Things you were shockingly old when you learned

sorry if that's TMI

what is going on in here

I'm getting things back on their proper course, is what's happening.

I only yesterday made the connection between the term 'knee-jerk' (ie an unthinking and reflexive response) and the thing where a doctor hits your knee with a hammer, thereby inducing an unthinking and reflexive response. Only yesterday, while in my early forties. Yyyyyep.

^ Wondering what flash of recognition at long last led you to make that connection? For the previous 40 odd years had you thought that it had to do with people who are jerks?

By the way, thanks for the course correction.

I dunno, I guess I figured it was like 'apple of my eye'. I know what it connotes and how to use it in a sentence but who even knows how that arrangement of words came to mean that particular thing (someone who bothered to look it up, is who). And like the phenomenon I described somewhere upthread where I know how to get to one place and how to get to one other place and it takes me forever to realize that the two places are actually just like a block away from one another.

whenever i see knee jerk or hear it I've always automatically envisioned someone using a reflex hammer. But I really liked those things as a kid so maybe that's why.

As for idioms, I don't recall how or how shockingly late I learned that "balls out" had nothing to do with male anatomy. I guess I had likened it to "going commando", ie, being so ass-kickingly committed that you disdained any thought of underwear.

wait what does it have to do with??

As for idioms, I don't recall how or how shockingly late I learned that "balls out" had nothing to do with male anatomy. I guess I had likened it to "going commando", ie, being so ass-kickingly committed that you disdained any thought of underwear.

I am, apparently, just learning this right now. Please to explain.

wait all this time i have literally been taking my balls out for "extra effort"

now what?

Someone is very disappointed rn

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/6f/9c/416f9c90556aaf8c25cd0e83067dccb6.jpg

Like "balling the jack" and "balls to the wall", it comes from driving a train. It might not be an accurate to say that they have nothing to do with testicles. The Ballin' the Jack dance and song definitely had sexual associations, so it seems fair to hazard that the other two have gained usage from dual interpretations.

From onlineslangdictionary.com:

Possible etymology: The original phrase is actually hinted to in the expression "with a full head of steam". In the earliest days of steam engines, Watt style engines and their successors used a centrifugal governor to control speed. The faster the engine was to run the higher the weighted balls on the governor would rise until at full speed they were at their highest and farthest reach from the center: high or full speed was known as running "balls out".

(tucks balls back in)

Any Warhol connection?

It would've made my entire LIFE had Warhol appeared on an episode of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood"; I love Andy AND Mr. Rogers so damn much.

Anyway, I was today years old when I learned about the etymology behind "balls out" and "balls to the wall", so thanks ever so for that, punning display.

Not until they released a version with printed lyrics did I find out that Chrissie Hynde doesn't sing "But not me baby, I'm too precious / Fuck off."

It's actually "But not me baby, I'm too precious / I had to fuck off."

https://www.comsol.com/model/image/31011/big.png

With a full head of balls

41: white chocolate is good

It was only a year or two ago that I learned that "jima" is the Japanese word for "island." "Iwo Jima" means "Sulfur Island."

white chocolate has no chocolate solids in so apparently doesn't technically count as chocolate. I like the stuff, was thinking it tended to be more sugar heavy than other forms of supposedly related stuff. It does have cocoa butter in apparently so is somewhat related i guess.
Do tend to get the higher %age dark stuff when I buy chocolate though.

have cocoa butter

That "butter" isn't so much the dairy product than it is the soft, sometimes frothy form that we associate with "butter".

In other words butter, cocoa butter and even "I Can't Believe This Isn't Butter" are all butter.

https://i.imgur.com/GY36hee.png

frustratingly, most of the "white baking chips" you see in Murican supermarkets contain no cocoa whatsoever, since they tend to be made with palm oil rather than cocoa butter. they taste like confectionary butthole and lack the creamy texture you find in real white chocolate. when I make a dessert that calls for white chocolate, I end up buying bars of white chocolate (with "chocolate" in the product name and cocoa butter in the ingredients list) rather than chips, even though it's considerably more expensive that way

I learned that white chocolate is that in name only when I made cappuccino fudge and orange cream fudge. Both recipes are mostly white chocolate with just a bit of orange or coffee extract and coloring mixed and swirled in. Tasted good, but easy to stop after a piece or two, unlike with any form of real chocolate.

My association for coca butter would be to women's cosmetic product. It crops up a lot especially in black women's make up/skincare.
Wasn't thinking dairy.
& now see why its called that for about the first time, it looks somewhat similar in its raw form.

ilxor Burt Stanton took his name from a Simpsons episode (I assume?) I just watched "Bart vs. Australia" last night for the first time in ages, never made the connection.

for some reason i think i actually knew that, and i'm far from a Simpsons geek

While we're on the subject

Stop trying to make "ruby chocolate" happen guys

arianna huffington is greek

(had never heard her talk and then saw her in a commercial last night during the basketball game and was "oh what she's esl?)

Jennifer Aniston is Greek, too. I had thought she must be Jewish. Her godfather was Telly Savalas.

Had to look up ruby chocolate. Sounds disgusting, and most likely evil.

arianna huffington is greek

Or Arianna Stassinopoulos, as some of us still think of her as.

Jennifer Aniston's dad is Victor Kiriakis on Days of our Lives!

poor man's victor newman

Definitely knew Victor Kiriakis was Greek.

I did not know that actor is her father

said soap opera was right after a half hour kids show with a local host in the mid-1980s so I saw that guy a lot!

That the etymology of Sussex, Essex and the former Wessex relates to south, east and west, duh. Having now looked it up I'd opine that the Kingdom of Northumbria should really have been called Nossex to complete the set, stupid name though it would have been.

Is Northumbria in the same grouping? Thought the other 3 were pretty close to London area. & Northumbria about 400 miles further North.
So the North of that grouping would be South of the Midlands possibly quite far South of it.

BUt apparently it got settled by the Angles not the Saxons anyway.

There is also Middlesex, AKA West Greater London, and the East Anglians grouped into the "North-folk' and the 'South-folk", but the West Anglians were Mercia and the North Anglians were Bernicia and Deira (which became Northumbria later) which spoils it a bit. Also there is Kent.

never really thought about the location of oxfordshire before but it's a bit puzzling in that parts of it are a midge's bawhair from reading which means they're definitely in the south east but other parts are more smack-dab in the middle

I think of Oxfordshire as the south edge of the midlands but i guess that's only the north of the county

I made this to try to figure out where and how you lot fit all your accents shires and regionalisms into your spaces:

https://imgur.com/gallery/MfvfJZ1?s=sms

My parents live in Oxfordshire. They get BBC South East news but ITV Central news. It's wild frontier country.

BUt apparently it got settled by the Angles not the Saxons anyway.

There wasn't that much difference between the Angles, Saxons, Jutes tbh.

Seemed to be enough to effect what areas got named after which grouping though doesn't there?

my understanding is that the adoption of those labels was large post-settlement and largely meaningless

I only learned recently that Oxford and Bosphorous have the same etymology, ie 'cattle strait'.

TIL that bagged milk is a weird Canadian thing. Americans don't have it apparently.

Harry Dean Stanton (born 1926) dated Rebecca de Mornay (b 1959) in early 80s wtf

Very nearly dated her in HIS early 80s wtf