It Just Gets Worse and Worse.

[Sparky]

Some many years ago I was playing Trivial Pursuit with family. We were playing teams. The question was "What is the opposite of the Orient?" I'd gotten up to get a drink and didn't even realize it was out question. I blurted "Oh that's easy!" Rest of the table had no clue. We won the game with that one.

Like the nice LibraryLady, I assumed it was something everybody knew, but I was wrong. Apparently it's the sort of brain lint that gets stuck in my head and that everybody else is too busy to remember. Or my teachers touched on it but no one else's did.

Whatever, we won. I've been a fan of the term ever since.

[Mikkel]

I knew the term, IIRC both Jules Verne and Kipling uses it .

[AriRashkae]

Maybe it's one of those things best used to test someone's level of geekiness/random trivia?

[wagegoth]

I hate to say it, but I think, as someone else noted, that it's an age-related question. I remember hearing Occident and Orient as a child, but nothing after that. Now, we say someone is Asian, but when I was a kid they were referred to as Oriental. I would think that if you studied history, it would be a term you would find used quite commonly by earlier writers, but I think it unlikely that it would be used today.

English is a language of change.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Reminds me of the time when I was telling a joke to some coworkers. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but the basic premise was a professor deciding to "translate" works of classic literature into ebonics. Punchline being that the title of Oedipus Rex was changed to "Motherfucker!"

...NOBODY got it. In a room full of creative writing, literature, etc., degrees. Oy.

[Balgram]

My parents will do this a lot. They are from SA, and I'm definitely USA.

We'll be chatting at the dinner table, and say something like, "I loved the impeccable delight of that satiating dinner."

Then the parents will say, "It's pronounced satiating."

To which I will counter, "Nay! It's satiating, or I shall eat my hat."

And then we will get the American Heritage Dictionary and I will be right.

Then we will get the Oxford out and they turn out to be right, but my alternative is sometimes acceptable.

Word games are fun. I know shockingly few to argue about so many.

[The above conversation was extremely exaggerated, but the concept happens every night.]

[Becks]

Punchline being that the title of Oedipus Rex was changed to "Motherfucker!"

That's hilarious.

[Danno]

I've run into similar situations. When / where I grew up, in one of my math or science classes, we learned all about Archimedes and the Crown.

Thus, when I first heard The Doctor say 'Did you know Eureka means 'my bath is too hot'?' I got it immediately.

When I moved out to California, no one I mentioned that to got it. And virtually all of my friends and associates have Bachelors, most in some form of science.

I've since chalked it up to regional differences.

I had a similar scenario once, but figured it was probably an age thing. At work I put a new fudge can into the warmer, which is basically just a heated pot full of water. Apparently someone had poured more water into the pot while the fudge was nearly empty, because when I put the new full can in it caused the pot to overflow.

"Geez," I grumbled. "Haven't you guys ever heard of Archimedes?" Well, no one had. They seemed to think I was spouting obscure trivia, while I thought everyone learned that story in gradeschool.

[cslater]

What is considered standard knowledge? That reminds of one time I was at a meeting of a bunch of music publishers, and before the meeting we were telling jokes and puns. And I said, I thought the best pun of all was a sign seen in a sporting goods store announcing its end-of-season sale:

"Now is the discount of our winter tents".

It's a brilliant riff of a well-known line from Shakespeare. but at least 2/3 of the room looked at me utterly blankly.

[Becks]

"Now is the discount of our winter tents".

Cute and clever.

[LibraryLady]

I guess that I am stupid by your standards. I have not gone to a university or to a collage. And I still don't know what that is. I had to look it up also.

I know what you meant by that, but you could have worded that differently.

Powerboy, I don't think you're stupid. You're not in any way.

When I first made this post, I thought it would be amusing. I never expected the sort of response it brought forth. It never dawned on me that so many people didn't know what the Occident was. I can understand if people don't know the difference between the 'Morgenlands' and the 'Abendlands' but 'Occident' and 'Orient"? That's something I learned when I was about eight-years-old.

I'm truly sorry if I insulted people here. It was certainly not my intention to do so. [Where's the paper-bag smiley when you need it?]

[ArcticChicken]

Punchline being that the title of Oedipus Rex was changed to "Motherfucker!"

So, so glad I put down my glass before reading that.

"Geez," I grumbled. "Haven't you guys ever heard of Archimedes?" Well, no one had. They seemed to think I was spouting obscure trivia, while I thought everyone learned that story in gradeschool.

My seventh grade science teacher liked to tell that story. A little while before I startedvat that school he had to change it from running down the street naked to running down the street in a bathrobe 'cause one of the parents complained. I know because he told us.

"Now is the discount of our winter tents"

..... If we ever meet in person, remind me to kick you in the ankle for that.

[Becks]

[Where's the paper-bag smiley when you need it?]

Found it for ya.

[LibraryLady]

Thanks, Becks. I needed that!

[Becks]

Any time.