# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/161 "2010-01-11T20:04:38Z")
> [@](#): > > I think the difference in seasonal “calendars” breaks down very roughly along American/European lines. I personally think of the quarter holidays (solstices and equinoxes) as the middle of the season. It just doesn’t make sense to me that summer doesn’t start until late June (or winter at late December); it’s been warm (cold) for at least a month before that. And given that solstices are the longest/shortest daylight periods, it makes more sense to me to think of the season as waxing (summer) or waning (winter) toward the peak/valley in the middle, rather than having that peak/valley at the beginning. But because of seasonal lag, it doesn’t get _really_ cold until _after_ the winster solstice, with the minimum in late January and early February. Similarly, the seasonal lag means that it doesn’t get the hottest until late July/ Early August. If we went by your suggestion, placing the season so that it straddles the solstices, people would be complaining that the seasons are even more out-of-sync with the weather than they are now. “It’s been Winter since October,” they’d say, during the February blizzard, “and now it;'s colder than _ever_! Isn’t this winter going to end?” ---
**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, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/162 "2010-01-11T20:33:41Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Call me crazy, but I can hear non-rhotic Rs. Granted they are just _barely_ there, but they are there nonetheless. It’s more just a slight closing of the lips, and not much in the way of tongue curl (although maybe just a tiny bit of tongue lift). No you can’t. If I say ‘car’ or ‘warm’ there simply is no r sound at all. Not a slight closing of the lips, no tongue curl at all. The r lengthens the sound before it in those words, but in other words (like ‘brother’) it works with the vowel before it to make a schwa. There isn’t the tiniest trace of an r. A while ago I ended up researching when the seasons officially start, and it turns out there is no official answer for it, certainly not internationally. But I agree - I certainly wouldn’t think of the Winter Solstice as the _start_ of Winter. How can the whole of December be Autumn? TruCelt, whoever told you were a fool for not ‘knowing’ that was a little foolish themselves. I think of Winter as being December - January - February. Spring is the following 3 months, and so on. You can have Wintry weather outside those times, of course, but that division’s what makes best sense to me. ---
**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, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/163 "2010-01-11T20:35:50Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > “It’s been Winter since October,” they’d say, during the February blizzard, “and now it;'s colder than _ever_! Isn’t this winter going to end?” Doesn’t that presume a Winter longer than 3 months? How many seasons does this year have? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/164 "2010-01-11T20:39:21Z")
I’ve never believed the “official” start of the seasons at all. To me, fall starts when I can no longer go to the beach. Winter starts when I’ve worn a winter coat more than 2 consecutive days. This year, summer will start a little early – on May 22nd at 5:15 pm. There is no such thing as spring. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/165 "2010-01-11T20:48:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Doesn’t that presume a Winter longer than 3 months? How many seasons does this year have? Nope – it’s going to be cold in early February (assuming a pretty standard year) no matter what I call the start of winter. But if I push the winter forward by a month and a half, then February is _still_ in winter and it’s still damned cold, and will have been winter for a month and a half longer than it is now. Of course, then Spring in your “rotated” calendar will be starting very shortly thereafter, so you’ll be stuck with the beginning of spring having horrendously cold weather, rather than at the start of the thaw. And your theoretical people living with this calendar will be complaining that _now_ it’s spring and it’s _still_ freakin’ cold! ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/166 "2010-01-11T20:49:48Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > [She could be right](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=global-warming-shortens-day). And the days shorter too. Yes, I’m sure that’s exactly what she meant. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/167 "2010-01-11T21:04:07Z")
two classic ones: 1. the idea that no or very few rivers flow north. I’m pretty sure that this idea emerged because most of the continental US drains into the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Gulf of Mexico, so indeed few rivers in the US flow north. However, come on: the Mackenzie, the Nelson, the Ob, the Yenisei, the Lena, the _Rhine._ The freaking _Nile._ (I have heard the version wherein the Nile is the only river that flows north, which makes it extra super special.) 2. the young lady I met, a bright woman who had been in the Peace Corps, who thought that Quebec City was at or near the Arctic Circle. …That’d be a no. ---
