An Adult Should Really Know This - Silly Things You've Had to Tell People

[Jocelyn]

I had a roommate in college who asked me what the difference between a bull and a steer was.

Well, I guess I'm as clueless as your roommate.  I'd always thought that they were interchangeable names for male bovines.

A bull is intact. A steer is not

Thank you.  However, I stand my assertion that "any adult should know this" is not necessarily valid in this case.  Farm-people ought to realize that what is common-knowledge for rural people is not the same for more urban people.

It was the context of 'I've always wondered this'. Apparently in years of watching Westerns, she had become aware that there was a difference, but it had never occurred to her to open a dictionary and determine the difference for herself.
And yes, it may be knowledge that those of us who grew up around farming got at a younger age, but I've learned all sorts of information about city living. And it does amaze me the number of people who seem to believe that meat is manufactured in the butcher department of supermarkets.  There's more to know about how food arrives on your plate than the name of the chef.

[siamesecat2965]

Count me in as being bovine-challenged. of course I was only 6 or so. One summer we went to WV on vacation and to county or maybe state fair. wandering through, looking at the livestock, and saw some, um, bulls which clearly were, given the size of their parts. Apparently I asked, very loudly, "Daddy, what's that between its legs?" cracking up a group of 4-H kids nearby. Hey, I grew up in the suburbs, and had no clue what they were.

And back to the topic at hand, on a cruise with my friend who is smart, but lacks common sense.  Came back to the cabin to find a charger with batteries in the one outlet, but oozing something. not wanting to start a fire, i unplugged it. later I said something to her, and it came out she was trying to recharge REGULAR allkeline batteries, not the rechargeable kind. she thought you could just recharge any.

[tjika]

I work for a medical billing company. I've lost count of the times I've had to tell people that yes the dentist is expensive, after they've had multiple fillings or crowns. Always get an estimate.

Read your insurance policy so you know what it covers. Don't assume.

When you receive an invoice and it says 'page 1 of 2' at the top, you need to pay page 2 as well.

[nutraxfornerves]

That cotton is not synthetic--it comes from a plant.

That silk is not synthetic--it comes from moth cocoons.

[Garden Goblin]

You can ease off the gas pedal to slow down.  You don't need to hit the breaks everytime you realize you are going more than 1mph over the speed limit.

[Maggie]

If you want your house to be 74 degrees, turning your thermostat down to 60 will not cool your house any faster than if you set it to 74/72.

I have tried for years to explain this to my children.  I finally gave up!

[Betelnut]

You can ease off the gas pedal to slow down.  You don't need to hit the breaks everytime you realize you are going more than 1mph over the speed limit.

Thank you GG!  My drivers education teacher drilled this into our heads--sometimes shouting, "Lift your foot off the gas to slow down!  Lift your foot off the gas to slow down!"

So many people seem to never have learned this!

[camlan]

A list of things I and people I know have had to tell people.

[snip]

6.  that your actual income tax owed is based on the total of how much money you make in a year and not on whether you get paid weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, monthly or quarterly.

At a former workplace, we were paid weekly. The company refused to offer direct deposit. So every week, I had to trek to the bank to deposit my paycheck. Frankly, it was a chore. I mean, I liked getting paid and the money was nice, but having to get to the bank weekly was just annoying.

So the owners decided to go to every-other-week paychecks. I was happy. One little annoying chore that was going to be cut in half.

But one co-worker was convinced that everyone would lose hundreds of dollars a year in increased taxes--they would take so much more out of every paycheck. She went around and told everyone, and scared everyone so much about this, that even when the owners did a presentation and showed the entire staff that the total amount per year in taxes would remain exactly the same--everyone but me was so frightened that they decided to stay with the weekly paychecks.

I don't know what bothered me more--that this one woman was so fixated on this one wrong idea, or that the rest of the employees were unable to see that she was wrong and unable to research the issue for themselves and unwilling to believe the accountant the owners brought in (That Woman convinced everyone the accountant was paid off by the owners to lie to us).

[bo]

When we lived in Montana there was only one area code. We came from NJ where we were used to dialing an area code for any number.

At DH's job in Montana, a coworker was trying to call back a customer from Idaho, but the number was not working. The coworker got mad thinking the customer gave him the wrong number. DH offered to make the phone call if coworker would buy him lunch. DH made the phone call no problem and coworker was impressed. All DH did was dial the number using the area code

[BB-VA]

After 20 years on the Ref desk I've been tempted to write a book titled, 'I'm Forever Bursting
Bubbles'.

Please do!

Very large POD parked right here.  I would LOVE to read that book (and the title is awesome)!

[BB-VA]

I've been amazed at the number of people who think:
Africa is a country
Apartheid just meant it was separate from the US
Cuba is part of Mexico
 

I think the "Africa" thing is mostly due to old movies - you know, where they would show the map at the beginning with "Africa" and no countries marked.   

[MommyPenguin]

When we lived in Montana there was only one area code. We came from NJ where we were used to dialing an area code for any number.

At DH's job in Montana, a coworker was trying to call back a customer from Idaho, but the number was not working. The coworker got mad thinking the customer gave him the wrong number. DH offered to make the phone call if coworker would buy him lunch. DH made the phone call no problem and coworker was impressed. All DH did was dial the number using the area code

Yes!  We had so much trouble with this when we were stationed in the Midwest, where there was basically just one area code.  Our area code, which we'd brought with us because we use VOIP, was, say, 472.  The local area code was 437.  So even when we'd input our area code into things, people would see "472" and mentally toss it aside as another "437" and not bother to dial it.  Even the military base's medical center, which would leave medical phone messages on the answering machine of whoever had 437-ournumber.  It was very frustrating.  Of all places, you'd think a military base would be used to 10-digit numbers using the area code because of transplants using their cell phone numbers for everything, but apparently that 472/437 thing just killed them.  Thankfully our new area has multiple area codes and none of them are anywhere close to "472" so ours will stand out and people should notice it, and you need to dial area code anyway.

[BB-VA]

Country girl weighing in on the bull vs steer issue:  I cut people a little slack on that because I can remember when I didn't know the difference.  Of course, I was in elementary school then...

OTOH, the one that bugs me is the belief that only boy cows have horns.  Not true, both genders have horns (or the potential for them, unless they have been dehorned or are the polled breeds).  I have been in arguments with people about that. 

[mechtilde]

I was once told that the monastic ruins at Jarrow was bombed by the Vikings. By someone from Jarrow.

I had to explain that although they could be a little on the destructive side, the Vikings did not have access to high explosive...

[Barney girl]

Country girl weighing in on the bull vs steer issue:  I cut people a little slack on that because I can remember when I didn't know the difference.  Of course, I was in elementary school then...

OTOH, the one that bugs me is the belief that only boy cows have horns.  Not true, both genders have horns (or the potential for them, unless they have been dehorned or are the polled breeds).  I have been in arguments with people about that.

I had similar last year. I was walking with a colleague who is not a towny and is someone I would generally consider fairly knowledgeable about agricultural matters, but lives in an area with few sheep. She commented on the number of rams in the fields as she assumed that only male sheep have horns.