Things you were shockingly old when you learned

It’s one of those great “English is fucked up” things, segue and ague are both 2 syllables but the second syllable is pronounced completely differently in each case, and words like plague and league are only 1 syllable

English being fucked up is the only reason spelling bees are a thing. it's an event to spell words with no apparent rules

Speaking of English irregularities, I had always thought the band Ghoti Hook was pronounced like John Gotti.
Later I remembered that saying (see below) and thought duh, the next work is "hook."

The word "ghoti" is a phonetic spelling of "fish”, invented in the 19th century as an example of the irregularities of English spelling. Pronunciation: the "GH" as in the word "rouGH", "O" as in "wOmen" and "TI" as in naTIon. However, the band pronounces its name more intuitively, as a homophone for "goatee".

And today I learned via Wiki that the band pronounces it "goatee" and that they were a Christian rock band.

lol I remember them from my Xtian days

when you're on a church retreat and only Christian music is allowed...

you just let your ears build up with wax until you cain't hear no more

I'm not seeing the point of naming yourself after a pronunciation joke and then not pronouncing it like that. Maybe the joke's on me, though, in the end.

They maybe they have fake beards that they put on a coathook when workday is done

When you spell out "ghoti" in Greek doesn't it spell Jesus?

that's the ending to Indy and the Last Crusade iirc

Yeah I'd always just assumed 'seeg'.

As in 'segue heil'?

Yeah, was what I was thinking. Not sure what it was corrected the previous thought. Otherwise rhymes with league or something. So wonder if that's why it would be read that way.
I always mentally voiced as I read it like seigs into something rather than segways.

& now a segway is a 2 wheel electric scooter with the wheels lateral instead of in sequence

Segway Segway Sputnik

I knew a college radio DJ who spelled it "segueway," which I guess captures both the pronunciation and alludes to the original word, which (while decidedly odd) has a sort of considerate sweetness to it.

how do you pronounce seguidilla tho

i knew a 25 year old working in a steakhouse that asked customers if they wanted a "lib" of steak

This is brilliant

Often I feel a bit dim on ilx but I come onto threads like this and think na clearly I'm the cleverest of all

I was about 30 years old when I realized that whenever Snoop called someone a fuckin "B.G." that he meant "baby gangsta" and not a "Bee Gee", which I thought was his way of saying someone was old and out of touch (cos Bee Gees, 70s)

Often I feel a bit dim on ilx but I come onto threads like this and think na clearly I'm the cleverest of all

― kinder, Saturday, June 13, 2020 11:19 AM

Maybe you should be more kind, as your name implies.

I always thought "kinder" implied that each post was like a little surprise!

Teeny Terrapin for you, pp!
And none for Gretchen Wieners.

I assumed kinder's profile name was a reference to children, have never heard of kinder surprise eggs before now

Kinder Surprise Eggs is a reference to children.

of course, just wasn't imagining ninja turtles inside chocolate eggs

I always thought "kinder" implied that each post was like a little surprise!

― pplains

For you to choke on!

When you spell out "ghoti" in Greek doesn't it spell Jesus?

i knew a 25 year old working in a steakhouse that asked customers if they wanted a "lib" of steak

I was once offered "Mein Strown" (Minestrone) soup at a restaurant.

That Woody Allen starred in a 1976 film called The Front.

https://i.imgur.com/bVq3xYQ.jpg

Popped up on Amazon Prime and I thought I'd slipped into a parallel universe.

You've never seen it or heard of it? It's been on telly quite a few times over the years.

Never heard of it

It was his attempt at being a serious actor.

The Front was actually the first 'Woody Allen movie' I ever saw since it was on TV.

The name of the defunct British frozen food retailer Bejam was an acronym for Brian, Eric, John And Millie, the family members who were the company directors.

Pavlov’s dogs were eaten during the siege of Leningrad.

That rings a bell.

(sorry)

the unwritten famine rules are: no longpiggery until there has been no confirmed barking or meowing for at least a few days.

The name Lenin was an alias. His real name was Ulyanov.

That is pretty shocking.

quite a few of the top Bolsheviks adopted a nom de guerre to make themselves sound a bit more rad!

the o/g shitposters iirc

Thought it was a security thing too. The one surprised me was that Willy Brandt was a pseudonym - and that was definitely to keep out of the clutches of the Nazis.

speaking of Bolsheviks i learned the other day that it means "majority" and Mensheviks means "minority", the names imposed by Lenin after he'd won a vote even though he didn't really have a majority. something very modern feeling about rebranding like that.

an interesting comparison is how accomplished the Tsarist secret police were at penetrating revolutionary activists compared with how shit they were at making them kowtow to the state and beating the resistance out of them. Like Stalin reminisces about his time in Siberian exile like it was a scout camp and a positive formative period of his life, he had access to a decent library was going on hunting and fishing adventures, it sounded like going on a slightly austere arctic center parcs break next to the gulags of the Soviet era.

ha I was about to post that I was 50 years old before I realised that there were TWO Lou Reeds on the cover of New York and then I checked to be sure and THEY'RE ALL LOU REED WTF

Is one of the Lou Reeds in blackface

that is a key question but I think we're good
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81XV9CoyCoL._SL1425_.jpg

Did he ever do I want to be black live though

Boy, did he ever.

Second track on Take No Prisoners