# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/161 "2003-02-21T19:02:17Z")
OEM stands for ‘Original Equipment Manufacturer’. When Company A buys Company B’s pretty-much-finished-but-unbranded product and further customizes it then puts the Company-A name on it, Company A is said to be buying an OEM version of Company B’s product. ---
**Author:** ![Treebeard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Treebeard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treebeard)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/162 "2003-02-22T19:09:58Z")
I was well into adulthood before I finally realized that people lie. ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/163 "2003-02-22T21:33:21Z")
I don’t know how old I was before I found out how boys can pee standing up while girls have to sit down … ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/164 "2003-02-23T03:52:39Z")
Jesus was celebrating seder? I didn’t know that. Oy Vey… Next thing you will shock me with is that he was jewish. No, really, I didn’t know that until my twenties. Mind you , I go into a coma during God-talk stuff.) I am alot like \*\*DeVena \*\* as a child. Very impressionable and trusting. It’s so embarrassing. It wasn’t until last year until i understood the concept of **Thirds** and in " One third of smokers die horrible deaths"… Mr. Ujest had to drawn it on a piece of paper for me. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/165 "2003-02-23T03:55:57Z")
Omnipotent is not pronounced _omni-poe-tent_ as I found out once in a public fashion. (it’s \*om-nip-eh-tent \* ) ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/166 "2003-02-23T06:50:49Z")
\Psycho Pirate\: Hahaha, I thought the exact same thing. I’m 20 now and literally up to just a year or so ago I thought “To Be Announced” was some Christian prophecy show!! :D:smack: When I was really young, I thought summer came about as a result of everyone using their driers and warming up the weather… For the longest time I didn’t know the bench-like seating in restaurants were called “booths”. When I was a kid I never realised “N/A” stood for “Not Applicable”. I always thought it stood for “na-uh” like how a little kid says “no”…“nah-uh”. ---
**Author:** ![Grasshopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@Grasshopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grasshopper)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/167 "2003-02-23T06:51:18Z")
Don’t ask me why, but I used to think that grinning meant a sort of coughing sound you make in your throat. I wondered why everyone in books lived in a strange world where when something pleased them, they coughed. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/168 "2003-02-23T06:54:08Z")
Oh and I have some more stories. I had one friend who didn’t know funnels were called funnels…she didn’t know they even had a name. I had another friend who didn’t know pylons were called pylons…he thought they were called “orange cones” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![darksight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@darksight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/darksight)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/169 "2003-02-23T07:57:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by okielady \* > \*\*When I was a freshman in high school I started dating a senior on the football team. Shortly after we started dating, I asked him what position he played. He replied, “Deep snatch.” Now being naive to football positions at the time, as well as slang terms for body parts, I took him for his word. > > Not long thereafter, my parents wanted to know what position my boyfriend played on the football team. LIKE YOU CAN’T SEE THIS ONE COMING! LOL > So I told them. Oh yeah, THAT went over well. I think it was a couple of years before I figured it out. \*\* I just laughed for about five mins. at this one ~:p ---
**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/170 "2003-02-23T09:03:29Z")
From my teens until my mid-thirties I thought that Scott Joplin had written a piece of music called “The Make-Believe Rag.” Even though I was mistaken, I still think it’s a great name. ---
**Author:** ![hyperjes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@hyperjes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyperjes)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/171 "2003-02-23T11:24:12Z")
Up until about two years ago, I thought that Jesus was the baby found floating down a river in a basket. ( **d\_redguy** has since informed me that THAT was Moses.) I also kept getting Jonah and Gepetto confused. (What, with the whale and all.) I suppose I can’t really be blamed, having had no religious upbringing.[As evidenced here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163509&perpage=50&pagenumber=2) I also thought that the song that goes “Dirty Deeds- Done Dirt Cheap” went “Dirty Sheets and the Thunder Chief.” until I was around 13. I could never understand why someone would write a song about an Indian guy’s bed clothes.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![d\_redguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@d\_redguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d_redguy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/172 "2003-02-23T11:32:58Z")
Oh my God. Consider me another _whoosh_ on the “Weird Earl’s” thing. :smack: :wally ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/173 "2003-02-23T12:32:33Z")
I failed to get the pun in: **Sue Dhunym** - speak it outloud, and think of “fake name”. It took me a few times to get **Diagon Alley**. You know, that road that kinda goes crossways? And so many numerous others. It also took me a bit to get that segue wasn’t pronounced “Seg-U” I had no idea what it was, until I was speaking and used the word… and spelled it in my head, and felt stupid. I didn’t figure out the reason for re-inforced crotches in panties until I was married. ---
**Author:** ![moi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@moi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moi)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/174 "2003-02-23T13:48:20Z")
Yay! I wasn’t completely alone in not “getting” **Weird Earl**. I’d like to engage in a collective swatting with my confused bretheren, Cardinal, Maxxxie and d\_redguy. :smack: I didn’t just come back to celebrate, but also because I thought of a rather strange one. I sometimes get a dry tickle inside my neck, way up and to the back. For reasons to confusing to explain, I call this “brain itch.” When my brain, _ahem_, itches, I make this odd rub in my throat, and it makes this horrific noise. Until I got married, I thought the noise could only be heard in my head…that it wasn’t audible. And then one day my husband looked at me and said, “What are you doing?” I proceeded to turn red with embarrassment…to think of all the times I didn’t know people could hear! :o ---
**Author:** ![akennett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/175 "2003-02-23T22:14:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Soup\_du\_jour \* > \*\*Perhaps I’ve said this before somewhere else. > > I just learned about a year ago that Elton John is gay. I guess it was just one of those things that everyone assumes everyone else knows, but nobody tells anyone else. \*\* Brings new meaning to the song “Don’t let your son[sic] go down on me” doesn’t it… ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/176 "2003-02-24T01:25:37Z")
I was 16 before I found out that women didn’t give birth via the anal canal. I believed this for so long because my Puritan father explained it to me that way. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/177 "2003-02-24T01:44:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by as\_u\_wish \* > \*\*But even worse, I was 50 when I realized the _ABC song, Baa Baa Blacksheep_ and _Twinkle Twinkle Little Star_ have the same tune. I’m still in denial about this. \*\* Hey, don’t leave out _ **"Ah! vous dirais-je, maman"** _. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/178 "2003-02-24T01:55:51Z")
Until only a year or two ago, I used to think that hamburger came with Hamburger Helper. It never occured to me that one had to buy the hamburger seperately, 'cause it would rot in the box. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/179 "2003-02-24T02:02:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CadburyAngel \* > \*\*My mom played a lot of older music when I was growing up, so I was at least in fifth or sixth grade before I completely grasped that The Doors, The Beatles, Etta James, and Bing Crosby were not all contemporaries and still producing hits. \*\* When I was younger we watched a lot of reruns. I was astonished to learn that M_A_S\*H ended the year I was born. I had thought they kept on making new episodes in the 80s, just like The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi. ---
**Author:** ![Kubla\_Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@Kubla\_Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kubla_Khan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673/180 "2003-02-24T03:40:16Z")
When I was in 11th grade we spent 2 weeks going over Homer’s Odyssey. For the entire time, our English teacher pronounced Penelope as “PEE-neh-loap”. And, sadly, nobody in our class, including myself, was certain enough about the correct pronunciation to try and correct her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-didnt-know-but-everyone-else-did/154673.md?page=10)