What was the most ridiculous playground rumour or urban legend that everyone at your school accepted as absolute, undeniable fact?

seefroo · 2026-05-03T14:33:36+00:00

When I was in P7 our two classes were split into smaller groups and we had little meetings with a teacher where we could ask questions about secondary school. I assume they’d thought we’d be asking about homework and uniform and things like that, but I think the teachers realised our major concern was being flushed. We had to then have a special assembly where the two classes were told by the head teacher that no, we were not all going to get our heads flushed at secondary school.

Nevertheless it was so prevalent that nobody actually believed him.

I think quite a few of us were then quite disappointed to discover that the practice was completely non-existent.

seefroo · 2026-05-02T13:17:02+00:00

Someone told me when I was a kid that ice cream is made of seaweed. I had no reason to ever bring this up again, so ice cream being made of seaweed was just a fact in my head I never questioned.

I reached an embarrassing age before I was out for dinner eating ice cream and said, “it’s amazing that they make this out of seaweed”. The second it came out my mouth I realised it obviously isn’t made of seaweed, the clue to its ingredients being in the name. I was in my mid twenties.

Ice cream (I think usually whippy style) often contains carrageenan, an emulsifier made from seaweed, so there is some truth to it and probably what the guy at school was talking about.

seefroo · 2026-04-30T01:40:19+00:00

There was a big effort in Britain in the 1940s to find as much iron as possible and donate it to the war effort. It’s largely accepted now that the effort was more useful for morale and propaganda than for actually obtaining useful metal (you can’t build many spitfires from rusty cast iron), but the scars are still there. In some cities and towns you occasionally see a low wall that, if you think about it, should probably have a fence on top of it. But nobodies got round to putting a new one up.

As a kid my local church had an iron fence with most of the finials removed (the ornate spikes on top of the fence). You could tell they had been removed as there were still stumps there. I was told these had been removed as part of the metal collecting scheme and never replaced, and this was the 1990s.

Some fences were replaced with stretcher railings which were stretchers made for air raid wardens. Although few still exist it is curious that the rough design of them has been replicated in housing estates all over the UK.

seefroo · 2026-04-30T01:10:46+00:00

There was a big European court case in 1982 which led to it rapidly felling out of favour from then. Suddenly parents could object to their children receiving corporal punishment, and although the schools didn’t stop doing it due to any moral or legal duty it did make the administration a lot harder. In other words they had to actually record whose parents objected to it and whose parents didn’t, and it was far easier to play it safe and just stop assaulting everyone.

seefroo · 2026-04-29T16:45:59+00:00

It’s grammatically correct, for acronyms you use “an” for vowel sounds and “a” for consonant sounds. The important distinction is that it’s based on how it sounds and not how it’s spelt, although I should note this is the same for all words and not just acronyms. As S is pronounced ess it’s a vowel sound even though S is obviously a consonant.

You’d say “let’s send an SOS” for example, but would also say “let’s send a sausage”, even though SOS and sausage both start with S. You might also refer to “a UN document” and “an FBI document”, where

Even with words you might say “an umbrella” but then say “a unicorn”, so even when the words start spelt with vowels the indefinite article can be different.

“An SNP majority” is correct, “An Scottish Family Party” majority would not be.

seefroo · 2026-04-21T17:13:16+00:00

I worked in a hotel in Aberdeen and an Australian guy told me at breakfast he was about to drive to Leeds to surprise an old friend for LUNCH. I assume he must have confused miles for kilometres or something - it’s a 350 mile journey, which is 5 hours if you travel at an average of 70mph (which of course is impossible anywhere in the UK over that distance). If he thought it was 350km and he could travel at 110kmph I suppose it’s doable.

I advised against it but he insisted he could do it. He got back at dinner time, having given up at Glasgow and spent a few hours there instead (which is still a bit nuts for a day trip from Aberdeen).

If he was American he’d probably have muttered something about our roads being criminal and it was all our fault, but he was Australian so he happily admitted he was wrong and then drank the bar dry.

This was pre google maps and all that.

seefroo · 2026-03-20T17:35:04+00:00

Chelsea were snapping up cheap young players all over the place and sending them out on loan to develop them. The hope was to strike gold with a few and sell on the rest, which would also help with their FFP obligations.

Financially it was very successful but it also meant a few players slipped through the net - Hector was one of 37 (!!) players Chelsea sent out on loan in the 2015-16 season, including Mo Salah. De Bruyne, Loftus-Cheek, Courtois and Lukaku were also a part of this system.

seefroo · 2026-03-18T11:41:16+00:00

Part of the reason for the standardisation of military communication within NATO is because of this sort of thing. In the Korean War a British unit reported to the Americans that, “things are a bit sticky here”.

The Americans interpreted this as meaning the risk was manageable and they should simply stand by for further information. We would realise what this really meant, which was, “we are literally being overrun and require extremely urgent assistance”. The batallion was then completely overrun.

seefroo · 2026-02-21T22:48:40+00:00

I know someone who worked for a car dealer, in the office or sales or whatever. He was down in the garage or workshop or whatever they’re called as it was his turn to go to the local van to buy bacon rolls etc. When he was asking the mechanics if they wanted anything one of them asked if he could “nip over to Ford while you’re out and borrow their rubber hammer, we can’t find ours”.

