Below is a timeline of facts that it took me way too long to discover and the age at which I found out.
- 18: Swans can fly
- 19: It’s the whale that is called Moby Dick
- 19: The phrase is “if it’s any consolation”, not “if it’s any constellation”
- 20: The phrase “scrunch or fold?” used in the infamous Andrex advert refers to how someone wipes their arse, not blow their nose
- 21: There is only one singer in Billy Joel’s Piano Man
- 21: The explanation “we count in base ten because we have ten fingers” is actually an argument that we should count in base eleven
- 22: The melodies of the alphabet song, ba ba black sheep and twinkle twinkle little star are all the same
- 22: Eritrea is not pronounced “a-ree-tree”
- 22: Ferroro Rocher is not the product name—Ferroro is the company and Rocher is the product (likewise for Lindt and Lindor)
- 23: The Hanson song “MMMBop” is not pronounced “Em Em Em Bop”
- 23: The term “dry cleaning” refers to the absence of water used in the cleaning process, not that the business offers both drying and cleaning services
- 24: The food polenta is not the same thing as placenta
- 25: Cystic fibrosis and cerebral palsy are two different conditions
- 25: Labradors can be yellow; it’s not the case that every vaguely golden, large dog is a golden retriever
- 26: Palette, pallet, and palate are three different words—I was using palette for all three