# Things you were stunned that people didn't know **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146 "2017-06-29T17:59:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/161 "2017-07-03T11:04:52Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > “card sharp” - someone who is very good at card games… I had always heard this as “card shark”, and I still actually prefer “shark” in this context because it gives that sense of predator and prey that can be present when the skill sets at the game are unequal. Both variants are common. “Shark” seems to be slightly more common. And it usually means someone who \*cheats \*at cards. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/162 "2017-07-03T11:05:32Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > To not know the dates of World War I is quite reasonable, as long as it’s not wildly off. 1914-1918 isn’t a particularly easy time frame to store in memory. When it’s being mentioned repeatedly in all the news media on a daily basis and discussed heavily in all sorts of public fora, it’s a little weird to still not remember WWI started in 1914. Remember, this was happening in 2014 and there was a ridiculous amount of centenary activity going on in London at the time. ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/163 "2017-07-03T11:06:55Z")
> [@susan](#): > > The sun rises in the east. Yes, that’s true in other states, too. Also: other countries. Once again, this is a situation that is much more complex than the average person probably appreciates. The Sun actually rises due East and sets due West only twice a year - on the Equinoxes. The rest of the time, the positions are either North or South of due East & West. At the poles, there are periods when the Sun doesn’t set for about a month. The Sun doesn’t just hang in one position in the sky. It goes around in a circle, staying above the horizon the entire time. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/164 "2017-07-03T13:18:06Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Both variants are common. “Shark” seems to be slightly more common. > > And it usually means someone who \*cheats \*at cards. It can, but the contexts I’ve heard it in just denotes great skill at cards. Wikipedia seems to agree, saying the cheating angle is more likely to be implied in the British use of the term (which they say is more likely to be “card sharp.”) ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/165 "2017-07-03T16:40:40Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > What’s baking? Ha. Indeed. I just remembered one that involved my husband, which totally floored me. He grew up in India and had servants all his life. We live in the States and I’ve been washing & cleaning for myself, my sister and my mom most of my life. One day, I was particularly exhausted from taking care of our then-newborn son, cleaning the house, cooking all the meals all while working full time. I temporarily lost my shit, so he offered to help me. I said, “If you really want to help, please wash a toilet or clean a damn sink or something.” To which he responded, “Ok, but that’s going to take 2 hours.” Apparently he’d never witnessed someone cleaning a toilet, so his plan was to turn off all the water inlets to the toilet, scoop out all the water, bleach it until you could eat out of the damn thing, then put it all back together again. I still haven’t figured out whether that was an incredibly clever way of getting out of cleaning a toilet or just a product of his upbringing. If it was a way to get out of it, it didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/166 "2017-07-03T17:56:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I googled. There’s an official schedule (it’s true; you can find anything online) of what passages are to be read in Catholic Masses. Here’s a current list: > > June 11: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9 > June 18: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16 > June 25: Jeremiah 20:10-13 > July 2: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16 > July 9: Zechariah 9:9-10 > July 16: Isaiah 55:10-11 > July 23: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 (Just to remind everyone they’re Catholics) > July 30: 1 King 3:5, 7-12 > > Cite: [http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070317.cfm](http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070317.cfm) But those are just the first readings for each Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/167 "2017-07-03T18:21:55Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > Once again, this is a situation that is much more complex than the average person probably appreciates. Yes, but this is basically Pedantry. You know what was said, the meaning of it and that it is largely true. So there is really no need and no persuasiveness in picking nits. ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/168 "2017-07-03T19:08:12Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yes, but this is basically Pedantry. You know what was said, the meaning of it and that it is largely true. So there is really no need and no persuasiveness in picking nits. Yeah… I hear you. Let me just explain how I see it & then I’ll just be done. I see people having questions about the fundamentals of the physical world. They learn some vastly over simplified fact and stick that information in the empty space. But, the world is a much richer, more complex place than that. I was taught in school that the only insect that was beneficial to the human race was the honey bee. I was taught - in college (!!!) - that if you remove all of the alcohol from whiskey, you would have diethyl ether remaining. Never mind the vast oversimplification of US history and all of the rest of it. I think the wonder and beauty of the world comes from its complexity. I don’t like things that are boiled down and fed to me with a pat on the head. I don’t like the inferred insult that comes along with a dumbed down answer. And… I assumed that you wouldn’t like that either. I didn’t mean to offend or speak down. That’s it. Scotty out. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/169 "2017-07-03T19:28:25Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > The other point more on topic is that what a lot of people surely know, but kind of act like they don’t know sometimes, and maybe some people really don’t, is that Roman Catholicism _was_ Christianity in the West for centuries. And the Eastern churches it overshadowed (in the early days) and coexisted with (the schism with the Orthodox) tended to view that aspect, of the primary of the Gospels, pretty similarly in general. That wasn’t what they disagreed about theologically. **Whereas the Protestants came along much later, and what a lot of people seem to think of as ‘Christianity’ is a relatively small (though fast growing in a lot of the world) branch of Protestantism generally from the US South.**. I grew up Lutheran in a small Southern town. Most of my classmates and friends were Southern Baptists. I was very surprised to find out that they all thought I was Catholic. Of course, I once had a Catholic priest think I was Catholic and asked me to help out with communion at mass (small university group, not in church or anything). I was very uncomfortable about that, but I held the tray of wafers anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Onthefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de053/32.png) [@Onthefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onthefly)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/170 "2017-07-03T19:40:48Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > My wife, who is geographically challenged, was talking to her friend in Nashville on the phone and said she would like to come up there some time (we’re in Minnesota). > After she hung up I said “You mean go DOWN there some time”. > She said “Is there a difference?” > I told her yes, typically up is north and south is down. That’s why people say they’re going camping up north or they’re flying down to Florida for vacation. > She had never heard of this before and found the whole thing to be silly. I had a geography professor who was adamant that “up” was away from the center of the earth, “down” was toward the center of the earth, and that neither was a substitute for North or South. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/171 "2017-07-03T19:41:19Z")
