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

[Anonymous]

Dated a girl in college who was working on a lengthy report about euthanasia. I literally thought she was writing about youths in Asia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew a grown man who thought that if you had most of the buildings and population concentrated on one side of an island, it would tip over.

And he's partially right. Land does sink. Venice is sinking. Also, the entire eastern seaboard is sinking at a rate of 1" per decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew a grown man who thought that if you had most of the buildings and population concentrated on one side of an island, it would tip over.

And he's partially right. Land does sink. Venice is sinking. Also, the entire eastern seaboard is sinking at a rate of 1" per decade.

Yeah...that’s not the same as someone thinking an island is just floating on top of water, and too much weight on one side will make it tip over. This guy did not understand that islands are land all the way down under the water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew a grown man who thought that if you had most of the buildings and population concentrated on one side of an island, it would tip over.

And he's partially right. Land does sink. Venice is sinking. Also, the entire eastern seaboard is sinking at a rate of 1" per decade.

Yeah...that’s not the same as someone thinking an island is just floating on top of water, and too much weight on one side will make it tip over. This guy did not understand that islands are land all the way down under the water.

But did you know odd numbered interstates run north/south and even numbered ones run East/west

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I married my husband he didn’t know Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday.

My dh too. Every few years, he asks me "What day is Thanksgiving on this year?"

It’s not just a Thursday. It’s rule is it’s always on either the third or fourth Thursday of November, I can’t remember which.

last Thursday in november

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew a grown man who thought that if you had most of the buildings and population concentrated on one side of an island, it would tip over.

You know Hank Johnson?

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tipping-point/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The saying that "It's always in the last place you look" is literal. It's the last place because you found it! Don't know why that never clicked for me.

NP I don't interpret it this way. I think of it as the last place you would look because you don't think it would be there. For example, my kids don't hang up their coats and when they are running around looking for them the last place we would look is in the closet! But, sometimes it is there so it is the last place we would have looked!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I married my husband he didn’t know Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday.

My dh too. Every few years, he asks me "What day is Thanksgiving on this year?"

It’s not just a Thursday. It’s rule is it’s always on either the third or fourth Thursday of November, I can’t remember which.

last Thursday in november

No, fourth Thursday in November. It's never been on the 29th or 30th, which could be the last Thursday. It's never been on a day between the 15th and 21st, which could be the third Thursday.

Someone mentioned not knowing how many days in February. My mom had a trick for remembering which months have 31 days. You name them off using your knuckles and the space between your knuckles. Knuckle of little finger is January, the space between it and the ring finger is February, and so on. When you get to the Knuckle of the index finger (July) you go to the index finger of the other hand, which is August, and continue to December.

[Anonymous]

I didn't realize that Apple's clock icon displays the actual time until a celeb mentioned it on social media.

[Anonymous]

That the term porch monkey is racist.

I grew up in a very white area. Went to college and had some (white) neighbors who would hang out on their stoop and be loud and obnoxious, so I referred to them as porch monkeys. My friends were appalled until they realized I was just ignorant and nor racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew a grown man who thought that if you had most of the buildings and population concentrated on one side of an island, it would tip over.

And he's partially right. Land does sink. Venice is sinking. Also, the entire eastern seaboard is sinking at a rate of 1" per decade.

But it’s not flipping over.

[Anonymous]

I was super late to learn just how much the college process is money related.

Hard work by the student is critical, but the money part is such a huge role. (I am not taking about the poor performing exception kid who gets in due to legacy/donor.)

My awesome young cousins worked hard and attended elite SLACs. My child had similar stats that gained admittance.

This is great and an achievement on all counts (no hooks).

But, here is the difference that I learned late: Great academic achievement and scores intersect with family income to determine the outcome.

Our family makes just above the amount resulting in less aid, making many schools too expensive. We’ve made a financial decision and I am confident my kid will do fine and thrive at the local state school.

My cousins family could pay full freight and their kids graduated from upper tier SLACs.

So when parents are like “yay, kid is going to/graduated from school X.” Unless earned as a full ride, the families don’t add “good thing we make $Y to have made it a reality.”

The dumb part is my older sister encountered this exact scenario in 1990s, but somehow I didn’t really get it.

Wish I’d learned earlier. Duh.

[Anonymous]

I was in my 40s before I realized that couscous is pasta.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I married my husband he didn’t know Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday.

My dh too. Every few years, he asks me "What day is Thanksgiving on this year?"

It’s not just a Thursday. It’s rule is it’s always on either the third or fourth Thursday of November, I can’t remember which.

last Thursday in november

Almost - Last Thursday of the last full week in November.

[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.

Oh my gosh!!!! This is so freaking hilarious!!!