Ask Lemmy

I was certain that a gander was a group of geese. Why? Because apparently everybody who has ever used the phrase "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" around me was using it wrong. I just learned this week that a gander is a male goose. So based on misuse, I thought that the phrase meant that what's beneficial for one is beneficial for the greater group, but what it really means is that what's acceptable in the case for one should be equally acceptable for others in the same situation.

I'm nearly 36 and I would say that I'm smarter than most people, but this was a gaping hole in my knowledge that was pretty damn humbling to learn of and correct.

Alanis Morisette is not the artist that did the "I'm a bitch I'm a lover" song. Meredith Brooks is the artist.
I found out because I had the song stuck in my head and I looked it up on yt. The comments section showed me that I wasn't the only one who thought the song was by Alanis Morisette
Llllink

Cocoa has an "a" at the end of it. I was in college and was like, "haha, they spelled it weird." Nope, just a dumbass.

A BLT is literally just bacon, lettuce, and tomato. I thought it was just the toppings on the base meat (like how a pepperoni pizza inculdes bread, sauce, etc.). I don't like bacon or raw tomato, so I never had one.

There is no bone in the penis. I swore there was one until I made it to 3D molding and, as we were going over different body parts and their movement, I asked my male friend "Hey, where's the penis bone/muscle." He looked at me like I had two heads. I assumed it could do tricks, like waving and stuff. 🤷🏿‍♀️

Until I was 24 or 25 I believed that women were disinterested in sex, and that sexual relationships were wholly transactional. I also thought I was hidiously undatable.

Nope. Wrong on all counts.

The longest was probably the vegetarian → vegan pipeline.
My position was that 'employment' of animals was humanely possible, if you genuinely treated them like you'd want to be treated.

It was until I read how cows need to basically be kept continuously pregnant, that I realized there was just no way.
I believe, you could have a bite of cheese every year or so, if we don't do forceful impregnation, but at that point, why even bother?

Shame about sex stuff, because of growing up in a Christian household. Took me until my 20s before I was comfortable with… everything.

Now I have over a grand in Bad Dragon stuff and another grand in other fun things and I’m basically asexual so I rarely use anything. BUT WHEN I DO… we get WEIRD about it.

I thought I was straight for about 17 years, thinking that also being attracted to men was just something everyone experienced.

I thought that the human body was incapable of making glucose. Learned about gluconeogenesis during a university nutrition course

I thought Brussels sprouts were baby cabbages until I was 28 and I finally saw them still attached to the stalk.

As a kid I would hear “save big money” and would often show a person next to oversized money (like cartoon people next to giant dollars and coins).

I was absolutely under the impression it meant large scale money and found it confusing anyone would want that. It would be so inconvenient!

I’m not sure when I figured it out but it wasn’t an “a-ha!” moment, it just sort of gradually fell out of my brainmeat.

Until well into adulthood, I assumed that Katherine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn were mother and daughter. A few years ago, I overheard some TV documentary saying that Katherine Hepburn never had any children. They’re not related in any way. I was shocked.

That Tom Brady was a product of a winning system and would be average at best if he played with another organization. What made me realize I was wrong? Fuckin ring number 7 and our (the Bills) absolute owning of New England ever since he left.

The word quay. I'm still mad about that haha

For years I thought Mickey Rooney (1920-2014) and Mickey Rourke (1952-present) were the same guy. I'd see Mickey Rooney in a movie and be like "Wow, he's looking pretty good for his age," thinking he was a man 32 years his senior and/or dead.

I finally twigged when I eventually saw Iron Man 2 (2009) and was like "How is he doing this?!" and actually looked him up.

only ever read the word cyan and eventually learned I'd been pronouncing it wrong my whole life when i said it out loud in conversation