What do you know way too much about, that never comes up in conversation?
Taxidermy? Rare stamps and coins? Dutch tulip futures in the fifteenth century?
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AIDS (used to come up all the time, but not so much any more); funerals and related traditions/cost-saving strategies; and training search dogs.
LOL on the selected topics for this question, by the way!
My brother’s retirement fund. Oh wait. That comes up in conversation. Everytime he calls me.
US Naval history from 1880 to 1914.
British military rifles from 1870 to 1950’s.
German handguns from 1898–1945.
Post-mortem cabinet photography from the Victorian Era.
Stephen King’s multiverse.
The symbolism behind AFI’s pre-release alternate reality game for Sing the Sorrow.
Turntables and vinyl (well, this one comes up sometimes).
The meanings of Talking Heads songs.
Autopsies. I’ve discussed it before at a study group and it was awkward.
In day of yore I could make bassoon reeds from raw cane. Somewhere I think I still have the mandrel and knives.
The effects of chronic, low-grade trauma and milder forms of child abuse.
I know, it’s crazy that others would prefer to discuss sports and action movies…
I know very little about anything that doesn’t come up in conversation. In fact, I basically know nothing about anything until it comes up in conversation. Then I remember what I know.
True fact.
The Oxford comma, the difference between a restrictive and a non-resctrictive clause, the law of hyphens, the dangling participle, what iambic pentameter really is, the redundancy of “true” in a “true fact,” and what “it’s” means.
@gailcalled May I derail my own thread and ask what iambic pentameter really is, as opposed to popular perception?
@Imadethisupwithnoforethought: There have been some threads here asking for examples, and some people thought that if it had an end rhyme or any kind of beat, it qualified. We had some contentious discussions. I will see whether I can find one.
Here it is, if you face bear reading the entire thread. MIlo and I had a lot to say on the subject, I see.
Oddly, last night I was able to talk about one of my interests at the dinner table: infectious disease. I controlled myself a little since there were several people at the table, it was a party actually. Turns out one of the dates who came with an invited guest, someone I had never met before, is speciallizing in Infectious Disease. He wanted to talk more than me I think. His date said to me he rarely finds someone he can discuss this sort of stuff with when outside of his medical realm. He kind of quizzed me and then was shocked I knew the answers. Basic stuff, nothing impressive, but he was impressed. It was sort of fun, in only that I knew as much as him with what we touched on, but would have been more interesting for me if we could have moved onto to something I did not already know about; if I had learned something, or he could have helped me with questions I have. I hope he learned something from me, not to think so much like a doctor, and a little more like a researcher and patient. He seemed very much to think what he was taught was he gospel, and failed to be thinking outside of the box, or realize that quite a bit of what he thinks to be true right now will change or be proven incorrect as medical science advances.
@gailcalled thank you, earnestly. I have been talking to my daughter about that and classical hexameter, and I hate to misinform her. Daughters lose faith in their fathers very quickly, and I intend to postpone it as long as possible.
@gailcalled So, what is there to know about the Oxford comma, other than that it’s awesome?
@Aethelflaed: Not much, assuredly, but it rarely comes up…ever, which is what the OP was asking about.
PS. I know at least twenty synonyms for “awesome.”
See this thread from July, 2008:, coincidentally asked by me.
Roch Thérieault, fruit flies, pillows, North of 60, this game called Shadow Madness and basements.
^^ (And obscenities in Canuck French.)
Childhood sexual abuse. Though it does come up, more often than you’d think… so maybe that doesn’t count.
@gailcalled You got that right, saint ciboire. but over here, it comes up as much as we breathe oxygen, whether we’re discussing it or not XD
Gold coin coin investing (“Numismatic” and bullion coins and small bars). No one that I know is into it. If I mention gold coin collecting to people that I know then they tend to suggest that that’s for weirdos and cooks. So I just keep my mouth shut. I love to go to coin shops and coin shows just to talk about an look at all the gold coins and to look for good deals.
Also most folks don’t like to here about my job as a clinical laboratory technologist. Boy have I got stories to tell after working 35 years in the profession. No one wants me to go there and I don’t blame them either. HA!
Geese, animals in general, lots of useless trivia, weird history, abnormal psychology. lol
Thanks to @Coloma and 7 years in 4-H, I now know more about chickens than anyone should. Poor people don’t know what they are getting into when chickens come up in conversation. I end up going on and on, while their eyes just glaze over. Haha.
Linguistics and Latin. My primary field of study. Almost never comes up in conversation, but when it does, it’s hard to switch me off… :P
Tofu, The Monkees (although as a few days ago, that has all changed) mushrooms (not the magic kind) and The Nanny. I could wax poetic about Fran Drescher all day long. I wonder if Davy Jones ever got the chance to meet her? And lemon zest.
Sports stats, primarily football.
The adhesive properties of Hubba Bubba
Soap making and the chemistry behind it.
Almost everything related to sewing. Always talking about the end result and the business side of things and never get to talk about the process and techniques and such. Like how to tightly fit a lot of oddly shaped patterns onto large rolls of fabric and then how to utilize the leftover scrap into useful material. How to make patterns that tesselate really well.
My pit of useless anime/Japan knowledge. It comes up, but not That much. The other night my friend was drunkenly describing weird little known anime series while I figured out the the names of the shows. Lol, that was the most I’ve used it in a while. I haven’t even seen a lot of the shows but I still know what they are, what theyre about, basic story premise, sometimes studios that worked on them & their creators.
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard You know I’m all over AFI talks. And vinyl. I love sponging up your wealth of knowledge.
@cazzie I’m really interested in learning about soap making, I’d love to do it as a hobby. Feel free to direct me to some resources about it or PM me and tell me about it.
How to build dungeon furniture.
Leathercrafting.
I’m more of a jack of all trades. I guess I would know the most about meteorology because that’s my job, but I think I know a little about many topics instead.
1. South Korea
2. Alternative schools
3. Chewing gum
4. Autism
5. The Beatles
Impulse control disorders.
Boy! People know so much about so many things! I wish I knew something.
But long ago, I chose to be a generalist and this is the consequence. Specialists learn more and more about less and less until eventually they know everything about nothing.
Generalists know less and less about more and more until eventually they know nothing about everything. I feel like I’m really getting out into the tail end of that curve.
@wundayatta You know how to use your ass as a globe. A very artistic division of the continents. lolol
How to tell a good tattoo artist from a bad one and a great one from a good one.
The pros and cons of using sunlight vs. artificial light when shooting a video inside.
Bullshit.
And not that much, but still quite some I know about lionshit, bonoboshit, frogshit, and Shih Tzushit.
Conjugation of verbs in the subjunctive mood.
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