# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/41 "2007-06-18T21:23:10Z")
Until two years ago, I thought the Mississippi Delta was the delta of the Mississippi River. I don’t know why I believed that, except maybe possibly because they call it the _Mississippi Delta._ Anyway, I thought it was the delta of the Mississippi River in the same way the Nile Delta is the delta of the Nile. And whenever I would hear about events or locations in the Mississippi Delta in such a way that it was clear they were located in the State of Mississippi as opposed to the State of Louisiana, I figured the delta region was quite large and it was reasonable to believe that it could extend past the state line. So you can imagine my shock when I learned the Mississippi Delta is, in reality, the Mississippi-Yazoo River Alluvial Plain. I now insist upon calling it that. ---
**Author:** ![Apricot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@Apricot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apricot)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/42 "2007-06-18T21:25:07Z")
[QUOTE=Sofaspud] You think that’s bad? We’ve got Mount Lake Terrace, too. [/QUOTE] No wonder they’re getting returned. It’s Mountlake Terrace. Two words, not three! ---
**Author:** ![Qazzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@Qazzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qazzz)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/43 "2007-06-18T21:27:14Z")
My mom told me that the finer side of a hair comb made one’s hair blonde if brushed enough. I believed this into my teens. I was also very surprised to learn that there are actual onions in onion rings. I just thought they were circular french fries for the longest time. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/44 "2007-06-18T21:28:27Z")
I was living in California for ten years before I learned, thanks to a passenger telling me, the exit only lanes on the freeway have noticeably thicker dashed lines. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/45 "2007-06-18T21:35:45Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Cantaloupe aren’t cantaloupe, but muskmellons. [/QUOTE] Beg pardon? Cantaloupe refers to one of two (quite different) varieties of muskmelon: the European cantaloupe _Cucumis melo cantalupensis_, which has a smooth skin, and the North American cantaloupe _Cucumis melo reticulatus_, which has a rough netted skin. There are other varieties of muskmelon, such as honeydew, that aren’t called cantaloupe. > **[Muskmelon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskmelon)** > > Muskmelon may refer to: > **[Cantaloupe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantaloupe)** > > The cantaloupe (also spelled cantaloup and cantelope; /ˈkæn.tə.loʊp/, KAN-tə-lohp or /ˈkæn.tə.luːp/, KAN-tə-loop) is a type of true melon (Cucumis melo) with sweet, aromatic, and usually orange flesh. Originally, cantaloup referred to the true cantaloupe or European cantaloupe with non- to slightly netted and often ribbed rind. Today, it also refers to the muskmelon with strongly netted rind, which is called cantaloupe in North America (hence the name American cantaloupe), rockmelon in A The nam... ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/46 "2007-06-18T21:42:46Z")
[QUOTE=Terminus Est] Beg pardon? Cantaloupe refers to one of two (quite different) varieties of muskmelon: the European cantaloupe _Cucumis melo cantalupensis_, which has a smooth skin, and the North American cantaloupe _Cucumis melo reticulatus_, which has a rough netted skin. There are other varieties of muskmelon, such as honeydew, that aren’t called cantaloupe. > **[Muskmelon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskmelon)** > > Muskmelon may refer to: > **[Cantaloupe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantaloupe)** > > The cantaloupe (also spelled cantaloup and cantelope; /ˈkæn.tə.loʊp/, KAN-tə-lohp or /ˈkæn.tə.luːp/, KAN-tə-loop) is a type of true melon (Cucumis melo) with sweet, aromatic, and usually orange flesh. Originally, cantaloup referred to the true cantaloupe or European cantaloupe with non- to slightly netted and often ribbed rind. Today, it also refers to the muskmelon with strongly netted rind, which is called cantaloupe in North America (hence the name American cantaloupe), rockmelon in A The nam... [/QUOTE] I get my information from a higher source: [QUOTE=Alton Brown] Do you remember the last time that you bit into a really juicy, sweet, succulent cantaloupe? Well I’m willing to bet that unless you spend a good bit of time in Europe, you never have. Because this is not a cantaloupe, it’s a musk melon, or 1 of about 8 hybrid musk melons that are sold as cantaloupes here in the United States. Now do you want to see a real cantaloupe? Well, go to France because I can’t get one in the United States and I’ve got friends in pretty high places. It doesn’t seem to matter. Now I’m sorry to kind of pull a fast one on you, but it just goes to prove that melons are a little bit of a mystery to most of us. [/QUOTE] [http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm](http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/47 "2007-06-18T21:48:10Z")
