Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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

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

― jmm, Friday, June 14, 2019 9:44 AM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark

not even canada wide though. i've lived in vancouver 7 years and never seen a bag of milk

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

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Friday, June 14, 2019 9:49 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark

KING

She also dated the slightly less shockingly old Leonard Cohen (1934) not long after

speaking of milkbags how about that Rebecca de Mornay HEY-OHHH

How could I have lived my entire life and not known about this Stanton-de Mornay connection until this very moment!! Shocking doesn't begin to describe it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxBSeWa0Hao

I saw bags of milk in Sainsburys (UK), don't think anyone was buying em tho

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

I'm hardly one to talk considering how I'm in love with a friend of mine who's 27 years my senior, but wow, my late mom and I had the exact same age gap as Stanton and de Mornay!

As for bagged milk, that's a common "look at how weird is the eastern half of Canada"-ism that I find oddly coincidental considering that part of Canada is currently celebrating their very first NBA championship victory. What I find TRULY interesting are the recent tidbits about English history, especially since I only just recently learned about how a large section of the country was once under Danish control (the "Danelaw"). This kind of knowledge is vital to me considering how hardcore I've realized my Anglophilia to be.

that Albert Pierrepoint was from Clayton West, Huddersfield - although someone might have told me this before and I'd forgot it. I suppose the big clue that he was from Yorkshire is in the fact that he resigned after the ministry of justice tried to diddle him out of £14 for a no show fee when some child killing nonce got a last minute reprieve! He seems like a thoroughly grim character, but kudos to him for making a killing at the Nuremberg Trials.