# Things you FINALLY figured out **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 5, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223 "2023-04-05T22:49:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/81 "2023-04-10T13:54:48Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A grocery store near me sometimes has on their sign, “LOL American Cheese $3.15 /pound”. I always thought they were laughing at how inexpensive their cheese was. > > Then one day I saw the cheese on display and realized it was [Land O’ Lakes cheese](https://www.landolakes.com/products/cheese/deli-american/). Even better, I live in the county that includes Land O’ Lakes. It’s where the jail is located. It’s always abbreviated LOL jail. Never fails to make me chuckle. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/82 "2023-04-10T14:23:12Z")
Chuckle, but not LOL. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/83 "2023-04-10T15:19:03Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > It feels different when it’s five degrees outside (and inside your car). I’m in California. It doesn’t need to get that cold to make me appreciate warm seats. They’re also good for the arthritis. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/84 "2023-04-10T15:21:56Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A grocery store near me sometimes has on their sign, “LOL American Cheese $3.15 /pound”. I’ve also heard of shops with a sign out front “Homo gal $2.99”, or the like, meaning homogenized milk, sold in a 1 gallon jug. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/85 "2023-04-10T15:35:01Z")
Out to Easter brunch with family and friends, and the subject of brain teasers came up. Someone asked one from their childhood: _“Okay, a ball and a bat cost $1.10 together. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the bat cost?”_ One HIGHLY INTELLIGENT woman spent the rest of lunch, and all the way home, piping up with “So why can’t the bat cost a dollar?” and “Oh, the ball is $1.10!.. right? … No?” And my favorite: “Wait, so the ball has to cost a dollar?” It came to her at 6:30 am… “WHY did I not get that right away?” ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/86 "2023-04-10T16:08:21Z")
How many women have you asked out or tried to date? To be fair, my experience is also likely irrelevant. I have been out of it for 30+ years and I am sure things have changed dramatically. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/87 "2023-04-10T16:30:02Z")
I looked for photos of an Infinity G35 - and my shallow and materialistic friends would not have been interested in it. My guess is that either it was just a coincidence or there was something in particular that was disliked about your old vehicle - which may or may not have had anything to do with shallowness. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/88 "2023-04-10T16:57:24Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > Time flies like an arrow > Fruit flies like a banana. > > I must have first heard that in my early teens (1970 or so). I just assumed the joke was arrows fly straight and fast and fruit, well, fruit doesn’t fly very well at all, particularly bananas. > > I must have been nearly 60 years old before I finally figured it out. My dad had a this… thing he’d say whenever me or my brother would explain something: “I see, said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.” I’m 41 and and only “got” the joke about 6 months ago when my dad said it for the 17,893,082 time and it finally clicked for me what the wordplay was. I always thought it was just some stupid thing that my dad said that had no relationship with, you know, actual English syntax. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/89 "2023-04-10T17:09:33Z")
> [@digs](#): > > _“Okay, a ball and a bat cost $1.10 together. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the bat cost?”_ To be fair I had to resort to algebra to figure it out; it wasn’t instantly intuitive to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/90 "2023-04-10T17:12:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve also heard of shops with a sign out front “Homo gal $2.99”, or the like, meaning homogenized milk, sold in a 1 gallon jug. Seekers of bargain-priced lesbian call girls would be quite disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/91 "2023-04-10T17:35:32Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > To be fair I had to resort to algebra to figure it out; it wasn’t instantly intuitive to me. It doesn’t have to be intuitive, but it doesn’t need algebra. The first time I saw this my first (intuitive) thought was the ball cost .10 and the bat 1.00. But that’s only .90 difference, so the ball needs to cost less. It the ball were free, then the bat would be 1.10, and the difference would be 1.10, which is too big. So how about halfway between the two ball prices I’ve guessed, .05? Yup, that works. It’s called successive approximation when an analog to digital converter does it and it took less than ten seconds to go through the mental exercise. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/92 "2023-04-10T17:39:45Z")
The hard part for the bat-and-ball problem isn’t in figuring out the answer; it’s in realizing that the answer needs to be figured out. Heck, even just trying prices one at a time, by brute force, will get you the right answer reasonably quickly. But too many people just jump straight to an answer, don’t bother to think about whether it actually works, and just leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/93 "2023-04-10T18:32:16Z")
You might be on to something. As I consoled Smart Woman, I said that that big blinking “$1.10” might waylay some, but the “Gotta intuit an answer” or maybe the expectation that there’s a catch… ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/94 "2023-04-10T18:38:30Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > My friend (and now I) call it the Rump Roaster. It’s a bun warmer, silly. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/95 "2023-04-10T18:39:56Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Someone asked one from their childhood: What kind of ball costs five cents and what kind of bat costs a dollar five? Or was their childhood 200 years ago? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/96 "2023-04-10T19:02:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The hard part for the bat-and-ball problem isn’t in figuring out the answer; it’s in realizing that the answer needs to be figured out. Yes. I think I remember seeing this given as an example in either Kahneman’s [Thinking, Fast and Slow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow) or another similar book. > [@markn\_1](#): > > What kind of ball costs five cents and what kind of bat costs a dollar five? I’ve also seen the problem stated with a notebook and a pen instead of a bat and a ball, which is a little more realistic pricewise. ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/97 "2023-04-10T21:14:16Z")
I once heard CBC radio personality Don Harron describe it like this: “Eveybody knows what B.S. means, and so M.S. is more of the same and Ph.D. is piled higher and deeper.” ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/98 "2023-04-10T21:22:18Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > You probably know this one. > Insert punctuation to make the following clear and logical: > _Time flies you cannot they pass too quickly_ The version I’ve seen is “Time flies I can’t too fast” ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/99 "2023-04-10T22:55:15Z")
Of all the women who rejected me, I don’t think the kind of car I drove was ever a factor. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223/100 "2023-04-11T00:23:19Z")
I’ve always had small, non-flashy and practical cars, and I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with a woman who judges me for the car I drive anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-finally-figured-out/982223.md?page=6)