# 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:** 14
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/261 "2015-11-14T16:20:44Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 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. I think I’ve likely made this observation before on SDMB – and I’m not American, so by all means, tell me to get lost – but I can’t help feeling that when New Mexico came under US rule circa 1850: the powers that were, might have recognised the potential for this sort of confusion (heaven knows, there were plenty of dim-witted people around a century-and-a-half ago, just as today). I feel they’d have done well to re-name this piece of newly-acquired real estate – calling it anything, rather than “New Mexico !” ---
**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 14, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/262 "2015-11-14T16:30:58Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Mice eat cheese, because it’s an edible thing that humans tended to leave out where mice could get to it easily. > [@](#): > > The mouse takes the cheese > The mouse takes the cheese > Heigh ho the derry-o > The mouse takes the cheese This predates Disney, right? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/263 "2015-11-14T16:33:28Z")
> [@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. So they brought you Budweiser? > [@Sangahyando](#): > > I think I’ve likely made this observation before on SDMB – and I’m not American, so by all means, tell me to get lost – but I can’t help feeling that when New Mexico came under US rule circa 1850: the powers that were, might have recognised the potential for this sort of confusion (heaven knows, there were plenty of dim-witted people around a century-and-a-half ago, just as today). I feel they’d have done well to re-name this piece of newly-acquired real estate – calling it anything, rather than “New Mexico !” We already had a “New York” and a “New Jersey”, as well as dozens of “New Something” towns, so it probably didn’t occur to them. > [@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: Apropos typo. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/264 "2015-11-14T17:20:18Z")
Going up is traveling North, going down is traveling South. I can’t believe the number of people who will say they’re going up to Albany. No, you’re going down to Albany. If you’re going up (from here) you’re going toward Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/265 "2015-11-14T17:23:06Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > We already had a “New York” and a “New Jersey”, as well as dozens of “New Something” towns, so it probably didn’t occur to them. Those were an ocean away, though, and not actual countries – one would feel that “New Mexico”, adjacent to Mexico proper, was asking for trouble. Ah, well – intellectuals doing important stuff, tend not to think about avoiding prospectibe problems for dimbulbs. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/266 "2015-11-14T17:24:44Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > We already had a “New York” and a “New Jersey”, as well as dozens of “New Something” towns, so it probably didn’t occur to them. Those were an ocean away, though, and not actual countries – one would feel that “New Mexico”, adjacent to Mexico proper, was asking for trouble. Ah, well – intellectuals doing important stuff, tend not to think about avoiding prospective problems for dimbulbs. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/267 "2015-11-14T17:31:46Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > This predates Disney, right? This per **kayaker** , above The mouse takes the cheese The mouse takes the cheese Heigh ho the derry-o The mouse takes the cheese. Or another, long pre-Disney: Said the mousie tae the cheesikie: O fain wad I be at ye, o – If it werena for the cruel claws Of Cheetie-Pousie-Cattie-O. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/268 "2015-11-14T17:36:02Z")
I think that the thing with cheese is that it’s smelly, and so a good thing to bait a trap with. Peanut butter has this same quality, but is a modern invention. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/269 "2015-11-14T17:56:32Z")
“Pizza Rat” from youtube seems to like cheese. You might say it is part of his natural environment though. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/270 "2015-11-14T17:57:14Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I believe you call them gutters. In Canada we call them eavestroughs. I work at a building supply store in BC (Canada) and we sell 'em as gutters. Mind you, we’ll still sell them to you if you ask us for eavestroughs. The quarter of seven thing I’d never heard of until I started reading Robert Parker’s novels and I always assumed it was a Boston regionalism. I had to do a bit of logicking and deduction to figure out whether it meant 15 minutes before or after the hour. -DF ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/271 "2015-11-14T18:34:18Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > Going up is traveling North, going down is traveling South. I can’t believe the number of people who will say they’re going up to Albany. No, you’re going down to Albany. If you’re going up (from here) you’re going toward Canada. If you live on the banks of a river that flows North, and you hop on a raft and float along, are you going up river or down river? That’s always confused me here in Eugene, because we go up to Portland but down the Willamette Valley – it’s the same direction. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/272 "2015-11-14T20:14:49Z")
nm ---
**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, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/273 "2015-11-14T20:26:29Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 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. > > This I have heard > 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? > 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. If you lived in a rural area that is mostly ‘natural environment’ to several different types of wild life and shared a n eight acre yard with a large barn filled with hay bales and 50 lbs. sacks of rolled Milo and sweet feed not to mention other structures , “being in their natural environment” might have a different ring to it . What isn’t convincing ? That rodents prefer nuts and fruit to cheese or that when " baiting rodent traps " is the topic , peanut butter is the better bait ? I was mistaken about Walt Disney inventing a cheese eating rodent known as Mickey mouse . Cartoons like tom and Jerry is probably how this myth of mice loving cheese got started [http://www.quora.com/Myths-Legends-and-Untruths/When-were-mice-first-associated-with-cheese](http://www.quora.com/Myths-Legends-and-Untruths/When-were-mice-first-associated-with-cheese) ---
**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, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/274 "2015-11-14T20:32:39Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > 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. I have no idea what “lemmings jumping off cliffs” have in common with rodents , traps , Mickey Mouse and cheese , but well ,it’s your connection , you can own it . It turns out I was mistaken about Walt Disney inventing a cheese eating cartoon mouse . Cartoons like Tom and Jerry is most likely how the myth that mice love cheese got started . A link is posted in my reply to Thudlow Boink . ---
**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, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/275 "2015-11-14T20:58:44Z")
Although I really did try to get smart women for my girlfriends, I had a couple who didn’t know that toilets kept working during power failures. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/276 "2015-11-15T02:34:07Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Although I really did try to get smart women for my girlfriends, I had a couple who didn’t know that toilets kept working during power failures. Did they think the shower didn’t work either? ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/277 "2015-11-15T02:37:39Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Although I really did try to get smart women for my girlfriends, I had a couple who didn’t know that toilets kept working during power failures. Not if you have a well pump, they don’t. I live in a rural part of Connecticut with well water (and septic systems) in my part of town, and we lose water pressure in a power outage, which is a real pain in the neck. I keep 10 gallons of water in the basement in case of power outages so we can flush toilets. (This is in lieu of filling the bathtub before major storms for the same reason.) ---
**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 15, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/278 "2015-11-15T02:40:00Z")
> [@katpohl](#): > > I have no idea what “lemmings jumping off cliffs” have in common with rodents , traps , Mickey Mouse and cheese ‘Myths that Walt Disney is erroneously blamed for’ seems rather an obvious connection. ---
**Author:** ![IDtenT\_Error](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@IDtenT\_Error](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IDtenT_Error)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/279 "2015-11-15T13:46:09Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > **Going up is traveling North, going down is traveling South.** I can’t believe the number of people who will say they’re going up to Albany. No, you’re going down to Albany. If you’re going up (from here) you’re going toward Canada. Depends where you’re from. In some places ‘going up’ means going up-river, and if the river runs to the north, ‘going up’ means going south. That was the case in the town I grew up in. You ‘went up’ to the major city up-river, to the south. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/280 "2015-11-15T14:05:41Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 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. Somewhat similarly, a week or so I ago I randomly found an article in an Irish online mag collecting posts from across the world where people were making innuendo about the airline Aer Lingus’s name. The comment on that article indicated that until then, at least a couple Irish hadn’t thought about what the name sounded like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=15)