# Things you're shocked to find out some people don't know. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 10, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353 "2010-01-10T02:44:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/121 "2010-01-11T09:59:39Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > Almost all American accents are [non-rhotic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rhotic), in contradistinction to most dialects in Britain. This is the reason why _pawn_ and _porn_ sound different to Americans. I believe you have it backwards. A rhotic accent pronounces an R in all positions. Most Americans do pronounce the R followed by a consonant, while most Brits do not. Still, there are rhotic accents in Britain, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some did pronounce arse the way many Americans do. Still, I thank you for clearing it up. Ever since I was told that the British term is “arse,” I’ve heard it all the time. Yet as a kid, I remember hearing Brits say “ass” a lot. I guess I just hadn’t developed the ear to tell the difference. I remember being taught that the “broad a” was the same sound as a “short o” (e.g. father and bother always rhyme). ETA: Sorry that I was repeating: I didn’t notice the second page.) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/122 "2010-01-11T10:36:27Z")
My mother once told me that her flight was delayed ‘because of the war in Suburbia.’ She was getting mixed up with Serbia, but she actually thought Suburbia was a real country and wouldn’t believe me when I told her otherwise. I’ve also been told off for using big words. The big word in question was ‘fickle.’ > [@Koxinga](#): > > There are quite a few immigrants and/or people living overseas who are firmly convinced that the US has 52 states. I always thought that odd: I mean, sure, it’s not your country, I couldn’t name the number of Canadian provinces or German Staaten and will freely admit that. But if I believed I did know something about a country’s number of subdivisions and had a fixed number in my head, and it was the _wrong_ number – where does that come from? I constantly have to correct myself on that one - I know the US has 50 states but my brain immediately says 52. In fact, I just had to correct it as I typed. It’s probably something to do with 52 weeks of the year, or knowing that Hawaii and Alaska are pretty new states - though you’d think ‘Hawaii 5-0’ would help. > [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > Almost all American accents are [non-rhotic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rhotic), in contradistinction to most dialects in Britain. This is the reason why _pawn_ and _porn_ sound different to Americans. Other way round: most American accents are rhotic, most English (not British) accents are not. But if an American, or for that matter a Scot or someone from Devon or Cornwall or Ireland or a few other places where the word arse is frequently used, were to say ‘arse,’ they would pronounce the r and it would be correct. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/123 "2010-01-11T10:51:31Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > This is not my story. I actually read it here, in the SDMB, in a similar thread a few years ago. I hope the original author forgives me, but it’s too good not to repeat here (and for all I know he’s banned or will miss this thread). > > He and a friend were out one night, a rare clear and non-light-polluted one, with a sky exploding with stars. > > Friend: “Hey, the Sun’s a star, too, isn’t it?” > He: “Yeah, absolutely” > Friend (looking up to the sky): “Which one?” That was me, and my friend. And it’s absolutely true. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/124 "2010-01-11T12:21:17Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > He didn’t seem to realize that 1) Filling a garage with exhaust is bad 2) especially when said garage is attached to my house 3) You really don’t need to warm up a car that’s been sitting in a garage all night. Just the other day I read about a family that thought it would be a great idea to move their outdoors grill indoors and continue their bar-b-q when it started raining (or something to that effect). > [@runner pat](#): > > I’ll bet some of them didn’t know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings.😃 That happened to a friend of mine … in the seventies. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/125 "2010-01-11T13:57:38Z")
I have a friend who insisted that the Bronte sisters were characters in a book, and not authors in their own right. Insisting that I’ve visited their house in Haworth didn’t persuade him that he was mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/126 "2010-01-11T13:57:43Z")
