Things you were shockingly old when you learned

wut @ all of that, thank u 4 breaking my brain

One of the classic blunders.

Never get into a battle of wits with a half-Sicilian/half-Ugandan when death is on the line.

or a even a battle of half-wits

Chrysalis Records was named after its founders, Chris and Ellis.

There have got to be a lot of things like that. Like Ikea, et al.

See also the vibraslap

I was driving around with the windows down last week. I wish I could remember the song, but whatever I was listening to, as I passed a crew working on concrete with a jackhammer, the jackhammer (rapidly fading in volume as I passed) synched up *perfectly* with the song like a giant, loud vibraslap.

For a long time i used to think that whenever someone said the weather was humid, I just thought they meant it was too hot. I blame this on my actual belief that these people also thought that humid just meant hot.

And if I'm totally honest, even though I now know what it means, I wouldn't be able to tell you if the weather was ever too humid or not.

my simple and probably wrong definition of humidity is if it isn't particularly hot and you are getting a sweat on walking up a hill - it's usually down to it. Then if it's hot and you feel like you need an oxygen tank, then also humidity. When old folks say "it's a bit close today" I presume it's the humidity they are talking about

ooh i like that

That reminds me I have a distinct memory of a colleague describing the weather as 'close' in my first graduate job and me being shockingly old to have no idea what she meant. "Close, close, you know, humid!" she said. She was only a few years older than me but I guess I'm getting on a bit now too.

Anyway, I like Ste's one. It feels like exactly the kind of thing that happens to me, with a word that's close enough to what you think it means that you can go through your whole life under a misapprehension. A bit like Americans and Britons meaning different things by 'frown'.

Ste if you lived in like, Florida or Georgia you would know. walking from dry air-con out into the actual air, the humidity is like an almost tangible wall that you enter into.

xpost hold on now

As I understand it, Tracer, Americans think of frowning as something you do with your mouth (hence “turn that frown upside down”). To most British people it’s something you do with your forehead.

I'm just lolling at the idea of what a brow-smile would look like

There's an old Fusco Brothers comic where one of them puts a fan in front of a closed window, and the punchline is "it's not the heat, it's the stupidity."

xpost https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71jS6IwbL2L._SL1200_.jpg

That reminds me I have a distinct memory of a colleague describing the weather as 'close' in my first graduate job and me being shockingly old to have no idea what she meant. "Close, close, you know, humid!" she said. She was only a few years older than me but I guess I'm getting on a bit now too.

I always thought 'close' was a Scottish expression, I've never heard anyone in England use it.

This is wild

So 'turn that frown upside down' is nonsensical in the UK?

that Chrysalis thing is cute to know!

reminds me of the architect Craig Ellwood - one of the founders, shortly after World War II, had arbitrarily picked that name for a contracting firm, after a "Lords and Ellwood" liquor store out front of their office. he liked it so much that after the office closed, he legally changed his own name to Craig Ellwood, under which sobriquet he then founded a prolific West Coast modernist architecture practice.

Chrysalis Records was named after its founders, Chris and Ellis.

This is good.

(xp)

this frown thing is a stunner.

i always thought "close" air meant when it's like stuffy inside and maybe there's a bad smell and you want to open up a window.

Wait, so what do non North Americans think of the frown emoticon? :( etc. There are no brows, there is no forehead, it's the upturned mouth that makes it "sad."

We are aware that an upturned mouth denotes unhappiness tbf.

loll

Resting Brit Face

frown = disapproval/worry, not sadness.

here we go

frown = believing that you are a Viking of sleep iirc

I always thought 'close' was a Scottish expression, I've never heard anyone in England use it.

She was a Mancunian, but I think I've heard it elsewhere in England since.

frown = disapproval/worry, not sadness.

Yeah, hence frown lines aka worry lines

well if we set up a "Things you were shockingly old when you learned" wiki we wouldn't have to go over this again.

You also frown when you're concentrating.

Or can do.

I can confirm this, or you might stick your tongue out like janet from the secret seven

Ha, yes, I do that.

I was not aware of the "frown" distinction. It's definitely something you do with your brow to me, whereas puting is done with the mouth when you're annoyed or sad (but now also something people do in Instagram pictures)

I've definitely heard people say "close" when it comes to weather.

I always thought 'close' was a Scottish expression, I've never heard anyone in England use it.

― Authoritarian Steaks (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 2:15 PM (two hours ago)

Midlands reporting in: I understand and occasionally use 'close' in this context.

North West here, yeah 'Close' definitely used 'round arr way.

We use “close” that way in Ireland too.

Also the south west of England.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdg4mLErl8I

I use "close," and I'm in Philadelphia. So do my parents and other people I know.

So I could have been using it all along instead of humid, doh!

I use 'close', didn't think there was anything odd about it. It's a good word to describe what it is!

I can confirm this, or you might stick your tongue out like janet from the secret seven

I learnt 'frown' from Enid Blyton, I'm sure. Frowning was a bit like a milder 'scowling'.

the night was sultry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1sgug6prw

The odd use of "close" I heard when I was younger was my mom asking me to "close the light" when I left the room. I used to think that was just one of her peculiar expressions, but then I learned it was fairly common in Quebec where she grew up, since in French you fermez la lumière so why wouldn't you open and close lights in English too? There are several such odd expressions I hear there stemming from direct translations from French that don't quite work in English.

Okay I admit that for most of my life, I thought that when UK people said it was "time for tea," they literally just had a cup of tea. Like, I didn't realize it entails an actual meal for large parts of the island.

xp

There's actually a wikipedia page for Quebec English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_English) full of expressions I hear all the time, though not generally from people whose first language is English.