Wow, what a great thread! I really love it. I never knew about the pineapple thing. This is a great use of our collective experiences. I always found it weird about people confusing Holland and Scandinavia! This idea that Copenhagen is the capital of Holland? Never got it. I seem to always remember having it somewhat straight. I didn’t know that the majority of Denmark doesn’t live on Jutland, but rather the rest of the archipelago. I have a lot of words that I had always read but never knew how to say. I seriously just thought over it for a few minutes and I simply can’t remember a good example…Sorry, maybe I’ll get one later. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/48 "2007-06-18T21:50:13Z")
Until this thread, I had no idea that the terms _Mississippi Delta_ and the _Mississippi River Delta_ refer to [two completely different things](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Delta_%28disambiguation%29). ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/49 "2007-06-18T22:02:51Z")
[QUOTE=StinkyBurrito] I thought the Washington Redskins were from Washington state until I was about 25. [/QUOTE] A few months ago several of us found out that the Colts football team moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis _over twenty years ago._ Within the last year I found out that Bundt is a brand name, not merely a particular shape of cake pan. I am really, really lucky that I didn’t go ahead and bet my friend $500 over it, as I was seriously thinking of doing. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/50 "2007-06-18T22:16:07Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I get my information from a higher source: [http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm](http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm) [/QUOTE] On further research, it seems the USDA-ARS NGRS Germplasm Resources Information Network has merged _reticulatus_ with _cantalupensis_: [http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?12566](http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?12566) > [@](#): > > **Taxon** : _Cucumis melo_ L. subsp. _melo_ var. _cantalupensis_ Naudin > > **Common names** : > [ul] > [li] cantaloupe (Source: Cucurb.Gen.C. 14:43.)[/li][li] muskmelon (Source: Cucurb.Gen.C. 14:43.)[/li][li] netted melon (Source: Hortus 3 as C. melo Reticulatus Group)[/li][li] nutmeg melon (Source: Hortus 3 as C. melo Reticulatus Group)[/li][li] Persian melon (Source: Hortus 3 as C. melo Reticulatus Group)[/li][li] rock melon (Source: Econ Pl Aust ) [Australia][/li][li] mélon (Source: Dict Rehm ) [French][/li][li] Zuckermelone (Source: Dict Rehm ) [German][/li][li] melão (Source: Dict Rehm ) [Portuguese][/li][/ul] > > **Synonyms** : > [ul] > [li] _Cucumis melo_ var. _reticulatus_ Naudin[/li][/ul] See also Mansfeld’s World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops [http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/Mansfeld/Taxonomy/datenvoll.afp?module=mf&source=botnam&taxid=3670&akzanz=0&rehm=0](http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/Mansfeld/Taxonomy/datenvoll.afp?module=mf&source=botnam&taxid=3670&akzanz=0&rehm=0) > [@](#): > > **Accepted name** : _Cucumis melo_ subsp. _melo_ Cantaloupe Group > > **Common names** : > > E. Cantaloupe > E. Cantaloupe melon > E. musk melons > Fr. melon cantaloup > G. Kantalupe > Russ. канталупка [kantalupka] ---
**Author:** ![lobstermobster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobstermobster/32/10033_2.png) [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/51 "2007-06-18T22:24:13Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] My boyfriend knows a woman who was a full grown adult when she found out that seahorses are real. She thought they were mythical, like unicorns and mermaids. [/QUOTE] I was the same way about reindeer. Santa is mythical, elves are mythical, reindeer just seemed to be part of that. My boyfriend is Finnish and had to tell me about the reindeer in Lapland. Apparently Santa lives there too so I was wrong about that as well. A lot other misconceptions are biological. Surprisingly enough enough I became a molecular biology major. Perhaps to settle things once and for all. I grew up in a house with just my mom and my older sister so I was easily convinced by my sister many things about the male anatomy. She told me men could tie their penises in knots, hop on them like pogo sticks and others I cant remember. I thought the word “castrated” meant the same as “circumcised” so when the Heaven’s Gate story broke I was like, “why are they making such a big deal about the castration…isn’t that completely normal in this country?” I didn’t realize for a very long time that women have a urethra in addition to a vagina. I also thought that menstruation could be “held” like urine and that feminine sanitation products were just for the lazy. Wow thats a weird one. Sorry that mine had to be the grossest post ever. