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
My friend always thought that Op Ivy song Take Warning went "skate boarding", which is way better.
― monkey bonkers (╓abies), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Same with Sandy Shaw.
Ok I sounded this out several times in several different ways and I still don't get how this is a pun. Help?
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:40 (fifteen years ago) link
I think that 'Shaw' is meant to sound like 'shore' - I don't hear it either
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Sandy Shore.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Shaw is pronounced exactly the same as Shore, in England.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:45 (fifteen years ago) link
hows it pron in USA?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Well I guess it must be different, if people are having problems hearing it? Dunno.
I didn't even know it was her real name, tho.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:48 (fifteen years ago) link
wasn't, rather
I knew someone who, if my friend is to believed, is said to have uttered at age 18 "wait, you can't get pregnant if your clothes are on, right" while making out.
― Their time's limited, hard rocks, too (mehlt), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:51 (fifteen years ago) link
'Shore' rhymes with 'oar'. 'Shaw' is the same as the first three letters in 'shopping' xp
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
i'm loving this thread. so many discoveries!
― baaderonixx, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
― Øystein, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 1:59 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark
http://www.noonco.com/flea/movie.htm
My flabber hasn't been gasted quite like this in a long time :-/
― StanM, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:57 (fifteen years ago) link
xp I only got that Sandie Shaw pun because I once attended a seminar about legal practice given by an English professor who made a big thing out of the difference between 'law' and 'lore'. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Wait - how the hell DOES a candle work?!
I know, right?!!??!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:00 (fifteen years ago) link
i too only figured out lipps, inc. lately. also, fear's lee ving. it never occurred to me until i was driving in the car one day and bam.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I just now got Lipps, Inc. I say in my head "Lipps Incorporated" whenever I read that.
I was pretty close to thirty when I was told that "prevalent" is not pronounced pree-VAY-lent. I liked my version better. "The PREE-VAY-LENT opinion in this country is that Barack Obama will be a force of change."
― ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:18 (fifteen years ago) link
I didn't realize until sometime in my sophomore year of high school that being forced to listen to Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson (Focus on the Family) every morning on the way to school was completely fucked up. My dad used to drive me to school everyday for years, and that shit was always on the radio.
― z "R" s (Z S), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:25 (fifteen years ago) link
"i used to think HAZCHEM was a foreign word for danger like Achtung
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008"
haha yes, i thought it must be turkish
― Shacknasty (Frogman Henry), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:30 (fifteen years ago) link
I was pretty close to thirty when I was told that "prevalent" is not pronounced pree-VAY-lent.
probably some slippage with "prevailing" no?
― rent, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I hadn't thought of that, but yeah, probably.
― ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:38 (fifteen years ago) link
It was inspired by three of the women in Chilton's life who he was thinking about at the time, including his ex-wife, having birthdays in September.[5]
― Kim Kimberly, Thursday, 11 April 2024 14:43 (one week ago) link
Alex Chilton was a big astrology guy
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 11 April 2024 14:57 (one week ago) link
He liked things enigmatically literally didn't he? Sister Lovers was him and abandmate dating a pair of sisters though it sounds like it should be a poetic allusion dunnit? may just be later valorisation?
― Stevo, Thursday, 11 April 2024 14:58 (one week ago) link
Chilton born on Dec. 28 too.
― pplains, Thursday, 11 April 2024 15:09 (one week ago) link
Yeah I always assumed “December boy’s got it bad” was singular not plural
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 11 April 2024 17:15 (one week ago) link
I only got the September song metaphor because my mom used to play “April Come She Will” a lot when I was a kid
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Friday, 12 April 2024 02:12 (one week ago) link
I just learned the song "Popcorn" by Hot Butter was first done by a guy named Gershon Kingsley in 1969.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htuL6mvlTgk
― nickn, Friday, 12 April 2024 02:46 (one week ago) link
TIL that Peggy Lee substantially rewrote the lyrics for her version of “Fever,” making it very quite different from the Little Willie John original.
― Sometimes It POLLS in April (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 April 2024 03:18 (one week ago) link
TIL = within the past week
― Sometimes It POLLS in April (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 April 2024 03:19 (one week ago) link
TWIL
Didn't realise that the original letter locations on a typewriter were changed so that the word 'typewriter' could be typed with keys that are situated only on the upper row.
When Sholes sold his typewriter design to the Remington company, Remington engineers made an additional change to the layout by transferring the letter “R” to the upper row so their typewriter salesmen could quickly type the word “typewriter” to potential clients by locating all of the necessary letters in the upper row.
― Wry & Slobby (Portsmouth Bubblejet), Friday, 12 April 2024 11:19 (one week ago) link
The use of the word piracy to copy someone’s work goes back to the 17th century.
― Dan Worsley, Friday, 12 April 2024 21:11 (one week ago) link
When I heard the phrase I assumed the phrase referred to the school year: “a teacher dates a student over the summer holiday”, for exampleI did not realize that it referred to the months of the year as a metaphor for the stages in one’s life
I did not realize that it referred to the months of the year as a metaphor for the stages in one’s life
tbf the song’s lyrics deliberately touch on both these meanings.. “oh the days dwindle down, to a precious few” etc. As in, a time-bound relationship
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 13 April 2024 01:07 (one week ago) link
that the buffalo bills are named after buffalo bill i guess??
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 13 April 2024 02:01 (one week ago) link
Not the Silence of the Lambs guy, tho.
― nickn, Saturday, 13 April 2024 02:41 (one week ago) link
either that or their mascot should be a duck
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 13 April 2024 04:34 (one week ago) link
With spicy wings!
― nickn, Saturday, 13 April 2024 04:45 (one week ago) link
Sister Lovers was him and abandmate dating a pair of sisters though it sounds like it should be a poetic allusion dunnit?
It is also a quote from David Crosby's "Triad".
The "months as life-stages" trope seems to cast aside January, February and March. I can do without them myself but it makes for an inconsistent metaphor.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 14 April 2024 02:26 (one week 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 week 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 week ago) link
Is that so.
https://i.imgur.com/RLCFyjB.jpeg
― pplains, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 03:09 (one week 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 (four days 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 (four days 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 (two days 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 (yesterday) link