Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (12093 of them)

you do rc

A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, 24 December 2019 18:18 (four years ago) link

Ida Lupino named names and spied for the FBI and HUAC.

Pete Swine Cave (Eliza D.), Tuesday, 24 December 2019 18:37 (four years ago) link

I just realized the Add a Post text box on ILX can be resized on my phone by dragging the edge. How has this feature escaped my notice all these years?

Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 25 December 2019 20:33 (four years ago) link

Lee Hazelwood sounds like Johnny Cash

The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 December 2019 20:40 (four years ago) link

learnedobserved

The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 December 2019 20:41 (four years ago) link

That laundrette is recognised as an alternative spelling of launderette, rather than just being a surprisingly common error on launderette signs.

Alba, Saturday, 28 December 2019 12:21 (four years ago) link

Olivia Newton-John's grandfather was physicist Max Born.

Dan Worsley, Saturday, 28 December 2019 13:06 (four years ago) link

Less prestigious but she's also the third cousin of Ben Elton.

Dan Worsley, Saturday, 28 December 2019 13:07 (four years ago) link

Does common mispelling lead to amended spelling automatically. Think it might have prior to printing fixing things and would just be another step in the evolution of whatever language presumably.

Stevolende, Saturday, 28 December 2019 13:09 (four years ago) link

I think OLJ got a cameo in Ken Burns Country didn't she. Had eiyher forgotten or not fully taken in that she started in country before breaking out presumably thanks to Grease.

Stevolende, Saturday, 28 December 2019 13:11 (four years ago) link

believe you are correct

The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 28 December 2019 13:19 (four years ago) link

She started in easy-listening pop, and had non-country chart hits in the UK, US and Australia during the decade before Grease, and competed in Eurovision in 1974.

don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Saturday, 28 December 2019 21:05 (four years ago) link

Okay, perhaps not quite accurate to say she “started” in country, but she was marketed as country in the US and won CMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 1974, the year before John Denver’s name as Entertainer of the Year was in the envelope set on fire by Charlie Rich.

The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 December 2019 00:33 (four years ago) link

If you rinse your dishes in hot water, as opposed to cold or tepid water,

- they’ll dry much faster
- they will have fewer streaks and water-spots
- they’ll just look generally cleaner
- your hands won’t feel (as) old and arthritic

rb (soda), Sunday, 29 December 2019 01:50 (four years ago) link

That mayflies are also called 'Canadian soldiers' in the US.

pomenitul, Sunday, 29 December 2019 03:57 (four years ago) link

I’ve never heard that before but I’m also not positive I know what a mayfly is

Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Sunday, 29 December 2019 04:03 (four years ago) link

Aka shadflies or fishflies, apparently, or up-winged flies in the UK:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly

pomenitul, Sunday, 29 December 2019 04:07 (four years ago) link

i’ve never heard that in the US. what region is that from? probably some border area

babu frik fan account (mh), Sunday, 29 December 2019 04:38 (four years ago) link

Upon googling it I came across a couple of occurrences in local Cleveland papers so maybe it's a Midwest thing?

pomenitul, Sunday, 29 December 2019 04:43 (four years ago) link

Never heard of 'up-winged flies' tbh. UK is a bit of a wide net to cast when it comes to language though.

Soup on my lanyard (Tom D.), Sunday, 29 December 2019 12:02 (four years ago) link

THat there is now only one HMV in London, or is it 2 and neither is in the centre of town. Thankfully found that out before walking to Bond St which is what I had planned. One I'm aware of now is in White City area. ShameBond St one wass good for some stuff at least.

& from the same trip I discovered that on, that there's now a Xmas fair in Trafalgar Square which means its even harder to get through crowds than normal and this tiie of year in centre of LOndon is not the easiest to walk. Kept rushing through crowds to find that waves of people were being slowed down by people reading mobile phones. GUess that's nothing exactly new but still a pain. Hate having to maneuvre around connected groups of slow moving people who will inevitably haveone membersticking out into oncoming pedestrian traffic. Crowds are not easy things to move through at speed.

Also thinkI worked out on this trip that the waxed cotton I have been buying hasn't got cheaper but has had a cheaper variation added. Was thinking a couple of trips ago that price had dropped from around £10 for 6 yards to about £6 and then saw a lot around for £5, But it no longer has the annoying sticky label denoting quality on it. THink this might be the Chinese stuff instead of the quality I was buying for a few years. Found out that some of what I had boughtthis year was one sided as opposed to the better stuff that looks about the same on both sides apart fro writing being reversed and ink possibly being a bit smudgier.

Stevolende, Sunday, 29 December 2019 12:18 (four years ago) link

Happened to be in Central London yesterday and it is a nightmare.

Soup on my lanyard (Tom D.), Sunday, 29 December 2019 12:22 (four years ago) link

I found this out a few years ago, and mentioned it briefly upthread, but I spent years visiting Holland feeling pleasantly delighted that the Dutch language appeared to be some kind of clown hybrid of English and German: zeewolf! vleermuis! bakkerij! I found the "ij" suffix particularly amusing, even if I knew it was an "ee" my mind couldn't but read it as an "idge". schoenmakerij! brouwerij!

Then, one day I was walking in Amsterdam and I passed by a bakery where the signage plonked the 'i' and the 'j' rather close together in the kerning so that they were effectively joined together. The result was a 'ÿ'. Ah, now I get it, I thought.

kelis navidad (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 29 December 2019 13:02 (four years ago) link

teh origineel

kelis navidad (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 29 December 2019 20:14 (four years ago) link

Before "mayflies" disappears from view altogether, that Wikipedia article includes the following:

Adult mayflies, or imagos, are relatively primitive in structure...

