i mean, i've come to terms with it by this point tbh
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 14:39 (three years ago) link
Feel like Puerto Rico has a better chance of being admitted as a state before DC.
Some people just can't get their head around a city being a state, no matter how much sense it makes. "Well why can't they just make it part of Maryland?" etc.
― pplains, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:42 (three years ago) link
That is one of the more actionable/feasible suggestions tho
(That is, retaining the "monumental core" as a voteless Federal district, while retroceding the places where people actually, y'know, LIVE to a state that has representation.)
FWIW the Virginia portions of the District already did precisely that. In 1847. So there is precedent.
This has been an active issue my whole life, I have heard almost every argument and almost every proposed remedy and it is still a perpetual stalemate. I suspect it will be so when I die.
― Tom Paine in the membrane (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:53 (three years ago) link
One of DC's most popular license plate mottos is "taxation without representation."
Today I learned that Northwestern University got its name because at the time of its founding in 1851, Chicago was the biggest city in the then northwestern, only modestly expanded United States. I mean, duh, but I never thought about it before.
I also recently learned that the phrase "happy as a clam" is truncated from "happy as a clam at high tide;" they're happy because they're harder to catch.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 16:05 (three years ago) link
I assumed "happy as a clam" was because they appear to be smiling widely
― Josefa, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 16:19 (three years ago) link
For something even crazier, look up why Case Western Reserve is in northeast Ohio.
― pplains, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 17:01 (three years ago) link
or why pittsburgh was the 'gateway to the west' before st. louis
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 17:11 (three years ago) link
how about why north parade, a street in oxford (uk) is south of south parade.
― neith moon (ledge), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
Something to do with the Earth's shifting magnetic field?
― Subverted by buggery (Tom D.), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 18:57 (three years ago) link
has it to do with lord north
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 18:58 (three years ago) link
And Joe South.
― Subverted by buggery (Tom D.), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 19:00 (three years ago) link
don't it make you wanna go home.... counties
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 19:17 (three years ago) link
turns out i was shockingly old when i learned it's another fake etymology. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Parade#Origin_of_the_name
― neith moon (ledge), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 19:22 (three years ago) link
while we're learning late about American geography this week I discovered that
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the American Midwest, the Heartland, Middle West, or simply the Midwest
is the north to north east and not in the midwest
― BRAVE THE AFRIAD (onimo), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 00:18 (three years ago) link
well it's definitely not the northeast
― all cats are beautiful (silby), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 00:27 (three years ago) link
it‘a midway to the west from the east coast, where “the west” kind of changed over time
― mh, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 01:10 (three years ago) link
The Midwest:https://i.imgur.com/KAzZYWD.jpg
The Mideast:https://i.imgur.com/BVKIvLR.jpg
South Central La:https://i.imgur.com/O6HekCa.jpg
― pplains, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 02:59 (three years ago) link
wait till you hear about upper and lower canada
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 03:02 (three years ago) link
Western Canada also begins slightly east of the country's latitudinal centre
― Rik Waller-Bridge (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 03:36 (three years ago) link
https://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/files/pic/regionsofthecourt.jpg
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 04:04 (three years ago) link
v. tricky
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 04:06 (three years ago) link
Image didn't post but yeah, Northern Ontario (Northeast + Northwest) amounts to 88% of the province's land area; Western Ontario is in the eastern third of the province (south of the entire Northeast and further east than some of the Northeast).xp
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 04:07 (three years ago) link
MY parents met at the University of Western Ontario and my dad drove me and my elder brother up there for its centenary back around 1980. Its in London which seems slightly to the NorthWest of New York State or at least Niagara Falls which we drove through and stopped at.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 10:05 (three years ago) link
About 2h straight west of Niagara Falls, NY, yeah; v slightly south if anything; whereas the actual geographically western border of the province borders Minnesota.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 10:41 (three years ago) link
About the middle of the "West" region in that map.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 10:43 (three years ago) link
Canada regions map reminds me that there are places where you can cross the border from Finland into Norway from the west.