Ah, yes, if we get to poke fun at our spouses, I had to teach **Sr. Weasel** to make mashed potatoes. ‘‘I don’t understand why this isn’t working,’’ he said. He was trying to mash raw potatoes. And he still hasn’t figured out how to boil eggs. I mean, he can do it, but he’s frequently paranoid he’s doing it wrong. ''Let me get this straight, the eggs go in the water first, and then I turn on the burner? I don’t understand why this is so. When you make pasta, don’t you boil the water and then put pasta in? _Why is it different?_" The fact that putting a lid on a pot causes it to heat faster was a divine revelation for him. Needless to say, I do most of the cooking. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/172 "2017-07-03T19:52:01Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Ah, yes, if we get to poke fun at our spouses, I had to teach **Sr. Weasel** to make mashed potatoes. ‘‘I don’t understand why this isn’t working,’’ he said. He was trying to mash raw potatoes. My brother made - _and served_ - raw potato salad. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/173 "2017-07-03T20:52:21Z")
My wife will probably kill me for telling this story again, but here we go: Some years back, when Kiddo #1 was small, we were on vacation, and ended up at a sort of petting zoo. They had some interesting animals to look at, including one hugely fat pig. The keeper told us that it was a “lard hog”. I found that interesting, because at the time I didn’t know that some pigs were bred and grown exclusively for their lard. Later we stopped at a place for lunch, and we were sort of rehashing the day. The subject of the lard hog came up. And then my wife asked the question: “How do they get the lard out of the pig?” Oh my. “Well, the pig doesn’t give it up willingly…” “You mean they KILL the pig?!” Yeah honey, killing animals is a lot of what people do. Apparently she thought they (I am not making this up) milked the pig, or something along those lines, and churned lard out of it somehow. In fairness to her, she’s not a stupid person; she just has a soft spot for animals, and she _definitely_ did not grow up in the country like I did. I mentioned once how we dealt with the chickens we had when I was a kid, and she was heartbroken. “You killed your PETS?!” No, honey, they weren’t pets… Yet despite that, she has no problem sticking a fishhook into a minnow to go fishing. A walking contradiction. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/174 "2017-07-03T21:31:07Z")
When I was back in jr high our science teacher told us rivers run north to south. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/175 "2017-07-03T21:58:30Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > Of course, I once had a Catholic priest think I was Catholic and asked me to help out with communion at mass (small university group, not in church or anything). I was very uncomfortable about that, but I held the tray of wafers anyway. Well, he is nominated for this thread 🙂 . Even praticing Catholics have to go through training to be Eucharistic ministers. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/176 "2017-07-03T22:00:02Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > Here are a few examples of things that I did not know for far too long (probably because of my hearing problems). > > “card sharp” - someone who is very good at card games… I had always heard this as “card shark”, and I still actually prefer “shark” in this context because it gives that sense of predator and prey that can be present when the skill sets at the game are unequal. I’ve been a poker player for most of my life and I’ve never heard of a “card sharp.” I have heard “card shark” a lot. My guess is that you were hearing “card shark” because that’s what people were saying, and then later heard or read “card sharp” and assumed you were mishearing it… ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/177 "2017-07-03T22:25:07Z")
“card sharp” is a very common term. [About 324,000 hits on Google.](https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=%22card+sharp%22) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/178 "2017-07-04T00:06:56Z")
> [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > I’ve been a poker player for most of my life and I’ve never heard of a “card sharp.” I have heard “card shark” a lot. My guess is that you were hearing “card shark” because that’s what people were saying, and then later heard or read “card sharp” and assumed you were mishearing it… I should have [linked to this with my earlier post](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_sharp). > [@](#): > > A card sharp (also cardsharp, card shark or cardshark, sometimes hyphenated) is a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at poker or other card games. “Sharp” and “shark” spellings have varied over time and by region. > > The label is not always intended as pejorative, and is sometimes used to refer to practitioners of card tricks for entertainment purposes. In general usage, principally in American English and more commonly with the “shark” spelling, the term has also taken on the meaning of an expert card gambler who takes advantage of less-skilled players, also called an advantage player, without any implication of actual cheating at cards, in much the same way that “pool shark” or “pool hustler” can (especially when used by non-players) be intended to refer to a skilled player rather than a cheater or swindler. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/179 "2017-07-04T00:32:58Z")
My brother had an elementary school teacher who told the class that the temperature of ice was always exactly 32 degrees. He was one of those teachers with whom you quickly learn not to disagree. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146/180 "2017-07-04T00:41:16Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Certain Christian sects are more focused on the Old Testament than others. Catholics, for instance, are much more focused on the NT. I was raised Catholic, and went to Catholic schools. We learned about the “big events” in the OT (A&E, Flood, Moses, David), but not a lot of the smaller stuff. We spent much more time on the NT. Now, some evangelical or fundamentalist Christians might be more heavily OT focused. > > There is a Bible reading at ever Mass, and AFAIR, those were always (or almost always) from the NT. Mass has an OT reading, a NT reading, and a gospel reading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-were-stunned-that-people-didnt-know/790146.md?page=10)