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

[Anonymous]

As a kid, I couldn’t blow my nose. I would exhale into a Kleenex, but nothing would happen. I couldn’t understand how other people managed to get anything to come out of their noses. It was super frustrating when I would get sick and have a runny nose. I confessed to my college boyfriend that I couldn’t do it and he taught me to hold one nostril closed while blowing with the other. How is it that my mom never taught me that?!

[Anonymous]

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

I was 38 before I started driving and now I drive a white minivan that I’ve already put 44,000 miles on.

[Anonymous]

Everyone should know how to drive. It's a life skill that could come in handy even if you don't regularly drive. What if zombies are coming? And not the slow ones, the fast mutated ones? You'd feel pretty silly if you were eaten when there was a car in the street with the keys in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should know how to drive. It's a life skill that could come in handy even if you don't regularly drive. What if zombies are coming? And not the slow ones, the fast mutated ones? You'd feel pretty silly if you were eaten when there was a car in the street with the keys in it.

Given the theme of this thread, I guess this is where we have to break the news to you that there are no zombies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

And this, DCUM, is why I love you!

+100!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should know how to drive. It's a life skill that could come in handy even if you don't regularly drive. What if zombies are coming? And not the slow ones, the fast mutated ones? You'd feel pretty silly if you were eaten when there was a car in the street with the keys in it.

Given the theme of this thread, I guess this is where we have to break the news to you that there are no zombies.

Well, they’d be here if there were any. Nobody likes a pound of flesh like this crowd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We also argue over opossum. I do not, nor will I ever, pronounce the o. He does.

Technically, it’s opossum here in the US when referring to the Virginia opossum. It’s possum in Australia.

[Anonymous]

I did not know until college that pickles came from cucumbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should know how to drive. It's a life skill that could come in handy even if you don't regularly drive. What if zombies are coming? And not the slow ones, the fast mutated ones? You'd feel pretty silly if you were eaten when there was a car in the street with the keys in it.

I’m the poster who didn’t start driving until age 38 but now drives a minivan everywhere. I grew up in Manhattan, without a family car. My experience (of not learning to drive) was pretty typical.

I did get a license at age 27, barely passing my test. But it was another decade before I actually started driving. My husband more or less taught me.

I still have friends and siblings from Manhattan who don’t drive. These are middle-aged people with law and medical degrees from top Ivies, performing well in their fields and succeeding in life.

For this and other reasons, the Zombies will likely take Manhattan first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How vulgar the word sucks is.

I guess I still haven’t figured that out. I just can’t get worked up about someone saying “That sucks!”

It relates to oral sex.

Which is why some people says “that blows” as a substitute.

I feel like whoever came up with these terms as insults was doing it wrong. Or, more likely, their partner was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend in college thought penises were detachable, since in the text books the diagrams had them off the body. Also didn’t know they got bigger. Was an interesting morning conversation.

This wins. It has to win.

Especially if the friend was male.

[Anonymous]

That 'break a leg' for good luck comes from wanting someone to end up in a cast (like the cast of a play)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That 'break a leg' for good luck comes from wanting someone to end up in a cast (like the cast of a play)

"The term 'break a leg' appears to come from the belief that one ought not to utter the words 'good luck' to an actor.

By wishing someone bad luck, it is supposed that the opposite will occur."

This seems much more likely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not know until college that pickles came from cucumbers.

I did not know until this post.

No wonder I don't like pickles since I don't like cucumbers...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should know how to drive. It's a life skill that could come in handy even if you don't regularly drive. What if zombies are coming? And not the slow ones, the fast mutated ones? You'd feel pretty silly if you were eaten when there was a car in the street with the keys in it.

Given the theme of this thread, I guess this is where we have to break the news to you that there are no zombies.

There are no zombies Now... but everyone should have a Zombie Plan.