Things that confused you that you’re now embarrassed to admit

I found the thread title a little confusing itself.  Like, what would have confused me, but then I later understood?  Then I realized it's more like stuff I misunderstood, until I understood.  Or stuff I didn't know, until I knew.  

So after reading everyone's responses, I'm no longer confused.

metaphysician said:

“ Ijust finished reading Colson Whitehead's crushing but excellent historical novel, "The Underground Railroad." In it, the Underground Railroad is, in fact, a railroad with tracks and stations that run underground. I guess it was an iconic approach to what has been a mythical construct.”

We read this in our Science Fiction Book Club a few months ago.  I found it devastatingly good, meaning that it was terrifically great writing, and emotionally devastating to me, in a fundamental way. I haven’t recovered from reading it yet, and that’s a good thing. I needed some shaking up. 

 I couldn't agree more with your description. (I listened to the book and the performer was very good.)

It could be like a local r/todayilearned

For example. Today I learned that Dave Stewart of Uriel and Hatfield And The North fame is not the same guy as Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics.

ridski said:

For example. Today I learned that Dave Stewart of Uriel and Hatfield And The North fame is not the same guy as Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics.

 also not the same guy who pitched for the A's

But I didn’t learn that the Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad today, I learned it back in the 80’s

dave said:

A lot is two words.

 I imagine this is due to its expanded form of "allotted".  

there's another word with similar form than can be used as one word or two but is often incorrectly used, I just can't think of it.

come on, no one said "our father, who aren't in heaven"...then where is he?

Starsong said:

dave said:

A lot is two words.

 I imagine this is due to its expanded form of "allotted".  

there's another word with similar form than can be used as one word or two but is often incorrectly used, I just can't think of it.

come on, no one said "our father, who aren't in heaven"...then where is he?

 You may be thinking of "all right" vs "alright." (The latter is incorrect.)

In history class back at school, we were told that someone was "aquitted". I didn't know if they'd been found guilty or not, and repeatedly forgot to look it up, so for a considerable while I didn't know if the guy got off or not. Now, embarrassingly, I know that he was found innocent but can't remember what it was or who he was, though I have a vague idea he did it really.

Extant, because of the “ex”, assuming it meant formerly in existence. I’d read something like the “building is extant” and would say: “what a shame, where’s the concern for historic buildings?”

This one is embarrassing:

When I was a very small kid, we'd go visit my grandmother in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. She would hand wash all her delicates and hang them from a rack over her bathtub. To keep rust from getting from the rack clips onto her clothes, she'd put paper towels in between the clothes and the metal clips. She left the paper towels in the clips when she took the clothes down. When I saw the paper towels hanging there, I figured she was washing and re-using her paper towels because she was so cheap (or so poor). I didn't figure it out 'til many years later.

I thought that when they said someone’s spouse was estranged, that they were crazy. 

Outerbrige Crossing. I thought there must be an "Innerbridge Crossing" too. 

The bridge was named for Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, the first chairman of the then Port of New York Authority and a resident of Staten Island.

When people said they had "astigmatism" I thought they were saying they had "a stigmatism."

I did not know that it was astigmatism until well into adulthood.

unicorn33 said:

Starsong said:

dave said:

A lot is two words.

 I imagine this is due to its expanded form of "allotted".  

there's another word with similar form than can be used as one word or two but is often incorrectly used, I just can't think of it.

come on, no one said "our father, who aren't in heaven"...then where is he?

 You may be thinking of "all right" vs "alright." (The latter is incorrect.)

 it JUST CAME TO ME!! apart, and a part.  like people say, I'd like to be apart of that group, when in fact they are saying the opposite of their intent. 

Starsong said:

 it JUST CAME TO ME!! apart, and a part.  like people say, I'd like to be apart of that group, when in fact they are saying the opposite of their intent. 

 Is it a camping group?

Listening to traffic on the radio while driving out to Long Island, I thought, for way too long, that Seaford-Oyster Bay was “Seafood Oyster Bay.” One day I saw the sign, and thought, yeah that makes more sense.