. Anyway, until reading a book partially set around Britain in 5th grade I thought that Ireland was somewhere around South America. I think that was because I associated both South America and Ireland with green. (South America for all its jungles. Ireland, naturally, is known for causing brutal pinchings on St. Patrick’s Day for all those who are absentminded enough to forget to wear green that day) Still, though, I outright clung to that belief until that point. I remember watching “The Spirit of St. Louis” on TV with my dad and Lindbergh looks down and thinks “That must be Ireland” and I thought “Wow. He’s WAY off course”.:smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673.md?page=12)