# Things you're wrong about but will stick to anyway **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 17, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893 "2015-04-17T06:04:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/21 "2015-04-17T14:41:38Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > This is a hash, (or octothorpe): # You mean a number sign? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/22 "2015-04-17T14:59:21Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#): > > Apparently, if you end a sentence with something quoted, even if it’s only one word that is quoted, you must place the sentence-ending punctuation inside the quotation marks. Well, the hell with that! Uh-uh, no way, ain’t a-gonna. If the quote takes up most of the sentence, I’m amenable, otherwise no-siree-Bob. As the UhKer once said - “bloody 'ell”! This is the one of mine. The other, more annoying to some people here, is not to worry so much about any grammar or punctuation when I’m on the web like this. Writing (as in actual letters) I am fanatical about it but to me anything electronic is more a form of speech or short-hand. Formal rules go out the window. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/23 "2015-04-17T14:59:55Z")
sheep, moose, etc. Words with the singular and plural being exactly the same. I’m willing to say ‘a herd of sheep, moose, etc.’, but I’ll be danged if I’m going to say ‘there are two sheep, moose, etc. by the road.’ So laugh if you must, I will continue to say ‘there are two sheeps in the field’ and ‘there are two mooses in the woods.’ ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/24 "2015-04-17T15:22:28Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#): > > Apparently, if you end a sentence with something quoted, even if it’s only one word that is quoted, you must place the sentence-ending punctuation inside the quotation marks. Well, the hell with that! Uh-uh, no way, ain’t a-gonna. If the quote takes up most of the sentence, I’m amenable, otherwise no-siree-Bob. As the UhKer once said - “bloody 'ell”! The rule is a little more complicated than that. If you are quoting someone yelling “Bloody 'ell!” that’s how you write it, even if it’s the end of the sentence. However, if the emphasis is yours, as in > [@](#): > > I couldn’t believe he said “Bloody 'ell”! then the punctuation goes on the outside. That goes only for everything except periods and commas; those always go on the inside (in America: you Brits can go do something else). Colons and semi-colons go on the outside, except in the rare case that you truncate a quote on the punctuation mark, so it is actually part of the quote. Same with dashes, parentheses, and soforth. Punctuation goes inside parentheses when it contains a complete sentence, and on the outside when it contains a fragment. > [@](#): > > “Did you find it shocking when he said 'Bloody ‘ell’?” she asked me. I didn’t, but I did find “Fucking [deleted expletive]” shocking (although not too much). What was shocking was that he called _her_ a fucking [deleted expletive]"! (I wonder why she didn’t ask me about that?) ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/25 "2015-04-17T17:31:55Z")
Although my wife ridicules me, I stoutly maintain that the state name is pronounced “Warshington.” ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/26 "2015-04-17T17:40:57Z")
> [@BaldDudePeekskill](#): > > I like two spaces after a period. I like the Oxford (or maybe the non-oxford) comma. I am the same. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/27 "2015-04-17T17:46:30Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > It’s a pound sign you dumb twitters! > > Wait a second. I’m actually right about that. … Never mind. I had a boss with whom I shared a deep personal dislike. One day, she called me in to correct an order for a 30 pound weight. I had written “30# weight” on the line item. She shook her head condescendingly at me and handed back my file. “BeeGee, JUST because it’s called a pound sign on the PHONE, it doesn’t MEAN pound like the weight.” I said “I’ll change it because you’re the boss and I’m not. But it does mean pound as in weight.” I did get to sit quietly at my desk and overhear next higher up boss tell her she was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/28 "2015-04-17T18:03:38Z")
“Ain’t” shouldn’t have an apostrophe in it. What the hell is it a contraction of? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/29 "2015-04-17T18:28:36Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > “Ain’t” shouldn’t have an apostrophe in it. What the hell is it a contraction of? [Here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't) you are, sir. > [@](#): > > Ain’t is a contraction for am not, is not, are not, has not, and have not in the common English language vernacular. In some dialects ain’t is also used as a contraction of do not, does not, and did not. Sounds to me like it should have several apostrophies - ain’‘’‘’''t. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![SantaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@SantaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SantaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/30 "2015-04-17T18:31:09Z")
About slashing zeroes and letter "O"s, In the 60’s I did both Fortran (typically slashed zeroes) and COBOL (typically slashed "O"s) ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/31 "2015-04-17T19:08:29Z")