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/52 "2007-06-18T22:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=Telperien] You’re kidding me. [/QUOTE] I lived across a four-lane highway across from one of those fields. I can assure you it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/53 "2007-06-18T22:55:55Z")
Yes, Yes, The old MS Delta, and MS River Delta. Technically it’s called the Yazoo Mississippi River Delta, as that’s the river between which it lies. I’m surprised most people would even know much about it at all, to be honest. And about the whole urethra thing?! I don’t know, i’m not a girl, but for a guy the feeling in the urethra is pretty clear. Could you seriously not distinguish the difference between your urethra and vagina? ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/54 "2007-06-18T23:00:55Z")
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe] And about the whole urethra thing?! I don’t know, i’m not a girl, but for a guy the feeling in the urethra is pretty clear. Could you seriously not distinguish the difference between your urethra and vagina? [/QUOTE] Remember, we can’t see the region in question without a very specifically aimed mirror. It’s all just “down there”, especially when you’re little and don’t think to look. I was told the basic mechanics from a young age, but I didn’t realize that there was a second hole where babies and sex came from until I was 9 or so. I thought that there was just the urethra, and that it would get bigger when I got older, big enough for the penis to go in and the baby to come out. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/55 "2007-06-18T23:22:25Z")
Pineapple growing on a pineapple plant: [http://www.deadprogrammer.com/?p=1806](http://www.deadprogrammer.com/?p=1806) Pineapples in pineapple field: [http://img2.travelblog.org/Photos/5144/14168/f/61749-Dole-Pineapple-Plantations-0.jpg](http://img2.travelblog.org/Photos/5144/14168/f/61749-Dole-Pineapple-Plantations-0.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/56 "2007-06-18T23:42:42Z")
Due to reading one and hearing the other, I was past high school and still thinking that subtle and “suttle” were subtly related words. We will draw a merciful veil of silence over my first attempt to use ideosyncrasies in a spoken sentence. It wasn’t pretty. ---
**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 18, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/57 "2007-06-18T23:47:32Z")
[QUOTE=lobstermobster] I was the same way about reindeer. Santa is mythical, elves are mythical, reindeer just seemed to be part of that. My boyfriend is Finnish and had to tell me about the reindeer in Lapland. Apparently Santa lives there too so I was wrong about that as well. [/QUOTE] But you do know that the reindeer can’t really fly, don’t you…? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Thru\_the\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a8b319/32.png) [@Thru\_the\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thru_the_Blue)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/58 "2007-06-19T00:08:43Z")
Most recent example: There are two baseball teams in NYC. The other memorable one is the whole Jesus thing. I honestly didn’t get it until I was about 21. Even to this day, I’m a little fuzzy on the chain of events. I definitely didn’t know about the Holy Ghost until my junior in college history course. Didn’t really figure out who Mohammad was until the same course. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/59 "2007-06-19T00:26:11Z")
I think I will always be befuddled by pineapples. It’s just wrong. They should hang from trees like… giant strawberries or something. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/60 "2007-06-19T00:48:39Z")
Thank you for all of the pineapple pics but I am also offended by the way they grow. As for the whole urethra/vagina thing, count me in too. I was 10 or 11 when I overheard some of the boys in the schoolyard talking about how “girls had three holes down there”. Whoa. Don’t forget some of us were raised in households where it was considered \*anathema \*to look. I just didn’t know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=4)