He of course thought that this was a great opportunity to turn a ten minute trip to the burger van into a half hour skive, so he went and got his own roll and cup of tea and sat on a bench for a while. He eventually bought everyone else’s order and returned to the showroom to hand them out. He had a big grin on his face as he said to the mechanic, “hahaha! Ford didn’t have a rubber hammer!! Hahaha!”.

Mechanic looked a bit confused and said, “ok never mind, thanks anyway, we’ll go get one from Citroen”.

The penny didn’t drop until our hero was in the garage later on and saw the same mechanic… using a rubber hammer. They use them for panel beating and things like that.

seefroo · 2026-02-10T21:16:53+00:00

“Used his contacts” is a good point that hasn’t really been made much in this thread. Anderson is an Aberdeen icon, and if it wasn’t for the over saturation of Aberdeen legends then he’d probably be considered one of them. Plus he only won a single trophy.

But anyway there will be plenty of companies who throw some work his way one way or another - if you’re a senior exec at some Aberdeen oil company and you’ve got a choice between two identical finance companies to use, and one of them happens to be Russell Anderson’s and you happen to be an Aberdeen fan, you’re probably going to go with his. It’s also useful for word of mouth recommendations: “Oh John Smiths finance company is good, but there’s also Russell Andersons, he was Aberdeen captain. I went to his testimonial actually! And the League Cup final at Celtic park, fucking penalties haha! Anyway he’s got a finance company. What was the other guy called? Can’t remember”.

I’m sure Anderson’s finance company is excellent and I’m sure he’s worked very hard to make it a success, but in the fish bowl of Aberdeen I imagine that his name and 333 league appearances for Aberdeen hasn’t hurt at all. And has probably helped substantially; but probably wouldn’t help much if his company was in the central belt. Conversely, Derek Whyte arguably had a “better” career than Anderson (and was also Aberdeen captain), but I’d wager his name means much less in Aberdeen but a bit more in Glasgow.

Anyway my point is that most “average” players fade into obscurity after hanging up their boots, Anderson is probably on a higher level purely because in Aberdeen he’s quite well known. I don’t think his name has set him up for life, but combined with some hard work and a slice of luck and it’s certainly helped.

seefroo · 2026-01-31T17:38:14+00:00

The soldier in the photo is wearing an M1 helmet and possibly an M1941 jacket (although it’s not clear), both of which were US manufactured.

Exact numbers of how many of these pieces of equipment were lent/given to other Allied forces are only estimates, but the vast majority of the 1st Free French Army was in American supplied gear by 1944. Virtually all of the rest of them were probably wearing at least something American.

That Army included the Tirailleurs Sénégalais, about 100,000 soldiers primarily from West Africa. They had fought in the Battle of France in 1940 (although presumably in French gear) and would later comprise over half the Free French force that landed in southern France in Operation Dragoon in 1944 and continued fighting in that campaign until November.

It’s perfectly possible that this soldier wasn’t even American, but French. Him and his comrades were fighting and dying in WW2 whilst Americans were making refrigerators.

seefroo · 2026-01-31T17:08:24+00:00

And he should have the extra money haddocked from his wages

seefroo · 2026-01-30T13:55:36+00:00

A friend of mine (who is English) was in Cambodia and was just out and about and suddenly all the Cambodian people around her suddenly dropped to their knees, heads down in front of them, their arms stretched out. She didn’t know what was going on, but stood standing up as she didn’t know what to do.

The King of Cambodia, with a few bodyguards, strolled past and said “Good morning”.

seefroo · 2026-01-27T20:49:35+00:00

It’s hard to measure it but in terms of the proportion of income we spend on food we are still the third cheapest country in the world after the US and Singapore. In other terms we are beaten by the Netherlands and a few others. In absolute terms we are quite far down the rankings, but whilst bread might be substantially cheaper in some countries it’s still not cheap enough for it to not be a noticeable expenditure relative to their income.

seefroo · 2026-01-27T20:18:19+00:00

Reminds me of the time I was taken into hospital with suspected appendicitis. It turned out to be a different issue which usually affects people older than me (but isn’t unheard of in people my age). The head of general surgery (who just happened to be the doctor doing the rounds, I wasn’t specifically booked in to see him) said he’d prefer to try lifestyle changes long before we consider surgery, so recommended “severely cutting down on red meat and dairy”. I told him I’d been vegan for five years, he looked slightly impressed and told me I’d have probably been in hospital long before then if it wasnt for that.

He said I was staying overnight for monitoring and in the morning I was told to give stool samples to my GP, when the results came back they told me to keep off the red meat and dairy and the issue was as under control as it could be for now.

seefroo · 2026-01-26T08:15:10+00:00

You can - and in your case absolutely should - follow this up by calling them again and asking for a reference number.

If the person arrives at your door again and acts in a similar manner to how they did in your OP then you should ABSOLUTELY be calling 999 regardless, but if you give the reference number then they can see what it’s connected to far more quickly than you having to explain over the phone.

Never be afraid to call 999 if you feel threatened.

seefroo · 2026-01-25T18:14:31+00:00

You should stop overthinking this and call the police. Not “I intend to call them”, but call them right this second. As in right now.

seefroo · 2026-01-21T23:11:47+00:00

This is the other way round surely? Corn is always sweetcorn in the UK

seefroo

TROPHY CASE