> [@maplekiwi](#): > > I’m saving the story of what my son thought a “blow job” was for his 21st! 😃 Its not nearly as good a suck fest, let me tell you that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/127 "2010-01-11T15:26:19Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I believe you have it backwards. A rhotic accent pronounces an R in all positions. Most Americans do pronounce the R followed by a consonant, while most Brits do not. Still, there are rhotic accents in Britain, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some did pronounce arse the way many Americans do. > > Still, I thank you for clearing it up. Ever since I was told that the British term is “arse,” I’ve heard it all the time. Yet as a kid, I remember hearing Brits say “ass” a lot. I guess I just hadn’t developed the ear to tell the difference. I remember being taught that the “broad a” was the same sound as a “short o” (e.g. father and bother always rhyme). > > ETA: Sorry that I was repeating: I didn’t notice the second page.) I think Kimmy is referring to the phenomenon that leads to the sound we Yanks write as “Uh…” (used to indicate the sound people make when pausing in the middle of a sentence or thought). In many instances, that sound is inexplicably written as “Er…” even though from a straight onomatopoeia perspective, we don’t read “Er…” as the “Uh…” sound. But Brits (non-rhotic Brits, anyway) find those two renderings pronounced similarly. And for them, “Arse,” is pronounced similarly to “Ass,” with no ‘r’ sound. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/128 "2010-01-11T15:32:31Z")
> [@Bacon\_Salt](#): > > Wha? According to the link you posted, “A rhotic (pronounced /ˈroʊtɨk/, sometimes /ˈrɒtɨk/) speaker pronounces the letter R in hard. A non-rhotic speaker does not pronounce it in hard. In other words, rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ in all positions, while non-rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ only if it is followed by a vowel sound in the same phrase or prosodic unit (see “linking and intrusive R”).” Most Americans pronounce the R in hard. Yes, I flipped it in my head. American English is typically rhotic; British accents (including RP and SE England [what is called “Estuary English”]) typically are not. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/129 "2010-01-11T15:56:28Z")
Jay Leno did a bit called Jaywalking where he asks people on the street pretty straightforward questions and captures some stunningly stupid answers. Like the guy who couldn’t say who wrote Benjamin Frankin’s autobiography. Or the woman who thought the first man on the moon was Lance Armstrong. > **[Best of Jaywalking](http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/best-of-jaywalking/80691723/)** > > The best of jaywalking with Jay Leno ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/130 "2010-01-11T15:58:40Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > My guess would be that they knew there were 50 states, but then remember the US acquired 2 more (relatively) recently, so that’d make 52. Dunno where it originated, but for me neither of these ring true - someone just once told me and it stuck ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/131 "2010-01-11T16:04:16Z")
My eighteen year old stepdaughter only found out a couple of months ago that New Mexico was a state. I recently discovered that my eighteen year old daughter had no idea who Jack Nicholson was. I finally said, “You know that part in Aladdin where the genie says, If ya wanna court the little lady, ya gotta be a straight shooter, do ya got it? Well, _that’s_ who he was impersonating!” She has since seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining, so problem solved, but how did I let such a thing happen? ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/132 "2010-01-11T16:04:22Z")
> [@maplekiwi](#): > > I’m saving the story of what my son thought a “blow job” was for his 21st! 😃 Well if you had asked me about oral sex 25 odd years ago you would have got an interesting story - and probably a good giggle ---
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Regency_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/133 "2010-01-11T16:26:36Z")
A Swedish guy once crowed to me that I was a typical stupid American for not knowing that the US actually had 52 states. I tried to get him to explain his logic, but he was a bit too far in his cups at that point. Eventually I got bored and walked away. The morning news today mentioned a study which found that “many Americans” (no exact percentage provided) don’t know the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon and that this ignorance is the primary source of accidental OTC med overdoses, especially liquid acetaminophen. That surprised me - thought everyone learned that by the age of eight or so! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/134 "2010-01-11T16:29:12Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > This reminds me of another one: it came out that a former co-worker of mine did not know that North Carolina and South Carolina were separate states - he thought it was just a big state called Carolina, and people were using the “North” and “South” in the way they might refer to Northern and Southern California. :smack: When I cleared it up I asked if he knew that North and South Dakota and Virginia and West Virginia were all separate states; he claimed he did, but I’m not sure I believe him. Well, at one time, just like the other examples, there was just one Carolina. The funny thing is, we in South Carolina wanted to dump the North Carolina part because it was backwards and rural and a money drain - South Carolina was the wealthy part. Now it’s the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/135 "2010-01-11T16:29:29Z")
