Oh the foolishness of youth! How far I have come. You know the saying “it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there”? Well I used to think it was “it’s a doggy-dog world out there” … what the heck does that even mean? I don’t know, but as a kid there are so many saying that don’t make sense, this was just another one.
But sometimes mistakes like this can come from too much thinking. For example, when a kid learns that Santa Claus isn’t real, she will correctly assume that elves aren’t real, but incorrectly assume that reindeers aren’t real. In fact they are a real animal and the kid might be an adult before finding out.
What other examples do you have, either from your childhood or someone else’s?
Here is a great reddit convo along the same lines. Am I the only one that thinks a lot of the things in there aren’t so obvious?
Photo: Eric
Orange traffic cones and littler versions of traffic cones used at the community center for games all had Conejo printed on the side. I knew I lived in the Conejo Valley but I didn’t know how to spell it and just assumed that Cone Jo was a cone production company.
No one can blame you! I’m reading Atlas Shrugged right now due to the glowing Blindy review. Good stuff.
I hope you love it. I read that one while traveling too. In Costa Rica actually. While eating nachos as big as your ass.
HA! I had those nachos! In Tamarindo right?
You know it!
my dad, until he was about 35 years old:
goats = male sheep
caught with an awkward comment to a bunch of his students R.E. a goat in a field with a bunch of sheep “man that is one lucky goat”
Ha! That is great. I like that there is an equally awesome story about the moment of realization.
I thought “all intents and purposes” was “all intensive purposes” for awhile. A Google search shows that I’m not the only one . . .
In high school, a friend taught me that “Open Sesame” is really “Open Says-a-Me” – we just blur the words together. I wanted to verify this before I added my comment, and what do you know, she was wrong! The original use of “Open Sesame” in “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves” is just an English translation. 15 years later, what felt like an “ah ha!” moment of understanding is disproved!
Nice picture of a dog, by the way. He looks exactly like the one you need to get! You can name him “Doggy Dog” 🙂
Not too shabby – the only one you had wrong everyone else also gets wrong! And then if there is a mix up (e.g. oceans) you are smart enough to ask before things get out of hand.
Doggy dog is a pretty good name for a dog. Doggy for short. Snoop for a nickname.
Ba ha ha – you totally called Lara out. She’s going to hurt you when you get home.
Oh brother. You are D.E.D. dead!
It’s sad but true – my family will never let me live down the moment I asked to verify that we were standing in the Atlantic Ocean. So what if we were in Atlantic City at the time? . . . 😉
You must be doing something right if we still make fun of you over something that happened so many years ago.
My sister and I both thought it was ‘play it by year’ until just a few years ago. I still maintain that it makes more sense then play it by ear.
Example:
What are you doing tonight?
Let’s go to the movies and then we’ll play it by (y)ear.
Translation 1: Let’s go to the movies and then we’ll wait around for a while.
Translation 2: Let’s go to the movies and then we’ll listen to some sound and try and imitate it that way.
Which makes more sense!?
I do remember having this conversation, but didn’t want to call you out on it after forgetting to give you credit for sarcastext! Also, I didn’t know that your sister thought it was “play it by year” as well. Good stuff.
Literally, to play something by ear is to play it as you hear it. So figuratively, it means to do something as you go along. What doesn’t make sense in that?
The amount of stupidity in the post and the other comments is amazing.
Sure, it makes sense. Let’s not attack the honest comments that remember a time when we were stupider. We aren’t born knowing everything and colloquialisms aren’t always intuitive.
It’s OK Skinner… Some people don’t understand exaggeration to make a point. Hooray doggy dogs!
I wasn’t sure about that one either until recently. I’m astonished at how long this comment conversation has lasted.
Well this isn’t quite the same as the other posts above but, my preschool teacher’s name was Ms. Derniece. For years, I called her Mr. Niece. I still kind of have trouble with it…