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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That you were supposed to tip your mail carrier at Christmas. I grew up with immigrant parents and can't remember them ever discussing/doing this - had no idea people did until I was an adult and in my own house.

And school bus driver.

and the people that pick up the trash and cleaning person

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 47 and still can't figure out how to work a bidet.

I don't think I've ever encountered one to even contemplate trying it. I sure wouldn't try it in a public restroom. How do you even learn to use one as an adult?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.”

NO, no, no -- "nook-you-lar" is just plain wrong! Not regional.

Nook - You - Lur IS regional! If you're from Texas, this is how you say it even though it is clearly spelled differently than it's being pronounced.

It may be regional . . . but it's still wrong. This is not a subjective question. Says a lot for the Texas educational system.

Oh, please. Why does every thread like this have to become an excuse to spread (untrue) stereotypes about another region? I used to work with the NUK-LE-AR industry, and I noticed that people from all parts of the country tend to pronounce the word "nook-you-lar." It is definitely not regional.

[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 became a member of Congress!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was 16 when I finally figured out that despite it being pictured in a box in the ocean all by itself on maps the way Hawaii is, Alaska is, in fact, firmly attached to Canada and not an island. Mind blown. My friend was like “didn’t you ever wonder why one edge of it was totally straight?” like no, why would I ever question geographical formations.

Just wait until you figure out how big it actually is vs. the mainland U.S. An unbelievable # of people think it's only slightly larger than Hawaii (because that's how its depicted on most maps).

[Anonymous]

That there's a system to the numbering of Interstate highways. Now when I drive into a strange city, I can tell which roads are loops vs. spurs, which direction they go, etc. Duh.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-highway-sign/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That you were supposed to tip your mail carrier at Christmas. I grew up with immigrant parents and can't remember them ever discussing/doing this - had no idea people did until I was an adult and in my own house.

And school bus driver.

and the people that pick up the trash and cleaning person

And you leave money for the hotel cleaners in the room when you check out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!!!

I can relate! My mother is exceptionally informal, but had a similar issue. She is extremely liberal and got into a debate with a conservative guy at some function. They went back and forth on whatever issue they were debating, and at some point she called him a "teabagger," at which point he threatened to punch her in the face and stormed out of the room. She was telling me about this after the fact, and could not understand why he got so mad that she had said he was a member of the Tea Party. I found myself in the awkward position of having to explain to my mother what "tea bagging" is. In retrospect, I should have pointed her toward Urban Dictionary.

[Anonymous]

Shoot your wad is not a sexual saying, or at least wasn’t for the first couple hundred years it was in use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That you were supposed to tip your mail carrier at Christmas. I grew up with immigrant parents and can't remember them ever discussing/doing this - had no idea people did until I was an adult and in my own house.

And school bus driver.

and the people that pick up the trash and cleaning person

And you leave money for the hotel cleaners in the room when you check out.

Daily is preferable as it is not always the same hotel cleaner who cleans the room for the entire stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That road signs that say NB mean northbound. I thought it was nota bene.

May I ask what boarding school you went to?

[Anonymous]

I had no idea that you should NEVER mix ammonia and bleach until the first year of law school (I was 25). My torts professor used it as an example of something that any "reasonable person" would be assumed to know. It freaked me out because I clean with both of those things. I could have poisoned myself.

[Anonymous]

This is kind of lame, but that you paid the city for water. When my husband and I bought our first house we had no idea that you had to pay the city for water until we got a notice that the city was going to cut off our water. We are both law school graduates.

Another law school friend - who was raised in Houston, which is large and diverse - admitted that until she was in law school she didn't realize that the "whole Jewish thing was that they did not believe in Jesus." Like, she didn't know that Jews don't consider Jesus the Son of God.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is kind of lame, but that you paid the city for water. When my husband and I bought our first house we had no idea that you had to pay the city for water until we got a notice that the city was going to cut off our water. We are both law school graduates.

Another law school friend - who was raised in Houston, which is large and diverse - admitted that until she was in law school she didn't realize that the "whole Jewish thing was that they did not believe in Jesus." Like, she didn't know that Jews don't consider Jesus the Son of God.

I very recently explained this to my 40 year old sister.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is triathlon pronounced TRI ATH A LON? Because that’s how everybody in the history of the world (that Ive ever heard) pronounces it. Still wondering.

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+pronounce+triathlon

How did you think it was pronounced?

NP and runner. I've only ever said triathalon! Marathon, triathalon!