# Things you know that it never occurred to you others wouldn't know... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 5, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696 "2015-11-05T11:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/241 "2015-11-13T17:03:12Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > I can’t think of any definition of ‘horse’, where ponies (certain breeds of _Equus ferus caballus_) don’t count as small ones. I think he means a young horse that is still growing. Many people mistakenly believe that the term for a young horse is a ‘pony’ when its not. A young horse is a foal. Ponies are breeds of small horses that remain smaller than other horses even when they mature. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/242 "2015-11-13T17:04:15Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I’m just saying that a proper driver should know how to drive a stick and if he can’t demonstrate competence, his license should be legally restricted to “automatics only” in the interest of his own safety and everyone else’s in the same way that you would need an endorsement to ride a motorcycle or a large vehicle with air brakes. I don’t want one of these jerks rolling down on me because he borrowed Junior’s stick-shift hot rod and doesn’t know how to start on a grade, or runs somebody down because he’s not used to having a clutch. [Less than four percent](http://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/five-myths-about-stick-shifts.html) of the cars sold in the U.S. in 2013 had manual transmissions; that number has been dropping steadily for years, and may well be under three percent by now. More than two-thirds of the car models offered for sale in the U.S. that year didn’t even have a manual transmission available. I’ve never needed to drive a stick shift. Nobody I know owns one, my employer doesn’t have any, and none of the rental agencies around here offer them for mainstream rentals. Back when I took driver’s ed (twenty+ years ago now), stick shifts weren’t covered even then because nobody had 'em or was likely to need to know. How and when was I supposed to learn? How am I less a “proper driver” for not knowing how to drive a stick, when I’ve encountered stick shifts as often as I’ve encountered a car with a hand crank starter? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/243 "2015-11-13T17:08:51Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > That’s how it works in Finland - if you learn with an automatic and do your driver’s test with an automatic, you’ll get a driver’s licence that is valid only for automatics. And yet, when I spent a couple of months in Finland I drove a standard transmission every day with my Ohio driver’s license making no distinction between manual and automatic. I wonder if I was legally driving? I took it across the border into Russia dozens of times as well. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/244 "2015-11-13T17:22:35Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I think he means a young horse that is still growing. Many people mistakenly believe that the term for a young horse is a ‘pony’ when its not. A young horse is a foal. Ponies are breeds of small horses that remain smaller than other horses even when they mature. Actually, to pick a nit; some ponies are larger than some horses. ---
**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:** [November 13, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/245 "2015-11-13T17:30:13Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Actually, to pick a nit; some ponies are larger than some horses. [He’s just a little horse.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5LbxkvE0Wo) ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/246 "2015-11-13T17:38:39Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > And yet, when I spent a couple of months in Finland I drove a standard transmission every day with my Ohio driver’s license making no distinction between manual and automatic. I wonder if I was legally driving? I took it across the border into Russia dozens of times as well. If your licence allows you to drive a manual in the US, it allows you to drive one here. Kinda like I can use my licence to drive in the US despite it being almost 20 years old piece of plastic (it expires in 2048) and the licences expiring a lot faster than that there but since it is valid in Finland it is valid in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Abner\_Ravenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Abner\_Ravenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abner_Ravenwood)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/247 "2015-11-13T18:24:55Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Thanks, **Jeff Lictman**. ‘burgled’ is exactly the word I meant to type. > > Once, while traveling in Costa Rica, I was with my friend - a fluent Spanish speaking guide - in a local market. My Spanish is good enough to get by, but I was relying on her in the fast paced market. One vendor was selling hand made wool scarves that my friend really liked. She meant to say to the vendor “I really need one of these. winter is coming!”. The vendor got wide eyed and slowly backed away. What she actually said was “I really need one of these. Hell is coming!” > > inviernes = winter, infierno = hell I made a similar mistake in my college Italian class. “Anno” is Italian for year, but you have to kind of draw out the “n” for a spit second. Otherwise, you’re saying “ano,” which means anus. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/248 "2015-11-13T22:31:00Z")
Here’s one I just remembered: Fans move air. That is all. Specifically they don’t make things cold unless the things are warmer than the air, or oozing sweat. One place I worked used Dewars of liquid Argon. We would exceed the rated usage rate, so they would frost up the regulator, and it would stick open and cause trouble. So I placed a fan to blow on the Dewar, which had evaporator coils in the outer wall, which solved the problem. No stuck regulators. In spite of the fact that this obviously worked, people kept insisting it couldn’t work because the fan would cool things down and that couldn’t possibly help. No amount of arguing could convince them that the fan was actually warming the Dewar. No amount of showing them the frost on the Dewar, that indicated it was well below room temperature would convince them that blowing room temperature air on it could do anything but cool it down more. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/249 "2015-11-13T23:17:54Z")
The stupid; it burns. Or in this case freezes. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/250 "2015-11-14T02:03:02Z")