**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, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/168 "2010-01-11T21:04:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Nope – it’s going to be cold in early February (assuming a pretty standard year) no matter what I call the start of winter. But if I push the winter forward by a month and a half, then February is _still_ in winter and it’s still damned cold, and will have been winter for a month and a half longer than it is now. > > Of course, then Spring in your “rotated” calendar will be starting very shortly thereafter, so you’ll be stuck with the beginning of spring having horrendously cold weather, rather than at the start of the thaw. And your theoretical people living with this calendar will be complaining that _now_ it’s spring and it’s _still_ freakin’ cold! No it wouldn’t. If the Winter Solstice is counted as midwinter, then Winter starts at around the 11th of November and finishes in the first week of February. That’s taking the seasons as being defined by daylight hours rather than weather, because the weather can be so variable from year to year but daylight hours aren’t. It’s not a perfect way of categorising the seasons, but it doesn’t presume a Winter that includes both October _and_ February. ---
**Author:** ![Arglefraster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@Arglefraster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arglefraster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/169 "2010-01-11T21:13:52Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > I’m also shocked that so many people could argue against the theory of evolution when they _don’t even know how it works_. I’m talking about the “I didn’t come from a monkey!” and “okay then smartypants, how about we drop a cat into some water and see how long it takes for it to EVOLVE into a fish then, HMM??” school of thought. Just…what the fuck. There’s a website somewhere that collects especially stupid comments from various message boards. One was part of a discussion on evolution. Someone had explained that the evolutionary change is a very slow process, and takes place over thousands of years. Someone had replied “There’s only one problem with that. Monkey’s don’t live thousands of years!” :smack: About a week ago I learned that my husband didn’t know what prime numbers were. He’s smart, well-read, sure math’s not his strong point, but how could he not know what prime numbers are? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/170 "2010-01-11T21:19:56Z")
It usually surprises me when I find that someone doesn’t know a common term or phrase. I once told someone that she was a good egg. She looked at me strangely then said “And you’re a good… sperm?” ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/171 "2010-01-11T21:25:04Z")
> [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](#): > > 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! This used to surprise me, but I’ve spent too much time perusing recipe websites where the recipes are posted by random people. Either the recipe will have the wrong abbreviation, using the T (tablespoon) when they really mean t (teaspoon), or the reader will not know the difference and end up with a recipe where all you can taste is the baking soda because you put in 1.5 tablespoons instead of teaspoons. ---
**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, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/172 "2010-01-11T21:27:40Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > 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. You’re right, and I’m sure that goes a long way toward explaining the problem. I learned the difference from getting doses of cough medicine as a child during my annual bouts of bronchitis. You’d think that when it came to dispensing meds, people would want to know the correct amounts. That’s just not something to be unsure about. **Badbadrubberpiggy** - Yep, that’s another good symptom of the problem. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/173 "2010-01-11T21:36:19Z")
There are people who don’t know that there’s a country called Austria. They want to go to Australia and visit the outback and see kangaroos. They go online, book their flights and hotels (“Gee, I didn’t know Vienna was in Australia.”). They arrive in Vienna, go to their hotel, check in, and get situated in their rooms. Then, on the way out, they ask the clerk how to get to the outback, and where’s the best place to see kangaroos. The desk clerk gives them one of these :rolleyes: and tells them how to get to Australia. ---
**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, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/174 "2010-01-11T21:40:28Z")
> [@Arglefraster](#): > > About a week ago I learned that my husband didn’t know what prime numbers were. He’s smart, well-read, sure math’s not his strong point, but how could he not know what prime numbers are? Even our dog knows prime numbers! I’ve always maintained that he must circle whatever he is going to lay on a prime number of times before he can lay down. If he switches directions he starts counting backwards. I often do a live verbal count as he is doing it, probably irritating the SO significantly in the process. My Shitzhu knows his primes let me tell you 🙂 ---
