Confessions of Misconceptions
 

So, I've managed to go 10 years thinking that George was the bassist for The Beatles... There I said it :). I only just looked it up and set myself straight. It would have been less embarrassing if I hadn't tried to correct someone else on a different forum, but hey... you win some you lose some :).

Anyone else have an embarrassing misconception they had for several years? perhaps you can make me feel a little less stupid?

http://icanhascheezburger.files.word...indow-fail.jpg


Just kidding. Thinking George was a bass player barely rates on my stupidity scale.

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Oh, where do I begin...

Oh funny, funny.

No really, the point of the thread is just to give people a chance to mention embarassing misconceptions they had at one point. It's part humor and part humility, I figure everyone could use both of those, eh? (Most especially me).

heck, my entire life is an embarrassing misconception. just don't tell my mother. :D

As a young kid I was sure a jet had flown over the highway as we were driving and scraped the roof of the car. It was only when I got older and realised how unlikely it was that I worked out it was probably a false memory based on some freaky dream. There is a section of highway by the airport where jets pass over as they come in to land. I guess it left an impression that was exaggerated in my dreams. I also had a memory where a hippo bit my head off and I'm pretty sure that didn't happen.

We've all not only had these misconceptions, but a related variety as well -- how to pronounce a word you'd never heard said aloud.

A friend of mine called the device in the picture below (commonly called a Jukebox) a Wirt a lizer.

It can certainly make placing an order in a restaurant difficult. It's funny when you try to order a dish with what would seem the correct pronunciation only to be met with the waiter's blank stare as they try to interpret your order. It's even funnier when they finally make sense of what you ordered and say it back in what to non-native ears seems an identical pronunciation.

Read this thread from another forum. (Yes, it's safe for work.) 15 pages of dumb computer-related mistakes, very funny. Some of mine are in there too.

Thanks ataraxia, I'll give it a look.

I remember that I once heard a woman referring to packing popcorn to a sales rep (sales teen?) at Wal-mart. The kid was totally confused until he figured out that she meant packing foam...

Reading ataraxia's link reminded me of another blunder I had (the programers will understand this one):
I once spent 3 hours trying to debut an 'if' statement that was not functioning. Here, give it a look:

Yeah...
Took me three hours to see that I had put a semi-colon right after the second if... At least I'll never do it again :).

Until my thirties I thought awry was pronounced aw-ree and not ah-rie, does that count?

.... and wait, George Harrison what?

You know, the Beatles really didn't have set roles like that so much. They all (except Ringo) played everything. George Harrison played bass guitar on a lot of tracks--maybe a fifth to a sixth of all Beatles songs.* So, Paul McCartney played bass more often, and is generally considered "the bass player for the Beatles", but George played bass quite a lot for them, and it is really not wrong to think of him as a bassist. Definitely not embarrassing.

Trevor



* For example, if we take the White Album, George played bass on Back in the U.S.S.R., Rocky Raccoon, Birthday, and Honey Pie. There are 25 songs on the White Album that use a bass guitar at all, so 4 out of 25 songs, or 16% have George on bass.

I realized when I was about 27 that I was allergic to melon. Prior to that I thought that everyone experienced the itchy ears and throat swelling sensation when they consumed cantaloupe.

My mother is not a native english speaker, and until I was 16 I thought cars came equipped with win-cho wipers...apparently the proper name is "windshield wipers".

...and lets not forget the team of NASA Rocket Scientists who forgot to convert their numbers from metric to standard, causing a $125,000,000 dollar crash into Mars?

I think your mistake was a fair one Zalister. Plus, aren't you in college? The Beatles aren't required knowledge for your generation. Now go buff up on the latest Miley Cirus gossip before you loose touch with your peers ;)

I have to mention (on the related 'when you first felt incredibly old' topic) the time when I was visiting my college roommate's home, and his little brother came running out of his room, saying "Hey! Did you know that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?"

:eek:

I will find you, and I will end you :mad:.

No, actually, I'm a bit old for a college student, my generation is more Nirvana through the Beastie Boys and the Offspring.

Oh, here's another fun one, I used to think the lead singer for Jamiroquai was a woman. I had to watch a couple of music videos before I could talk myself out of it (honestly just couldn't get myself to believe my own eyes). Nope, Jay Kay is definitely a dude.

LOL, I didn't even know who Miley Cirus was until she did that Vanity Fair photo shoot.