There’s currently a person talking about evolution in another thread, who clearly doesn’t understand the first thing about the subject. I had no idea people were that uneducated, but it would definitely explain why people latch onto creationism. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/136 "2010-01-11T16:30:31Z")
> [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](#): > > A Swedish guy once crowed to me that I was a typical stupid American for not knowing that the US actually had 52 states. I tried to get him to explain his logic, but he was a bit too far in his cups at that point. Eventually I got bored and walked away. > > The morning news today mentioned a study which found that “many Americans” (no exact percentage provided) don’t know the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon and that this ignorance is the primary source of accidental OTC med overdoses, especially liquid acetaminophen. That surprised me - thought everyone learned that by the age of eight or so! I think that’s more like “American men” - my boyfriend keeps asking me which of our spoons are teaspoons and which ones are tablespoons (not for table usage, for measuring stuff) and I keep telling him to use the measuring spoons which are RIGHT THERE, but he seems to think that the two kinds of spoons everybody has are calibrated for measuring teaspoons and tablespoons. I haven’t been able to shake this bizarre belief. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/137 "2010-01-11T16:35:46Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > There’s currently a person talking about evolution in another thread, who clearly doesn’t understand the first thing about the subject. I had no idea people were that uneducated, but it would definitely explain why people latch onto creationism. I think that may be willful ignorance in many caes. > [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](#): > > A Swedish guy once crowed to me that I was a typical stupid American for not knowing that the US actually had 52 states. I tried to get him to explain his logic, but he was a bit too far in his cups at that point. Eventually I got bored and walked away. > > The morning news today mentioned a study which found that “many Americans” (no exact percentage provided) don’t know the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon and that this ignorance is the primary source of accidental OTC med overdoses, especially liquid acetaminophen. That surprised me - thought everyone learned that by the age of eight or so! Not everybody cooks. My little sister doesn’t, and I don’t think she knows the difference. It’s just not part of her life. I made breakfast for my 75-year-old father the other day. It was very cold (by Memphis standards) so I decided to include hot chocolate in the meal; and, not being a barbarian, I made it properly, on the stovetop, with baker’s cocoa and so forth. He was honestly surprised that it was so much trouble, as he thought it was just like making instant coffee. He knows far more than I do about plumbing, though, so he’s probably ahead. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/138 "2010-01-11T16:35:52Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > There’s currently a person talking about evolution in another thread, who clearly doesn’t understand the first thing about the subject. I had no idea people were that uneducated, but it would definitely explain why people latch onto creationism. That’s like the huge number of people who misunderstand ‘survival of the fittest.’ The worst example of that is in a book about dinosaurs that I bought for my daughter. It starts with a section about survival of the fittest using the ‘strongest, fastest’ definition of ‘fittest’ rather than the ‘one which fits into its environment best’ definition, which is what Darwin meant. This is a book from the Natural History Museum and it disgusts me that they’re perpetuating this ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/139 "2010-01-11T16:41:50Z")
A lady I know (in her sixties) thought Jimi Hendrix was “That guy who invented the Muppets.” I made a fool of myself for years arguing that the Winter Solstice was the middle of Winter, not the beginning. Just yesterday I stood in the Grocery Store line and looked at the covers of the gossip magazines and recognized NOONE. Usually there’s at least one with Brad Pit, or Angelina Jolie, or Paris Hilton on the cover. One cover had 7-8 people in little boxes around the sides, and I skimmed through them to try and find someone I knew. Nope. . . ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/140 "2010-01-11T17:14:05Z")
> [@nicole1912](#): > > Most of the others, I can more or less understand - generational differences in pop culture references and the like, but this… surprises me. Is there a regional term for Velcro or something? Because I’m having trouble believing that there are people who have never, ever seen or heard of velcro in the Western world. Yeah, no kidding. Maybe she was Amish in a former life? The store was in Virginia, if that makes any difference. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353.md?page=8)