[QUOTE My wife is both a possessor of, and an expert in, the female reproductive system. I’ve never heard her get as pedantic about the names of the bits as some folks on the Dope. When her patients tell her about their vaginas, I’m pretty sure she can figure out from context what they are saying. Around her colleagues, I’m sure she’s more precise. But somehow I doubt she’s ever said to a patient, “Pfft. I think what you _meant_ to say is that you have a painful sore on your _vulva_.”[/QUOTE] Of course, your wife knows the popular usage and has to deal with her patients accordingly. What is interesting is that apparently many women learn a colloquial language which names her entire structure down there as the vagina and which, not coincidentally perhaps, is the most important part of a woman in influential segments of a male-dominated culture . Of course, this point of view becomes imbedded in the entire culture, essentially telling the women that all that labia and clitoris stuff is not all that important, and that its that VAGINA down there which gives you value. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/32 "2015-04-17T19:11:11Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > “Ain’t” shouldn’t have an apostrophe in it. What the hell is it a contraction of? Do you put an apostrophe in “won’t”? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/33 "2015-04-17T19:20:36Z")
The empty set sign is similar to, but not the same as, the slashed-zero. On a slashed zero, the slash terminates at the oval. On the empty-set sign, it extends beyond it. > [@](#): > > Quoth **Little Nemo** : > > Europeans and soldiers are right. Dates should be written day, month, year not month, day, year. It’s 17 April 2015 not April 17, 2015. I do the same, except I usually abbreviate the month to three letters. It’s not for ease of sorting, and it’s not because it’s the convention in use by any particular other people: It’s because it’s impossible to misinterpret. 04/12 could mean the 12th of April, or it could mean the 4th of December, or it could mean April 2012, but “17Apr2015” can’t possibly mean anything but today’s date: The four-digit number must be the year, and the abbreviation must be the month, and the two-digit number must therefore be the day of the month. Putting them in that order separates the two numbers, so even smooshed together like I did, there’s no confusion over which digit is part of which number. Though I suppose that “2015Apr17” would work just as well. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/34 "2015-04-17T19:27:34Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Do you put an apostrophe in “won’t”? I also have a problem with “won’t”. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/35 "2015-04-17T19:56:06Z")
Well, really, it doesn’t matter what the first part of the contraction stands for; the apostrophe is just to stand in for the “o” in not, which is still there regardless of what the first part of the word is trying to be. Or just write “aint” and “wont”. Won’t bother me none; ain’t no thing. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/36 "2015-04-17T20:44:49Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > Interesting. I learned that as “Thirty Aught Eight” You sure you aren’t thinking of the “thirty aught six” (.30-06)? That is how that chambering is typically referred to but I have not heard the “three oh eight” said that way. Could be a regional thing. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/37 "2015-04-17T20:50:08Z")
> [@SantaMan](#): > > About slashing zeroes and letter "O"s, In the 60’s I did both Fortran (typically slashed zeroes) and COBOL (typically slashed "O"s) Maybe one of your ancestors was doing it in the 60s… the 1160s. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The slashed zero long predates computers and is known to have been used in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is used in many Baudot teleprinter applications, specifically the keytop and typepallet that combines “P” and slashed zero. Aditionally, the slashed zero is used in many ASCII graphic sets descended from the default typewheel on the Teletype Model 33. From [Slashed zero - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashed_zero#Origins) I find the Model 33 reference particularly comforting. I spent waaay too much of my misspent youth camped in front of an ASR 33. ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/38 "2015-04-17T21:50:49Z")
That my way is the correct way to do just about anything! (It is the best way.) My poor wife. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/39 "2015-04-17T22:03:32Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > Interesting. I learned that as “Thirty Aught Eight” Actually, it’s a 7.62 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893/40 "2015-04-17T22:18:42Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > Most people know what you’re talking about if you say that. I taught my daughters to say vagina. no one says vulva, and it sounds strange too. So I’m with you on this one. I used to have a co-worker who pronounced her car name as “Vulva.” I think she did it on purpose, she was that kind of gal. My ineluctable but untrue fact is the origin for calling gingko trees “maidenhair.” I contend that it is the fan shape of the leaf that mirrors the untouched shape of a girl’s pubic hair. Apparently I am [wrong](http://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/plant-profiles/maidenhair-tree). But I still think it works. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-wrong-about-but-will-stick-to-anyway/717893.md?page=3)