# Totally wrong stuff you believed to an embarrassingly advanced age **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 18, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477 "2007-06-18T16:42:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/461 "2007-06-26T19:15:57Z")
Sorry I dropped the “Norwegian Wood” bomb and disappeared. I went to look into this and found 4 explanations: [ul] [li]Firewood (mine, I’m weird)[/li][li]Cheap furniture (McCartney’s explanation)[/li][li]An affair (Lennon’s explanation)[/li][li]Marijuana[/li][/ul] Since there’s only 8 lines to the lyrics, posting even one line to the board could be against TOS 😛 so I posted them and my analysis in my journal over [here](http://zyada.livejournal.com/546760.html) ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/462 "2007-06-26T19:58:00Z")
Burning the house down was part of Lennon’s explanation, I think. And it makes a lot of sense given the last lyric: “this bird had flown, so I lit a fire”. Bird is British for “girl”; the girl left in the morning without even acknowledging his presence, after teasing him all night, so he burned down her house. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/463 "2007-06-26T20:13:57Z")
Here’s one I learned just minutes ago. Some penguins are tropical. ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/464 "2007-06-26T20:15:00Z")
I thought the natural “habitat” of a pineapple was in trees but not as a fruit from a tree. That is to say, they’re basically an air-fern kind-of thing, right, like spanish moss? Growing _on_ a tree but not as part of it. The growing on the ground thing is just a trick, I thought, of the professional growers. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/465 "2007-06-26T20:27:35Z")
[QUOTE=Zyada] Sorry I dropped the “Norwegian Wood” bomb and disappeared. I went to look into this and found 4 explanations: [ul] [li]Firewood (mine, I’m weird)[/li][li]Cheap furniture (McCartney’s explanation)[/li][li]An affair (Lennon’s explanation)[/li][li]Marijuana[/li][/ul] [/QUOTE] Another explanation I first read in a _Playboy_ article, and which is repeated in [this discussion](http://www.radioparadise.com/content.php?name=songinfo&song_id=425): “Norwegian wood” is a pun on “knowing she would (have sex)”, and was substituted for the intended lyric in order to avoid censorship squabbles. However, the poster who mentions that hypothesis agrees with your “analogous to Acapulco Gold” interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![StinkyBurrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@StinkyBurrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkyBurrito)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/466 "2007-06-26T20:30:38Z")
[QUOTE=Rilchiam] Are you sure? I thought it was called that because it was popularized (not necessarily invented) in the Thousand Islands. [/QUOTE] I (randomly) happen to know some decendents of the inventor. It was indeed created in the thousand islands area of NY state. The family still has property there. ---
**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:** [June 26, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/467 "2007-06-26T20:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Here’s one I learned just minutes ago. Some penguins are tropical. [/QUOTE] This is one I just learned, as well. I commented to my daughter that penguins lived at the south pole (to correct a wrong impression she may have gotten from a book where a polar bear & a penguin are friends), and my husband told me that there is one type of penguin that lives just above the equator! Of course, they still aren’t likely to be friends with any polar bears. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/468 "2007-06-26T20:58:33Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] Of course, they still aren’t likely to be friends with any polar bears. [/QUOTE] I excpet someone to come in and tell us about the Galapagos polar bear any time now. ---
**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:** [June 26, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/469 "2007-06-26T21:19:19Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] I excpet someone to come in and tell us about the Galapagos polar bear any time now. [/QUOTE] 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/470 "2007-06-26T21:19:58Z")
That flea collars for pets work. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/471 "2007-06-26T21:23:35Z")
I also truly believed for a good two to three years, that WallyM7 really died. ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/472 "2007-06-26T21:35:42Z")
[QUOTE=Belrix] I thought the natural “habitat” of a pineapple was in trees but not as a fruit from a tree. That is to say, they’re basically an air-fern kind-of thing, right, like spanish moss? Growing _on_ a tree but not as part of it. The growing on the ground thing is just a trick, I thought, of the professional growers. [/QUOTE] I’ll answer my own post. Per Yahoo Answers, pineapples are bromeliads (I knew that) as are many other tropical plants including spanish moss. Bromeliads have both tree and ground dwelling species. _Pineapple Annas comosus_ is a south-american ground-dwelling type. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/473 "2007-06-26T22:24:22Z")
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker] I also truly believed for a good two to three years, that WallyM7 really died. [/QUOTE] Er, excuse me? Is this another thing I get totally wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/474 "2007-06-27T00:31:39Z")
[QUOTE=Jake] Hell, when I was a kid in the fifties we used to play with mercury as a toy. We let it flow through our fingers (weird feeling) and coat silver coins (dimes, mostly) with it. The mercury stuck to the silver and made a very shiny coin. Also, when I was panning for gold in the Sierras, we used mercury to collect the (very little) gold from the pan. The mercury just soaked it up. When we were ready to refine the gold from the mercury we just burned the mixture. The mercury would evaporate and the gold would stay. Fortunately, we were savvy enough to stay away from the fumes of the evaporating mercury. (We were outside) Haz-Mat? Hummph. [/QUOTE] Yeah. My dad used to play with mercury all the time, and my husband’s grandfather kept a jar of it in his shed and would let the kids play around with it. It is still used extensively in mining tailings, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/475 "2007-06-27T01:44:44Z")
Until I was 22 I thought Aloysius was pronounced Alloy-seeus and that Alloo-ish-us was a different name entirely. When I was a kid I thought Indonesia was a United State but was pronounced In-doneh-seeya. I knew there was a country called Indoneezya too though. 🙂 Until I was 17 I thought Roo bars in Australia were padded and built to protect the kangaroos, that they’d just bounce off unharmed. Up to the age of 14 I thought you could shave off grey hair and it would grow back the original colour. Until about three weeks ago I thought Sheffield was in the far north-east of England. Up until about the age of 8 or 9 I thought the moon was a reflection of the earth(!). ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/476 "2007-06-27T01:47:56Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Until I was 22 I thought Aloysius was pronounced Alloy-seeus and that Alloo-ish-us was a different name entirely. [/QUOTE] Wait, I always assumed it was pronounced, Aloy-shuss. Guess it’s a good thing I’ve never met anyone with that name. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/477 "2007-06-27T02:23:59Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Until I was 22 I thought Aloysius was pronounced Alloy-seeus and that Alloo-ish-us was a different name entirely. [/QUOTE] “Alloy-seeus” is the logical pronunciation. How the _bleep_ do they get “alloo-ish-us” out of it? That doesn’t even make sense in a “really weird but at least it’s internally consistent” way! ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/478 "2007-06-27T02:35:08Z")
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker] I also truly believed for a good two to three years, that WallyM7 really died. [/QUOTE] Is this a whoosh or am I completely and totally out of the loop? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/479 "2007-06-27T03:18:03Z")
[QUOTE=Ruby] Is this a whoosh or am I completely and totally out of the loop? 😕 [/QUOTE] [Board Lore: The mysterious demise of WallyM7](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=364525) ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/480 "2007-06-27T11:04:14Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Up until about the age of 8 or 9 I thought the moon was a reflection of the earth(!). [/QUOTE] Just the other week, my girlfriend suggested that she thought that it was light reflected from the earth which made the moon visible. I suppose that since the shadow of the earth can cause a lunar eclipse, the idea isn’t _too_ counterintuitive… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=25)