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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How to make the gas pump itself at the pump by clicking that switch on the handle.

To be fair, many states don't allow them and thus you may not have seen them everywhere!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

I didn’t know. I’ll check next time I’m in car!

To be fair, manufacturers started doing this in the last decade. My 2002 Honda does not have the gas tank arrow.

[Anonymous]

That it's astigmatism and "a stigmatism."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That a "yamaka" and a yarmulke are the same thing. I just thought I had never seen "yamaka" written out.

Dh thought “epitome” was pronounced ep-ih-tohm, and didn’t realize it was the same word that we all pronounce as ee-pit-oh-me.

[Anonymous]

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

me too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That a "yamaka" and a yarmulke are the same thing. I just thought I had never seen "yamaka" written out.

Dh thought “epitome” was pronounced ep-ih-tohm, and didn’t realize it was the same word that we all pronounce as ee-pit-oh-me.

I had an English teacher who would praise us for mispronouncing words like that. She said it was a sign that we were reading lots of challenging books

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After living in Boston for 10 years, my mom still didn't know that when the radio announcer talked about the weather on the "Cape and islands", they were talking about Cape Code and Nantucket & Martha's Vineyard.

She thought they were talking about the "Capon Islands" -- she actually thought there were some chicken-shaped islands somewhere off the coast of MA.

[Anonymous]

How to drive. I was 33 when I got my license. And I'm still absolutely terrified behind the wheel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That realtor is not pronounced "real-uh-tor"

again, this is regional.

Jewelry and Realtor are pronounced differently depending on where you were raised.

Huh. I always just assumed that these were simply commonly mispronounced words, rather than words with multiple pronunciations that are considered correct. Like mixing up the vowels in “nuclear” by pronouncing it “nook-you-lar.”

[Anonymous]

What an advent calendar is. I bought a few at Costco the other year without really looking at it, thinking it was cute and I could give it out as part of bday presents.... for birthdays of my kids’ friends from their Jewish preschool. Whoops! The first mom was like, thaaaaanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That a "yamaka" and a yarmulke are the same thing. I just thought I had never seen "yamaka" written out.

Dh thought “epitome” was pronounced ep-ih-tohm, and didn’t realize it was the same word that we all pronounce as ee-pit-oh-me.

I've heard several adults say it this way - it seems rude to correct but I also feel like I don't want them to embaras themselves

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know until my 30s that the sticker you get when you check a bag is your baggage check claim. I thought they were just handing you back trash to dispose of. Obviously I learned my lesson when my suitcase was lost and they asked me for the check claim and I didn’t have it. I don’t know how I never learned about that considering I traveled with my family growing up.

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

In your defense, the claim check may have changed since you were growing up. It used to be a cardstock tag that they stapled to the envelope your ticket came in. Now that doesn't really exist with mobile boarding passes.

In some airports you can track your luggage with an app. No more stickers, barcodes, or the like.

[Anonymous]

I didn't know that when pumping gas the gas would stop when the tank was full. The first time I pumped gas with my dad he had me put in $10 so that's what I always did. It was a couple years into driving when I complained about my $10 going from filling the whole tank to half the tank and my friends busted out laughing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 17 year old recently informed me that up until a few weeks ago, she thought Martha's Vineyard was the personal estate of Martha Stewart.

I worry.

It isn't?