s/o adults should know this - retrospectively obvious things you've just learned

[Seraphia]

DH just boggled my mind the other day with this one.

I've been doing some baking recently, which meant we had to stock up on some things. I was in the kitchen dithering between two containers, trying to remember which one I had put the baking powder in. I said to DH: "Now, I know one of them is fizzy when you taste it, but I can never remember which one."

"Oh, that's easy," says DH, "Soda - that's where soda pop gets its name."

....I had never, ever, realized that. Derp!

[Blondie]

How to flip a coin without having it go helter-skelter. My husband was flipping a coin over and over in his hand to entertain the cat and I asked him how he could get it to keep going straight up and down, each time. Has to do with flicking the finger with the thumb, I guess.

He couldn't believe I didn't know how to do it; I got better but still am not as steady as him.

He still hasn't figured out how to teach me to skip stones--one of those things I probably will never master, while his skim for dozens of yards.

When trying to skip stones, flick your wrist like you are throwing a frisbee in a straight line. That is what it finally took for me to figure it out.

[Free Range Hippy Chick]

Sourdough bread starter is flour, water and yeast. Food for sourdough starter is flour and water. All containers that have been used for either starter or food must be washed up INSTANTLY and not left until the dishwasher is full or you have a sink full. That stuff is the same as the flour and water glue that the nursery children use, and if you let it dry, it hardens on and sticks like...

Well, like glue.

[cwm]

How to flip a coin without having it go helter-skelter. My husband was flipping a coin over and over in his hand to entertain the cat and I asked him how he could get it to keep going straight up and down, each time. Has to do with flicking the finger with the thumb, I guess.

He couldn't believe I didn't know how to do it; I got better but still am not as steady as him.

He still hasn't figured out how to teach me to skip stones--one of those things I probably will never master, while his skim for dozens of yards.

When trying to skip stones, flick your wrist like you are throwing a frisbee in a straight line. That is what it finally took for me to figure it out.

See, when I was taught, it was different. You bring your hand back to the side, and as it's being let go, you snap your wrist forward to give it backspin to skip it. Dad could always get it all the way across the river, I could only get it halfway, but if I tried the frisbee method, it just plopped and sank. Like a stone.

I'm telling on BF for this one. When he was cleaning the last of the ick out of his basement, he accidentally managed to kill the pilot light on the water heater. So no hot water. I had to wash the dishes anyway, they were getting RANK (a week of not being washed and in standing water will do that). So I rinsed one pan out well, filled it, and put it on the stove. What could wait for the hot water and dishwasher got a cold water pre-wash with soap and loaded, and all the pots and pans that are hand wash anyway waited for the hot water and got a good scrubbing. Then I started cooking dinner.

He came home and was surprised that I had managed to wash the dishes with hot water. Because if it doesn't come hot out of a pipe, there's obviously no way to do it, I suppose? I told him his stove was working, and could heat water very well if necessary, and he just started laughing because he never would have thought of that.

[perpetua]

OK, this is really embarrassing, but I figure it's time to out myself if only to give you all a good laugh at my expense.

My mum, gawd rest her soul, was blessed with the gift of... perkiness. Sadly I did not inherit her genes in this department and am very definitely not. Consequently, when she put her bra on, she never had to do any... adjusting; she just did it up and was good to go. I learned how to do mine from watching her.

It wasn't until I went for my first proper bra fitting at about the age of 35 - until then I'd always measured myself using the sizing guides - that I realised you were supposed to... adjust yourself so all of you was pointing in the same direction, so to speak.

I dread to think how many years I walked around with the girls looking like Marty Feldman as a result. 

BTW, whoever posted the zip tip - thank you! I never knew that either. You saved me from chucking away my favourite pair of jeans.

[TOLady]

I've got 2:

Gorilla (guerrilla) warfare - how the heck did they get apes to fire guns? 
Trading chairs (shares) on the stock market - I had this image of people trading stacking chairs in a big room 

Oh - and my brother can't whistle. I can, but can't use my fingers to do that screeching, ear-piercing whistle with my mouth.

