# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![RunSilent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/101 "2007-06-19T11:59:49Z")
I was well into adulthood before I finally realized that people lie… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/102 "2007-06-19T12:00:44Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] a) When George Washington crossed the Delaware River, he and his troops were going _eastward_. For some reason, all the pictures I’ve ever seen of the even have him going right-to-left… [/QUOTE] If a friend of mine with a PhD in Art is to be believed, that’s a traditional convention in Western art, the kind of thing that’s so common most people don’t even think about it. Movement is usually represented left to right; movement right-to-left is most commonly found when you have two opposing or simmetrical movements (two armies running to the field of battle, two parties joining); movement right-to-left by itself is often interpreted as violent movement even if nothing else in the picture indicates violence. Often when you see in a comic book a fist punching and a K-POW, the fist is coming up-and-left from the bottom-right corner… a whole figure punching will follow that same diagonal (the “primary” diagonal) rather than its opposite. This is after all the position you get if you’re drawing a punching rightie (most people) from behind - a punching leftie will follow the secondary diagonal. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/103 "2007-06-19T12:02:19Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] a) When George Washington crossed the Delaware River, he and his troops were going _eastward_. For some reason, all the pictures I’ve ever seen of the even have him going right-to-feft, which I interpreted as westward; and [/QUOTE] :eek: . . . And my dad lives not 20 minutes from there, too. I just never occurred to me that he was going east, 'cause, you’re right! He’s going from right to left! That’s West, right? I mean, left? I mean…ow. I think I sprained my brain. _head asplodes_ ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/104 "2007-06-19T12:08:12Z")
Oh, I only found out about two years ago that maps haven’t always been drawn with North on top. We were visiting a museum in Corella (Spain); they had several XVII-century military maps of the area, the kind that’s at a huge scale and indicates every single building larger than an outhouse. And it was kind of confusing, because Tudela should be to the right of Corella, right? Right! And Murchante should be further down, not further up! Then we realized the Star Of Winds in the corner indicated “north” as “bottom”. A Pérez-Reverte book taught me about a time when maps would use as their zero either the Greenwich Meridian or the Cádiz Meridian or the Paris Meridian - but often not say which one they were referencing. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/105 "2007-06-19T12:11:24Z")
Until I was most of the way through a physics degree and had several years working in industry, I believed wooden utility poles had air conditioners inside to keep the pole itself cool on hot summer days. My father told me this when I was maybe 5 or so, and I didn’t think of it again until I was walking past one and heard it faintly humming (no doubt it had a transformer at the top). I thought about that air conditioner inside, and then thought “Now wait a minute…” ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/106 "2007-06-19T13:17:59Z")
[QUOTE=DLuxN8R-13] When I was nine, I didn’t just believe in Santa Claus… the notion that he wasn’t a real person had simply never crossed my mind. […] I decided I’d prove them wrong once and for all – by showing them his entry in the World Book Encyclopedia. […]I actually _grieved_ for a week or more, like Santa was someone real who I loved dearly who’d just died.. [/QUOTE] _WAAAAHH_ I suspect this may happen to my oldest daughter this year ☹ ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/107 "2007-06-19T13:39:44Z")
I don’t know how to pronounce these names: Ariadne Maeve I say Ari-anne and Mave. Am I the biggest goofball? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/108 "2007-06-19T13:41:04Z")
I can’t believe you guys didn’t know about pineapples!! Seriously - go to the grocery store today. Buy a whole pineapple. Cut the top off, the part with the leaves. _Plant it_. It’ll grow into a pineapple plant and have a baby pineapple! It will be the cutest fruit ever. What _I_ didn’t know about pineapples is that that’s how they grow them industrially, too. It’s a huge amount of labor that has to be done by hand, and it takes _forever_ for them to grow, at least compared to a lot of agricultural products. When you think about how cheap pineapples are, you realize that somebody’s getting screwed big time. ---
**Author:** ![tbdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@tbdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbdi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/109 "2007-06-19T13:50:25Z")
[QUOTE=Martha] A colleague kept on using “alas” to mean “I’m delighted to inform you that…” - as in - “Alas, here is the long-awaited report on the XYZ project”. [/QUOTE] I bet they were confusing it with “At last”. [QUOTE=Martha] I used to add an extra syllable to “interesting” - inTEResting - until my drama teacher taught me to say “intristing” at the age of 17. [/QUOTE] As far as I know both are “correct”.; at least I’ve heard and used both all my life. When I was 5 or 6 I thought “the sky” was a layer _exactly_ 1 mile up and that the clouds bumped up against it. ---
