What commonly known thing did you learn at an embarrassingly older age?

[Anonymous]

When I was 11 and my brother was 3, I was helping my mom give him a bath. He looked down at his penis, then at me, then asked my mom, “Does Larla have a penis?” And I said, “Yes, silly, of course!” I had never heard the word penis and thought it must have meant genitals. My mom looked alarmed.

[Anonymous]

My coworker once was reading out loud from a work related policy manual in an attempt to school us. She was a piece of work. and would often declare we were doing things incorrectly while using policy to prove her point... But she always interpreting in wrong. So when she went on a 10 minute lecture reading, pronouncing "compromise" as "com-promise" over and over and over, nobody corrected her and from then on I have a hard time saying compromise instead of com-promise.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t know until I went on vacation to London with my husband and 3 elementary aged kids that the London Bridge is in Arizona, not London.

[Anonymous]

The difference between capital and Capitol. I went out in the first round of a school spelling bee because I confused the two (I was so mad), and when I moved to DC in my twenties I still had to think hard about the spelling of Capitol Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know until I went on vacation to London with my husband and 3 elementary aged kids that the London Bridge is in Arizona, not London.

Go back and try again.

[Anonymous]

That I was my mother's favorite! When my mother died my sister told me this and I'm sure it had to do to my being born with a really bad disability. I guess she felt guilty in some way but thanks to my mom I really overcame it. But I was one of five and she spread the love so I was clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That I was my mother's favorite! When my mother died my sister told me this and I'm sure it had to do to my being born with a really bad disability. I guess she felt guilty in some way but thanks to my mom I really overcame it. But I was one of five and she spread the love so I was clueless.

^^ My other siblings said the same thing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How to pump gas but in my defense I am from NJ

This comment reminded me of something I recently learned:

That there is a little arrow by your gas gauge on your dashboard that tells you what side of the car the gas tank is on. Who knew!

YES - I didn't learn this until maybe 5 years ago. My husband didn't know either. It has been SO helpful on vacations!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to love the movie Dirty Dancing when I was a kid. I had NO IDEA that Penny’s character was getting some back room abortion. The whole time they kept saying, “Penny is in trouble.” I had no idea what that meant.

It was only when I was watching the movie in grad school when it finally clicked and I was like, “holy hell!”

Me too! I thought she was in trouble because she couldn't dance because she was sick.

Also, the Breakfast Club. I had only seen the network tv version, so I had no idea they were high when they were dancing around the library!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these remind me of a story from a sommelier I used to work with.

A customer looked at the very expensive wine list, and then ordered the "cor-CAHJ". Confused at first, the sommelier then smiled and said they were all out, and steered them towards the cheapest wine they had. The customer had likely been looking for the cheapest item, and saw that the CORKAGE fee was $15, and tried to order it.

I ordered a bouillabaisse and the server brought out the rouille and toast first, which I ate thinking it was appetizer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know until I went on vacation to London with my husband and 3 elementary aged kids that the London Bridge is in Arizona, not London.

Go back and try again.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This isn’t mine, but my mother’s. She is very proper. To give an example, she addresses birthday cards to male children as “Master John Doe.” That level of proper. She has never, nor would she ever, utter something as crass as the F word. That’s what makes this hysterical. At some point in her life, she heard the phrase “shot his wad,” and had no idea what that referred to. She interpreted it as “he gave his all,” so she would occasionally describe someone who had put in grueling hours at work and she would say, “He has really just shot his wad.” The first time I heard her say this, I was too shocked and horrified to respond. The second time, a year or so later, I could barely keep myself from laughing out loud, and decided it was my dad’s duty to speak up, so I didn’t say anything. The third time, a couple years later, Mom even referred to a woman “shooting her wad.” At that point, it occurred to me that Dad wasn’t correcting her (surely he knows what it means, right?!), and that she was probably uttering this phrase to people outside of our family, since she was so clearly unfamiliar with its meaning. I steeled my nerves, sat her down and explained it to her. It was so awkward for me that I don’t even remember how she reacted.

You need to look up the origin of this saying. It's NOT sexual.


NP: It's not?? I'm afraid to google for further confirmation at work...

Go ahead and Google. It goes back to the days of muzzle loaded guns.

Yeah, sorry OP but your mom probably laughed so hard after you had your "talk" with her, thinking what a dumbass she raised!

https://people.com/politics/orrin-hatch-shot-their-wad-definition-twitter/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well into my 30's, I thought vanilla/strawberry/chocolate ice cream was "napoleon flavored" until realizing it was actually Neapolitan. Oops

Me too! I also thought there were two versions- chocolate/strawberry/vanilla, and chocolate/cherry/pistachio. Only later did I realize they had different names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That it's astigmatism and "a stigmatism."

me too!

This raises an interesting spinoff. Do you correct your spouse when they say something like this? I do, because I don’t want others to think less of my spouse. However, I appreciate it can be viewed as patronizing. I always struggle whether to say something.

I say something. For example, DH couldn’t pronounce pterodactyl or gestures. I didn’t want my kid to learn how to say it the wrong way. He fixed the firnet, but the latter is such an engrained habit that he can’t break it. His mom mispronounces it in the same way.

[Anonymous]

That men invented basically zero computer innovations, Bluetooth, WiFi, GUI, Mouse and on-line shopping invented by women