DO you have a Mac?
The best things about macs is that making any character is stupid easy.
¢™øºÖØ°
― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 06:34 (fifteen years ago) link
&¶¶¶¶¶¶
!
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 07:11 (fifteen years ago) link
That (most) BMWs are named according to engine size (I was a car freak as a child but never knew this until being informed by a German flatmate while I was a PhD student).
i.e. 318 = 3 series 1.8 litre engine etc.
― krakow, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 07:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Didn't know that black and green olives are identical, just different stage of maturity, until a few months ago.
Didn't realise that Adam Ant was a pun, until a year or so ago. Likewise Lipps Inc.
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 07:59 (fifteen years ago) link
I've got a mac and I still don't know how to do any of, um, ^ those ^
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I end up going to wikipedia and copy-and-pasting when I want unusual characters
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:02 (fifteen years ago) link
The cows-and-bulls thing, plus Adam Ant, are the only things on this thread that I do know
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:03 (fifteen years ago) link
how to cook an artichoke properly
― nelson algreen (get bent), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:09 (fifteen years ago) link
(a julia child recipe steered me right)
How to tie my shoes (velcro, you see..)
― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Didn't realise that Adam Ant was a pun, until a year or so ago.
^^^ this. Same with Sandy Shaw.
― NotEnough, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Fay Fife of the Rezillos.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:35 (fifteen years ago) link
(i.e. it's a pun on "I am from the town of Fife, my good fellow" in broad scots)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:36 (fifteen years ago) link
What's the Adam Ant pun? Adam Ant = adamant? If so... pretty lame pun.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:37 (fifteen years ago) link
That's it.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:43 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost Tell that to Lai Mpun, the lead singer of Bangkok's Phleng Chat.
― I CRIED (G00blar), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:45 (fifteen years ago) link
I am 33 and didn't know any of these things. Wait - how the hell DOES a candle work?!
― Savannah Smiles, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Same with Sandy Shaw.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:54 (fifteen years ago) link
i don't know how to explain it but i used to think chickens had a really weird way of "mating", something to do with the rooster's legs. (!!?!?) :)
― Ludo, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:55 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movie
― I CRIED (G00blar), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:56 (fifteen years ago) link
"that SHIFT + 6 = ^. I think I figured it out a month or so ago. I always wondered how people got that character."
^^^Dude, you beat me by a month. Thanks!
I once spent a half hour trying to eject a cd from a Mac before someone finally told me there's an eject button on the keyboard. I was going through all these crazy menus and preferences...
― Nate Carson, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:10 (fifteen years ago) link
I think I was like 16 or 17 when I learned that cows and bulls were the male and female versions of the same animal and not two distinct animals.What sort of seemingly basic facts did it take you a surprisingly long time for you to learn?― filthy dylan, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 5:30 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
What sort of seemingly basic facts did it take you a surprisingly long time for you to learn?
― filthy dylan, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 5:30 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― With a little bit of gold and a Peja (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:23 (fifteen years ago) link
loooool one of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory.
I think I've done that Mac eject button thing too :(
Pronounced lapels like 'labels' for years until corrected but happily don't dress well enough to use it often
― The Slash My Father Wrote (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:34 (fifteen years ago) link
My girlfriend was shocked to learn, at the age of 33, that a 'Flea Circus' is actually a rather charming mechanical toy, and is in no way operated by any parasitic insects.
― Huey in Bristol (Huey in Melbourne), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Ismael, at the age of 32, is shocked to learn the same thing. This thread is getting embarrassing
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:57 (fifteen years ago) link
WAT! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus
― Øystein, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:59 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movieone of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory
one of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory
no but seriously, what is this about?
― negotiable, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:01 (fifteen years ago) link
i mean i can see that there's rarely anything to size them against in the big white antarctic, but why would anyone then automatically think okay here's a bird i could play tag with
― negotiable, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:03 (fifteen years ago) link
u could still play tag w/it tho
― SNAKES! (ice crӕm), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:04 (fifteen years ago) link
But you could make the same assumption with ostriches in the big yellow desert (or wherever they live), and in that case you'd be right!
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm still in touch with several grown adults who genuinely believe there's 'something' to supernatural claims about ouija boards, despite its fairly obvious origins in parlour games / illusions which utilised the (admittedly fucking spooky) ideomotor effect.
― Huey in Bristol (Huey in Melbourne), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:08 (fifteen years ago) link
aw no-one said 'where babies come from'
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I've had a lot of experiences in my adult life with mispronouncing words I understood as part of written text, but hadn't heard aurally in the context of conversation etc. For example, I was well into my twenties before I knew the word "vehement" wasn't pronounced veh-hee-ment. I wish others would politely correct you when you do that instead of letting you blindly sound like an idiot.
― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm a bit like that, but now I'm in the habit of saying works incorrectly, I can't get out of it. Canal is not pronounced can-el, but there's fuck all I can do about it now.
