# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/141 "2025-08-08T13:54:46Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > I carry a pocket knife. It is useful for opening packaging. I am the last person on earth that knows how to press the little spring to close a folding knife My pocket knife doesn’t have one. Many of them don’t. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/142 "2025-08-08T14:38:12Z")
> [@sunacres](#): > > Presumably you weren’t listening to them on the radio - didn’t every Top 40 radio station in the 60’s sponsor a “Battle of the Bands”? No idea, but I don’t think the country stations I listened to did. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/143 "2025-08-08T15:15:21Z")
Those that don’t are dangerous. These days all my carry knives have locking blades, most with liner locks. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/144 "2025-08-08T16:59:51Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > [@SCAdian](#): > > > > I couldn’t have, but after reading this thread I’ll say it’s about a family of Okies named Joad who move to California. > > While not wrong in the broadest of strokes, that makes it sound like a Chevy Chase vehicle or a knock-off of _The Beverly Hillbillies_. > > Stranger What’s more disturbing is that if you are a Boomer that grew up in California, you went to school with Okies and Arkies. It takes a profound level of willful ignorance to never have been curious as to why you called some of your classmates Okies. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/145 "2025-08-08T17:17:39Z")
My grandson was going to get his learner’s permit, but had no idea how to write his name. His mother had to show him cursive and have him practice how to sign. I do understand that in a digital world, nearly everything is done on a screen, but at some point in your life you are quite probably going to have actually sign a piece of paper. They should at least teach that much in school. I also had a fun moment with a saleswoman at Sears who had no idea what Velcro is. Even when I described it and imitated the sound it makes. Clueless. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/146 "2025-08-08T18:07:15Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > I considered saying “flee to California” – would that have been better? That at least gets some notion as to the urgency of their voyage. But a more accurate summary is that they are fleeing Oklahoma because of environmental crises (the erosion-driven “Dust Bowl” due to poor dryland cultivation processes compounded by drought) and economic hardship (meager crop yields, overleveraged on mortgages, the Great Depression) and migrated overland to California only to find themselves as unwelcomed immigrants who were exploited both by business owners and the most powerful of their own fellow refugees, having to resort to violence and crime to survive, and ultimately splitting up the Joad family but still revealing compassion and a willingness by those who had the least to share in what they have. I remember reading this in ninth grade with students who, of course, had no memory of the Great Depression (nor, likely, their Boomer parents) or the hardships that people in the pre-electrification and modern transportation systems had to bear as a matter of course. Students considered it ‘boring’ and ‘old-fashioned’, which is ironic considering how very pertinent the story it is today in facing not only regional but global climate-driven emergencies and migrations, with the resulting prejudice and fear driving conflicts. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/147 "2025-08-08T18:24:31Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Seriously, I don’t think I ever heard them called “bands” before the last ten years or so. Just like the term “albums” for LPs came from the literal albums based on photo albums use to house the many shellac disks needed for a long classical piece, the term “bands” for rock groups came from marching bands, big bands, the groups that played on bandstands, etc. Dick Clark’s _American Bandstand_ took its name from that era. (Do any young people know him or his tv show? It only lasted 34 years.) There are of course times when reference to a band rather than a group is necessary, but the two terms have been mostly interchangeable in the rock world since there’s been a rock world. Age has its advantages but also pitfalls. I was a fan of Spalding Gray. I saw him live once and read his books. But until this thread I totally forgot about his mysterious death. And don’t ask me about modern music. Oh yeah, I’m another one who never heard the term “Hiroshima Day” before. That I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/148 "2025-08-08T18:30:31Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Those that don’t are dangerous. Quite common, however. You do have to remember how to use them. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/149 "2025-08-08T19:36:58Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > I carry a pocket knife. It is useful for opening packaging. I am the last person on earth that knows how to press the little spring to close a folding knife. Just this morning, my wife asked to borrow my EDC knife. I handed it to her, and then a few seconds later, she asked, “How do you _open_ this?” She figured it out pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/150 "2025-08-08T23:32:37Z")
> [@sunacres](#): > > didn’t every Top 40 radio station in the 60’s sponsor a “Battle of the Bands”? Maybe your low-brow stations. The quality stations had Conflagration of the Musical Ensembles. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/151 "2025-08-09T00:17:00Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My grandson was going to get his learner’s permit, but had no idea how to write his name. His mother had to show him cursive and have him practice how to sign That is truly mind-blowing. Are we going to have to go back to people making their mark with an “X”? ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/152 "2025-08-09T02:15:43Z")
As a teacher, I see very often kids that cannot write or read cursive. On a different note, a few years ago, my sister-in-law had to walk her son through how to address an envelope. He was in college. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/153 "2025-08-09T02:22:34Z")
It’s all relative. I proudly cannot tie a tie. The need for it has been relegated to a narrow range of specific situations that I just don’t involve myself in. ---
**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 9, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/154 "2025-08-09T02:25:22Z")
I know someone born on 12/7. A close someone. In an age group that should know. He was shocked to find out there was a “Pearl Harbor” day. Ding ding ding. Wake up! ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/155 "2025-08-09T02:30:32Z")
I see reviews on Amazon all the time where people give an item a _1-star_ rating and then sing its praises in their review. ~~Too dumb to know that~~ Not realizing that a _5-star_ rating is the highest one and _1-star_ basically means the item is crap. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/156 "2025-08-09T02:39:51Z")
And yet DEFCON 1 is the highest danger and DEFCON 5 is the lowest. We’ve never gone to DEFCON 1. We’re at DEFCON 5 right now, because that’s what normal is defined at. Almost everybody seems to get this wrong when they use it as a metaphor because it feels wrong, even though it’s a countdown to war and countdowns are widely known. Or used to be. Do kids still do countdowns? ---
**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 9, 2025, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/157 "2025-08-09T03:13:20Z")
Yes. They do countdowns about everything. The swings on the playground. They have to count out 10 down to 1, then it’s their turn. My grandkids find the most ridiculous things to “3, 2, 1 go!” ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/158 "2025-08-09T03:50:23Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > “Acorns come from oaks?” Well, I guess this means I should have been less gobsmacked when a sixth-grade friend of my daughter’s, in a Gifted and Talented program, with two older sisters, didn’t know that dill pickles were made from cucumbers. I think I’m less surprised by folks not knowing cultural references, like Hiroshima, which I’d think are easy to miss; but FFS, they’re obviously cucumbers. So she’s not noticing things around her, which is (to me, anyway) scarier. ---
**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 9, 2025, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/159 "2025-08-09T04:30:49Z")
Kids don’t have a notion where food comes from, except the grocery store. Someone has to teach it. You don’t have to grow a huge garden. Show them fields. Go to a farm. A farmers market. Get a book. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800/160 "2025-08-09T04:45:38Z")
If you go to an ordinary produce section and pick up a fresh cucumber, it looks nothing like a typical pickle and tastes even farther away. It doesn’t help that jars of pickled cucumbers don’t normality say that, just “pickles.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youd-think-everyone-would-know-about/1021800.md?page=9)