**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:** [January 11, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/175 "2010-01-11T21:40:53Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Still not sure who this Michael Jackson is that everyone is talking about. He was a US president, right? Yes, and he was supposed to be the first Black president, except . . . well, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/176 "2010-01-11T21:45:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > But because of seasonal lag, it doesn’t get _really_ cold until _after_ the winster solstice, with the minimum in late January and early February. Similarly, the seasonal lag means that it doesn’t get the hottest until late July/ Early August. If we went by your suggestion, placing the season so that it straddles the solstices, people would be complaining that the seasons are even more out-of-sync with the weather than they are now. It’s been said, but for me personally I calculate based on daylight rather than temps. An extremely mild winter day can be warmer than an extremely cold summer one, after all. I don’t peg the start of a season to exact dates, though. The seasonal shifts are gradual; saying that it changed over at exactly 2:55am on November 7 is kinda silly, IMO. The mid-season astronomical changeover happens at a specific time; that’s good enough for me. > [@scifisam2009](#): > > No you can’t. If I say ‘car’ or ‘warm’ there simply is no r sound at all. Not a slight closing of the lips, no tongue curl at all. The r lengthens the sound before it in those words, but in other words (like ‘brother’) it works with the vowel before it to make a schwa. There isn’t the tiniest trace of an r. Well, since you’re not in my head you really have no idea how refined my hearing is. I heard it in the previously-posted video. Of course it was very, very faint by rhotic standards. It was still there. It was not pronounced like “ass.” If it helps, you can think of the sound as more of a very slight “ooo” shaped schwa as the second sound of a dipthong. Goes by really fast, obviously not the same sound as a rhotic, but there nonetheless. Compare to the Boston accent which completely drops the R in “car”. I can’t hear it at all there. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/177 "2010-01-11T21:48:32Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > 1. the idea that no or very few rivers flow north. I’m pretty sure that this idea emerged because most of the continental US drains into the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Gulf of Mexico, so indeed few rivers in the US flow north. However, come on: the Mackenzie, the Nelson, the Ob, the Yenisei, the Lena, the _Rhine._ The freaking _Nile._ (I have heard the version wherein the Nile is the only river that flows north, which makes it extra super special.) If you’re in Minnesota and you don’t know any north flowing rivers, you aren’t paying attention. The Red River (forming the border between Minnesota and North Dakota) flows north into Canada. ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/178 "2010-01-11T21:49:38Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Or it _is_ just “adding” DC and Puerto Rico; I wouldn’t expect a lot of non-Americans to know about Guam and the others, since very few _Americans_ do. This made me snicker! I lived in Guam for almost 5 years and you would not believe how many times I had to explain or argue with people that yes they could send things by mail, and no it was not international shipping and yes they could call (and we could call them) and there was no international calling code, just an area code like everyone else has. (Just had to account for that pesky time and date difference.) Not only were (are) so many Americans ignorant of Guam but their minds couldn’t wrap around our time being (often) a day ahead of theirs. Once I had to argue with my husband’s ex-wife who called at 7PM her time that yes my husband was at work because it was 10 AM the next day in our time and I wasn’t just making that up so that he could avoid talking to her. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/179 "2010-01-11T21:49:42Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > 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. > > [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80691723/](http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80691723/) Thank you, thank you for posting this link. It made my day. Hilarious is truly an understatement. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353/180 "2010-01-11T21:59:10Z")
I didn’t know that Ireland was an island until I scheduled a trip there when I was 21. A couple weeks ago, I taught someone at least 15 years older than I am the meaning of the word “negligible.” He’d never heard it before. In defining it, I used the word “inconsequential,” and thus taught him that word as well. On Christmas Day, my fiance and I had a big family dinner at his brother’s place. My fiance was in conversation with a few people, and somehow his father got into a rant about how dangerous it is go to out to bars these days, what with all the predators waiting to slip something into your drink. My fiance was preparing to say that it’s really not that dangerous, you just need to keep an eye on your drink, when his father continued that lots of people were drugged at bars and woke up in a tub of ice without their kidneys. At that point, my fiance considered the conversation a lost cause and changed the subject. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-shocked-to-find-out-some-people-dont-know/524353.md?page=10)