People Are Sharing The Things They Learned Embarrassingly Late In Life

As long as they’re innocent in nature, misunderstandings and things we mishear and then believe for years make life a whole lot funnier: Take, for instance, my former stepbrother, who, on a road trip, heard Lenny Kravitz’s cover of the Guess Who’s American Woman playing and bellowed,  “A married woman, stay away from me!” from the backseat. (That’s absolutely not the correct lyric, but honestly, fair reading!) 

With this idea in mind, we recently asked our readers some of the things they’d once believed up until very recently. See what they had to say below. 

“About a year ago, I stumbled on a post talking about icks and quickly learned that I was doing something some may consider an ick: I now know the ‘l’ in salmon is silent. Whew!” ― Dotun Akande, a visual artist a storyteller at Marvel and Oni Press 

“That a pony is not a miniature horse.” ― Carrie R. 

“The difference between cicadas and tinnitus, and that other people can’t hear tinnitus.” ― Dawn M. 

“That I don’t have to hit ‘shift’ before and after capitalizing a letter on a standard keyboard.” ― Haley H.

“That you should shave your bikini line in the direction of hair growth, not against it, to avoid itching like crazy for days afterwards. I was 56.” ― A. L. Brooks, a writer

“Mine was that ‘The Beatles’ is a pun. They play music, so it’s the BEATles; that’s why it’s spelt that way! I had no idea until one day I saw it and went, ‘OHHHHHhhhh.’ It’s not that great a pun though so I guess I wasn’t missing out on much.” ―  Ryan North, a comic and creator of Dinosaur Comics

“How gyro is pronounced. I was like 39 and I took my team out for dinner at a conference and everyone was ordering them and I was like, ‘where is that on the menu?’” ― Kim P. 

“That I didn’t need to take my tampon out to pee.” ― Hanna N. 

“The Guinness World Records are sponsored by Guinness Beer in Dublin.″ ― Jennifer A. 

“I read Archie comics growing up and I thought ‘Reggie’ was ‘reggae’ with ‘ie’ at the end. It wasn’t until discussing childhood memories with friends that I was told it’s short for Reginald, and rhymed with ‘veggie.’ I felt duped!” ― Jennifer R. 

“I recently learned that spicy tuna is not a naturally occurring tuna.” ―Simon Fraser, a comedian

“That the underwear goes under, not over, the pantyhose. I thought that’s how you held them up. I was 40!” ― Shelley M.

“I read Archie comics growing up and I thought ‘Reggie’ was ‘reggae’ with ‘ie’ at the end. It wasn’t until discussing childhood memories with friends that I was told it’s short for Reginald, and rhymed with ‘veggie.’ I felt duped!” ― Jennifer R. 

“Yesterday I got the joke about the chicken crossing the road. Apparently ‘other side’ means death because it got run over by a car. I took it literally.” ― Malefyt M.

“That the POW/MIA flag means ‘prisoners of war and ‘missing in action.’ I just thought it said ‘pow Mia!’ like the name.” ― Betsy E.

“I recently learned where Alaska is actually located.” ― Fawnya Y. 

“I was in my thirties before I realized that the Santa in ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ was the dad. And I’m a romance writer!” ― Aurora Rey, a romance writer and educator

“Anime is not just cartoon animals!” ― Christina V.

“Tapioca pudding is not fish eggs. My mom told us it was so we wouldn’t eat her pudding. I didn’t learn the truth until my mid 20s.” ― Courtney A. 

“You pronounce the ‘b’ in subterfuge.” ― Erin E.