Things you were shockingly old when you learned

IS THAT NOT THE DUMBEST THING YOU'VE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE.

Ahaha

Kind of surprised that there are places that cooperate on school districts across state lines. Not being able to desegregate schools between Kansas and Missouri has been, uh, relevant to Kansas City area politics.

i also spent some time reading about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans last night

Dissatisfied with his job and city life, Andy and his brother Will built a 12-by-50-foot houseboat from salvage lumber, and in July 1912 the Slye family traveled up the Ohio River towards Portsmouth. Desiring a more stable existence in Portsmouth, they purchased land on which to build a house, but the Great Flood of 1913 allowed them to move the houseboat to their property and continue living in it on dry land.

just one of many brilliant details

reminded me of the time in Skyrim when I realised the Companions's hall was a big upturned boat

Utilities, school districts, zip codes, port authorities, national parks and even federal courthouses can straddle statelines.

But not area codes! For example, the federal courthouse in Texarkana sits right on the Arkansas/Texas line, but the landlines on the west side of the building have Texas area codes and the ones on the east use the Arkansas number.

Which is damn silly since with overlays and cellphones, area codes ought to be the least restricted by arbitrary political boundaries. I've got one family member who lives in the same town as me who has a different area code in her phone number. Meanwhile, my sisters who live in other states, still use the same one I use. Hell, I could even set up a Google Voice number with some faraway area code and start taking calls from it before lunch. I'm sure there's a very detailed explanation for it, but it still sounds coo-coo to me.

https://i.imgur.com/Ji7jTtM.jpg

That it’s in fact «Us Weekly» and not «US Weekly»

reminded me of the time in Skyrim when I realised the Companions's hall was a big upturned boat

― Xia Nu del Vague (Noodle Vague), Thursday, October 10, 2019 9:24 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

...Huuuuh. Well, how about that.

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

Hey, didja know that there are only ten U.S. highways that have a compass direction as a suffix?

only just today I learned that King Biscuit Time was something other than the Beta Band side project that produced the headsticky single "I Walk the Earth"

That it’s in fact «Us Weekly» and not «US Weekly»

Tracy Jordan calls it Us Weekly in 30 Rock and I thought it was a joek (I realised since, though)

That it’s in fact «Us Weekly» and not «US Weekly»

― kinder, Thursday, October 10, 2019 2:59 PM (fifty-one minutes ago)

!!!!!!!

i also thought this

and have since realized it was the actual name

I worked 20 years in radio. I once saw a Geo Tracker flip over after running into some of these things.

And as God as my witness, until yesterday, I thought they were called GUIDE WIRES.

https://i.imgur.com/r5Za7gh.jpg

when as we all know, they're actually called partially-yellow strings

"Duck tape" is actually the original name.

This is a new one to me too. Apparently it's made from cotton duck canvas, but coincidentally found an application later on for repairing ducts.

me and my husband nearly split up once arguing about whether it was duck tape or duct tape

a split over the name of the tape strong enough to hold the wing on a plane would be ironic

Seany's too Dyche to mention (jim in vancouver) at 1:51 11 Oct 19

That it’s in fact «Us Weekly» and not «US Weekly»

Tracy Jordan calls it Us Weekly in 30 Rock and I thought it was a joek (I realised since, though)
― kinder, Thursday, October 10, 2019 2:59 PM (fifty-one minutes ago)

!!!!!!!

i also thought this

Seany's too Dyche to mention (jim in vancouver) at 1:51 11 Oct 19

and have since realized it was the actual name

IIRC a lot of the humour of Jordan's character came from him having weird conceptions of everyday things, so I assumed him thinking it's "us" and not US was a part of that.

easy to conflate USA Today and Us Weekly, too

mace is a brand of pepper spray

The lettering on "Rubber Soul" was designed by Rebecca Front's dad.

Elijah Cummings's middle name was Eugene.

He could therefore have gone by E.E. Cummings.

Read somebody this week pointing out that Kierkegaard translates as church warden

I thought it meant churchyard?

Fred?

the romani crucifixion legend: three iron nails ran in, but a kid stole the fourth (made of gold) and since then -- since this reduced christ's suffering -- the kid's (romani) people are allowed by jesus to wander free of borders, to have their own law, and to steal (from those who aren't romani)

mace is a brand of pepper spray

> a kid stole the fourth (made of gold)

would a gold nail even work?

(wikipedia has two slightly different takes btw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_crucifixion_legend )

the version i cleave to was actually explained by a romani character in LA REINA DEL SUR: can i really be the only person watching LA REINA DEL SUR?

would a gold nail even work?

― koogs, Sunday, October 20, 2019 3:19 PM bookmarkflaglink

It worked for the transcontinental railroad!

I thought it was symbolic in that context.

if you find and remove the gold nail the entire US railway system will physically fall apart

I am not Fred but yeah, Kierkegaard = churchyard.

Wikipedia again has done good info on the last spike (there were at least 4...)

"Immediately afterwards, the golden spike and the laurel tie were removed, lest they be stolen, and replaced with a regular iron spike and normal tie"

(some good)

You know those Romans, they're big on keeping the trains running on time.

Thx anatol.

There's a town called Peniscola

Heard of Pensacola.
But does Peniscola have a similar seemingly semantic breakdown in Spanish as it does in English? Do locals call it something else

That John Lennon never toured as a solo artist post-Beatles and just did a couple of benefit shows.

I remember a show he did in Oxnard, CA in the 70s, Linda Ronstadt opening. Don't think it was a benefit.

Martin Scorsese on Lou Reed,

In 1987, he auditioned for the role of Pontius Pilate in my film The Last Temptation of Christ, but his old friend David Bowie ended up playing the part

Is this common knowledge?

never heard this before, it's not mentioned on the Criterion disk with MS commentary

Lou transacting with Keitel's Brooklyn Judas would have been A+

and pilate, pretty pilate
can anyone shake your hand?

thirty silver peices, in my hand

And the Judean girls go doot do doot doot doot doot do do doo