― pplains, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 12:32 (three years ago) link
The Mississippi River normally forms the border between Illinois and Missouri, but the river has an annoying habit of moving around, so there are little bits of Illinois stranded on the western bank, and can only be reached from Missouri.
― Tom Paine in the membrane (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 13:10 (three years ago) link
Think that's weird, head up to Carter Lake, Iowa – only place in the state where you can walk to Nebraska and not get your feet wet.
― pplains, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 13:13 (three years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_irregularities_of_the_United_States#Separated_by_the_Mississippi_River
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 13:15 (three years ago) link
Norwegian Wood ends in arson.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 11 June 2020 16:35 (three years ago) link
That ain't the only thing that ends with arson!
https://i.imgur.com/Yg4chFY.gif
― pplains, Thursday, 11 June 2020 17:56 (three years ago) link
Italy is smaller than Arizona.
― i am not throwing away my snot (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, June 7, 2020 2:56 PM
https://i.imgur.com/8JcfCkD.png
Well, you'd still have to ball it up first.
(Fun little map.)
― pplains, Friday, 12 June 2020 00:18 (three years ago) link
according to some quick searching, arizona is 3k square miles smaller than italy
― mh, Friday, 12 June 2020 00:24 (three years ago) link
Italy does look bigger.
― Subverted by buggery (Tom D.), Friday, 12 June 2020 00:25 (three years ago) link
Maybe not common knowledge, but I was surprised to learn recently that Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, in 1910 bought an airplane designed by the Wright brothers. And that he crashed in it and died. And that he was the first Briton ever to die in a plane crash.
― Josefa, Friday, 12 June 2020 02:17 (three years ago) link
I think I just learned that Holly Golightly was a hooker?
― Boring, Maryland, Friday, 12 June 2020 02:36 (three years ago) link
... are you confusing the book character with the singer?
― an, uh, razor of love (sic), Friday, 12 June 2020 02:58 (three years ago) link
I've got something to tell you about Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Friday, 12 June 2020 02:59 (three years ago) link
she was really Bruce Willis the whole time?
― Dig Dug the police (Neanderthal), Friday, 12 June 2020 04:31 (three years ago) link
According to Wikipedia, Capote said Holly Golightly was "not a prostitute but an American geisha".
― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 12 June 2020 04:36 (three years ago) link
Die Hard with a Shopping Montage
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Friday, 12 June 2020 07:00 (three years ago) link
the guy who created minecraft turned out to be a massive fuckhead
― form of mouth device (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 12 June 2020 11:42 (three years ago) link
More like escort? At least, in the movie she accepts money for her company but finds a way to escape (e.g., through a window) before things get physical - I probably read the book 30 years ago and have quite forgotten it.
― Tom Paine in the membrane (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 12 June 2020 12:57 (three years ago) link
The remake with Bruce Willis changes the main character to a guy named Hoopy Goloopy.
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Friday, 12 June 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
I've never seen the movie, actually. I just assumed she was some rich single young woman navigating love and dating in the crazy big city!
― Boring, Maryland, Friday, 12 June 2020 19:31 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I basically just know the character name and the fact that it features a very nuanced and timeless performance by Mickey Rooney.
― ...Like a Soggy Handburger (Old Lunch), Friday, 12 June 2020 19:44 (three years ago) link
And she mollifies his character by suggesting that she might - might - consider posing for him... But never quite does.
― Tom Paine in the membrane (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 12 June 2020 19:53 (three years ago) link
The narrator role in the novel is either Truman Capote himself or a close substitute so there's no love interest between him and the Holly character. He doesn't swing that way.From what I remember he's describing people he got involved with because he was rooming in the same house as tehm during teh war or something to that effect,.Has been a very long time since i read the novel, it was pretty good though. But not quite cute enough to show well on a filmscreen at the time.Do enjoy both though but they are pretty different.
― Stevolende, Friday, 12 June 2020 20:02 (three years ago) link
The existence of Juneteenth.
― Alba, Saturday, 13 June 2020 11:05 (three years ago) link
it's a terrible cutesy name for what it is.
― koogs, Saturday, 13 June 2020 11:11 (three years ago) link