― NotEnough, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:39 (fifteen years ago) link
^ This happens to me all the time too - so much so that I actually now find it quite amusing when I realise, midway through a sentence, that a word I've never heard before is looming at the end. I suppose that people who talk a lot, rather than reading, must find the same with spelling. It only annoys me when some moron uses it as an opportunity to score cheap points (sadly fairly often)
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:40 (fifteen years ago) link
I was going to start a thread like this, but it was going to be more about 'life lessons' that took you forever to learn, rather than trivia.
Anyway it's taken me this long to fully realize how unreliable first impressions can be when it comes to people.
― invisible jet (wanko ergo sum), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:42 (fifteen years ago) link
but why would anyone then automatically think okay here's a bird i could play tag with
haha
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:57 (fifteen years ago) link
TAL have an episode on this in the "best of" section on their wesite. people who thought unicorns were real, etc., lots of awkward silences at cocktail parties: good stuff.
― rent, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:00 (fifteen years ago) link
i like to tag birds. (runs)
― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:01 (fifteen years ago) link
There's a penguin here and he wants to say "you didn't touch me ner ner ner"
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought penguins went "weh weh weh"
― ╓abies, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:14 (fifteen years ago) link
― Huey in Bristol (Huey in Melbourne), Wednesday, November 12, 2008 7:08 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
you couldnt get me in the same room as a ouija board
― a country packed with ponies (sunny successor), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:42 (fifteen years ago) link
I was about 35 when I figured out Open Sesame = Open Says Me.
― Rotgutt, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:44 (fifteen years ago) link
i used to think HAZCHEM was a foreign word for danger like Achtung
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:45 (fifteen years ago) link
I just figured out, like 2 days ago, that the lyrics are "highway to the danger zone"
(until then, thought they were "I went to to the danger zone")
― homosexual II, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:03 (fifteen years ago) link
ooh i like that
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:07 (fifteen years ago) link
lol mandee those are even better
― Uncle Shavedlongcock (max), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Nothing, as I'm not shockingly old.
― Eric H., Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Misheard lyrics are always better. The singer of my old band had this (intentionally) corny line that went "sleep all day til the telephone ring / head to the bar and shake that thing", the latter half of which I always thought was "head to the barber and shave that thing".
― monkey bonkers (╓abies), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:28 (fifteen years ago) link
it was only today that it dawned on me that for years, I'd been reading the thread title "Every huge artist has their "New Jersey"" as "Every huge artist has their "Nebraska"" and now that thread finally makes more sense. I have no idea why my brain confused these states.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, 16 April 2024 00:21 (one month ago) link
They're the only two states that appear in Bruce Springsteen album titles.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 16 April 2024 21:01 (one month ago) link
Is that so.
https://i.imgur.com/RLCFyjB.jpeg
― pplains, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 03:09 (one month ago) link
The resolute desk in the White House is called that not because it’s where presidents sit while being purposeful and determined. It was built from the oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute.
― Requiem for a Dream: The Musical! (Dan Peterson), Saturday, 20 April 2024 13:48 (one month ago) link
that’s actually pretty cool. i always thought it was because it was as big and sturdy as a ship not cause it was built from one
― schrodingers cat was always cool (Hunt3r), Saturday, 20 April 2024 14:47 (one month ago) link
I had no idea either. Some interesting history (on both)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_deskhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Resolute_(1850)
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 22 April 2024 22:14 (one month ago) link
TIL: four nuclear missiles were detonated during the Cuban Missile Crisis - two by the U.S. and two by the Soviet Union. Doing this during DEFCON 2 conditions seems like a bad idea and I'm kinda shocked that we're all still here.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 23 April 2024 04:12 (one month ago) link
Ned Ludd was actually a folkloric figure whose name was appropriated by the Luddite movement several decades after he (or the person/people he was based on) lived. I'd always assumed he was the leader of a social movement! Shows you how much I know about British industrial history.
― a fatal dose of irony (Matt #2), Sunday, 28 April 2024 14:38 (one month ago) link
Wow, I just realised that “cuckold” and “cuckoo” are part of the same concept. I had thought the former was just infidelity, or maybe it’s come to mean that.
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 30 April 2024 19:18 (four weeks ago) link
cuckoos notoriously leave their eggs in other birds nests for them to rear or that was the myth anyway. So I can see why it would tie in with the idea of cuckold though I thought cuckold was the passive role possibly victim. Though the understanding all seems to deny free will on the wife/female role in the situation.
― Stevo, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 10:25 (three weeks ago) link
i was thinking it must at least go back to Molière, but a quick check at wiktionary shows a quote a hundred years earlier from Rabelais. but i think you're otm about laying eggs in another's nest
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 15:11 (three weeks ago) link
Basically all of Western Europe is on the same time zone. Except for Portugal and the UK, if the UK counts as "europe" and not "the hell islands".
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 15:30 (three weeks ago) link
... and Ireland.
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 15:43 (three weeks ago) link
xp European cuckoos do this. American cuckoos raise their own young.
― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 17:03 (three weeks ago) link
xp and Iceland
― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 17:24 (three weeks ago) link
"trailblazing" has the literal meaning of marking trees to create a path. i always imagined someone running and leaving fire behind them.
― adam t. (abanana), Thursday, 2 May 2024 15:20 (three weeks ago) link
... and Ireland.― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.)