**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 19, 2007, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/110 "2007-06-19T13:56:09Z")
[QUOTE=jali] I don’t know how to pronounce these names: Ariadne Maeve I say Ari-anne and Mave. Am I the biggest goofball? [/QUOTE] I say, “Air-ee-add-nee” and “May-eve”. Or rather, that’s what I would say if I ever spoke them. I don’t know anyone with those names and I have never heard them pronounced out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/111 "2007-06-19T13:59:00Z")
I pronounced the “w” in “Sword” until high school. I was laughing at all you goofballs with your ignorance. Then I thought, “I might have just as many misconceptions. I just don’t know _which ones_ they are!” ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/112 "2007-06-19T13:59:26Z")
[QUOTE=Martha] I also used to say “part of the course” instead of “par for the course”. Hopefully no-one ever noticed. [/QUOTE] It wasn’t my mistake but I giggle every thing I think of it. One morning on the _Today_ show they were talking about misunderstood expressions. Katie Couric said that for a long time she thought the Beatles’ song about_The Girl With Kalaidascope Eyes_ was about _The Girl With Colitis Goes By._ ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/113 "2007-06-19T14:00:19Z")
[QUOTE=jali] I say Ari-anne and Mave. Am I the biggest goofball? [/QUOTE] Ariadne is air-ee-ad-nee, and Maeve does indeed rhyme with brave. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/114 "2007-06-19T14:09:44Z")
Ponies are not baby horses. I’m not going to say how old I was when I realized that, just that I was chatting with a guy who apparently owns horses or something, and things got _very_ embarrassing _very_ quickly. ---
**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 19, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/115 "2007-06-19T14:15:31Z")
[QUOTE=NinjaChick] Ponies are not baby horses. I’m not going to say how old I was when I realized that, just that I was chatting with a guy who apparently owns horses or something, and things got _very_ embarrassing _very_ quickly. [/QUOTE] I didn’t know that until a couple of months ago, and I read it here. It’s not surprising; I have very little contact with ponies or horses, so why would I have known? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/116 "2007-06-19T14:18:30Z")
I never knew until recently that sunspots resemble a human face. ---
**Author:** ![pprgrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f6c823/32.png) [@pprgrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pprgrl)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/117 "2007-06-19T14:23:44Z")
You know the whole “Half the people in the world are below average/median intellegence” thing? Yeah, totally didn’t get that until I read it on this board about a month or so ago. I really believed that the majority of humans were at least of average, if not higher, intellegence. And I took college statistics, so I really have no excuse for not figuring that one out sooner. Oh well, that explains a lot. [Grandma’s Pineapple.](http://www.flickr.com/photos/9155794@N08/) She’s been growing it on her front porch for about three years now and it finally put out a fruit this summer. We were both very excited when it finally happened - I’ve been hearing weekly updates about the pineapple plant for the last three years. When it gets big enough to pick I’m gonna cry and cry, 'cause it’s just the cutest little baby pineapple in the world. No way I’m going to be able to eat it. I think I’m going to plant the top after Grandma eats it (if she doesn’t keep it for herself!) so the baby pineapple can live on. ---
**Author:** ![mhairi2222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee7513/32.png) [@mhairi2222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhairi2222)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/118 "2007-06-19T14:28:16Z")
My SO believed until a few months ago, that the water marks on the hulls of ships were from the tide going in and out, and not from their cargo load varying making them sit higher/lower in the water. (he’s 29) To be fair, I didn’t have to tell him the real reason in the end, when I asked him to think about what he was saying, it did click after a few minutes, what was actually going on. My turn to be mortified… Also until a few months ago, I had it in my head that a real wheel drive car was powered by an electric wire running from the engine under the bonnet, to the back wheels…hmmmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/119 "2007-06-19T14:49:45Z")
[QUOTE=jali] I say [snip]Mave. Am I the biggest goofball? [/QUOTE] That sounds about right - be glad you haven’t encountered it spelled [otherwise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medb). I must have been 18 when I discovered (via _Wildlife on One_) how to pronounce _Anemone_. At least I was then prepared for _Hermione_! ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477/120 "2007-06-19T15:03:14Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] The Mason-Dixon Line is the northern boundary of _Maryland_, not the northern boundary of North Carolina and Tennessee. [/QUOTE] I learned this just last winter, as I was reading Thomas Pynchon’s “Mason & dixon” for a graduate lit class. I’m 55. You never stop learning. My mother was in her 40s when she learned that Spain was not right next to Mexico, and that the Spaniards had to sail across the Atlantic to explore the Americas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-wrong-stuff-you-believed-to-an-embarrassingly-advanced-age/408477.md?page=7)