> [@Abner\_Ravenwood](#): > > I made a similar mistake in my college Italian class. “Anno” is Italian for year, but you have to kind of draw out the “n” for a spit second. Otherwise, you’re saying “ano,” which means anus. I spent one memorable evening not long after I’d arrived in Japan happily ordering _kuso biiru_, or, as I thought, black beer. Unfortunately black is _kuro_ in Japanese, not _kuso_: turns out what I’d been asking for, to the mounting hilarity of the bar staff, was shit beer. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/251 "2015-11-14T05:09:24Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > It’s common for us in Ontario, and most of Canada, to speak of electricity as hydro. This stems from utility names such as Ontario Hydro, which really means hydroelectricity. So, we call electricity hydro and it baffles some people. > > 50% of our “hydro” comes from nuclear plants in Ontario, but we still call it hydro thanks to Niagara Falls, etc. When we say “hydro tower” we’re really talking about a tower suspending electrical distribution lines. > > Is this a strange usage in the US? I’m over 60, and I’ve lived within a few hundred miles of Canada most of my life, and most of the energy I’ve used is from dams. I never heard of that before. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/252 "2015-11-14T05:31:55Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > If your licence allows you to drive a manual in the US, it allows you to drive one here. Kinda like I can use my licence to drive in the US despite it being almost 20 years old piece of plastic (it expires in 2048) and the licences expiring a lot faster than that there but since it is valid in Finland it is valid in the US. You get a license that’s good for 53 years?! ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/253 "2015-11-14T10:52:05Z")
> [@jerseymule](#): > > I didn’t realize until fairly recently that: > > There are people who believe that New Mexico is not a US state As a native of New Mexico , when I have travailed to other states it is at times annoying to have to explain to seemly :dubious: well educated people , that we are the state between Texas and Arizona .:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/254 "2015-11-14T11:16:53Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > All Park Rangers have been asked “At what age (or altitude) do deer become elk.?” Back in the 1930’s during the drought , government agents sent out to oversee the destruction of starving live stock were ‘famous’ for asking " So how many of these steers are heifers ?" ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/255 "2015-11-14T12:50:25Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > I spent one memorable evening not long after I’d arrived in Japan happily ordering _kuso biiru_, or, as I thought, black beer. Unfortunately black is _kuro_ in Japanese, not _kuso_: turns out what I’d been asking for, to the mounting hilarity of the bar staff, was shit beer. One day about 20 years ago , I was having a conversation with neighbor who was an older Spanish speaking man . The conversation was about our farm yard poultry. I thought I had asked him about his crop of baby chickens that spring , the word I should have used was ‘pollo’ ,baby chicks The word I used was ‘Piojos’ head lice :smack: He gave me very weird look , a cross between insult and roflmao and walked away . A few days later the neighbor and my grand dad met up . My grand dad was laughing so hard at my slip ,that he barely got it said between gasps and giggles . I have heard that ’ old timers ’ have memory issues , this is not so . For the next 15 or 16 years , like clock work some one or more ‘old timer’ asked me , “how many Piojos had my hens produced that year .”:o ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/256 "2015-11-14T12:53:43Z")
The number of people who do not know that rodents prefer nuts and fruit to cheese, you will catch more rodents by using peanut butter to bait your traps then if you use cheese as bait . It’s just plain common sense , cheese is not a food item found in a rodents natural environment . FYI , It was Walt Disney and not mother nature that ‘invented’ the cheese eating rodents Mickey and Minnie mouse . ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/257 "2015-11-14T14:08:33Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > I have met some educated professional adults who can not, under any circumstances, tell left from right. > > “Raise your right hand.” > “Sorry, which one is it?” > > I accept that this is probably some sort of actual minor brain malfunction, but really? My daughter is this way. Very well educated, but has this mental block on left verses right. In her car she has a red ribbon on the right side of the wheel so she knows that is right when the GPS gives directions ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/258 "2015-11-14T14:50:04Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > … In her car she has a red ribbon on the right side of the wheel so she knows that is right when the GPS gives directions I hope she never happens to be making a sharp turn when it shouts out an instruction or she might go the wrong way or even roll the car upside down. 🙂 The fact she’d attach a left/right marker to something that exchanges its left for its right every time she parks indicates just how massive a hole there is in her spatial reasoning system. :eek: ---
**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:** [November 14, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/259 "2015-11-14T15:51:09Z")
> [@katpohl](#): > > As a native of New Mexico , when I have travailed to other states it is at times annoying to have to explain to seemly :dubious: well educated people , that we are the state between Texas and Arizona .:rolleyes: I don’t know whether it still does, but _New Mexico_ magazine used to have a regular feature called “One Of Our Fifty Is Missing,” in which they published stories about dumb people who didn’t realize or couldn’t believe that New Mexico was part of the United States. > [@katpohl](#): > > you will catch more rodents by using peanut butter to bait your traps then if you use cheese as bait . This I have heard > [@](#): > > It’s just plain common sense , cheese is not a food item found in a rodents natural environment . This isn’t convincing; what does being in their “natural environment” have to do with it. Not to mention, how is peanut butter any more part of their “natural environment” than cheese is? > [@](#): > > FYI , It was Walt Disney and not mother nature that ‘invented’ the cheese eating rodents Mickey and Minnie mouse . Are you sure about this? I’ve never seen Mickey Mouse connected with cheese (nor have I seen his mouse-ness emphasized as a significant part of his character). But “mice like cheese” is a bit of iconic folklore that seems to have been around for quite some time. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/260 "2015-11-14T16:06:36Z")
Yeah…that Disney thing is nonsense. They’re probably conflating it with the (also false) claim that Disney is responsible for the ‘lemmings jump off cliffs’ thing.\* Mice eat cheese, because it’s an edible thing that humans tended to leave out where mice could get to it easily. - They _did_ fake lemmings jumping off cliffs in White Wilderness, but that was because the lemmings were stubbornly refusing to conform to an already existing myth. Criticize them for abusing the lemmings, not for creating the myth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=14)