I guess we're about the same age. I was a freshman in HS when Smells like Teen Spirit came out. I had a copy on cassette.

And here I thought that the "George" in question was the one who just departed the Oval Office, indicating Zalister has been living a somewhat secluded life. (Who played what on which song nearly half a century ago being rather irrelevant)

:rolleyes:, it matters to some of us.

That reminds me of when Jeff Buckley died. I came home to find my friends sitting around looking sad. I asked what happened they said "Jeff's dead. They think he drowned.". Trouble was I thought they were talking about the Victorian premier at the time who was also named Jeff and to be honest I wasn't that upset about his demise. I was also rather confused picturing the premier floating on his back in a river playing guitar.

From a friend's comment: circa 2006:

are you offering that as a misconception, or as an all too unfortunately correct conception?

As kids in New York City, we naturally learned the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Shortly after my brother (2 years younger) learned it, he recited: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the country for Richard Stands..... Dad; who's Richard Stands?

This thread reminds me of "Act One: Small Thoughts in Big Brains." from This American Life #293: A Little Bit of Knowledge, particularly the story about somebody who asked, in all seriousness whether unicorns are endangered or extinct (about 8 and a half minutes into the episode).

Agreed. I'm only 19 and I love music that's been out way before I was even born.

Also, for misconceptions:

I, for a while, thought the lead singer of Muse was a girl. At least, when I listened to their song "Unintended". Then, I found out, it's actually a guy. This was like 7 years back.

Ahem: I think you mean convert from standard to quaint :D

And then there was the famed "Gimli Glider", a commercial flight that ran out of fuel because they had loaded liters, but thought they were gallons.

My favorite part of the story is the captain was suspended for six months after the incident, but subsequently given an award for his outstanding flying during the incident...

yeesh. so the lesson to be learned, kiddies, from this (and AIG), is that f@#king-up is a good thing, as long as you can make yourself look like a hero by keeping the problem you caused just short of being a complete disaster.

wunnerful.

My favourite bit was the fact that loss of both engines meant loss of instrumentation in the cockpit. Talk about salting the wound.

Wasn't really the pilot's fault - ground crew told him he had enough fuel to go to Vancouver (other end of the country for non-Canadians) and the (non-essential) fuel gauge wasn't working.

No commercial, heavy aircraft pilot has the time or qualifications to personally inspect the entire plane before a flight.

I was on a flight from England to Canada when the pilot announced that they were running late because the computer wasn't accepting the fuel load data. There aren't many places to land in the north Atlantic.....

Yeah, and honestly, if you look at the story, it was a long string of misunderstandings that lead to that difficulty. But to be honest, the Captain is the one in charge, so it always comes back to him. So, while I sympathize, I also think he should have looked over the whole equation (including the units used), especially since he knew the fuel gauge was out.

But the real problem was Canada's decision to adapt the International System of Units (MKS) in 1970. Makes sense from a global perspective but none at all with our nearest neighbor and major trading partner, the USA, holding out for its US Customary Unit system.

The result in Canada is that materials of all kinds still have US dimensions (standard paper sizes, plywood, structural timber, drywall, flooring, photographs, etc.) and most manufacturing firms have to use both; metric fasteners, for example, for products shipped off continent, US fasteners for those going south of the border. Engineering schools use the metric system and kids learn it in school, but then to read any US Engineering publication, they have to translate all the units, for which they have no feel. When we watch the news from the US, the dimensions, if any, are converted, so what were round-numbered estimates become strange distances, i.e. 75' becomes 22.86 meters.

The result: confusion.

Well, I think what the really real problem is, is that...uh (sorry, sentence got confusing ;).) Yeah, anyway, I really wish the US would switch to metric. I like the idea of 100cm in a m and 1000m in a km, rather than all this weird 36 inch in a yard and 5128...uh...5180...5280? Whatever! Feet in a mile (see, that's why I hate it!)

Honestly, this stupid pride for our stupid system is, well, stupid. So I hope we change, sooner rather than later.

You've hung in there for nearly 40 years now after the rest of the world (even Britain) has gone metric, so I don't see a change soon. I used to do some design and control work for a small company in Massachusetts. About half of their product went to Canada, Great Britain, France, Belgium, etc. Their approach was to design and build in US units, but use all metric fasteners for product shipped away.

One of the downsides of the popularity of foreign cars is that DIY types have to maintain two sets of tools. I have two complete sets of sockets, hex, and box end wrenches but all the sockets fit US standard ratchet handles.