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Things you're shocked people don't know

Well, maybe I'm wrong, but I think folk religion is often different from official church doctrine and from my very superficial outsider-perspective Polish people for example don't always live their faith the same way Spanish do.
 
I have a vague idea what ash wednesday means for Christians but I've never heard of or seen that particular practice.

What? In Catholic Austria? :wtf: That's odd. To have the priest put ash in the form of a cross on your forehead is a Catholic tradition and a part of the mass on this day. It'd pretty prevalent in Bavaria as well.
You wouldn't see it in regions predominately Protestant, so I wouldn't be so surprised if people wouldn't know about it in those regions.
 
Co-worker was talking today in the BR, profoundly confused why so many people today had "dirt on their foreheads."

I swore she was taking the piss but she was serious -and she's not nearly bright enough to act this stupid. She really is this stupid. I just didn't think she was that stupid.

So she was confused and wondering why so many people had this dirt on their foreheads and thought maybe there was a shelf or a door or something in the store that was dirty and people were resting/touching their heads on it while getting product.

Me: "It's Ash Wednesday."

Her: "What's that?"

Me: :facepalm:

This woman is in her late 20s, possibly early or mid 30s.

Her elevator obviously doesn't go to the penthouse.

I have a vague idea what ash wednesday means for Christians but I've never heard of or seen that particular practice.

I've no idea what the significance of the ash-cross is, why it's done, etc. But I do know that it occurs and expect some people to them on that day. Which was all I expected from the woman. Just a simple "today is Ash Wednesday. People will have ashy crosses on their heads today." Not "Doi.... there must be a dirty shelf somewhere."
 
I didn't mean that it's a special denomination, but I'm sure there slight regional differences in the way Catholicism is practiced, or not?
Well, my experience is only with, um...Chicago Suburb Catholic. :lol:

Which, if my knowledge of TV is accurate, is pretty much Irish Catholic :p

As a Polish Roman Catholic from Chai-town I take offense at that stereotyping! Now, drop and give me 50! :guffaw:

One thing that gets me-people hitting their brakes in a deep puddle. You have to keep moving!

Also, sounding out words as you read them in order to pronounce them correctly. My last name sounds the way it is spelled-yet I spend my life correcting people. Just because there's a "zy" instead of an "si" they garble the heck out of it. They add letters when they say it or leave off the end of my name. If you sound it out it is sooo easy to say. In this vein, think of all the people who botch "Mexican" or "spaghetti" because they don't know how to sound out words....sad, very sad.
 
i never heard of sticking ash on yer noggin for ash wednesday. shrove tuesday - pancake day. ash wednesday - first day of lent. that was it.
 
Here's another one: Americans who don't know the difference between Washington DC and Washington State. I deal with this a lot; clients of my company will request advertising in the DC market, then call up and scream because they don't see their ads in Seattle, and vice-versa.
 
Here's another one: Americans who don't know the difference between Washington DC and Washington State. I deal with this a lot; clients of my company will request advertising in the DC market, then call up and scream because they don't see their ads in Seattle, and vice-versa.

It doesn't help that people constantly just use the word "Washington" when referring to either D.C. or Washington state. It's as if people forget that the other place exists.

It may simply have been the case that somebody at your company (or one of the clients) is not being specific enough.
 
I have looked the word up in a few online dictionaries and some of them have listed it as "no one or no-one' so maybe they are equally correct.
 
Here's another one: Americans who don't know the difference between Washington DC and Washington State. I deal with this a lot; clients of my company will request advertising in the DC market, then call up and scream because they don't see their ads in Seattle, and vice-versa.

It doesn't help that people constantly just use the word "Washington" when referring to either D.C. or Washington state. It's as if people forget that the other place exists.

It may simply have been the case that somebody at your company (or one of the clients) is not being specific enough.

Whenever a client says "Washington", we've learned to ask if they mean DC or the state -- and they still tell us the wrong market.
 
is "no-one" correct or incorrect.

Was going to ask the same question myself, to me it's more correct than "no one" when saying "no-one was there" but I'm not sure.

The correct spelling is "no one."

It is my understanding, however, that this is one of those cases of the language being written differently in different regions, not unlike "neighbor" / "neighbour," and "no-one" has evolved as a particularly British affectation. I've seen it justified as saying that it eliminates ambiguity in writing (as in, "no-one was there," versus "no one meal will fill my stomach"), and I can understand the desire to do so, but there is no actual grammatical justification for the hyphen.
 
is "no-one" correct or incorrect.

Was going to ask the same question myself, to me it's more correct than "no one" when saying "no-one was there" but I'm not sure.

The correct spelling is "no one."

It is my understanding, however, that this is one of those cases of the language being written differently in different regions, not unlike "neighbor" / "neighbour," and "no-one" has evolved as a particularly British affectation. I've seen it justified as saying that it eliminates ambiguity in writing (as in, "no-one was there," versus "no one meal will fill my stomach"), and I can understand the desire to do so, but there is no actual grammatical justification for the hyphen.

We were taught British English when I was growing up so I I have always written it as no-one.
 
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Both are correct, like ice cream, it can also be ice-cream. I saw something on the news that the official English people said several words are correct both ways.

But there is noone, it even looks stupid as a made up word.
 
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