Things you never had right. (Arlington, Columbia: apartment, college, delivery)

[Skatergirl]

I thought this was a month of going on a shopping spree for spring clothes. My son cleared this up for me only this year. Not a sports fan if you could guess

Originally Posted by scottfs

Ran across this article on NPR, in which you can find all kinds of confessions of silly things that intelligent adults had wrong for inexplicably long periods of time. I thought it was kind of neat, and seeing as we live in one of the most educated areas in the entire country, I thought it'd be interesting if we posted some of those embarassing things! If you have one that's NOVA specific, that's even better!

Want To Share An Embarrassing Misconception? You're Not Alone. : NPR

Mine:

NOVA-specific - I grew up in Montgomery county before moving to NOVA a couple yeas ago and I hadn't the slightest clue what/where the "mixing bowl" really was until I moved here. I also never knew that I-66 was HOV only inside the beltway on weekdays until a couple years ago.

General - I always pronounced the word "subtle" like "sub-tull" until about a year ago when my mother finally corrected me.

[saganista]

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb (sometimes it modifies an adjective, or else another adverb)...

He ran quickly. [Quickly is an adverb modifying the verb ran.]
He ran really quickly. [Really is an adverb modifying the adverb quickly.]
He ran right in front of a really blue car. [Really is again an adverb modifying the adjective blue which modifies the noun car.]

[Pandoras]

Well here is my list of shame...

395 AKA Shirley Highway

When I first moved here, some of the more seasoned co-workers gave me directions regarding how to commute to DC and kept on referring to Shirley Highway. It took me a couple months and a google search to realize this was another name for 395.

VOB

It took me a few years but I figured out this meant Volkswagon of Bethesda.

Potomac River

I thought DC and VA had jurisdiction over the Potomac River but that is not the case.

"The MALL"

I have had tourists ask me where the "Mall" is and I asked them if they meant Tysons or Pentagon City. Unfortunately, I now realize they mean the "National Mall." Oh well I thought they wanted to go shopping!

[ICS67]

[quote=scottfs;19887192]Oh gosh....I thought for the longest time that a "Hokie" was some kind of a plant part

That Hokie terminology also had me confused, especially when paired with Pokie. For the longest time I thought that the Hokie Pokie referred to the act of procreation as practiced by male students at Virginia Tech. Is that what it was all about?

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by Pandoras

VOB

It took me a few years but I figured out this meant Volkswagon of Bethesda.

You just made me realize it doesn't stand for "Volvo of Bethesda".

People used to drive around with these "OB" stickers on their car (I think they now say "OBX"). I wondered why they were advertising tampons.

I think the Shirley Highway name has kind of died out. I never hear it used anymore on the traffic reports.

[ICS67]

Until I moved to Reston I thought the three primary colors were red, blue, and yellow instead of taupe, beige, and ecru.

[scottfs]

Originally Posted by ICS67

Until I moved to Reston I thought the three primary colors were red, blue, and yellow instead of taupe, beige, and ecru.

Nice one...the comment about color reminded me of our friend who was usually really good at video games, but we could always beat him really badly at Dr. Mario...eventually he had an eye appointment and he found out he had red/yellow color blindness! (which is really more of a faulty color perception ability)

[Yankeesfan]

I talked to someone recently who confessed to having thought that "sub-prime" mortgages had interest rates lower than the prime rate and were given to people with stellar credit ratings.

[oneasterisk]

I had been saying, "I could care less..." when I should have said "I couldn't care less..." Incidentally, someone on this forum showed me the error of my ways. I blame it on English being my second language

[yamota]

When I was a kid I thought God's name was Art, like in "Our Father, who *is* Art in Heaven"