A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 29 December 2019 20:18 (four years ago) link

I was worried my true intentions upon posting that link would forever languish in oblivion.

pomenitul, Sunday, 29 December 2019 20:20 (four years ago) link

specific mayfly such as imago

Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Sunday, 29 December 2019 20:23 (four years ago) link

Richard Wilbur, Mayflies

In somber forest, when the sun was low,
I saw from unseen pools a mist of flies,
In their quadrillions rise,
And animate a ragged patch of glow,
With sudden glittering –as when a crowd,
Of stars appear,
Through a brief gap in black and driven cloud,
One arc of their great round-dance showing clear.

It was no muddled swarm I witnessed, for
In entrechats each fluttering insect there
Rose two steep yards in air,
Then slowly floated down to climb once more,
So that they all composed a manifold
And figured scene,
And seemed the weavers of some cloth of gold,
Or the fine pistons of some bright machine.

Watching those lifelong dancers of a day
As night closed in, I felt myself alone
In a life too much my own,
More mortal in my separateness than they–
Unless, I thought, I had been called to be
Not fly or star
But one whose task is joyfully to see
How fair the fiats of the caller are.

Life is a meaningless nightmare of suffering...save string (Chinaski), Sunday, 29 December 2019 20:31 (four years ago) link

Key lime pie is from the Florida keys???

calstars, Monday, 30 December 2019 00:04 (four years ago) link

lol

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 30 December 2019 00:04 (four years ago) link

Wait til u hear where Crab Louie comes from

looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Monday, 30 December 2019 00:12 (four years ago) link

Upon googling it I came across a couple of occurrences in local Cleveland papers so maybe it's a Midwest thing?

as a native Clevelander I would be happy to go on at length about these little bastards

Pete Swine Cave (Eliza D.), Monday, 30 December 2019 00:17 (four years ago) link

Key lime pie is from the Florida keys???

I always thought it was made from the “keylime” at the bottom of a wall of limes.

The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 00:20 (four years ago) link

The Key lime is the queen.

When the Key lime dies, the other limes find new colonies

looking for Mon in Alderaan places (Neanderthal), Monday, 30 December 2019 00:22 (four years ago) link

fgti’s comment about Dutch otm and just helped me with the spelling in one of the language learning apps. Weird that there are some Dutch words that are exactly the same as the English word, such as “water,” and then there are some words that have enough of an alien feel that they get repurposed for sf use, such as “baan.”

The Soundtrack of Burl Ives (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 December 2019 01:29 (four years ago) link

This is probably already on here

Coriander is just another name for cilantro

El Tomboto, Monday, 30 December 2019 02:11 (four years ago) link

You mean cilantro is just another name for coriander.

pomenitul, Monday, 30 December 2019 02:19 (four years ago) link

I didn't know this either, although they are used to denote 2 different things in the US, the fresh plant vs the dried spice.

Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Monday, 30 December 2019 02:21 (four years ago) link

Like, on some level beef and cow and steak are the same thing; ditto ham / pork / pig

Yeets don't fail me now (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 30 December 2019 03:22 (four years ago) link

My family always called the fresh plant (which my parents grow in their backyard) "coriander" when I was growing up and didn't use the word "cilantro" but, yeah, I heard about this distinction later on.

Un sang impur (Sund4r), Monday, 30 December 2019 04:46 (four years ago) link

This was with a pick up guitarist from the UK. Amazing player who fit in like he'd played with them for ages.
THink he may have toured UK/Europe with them before. BUt I'm told there is a more permanent New York line up of the band and I think the other 3 were from that. Don't think you'd notice without being told as in who would and wouldn't be full time.


Was hoping to get to that gig myself but it was the office christmas party. Wrong decision in retrospect.

Alex Ward plays with TFLs in Europe and also on other Weasel Walter side projects. Strongly recommend the album they and James Sedwards out of Nøught put together under the name Power Trips - Deadly Orgone Radiation.

Fizzles, Monday, 30 December 2019 07:01 (four years ago) link

I need to check out his bandcamp page. Should have rechecked my notebook before leaving him nameless in that comment.
He really was quite phenomenal.
Need to get some more stuff by this lot and him of he's got anything on cd.

Stevolende, Monday, 30 December 2019 08:48 (four years ago) link

https://alexward.bandcamp.com/

Stevolende, Monday, 30 December 2019 10:57 (four years ago) link

Both dried and fresh are called coriander in the UK

Alba, Monday, 30 December 2019 11:04 (four years ago) link

Me and my wife found out about the coriander/cilantro thing the hard way a couple of years ago. She's from Costa Rica, where fresh culantro is an essential part of the cuisine, whereas I'd never really used it here in Finland. So when she moved here, at first she was shocked that the local supermarkets didn't seem to sell culantro at all, until a couple of months later she discovered it's called korianteri here.

Tuomas, Monday, 30 December 2019 14:16 (four years ago) link

The stems and leaves of a coriander plant are called cilantro in the US; the root of a celery plant is called celeriac in the UK. In a better timeline, the root of a coriander plant is called coriandriac, the stems and leaves of a celery plant is called celeriantro

kelis navidad (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 30 December 2019 14:36 (four years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.