Things you were shockingly old when you learned

An old girlfriend had something like that in her family. Her poor mom suffered through a couple of miscarriages and one premature birth where "Gladys" died after a few days.

So when the mom became pregnant with what would turn out to be my ex, everyone was all "Oh boy! Here comes Gladys making a comeback!" before the parents decided to go with a different name.

I only did it once or twice, and I'm not proud of it, but an excellent way to really piss her off was to conclude an argument by calling her Gladys.

dont feel bad
dont feel lonely
just be gladys over

xpost yes, it would be SEHK rather than SICK. Make that TWO things I learned today!

Anybody else learn stuff about their parents/relatives bios at a shockingly old age?

I was about 20 when our parents dropped the bombshell that I had an older brother who'd been born prematurely and died after a day or so. Also that he had the same name as me, hence the ilx name (probably mentioned that on here before actually).

― funnel spider ESA (Matt #2), Monday, September 16, 2019 3:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

My dad found out he had an older brother who passed away shortly after being born with the name first name. My grandad wasn't meant to register my dad with the same name but just did it (he wanted to name a son after himself) and came home and told my grandmother

In my case it was because every other name suggested would be the same as someone my dad had argued with or a politician he didn't like etc etc, so I ended up with the same name almost by default.

When I was 19/20 my sisters realized my uncle's birthdate was prior to my grandparents' wedding date. Figured he was just a bastard, but nope: my grandpa had a wife who died and my uncle was the only child the 2 of them had. I didn't even know about the prior wife. Us kids weren't told cause didn't want us to view my uncle as not fully part of the fam.

That was lovely, deems.

I was about 20 when our parents dropped the bombshell that I had an older brother who'd been born prematurely and died after a day or so. Also that he had the same name as me, hence the ilx name (probably mentioned that on here before actually).

Pretty much exactly the same thing happened to me - though I don't know what age I was when I found out. Yes, he couldn't breathe on his own and he died in the hospital and he was my mum and dad's first son and I think he was buried in the hospital grounds, probably unmarked, because the deaths of premature babies didn't matter so much in those days. Kind of destroys me to think of what effect that had on that young couple who became my parents.

Vangelis is not pronounced van-JELL-is. I'm sure I heard people saying it that way on radio and TV as a kid.

?? I thought that was how his name was pronounced

Is it a hard G? I used to pronounce it VAN-juh-lis then heard van-JELL-is later.

the word 'pram' is a truncation of 'perambulator'

Fact: Vangelis wouldn't have had the career he did if he'd used his full name of Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, which seems a shame.

He did use it occasionally tbf.

https://img.discogs.com/untxLPHasaQ5CGs-2v6EC3CfRZQ=/fit-in/600x593/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-936975-1562895816-2810.jpeg.jpg

Strong Chaki vibes.

I assume that Aphrodite's Child are currently reasonably well known among music fans. Used to be that Demis Roussos was better recognised for his later solo work as a more MOR singer in ethnic mumus loved by suburban housewives like Abigail of Abigail's party fame.
& the fact that he had a psych/prog/pop band together with Vangelis seemed to get forgotten for a while.

Quite good though so they were.

Every time a man dreams he has an erection; every time a woman dreams, the blood vessels of her vagina become engorged. These changes in our genitalia are apparently unrelated to sexual thoughts before sleep or to sexual content in the dreams themselves. Rather, erections and vaginal engorgement seem to be the result of the state of dreaming itself.

whaaaaaat?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/I_Like_Dreamin%27_-_K._Nolan.jpg

medical doctor jerome groopman has informed me thus

Dr. Gropeman u say, sounds legit

I'm very glad to have read that (from this article) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-secrets-of-sleep as - tmi alert - I'm often confounded by waking with a boner after a dream with absolutely no erotic content

hrrrm I always assumed it was because I really needed to pee

almost equally confounding

Kryger writes that “healthy sleepers” typically experience about five awakenings an hour, although they do not remember them.

At my age, if it doesn't feel like I was wide awake for hours at a time, I figure I slept OK.

Looked up the primetime schedule for 1964 and saw that the following all debuted within days of one another, 55 years ago this month (9/64):

The Addams Family
The Munsters
Bewitched
Gilligan's Island
Johnny Quest
The Man from UNCLE

And also Underdog a few days later, in early October.

There were incredible numbers of kids around to boost ratings for that kind of programming. Being 10 at the time, I was in television wasteland heaven. Although even then I thought Gilligan's Island was kind of dumb.

Approximately 40% of life is getting shaken down

the first three were syndicated on local stations when I was a kid. apparently gilligan’s island still was at a price premium

the channel 5 vs channel 11 dichotomy steered my syndication experience strongly in favor of addams/bewitched/gi line-up. When i would encounter munsters i still recoil with ‘the hell is this crap!?’ And yet tolerated gi.

I was curious because I was watching Addams and Munsters in tandem and while I knew that they had debuted around the same time, I didn't realize that they'd debuted six days apart from one another. They're similar enough in those early stages (although Addams has a leg up in being run by a Marx Bros. writer) that one suspects a bit of tomfoolery.

And yes, Gilligan is trash.

Always assumed The Munsters was a crude rip-off of the AF, which always felt older and more sophisticated to me. Did Bewitched come before I Dream of Jeannie, or after?

Speaking of learning things about the Munsters, I was in my late 30s when I heard about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZSWim3kvsE

That's not colorized. The pilot was filmed in color.

that looks... very wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dlVA2M07pQ

Yeah, I watched that Munsters pilot last night. It was weird. I kinda liked the original Eddie, though, presented as like a legit feral child.

Bewitched, Addams, and Munsters all debuted within the same seven-day span. Jeannie was a year later.

I also was shockingly old when I learned that Munsters was a Universal show, which is why they were able to utilize the Karloffian makeup design on Herman.

Bewitched was a hit in 60s Japan and heavily influenced the creation of the Sally The Witch manga, a story about a magical princess who lives on earth but has to keep her identity secret. This in turn became a massive hit when it was animated and practically invented the "magical girl" genre that is still going strong today e.g. Sailor Moon, PreCure, Madoka Magica etc.

I always assumed Bewitched was a rethinking of the situation at the end of Bell, Book and Candle. Like what happens next in a way that would work as a tv sitcom.

The other grandmother who appeared less often in the Addams Family was played by Margaret Hamilton!

Bombay is now called Mumbai

wow -- i remember learning that in 1997! i was at my job processing visas for other people's overseas travel and i learned that Bombay is called Mumbai by a disgruntled customer.

lol would a strong cockney accent preserve the rhyming i dunno englishes

yet they still call the popular snack Bombay Mix.

Congrats to you all for learning that the former Bombay changed its name.

I can't mark the year, but it was pretty late in life that I realized Bombay and Mumbai weren't two different cities.

I mean, there's no catchy song about it like Istanbul has.

Constantinople?

now picturing bewitched reboot cast with s. asian dr. mumbai character, or did they actually do this already.

i learned it as part of my job at the time, not sure how i would have found out otherwise
you know they don't say Calcutta anymore too right?