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.)
your country is basically fine but tainted by proximity to The Worst Country
kind of like canada
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 2 May 2024 15:34 (three weeks ago) link
Cardiff has only been the capital city of Wales since 1955. Wales had never had a capital city prior to 1955(!) and Cardiff, Caernarvon and Aberystwyth were all in contention.It was never even formally announced...
On 20 December 1955, Gwilym Lloyd-George, then Minister for Welsh Affairs and Home Secretary, proclaimed that Cardiff was the capital of Wales, in a reply to a Parliamentary question from David Llewellyn. Lloyd-George said that "no formal measures are necessary to give effect to this decision"[14]
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 14:38 (three weeks ago) link
haha wtf
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 15:38 (three weeks ago) link
Americans call it "soccer" because It's a truncation of "association football"
― your mom goes to limgrave (dog latin), Saturday, 18 May 2024 21:57 (one week ago) link
having watched man u all season, i'm more into disassociation football these days
― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Saturday, 18 May 2024 22:07 (one week ago) link
(xp) Like rugger. It's English public school speak.
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.), Saturday, 18 May 2024 22:25 (one week ago) link
The person on the cover of REM's Lifes Rich Pageant is Bill Berry. I always thought it was Boris Karloff or someone who looked like him.
― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Thursday, 23 May 2024 14:17 (five days ago) link
Ouch.
― Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2024 14:24 (five days ago) link
all of Western Europe is on the same time zone. Except for Portugal and the UK
Lots of "how are you getting on with the time difference" jokes when I moved.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 23 May 2024 14:29 (five days ago) link
hms resolute was one of quite of lot of ships dispatched to find the lost franklin expedition. franklin's two ships had become trapped in the ice (from which fate no one returned). resolute was one of at least three three further ships that that also became trapped in the ice!
luckily everyone got off them ok, since there were by so many other ships also searching nearby that ((unlike with the franklin crews) rescue was possible
― mark s, Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:20 (five days ago) link
jesus imagine if i was a professional proofing editor or something
― mark s, Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:25 (five days ago) link
that the US military didn't ban smoking on its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines until 2010
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:37 (five days ago) link
Formica was a mica substitute and the name is from 'for mica'.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:39 (five days ago) link
xp I think if I was a mile underwater with a nuclear reactor I could probably use a cigarette now and then
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 23 May 2024 18:45 (five days ago) link
Just step outside, if you hafta.
― pplains, Thursday, 23 May 2024 19:11 (five days ago) link
the designated smoking areas were called "smoke pits". I just never knew this happened on modern submarines loaded with nuclear warhead armed ballistic missiles. But yeah I can imagine the appeal of a pensive smoke before the end of human civilisation, but it does seem very much like a remnant of 1950's H+S protocols.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Thursday, 23 May 2024 19:14 (five days ago) link
TIL this is a saluting emoji:🫡
It’s mystified me for years. I could never figure out what that appendage was.
― just1n3, Thursday, 23 May 2024 21:10 (five days ago) link
Dave and Ansell Collins, who recorded the great reggae single “Double Barrel,” are not related. Dave’s surname is Barker, actually born David Crooks.
― Overly dramatic elevator music (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 23 May 2024 21:23 (five days ago) link
you could add to that the davis sisters and james & bobby purify (actually cousins)
― budo jeru, Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:31 (five days ago) link
Very much hoping James Purefoy has a cousin called Robert.
― Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:35 (five days ago) link
I don't think it's Dave Collins & Ansell Collins - more like 'Dave, and Ansell Collins'. How confusing.
― h.p. lovecraft's backing singers (Matt #2), Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:49 (five days ago) link
Ansell Collins and Dave would have been more sensible.
― Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:51 (five days ago) link
Which reminds me, when I was very young Tony Orlando & Dawn were always on TV and the name confused me because I couldn’t figure out which of the two ladies was Dawn. I finally got it at the shockingly old age of 8 or so.
― Josefa, Thursday, 23 May 2024 23:11 (five days ago) link
I never knew Dick Van Dyke played the old banker in Mary Poppins until a rewatch with my kids some 20+ years later.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Saturday, 25 May 2024 08:14 (three days ago) link
deferred interest
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 25 May 2024 08:32 (three days ago) link
pull the other one, it's called Smith
― kinder, Saturday, 25 May 2024 15:32 (three days ago) link
As this is in the news, thought I’d look into its history. Anyway….
During the 1950s there was a prohibition on serving members of the armed forces standing for election to Parliament. A few National Servicemen stood for election in the 1951 and 1955 general elections in order to be dismissed from service.
― Dan Worsley, Sunday, 26 May 2024 21:16 (two days ago) link
Diana Ross has got a daughter called Chudney
― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:39 (yesterday) link
The icon you see when a page or graphic is loading, usually a spinning ball or wheel, is called a Throbber.
― nate woolls, Monday, 27 May 2024 21:28 (yesterday) link
medieval estonia was inhabited by a tribe called the chuds
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOlgpWcXEAAoxUN?format=jpg&name=medium
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 28 May 2024 02:15 (six hours ago) link