[Slartibartfast]

Oh - and my brother can't whistle. I can, but can't use my fingers to do that screeching, ear-piercing whistle with my mouth.

I can't either.  I know the theory, and with a lot of work I can eventually make that breathy pre-whistling noise a teakettle makes before it gets going, but I have never been able to whistle for real.

I did teach myself to sing two notes at once, though (like this), which I think is way cooler 

[GlitterIsMyDrug]

My bathroom sink gets a lot of hair in it (even though I never brush my hair over the sink, I have to at least style it there, as the only mirror in the apartment is right over that sink). Chemicals don't work, vinegar and baking soda don't work, hot water doesn't work. The hair gets wrapped around just about everything and won't budge. I finally went out and bought a plastic tool called a Zip-it that has little sharp prongs sticking out from a flexible strip of plastic. You stick it down your drain and pull it back up again, and it catches the hair so you can pull it out.

It did end up popping the drain stopper off the little metal thing that makes it go up and down, but it didn't break it. Since I live in an apartment complex, we're going to have the maintenance people come and fix that, but I don't think it's all that complicated to fix yourself.

We have those at home, we get a lot of hair everywhere (and none of it from the dogs....darn it, wish I could blame them), and those are like the only things that will actually work! Now in our shower we have a "hair catcher" type thing. It's a little plastic deal, goes right over the drain and catches all the hair. You do have to clean it out after a few showers, but it's better then dealing with a gunk of gross hair.

[TOLady]

Just thought of another one - not mine, but a previous boss.

He would dictate and I would transcribe his notes. I could talk until I was blue in the face, but he would not believe that it is "for all intents and purposes", not "for all intensive purposes" and it's NOT "at first blood", but it's "at first blush". 

Drove me nuts!

[cwm]

Just had a co-worker, an otherwise intelligent woman, who tried to convince me that Puerto Rico became the 51st state of the United States last year. I don't know if she thought it was a conspiracy that nobody knew about it, or why she thought we didn't have the fancy new flag she used as evidence, but it took her a bit of convincing to prove otherwise.

[jedikaiti]

Oh - and my brother can't whistle. I can, but can't use my fingers to do that screeching, ear-piercing whistle with my mouth.

I can't either.  I know the theory, and with a lot of work I can eventually make that breathy pre-whistling noise a teakettle makes before it gets going, but I have never been able to whistle for real.

I did teach myself to sing two notes at once, though (like this), which I think is way cooler 

You know that song about the kid who wants 2 front teeth for Christmas so he can learn to whistle?

I was 6 when I knocked out my (permanent) front teeth. Learned to whistle fine. When I later got braces and fake teeth to go with them, and haven't been able to whistle well since.

[Syfygeek]

Just thought of another one - not mine, but a previous boss.

He would dictate and I would transcribe his notes. I could talk until I was blue in the face, but he would not believe that it is "for all intents and purposes", not "for all intensive purposes" and it's NOT "at first blood", but it's "at first blush". 

Drove me nuts!

The President's Assistant sent out a company wide email using "for all intensive purposes" her second or third week here and I almost choked on my coffee!

[cabbageweevil]

Gorilla (guerrilla) warfare - how the heck did they get apes to fire guns? 

Well, there was a rumour at the height of the Cold War, to the effect that Stalin's scientists were working to develop a strain of half-human-half-ape, immensely big and strong, super-soldiers -- maybe using yetis which lived in the wild in Russia, but whose existence was hushed-up by the Soviet government.  If any such thing was attempted; it would seem that it didn't work...

[Ms_Cellany]

Gorilla (guerrilla) warfare - how the heck did they get apes to fire guns? 

"Guerilla" is Spanish. It means "little war."  (The Spanish for war is "guerra.")

In Spanish, it's pronounced "gair-ee-ya" or "wair-ee-ya."

[TOLady]

"Guerilla" is Spanish. It means "little war."  (The Spanish for war is "guerra.")

In Spanish, it's pronounced "gair-ee-ya" or "wair-ee-ya."

I was so young and didn't really read at that age, I just heard it on the news and thought it amazing that apes were trained to handle guns