# You'd think everyone would know about **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2025, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800 "2025-08-07T06:44:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/361 "2025-08-15T19:40:52Z")
This happened two days ago. To put things in perspective, my wife and I are in our 70s and we both have college degrees from liberal arts colleges. We are both voracious readers. We see an article about somebody finding Robert Burns’ flute. Her: Who’s Robert Burns? Me: You know…the poet. Oh, my luve is like a red, red rose…. Her: Who? Me: Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. Sort of THE Scottish poet. As in a Burns Supper. Her: A what supper? Me: A Burns Supper. You know, haggis on his birthday and reciting poetry. Her: I have no idea what you’re talking about. In all fairness, she did not study literature in college, but neither did I and I certainly recognize Robert Burns (at least his name and some poetry). Nothing wrong with her not knowing of him, but I was pretty shocked. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/362 "2025-08-15T19:45:33Z")
I thought of this thread today when a lady at work said she didn’t know if Mr. Spock was from Star Trek or Star Wars. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/363 "2025-08-15T19:51:21Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. This I knew. > [@ZonexandScout](#): > > A Burns Supper. You know, haggis on his birthday and reciting poetry. This I’ve never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/364 "2025-08-15T19:55:53Z")
I know nothing about most of the popular music mentioned in this thread, but this I can help you with. > **[Address to a Haggis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_to_a_Haggis)** > > Address to a Haggis is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1786. One of the more well-known Scottish poems, the title refers to the national dish of Scotland, haggis, which is a savoury pudding. The poem is most often recited at "Burns suppers", Scottish cultural events celebrating the life of Robert Burns. The assembly will stand as the haggis is brought in on a silver salver, preceded by a bagpiper. The host or a guest will then recite the poem while slicing open the haggis at t... ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/365 "2025-08-15T20:09:22Z")
Thanks, **Northern\_Piper**! My wife and I both had to suffer through English and English Lit classes through (US) high school. I would expect that she could name a few American, English, and Scottish poets. Heck, I’d expect to be able to name a couple French poets. It’s more about my personal expectations than anything else, I guess. But it surprised me. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/366 "2025-08-15T20:11:58Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. That one’s new to me, too! I don’t know many poets, though. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/367 "2025-08-15T20:15:30Z")
I know that there were Burns’ poems in at least two of my English lit books in junior high and high school. Maybe I just have a good memory for poets…. And it’s not like my wife and I are provincials. We’ve vacationed in Scotland twice, spending a week each time driving around. OK…I’ll shut up now. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/368 "2025-08-15T20:19:16Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > That one’s new to me, too! I don’t know many poets, though. Not familiar with this one? > [@](#): > > The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men > Gang aft agley Often quoted as: “The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry” It’s from “To a Mouse”: > **[To a Mouse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Mouse)** > > "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785" is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1785. It was included in the Kilmarnock Edition and all of the poet's later editions, such as the Edinburgh Edition. According to legend, Burns was ploughing in the fields at his Mossgiel Farm and accidentally destroyed a mouse's nest, which it needed to survive the winter. Burns's brother, Gilbert, claimed that the poet composed the poem while still holding Wee, sle... ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/369 "2025-08-15T20:34:41Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Me: Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. Sort of THE Scottish poet. Also the guy who wrote “Auld Lang Syne.” ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/370 "2025-08-15T20:37:14Z")
I think your expectations have an assumption built in, that there are certain books/poems/plays that everyone is exposed to in high school or college. I don’t remember every English class I took in high school and there was only one in college but I do know I avoided any class with “poetry” in the course name. I heard of Burns at some point in my life but I don’t know anything he wrote other than Auld Lang Syne ( which I just found out is his) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/371 "2025-08-15T20:44:09Z")
Heh.. you shoulda ask her about Dr. Spock. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/372 "2025-08-15T21:03:53Z")
We never got to read anything fun in AP English. I had to read all the fun stuff outside of class. And in college as a Spanish major I was reading mostly surrealist Spanish literature. Today, I read pretty broadly, but not much poetry. The last poetry book I read was _Japanese Death Poems,_ which are pretty cool. There are so many great authors to read I don’t think they can be fit into one lifetime. Every time I read a book, I remind myself I have a finite amount of books to read and this might be my last chance. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/373 "2025-08-15T21:27:04Z")
What can you do? Art is long, life is short. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/374 "2025-08-15T22:04:24Z")
I think it’s really sweet that guy wrote a poem to a mouse, though. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/375 "2025-08-15T22:14:43Z")
_I have eaten_ _the plums_ _that were in_ _the icebox_ _and which_ _you were probably_ _saving_ _for breakfast_ _Forgive me_ _they were delicious_ _so sweet_ _and so cold_ _ **William Carlos Williams, ‘This is Just to Say’.** _ (Most guys would either leave the plums alone, or scarf them down and live with the consequences. This response elevates the situation into the realm of poetry) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/376 "2025-08-15T22:19:38Z")
She can’t even be mad any more. Just impressed. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/377 "2025-08-15T22:22:13Z")
And hungry. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/378 "2025-08-16T00:29:31Z")
Like the Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie, ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/379 "2025-08-16T00:54:53Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I mentioned to a couple of the guys that we would be very close to the Hindenburg crash site. They had no idea what I was talking about. Dude, without the crash of the Hindenburg we wouldn’t have the first Led Zeppelin album! ---
**Author:** ![Hakushon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hakushon/32/5503_2.png) [@Hakushon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakushon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/380 "2025-08-16T01:25:02Z")
I was in the supermarket when a young woman–she couldn’t have been much older than 30, if that–approached me and started interrogating me (a la Jack Webb in Dragnet) about my phone, my phone company, my phone service, etc. She had an assistant with her, a kind of milquetoast looking man-boy, who never spoke, but carried a clipboard. After a minute or so of answering her rapid-fire barrage of questions, I finally said, “Look: I’m really happy with my current phone company, so it’s unlikely that I’m going to change anything. I probably shouldn’t waste anymore of your time.” (“Or mine,” I was thinking, but I didn’t say that last bit.) ”Oh, it’s never a waste of my time!” she said–and she seemed to be sincere. “I’m a people person,” she continued, “I love talking to people!” I eyed her skeptically, and thought, “Okay, let’s put that to the test…” ”Well, in that case,” I said, “I’m currently watching this very interesting documentary called _Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made_. It’s about these kids who try to re-shoot, on VHS tape, every scene from the movie _Raiders of the Lost Ark_.” She stared at me blankly and said, “I have no idea what that is.” I was flabbergasted! I mean, yeah the movie was made before she was born, but she hadn’t even _heard_ of it. _Citizen Kane_ was made before _I_ was born–not only had I _heard_ about it, but I had also actually _watched_ the whole thing. I tried again: “If I were to say, ‘Indiana Jones’…?” ”Oh yeah!” she said. “I know who Indiana Jones is.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800.md?page=20)