Things you were shockingly old when you learned

microsoft office informed me yesterday that use of the word "farsi" is potentially offensive

That "hung like a donkey" is from the Bible (Ezekiel 23:20).

"Jizz like a horse" also in the same verse.

Wasn't Ba'athist Iraq fairly tolerant of Jews? I remember hearing that somewhere

No, no they weren't:

Almost all the rest follow after the public hangings of "Israeli spies" in 1969 by the Baath party, which had just come to power off the back of a coup.

"Promotion of Zionism" was punishable by death and that legislation has remained unchanged.

There are currently fewer than five jews in Iraq.

All I was trying to do was make a really stupid joke, but Google wouldn't let me.

https://i.imgur.com/jUJWABW.png

Uh kind of stereotyped there, Google

My paternal great uncle was executed in Baghdad in 1950, after that they "converted" and split and for Tehran in 1951. They were long gone by the time the Baathists took over anyhow- i doubt if many Jews were left in Iraq in the late 60's. Prior to 1948, they were hardly "tolerated" but not quite persecuted. My grandfather used to tell me all the time about how segregated Baghdad was before all this.

I don't think "Farsi" is offensive but we call it Persian

Gonna take a break from discussing this.

Sorry mom's family left in '51.
Dad's family left in '57 so that would mean my great uncle was executed in 56 if it makes a difference.

In 57 they had to bribe officials just to be allowed to leave. In 51 they could just leave.

The Shining was released in the US on the same week as The Empire Strikes Back but was outgrossed by a third pop cultural powerhouse which was also released that week. The name of that third film? The Gong Show Movie. And that's the rest of the story. Good day!

I think that was because The Shining was initially released only in LA and NYC (10 screens altogether). It was released nationwide three weeks later.

While I was vaguely aware that Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman had been married, I had no idea about the actual details of their short-lived nuptial bliss:

Borgnine's marriage to singer Ethel Merman in 1964 lasted only 42 days. Their time together was mostly spent hurling profane insults at each other, and both later admitted that the marriage was a colossal mistake (Merman's description of the marriage in her autobiography was a solitary blank page). Their divorce was finalized on May 25, 1965.

But can you tell us about his marriage to Katy Jurado?

Apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back was during their honeymoon Ernest gave Ethel a Dutch Oven (he farted in bed and held her head under the covers).

and he yelled "Hello, Dolly" as he did it.

I don't think "Farsi" is offensive but we call it Persian
― Deflatormouse, Saturday, July 10, 2021

Wiliam Dalrymple , the guy who wrote The Anarchy did an online webinar recently where he said that Persian was the language of the Indian Royal court around the time. I think he was saying that it was becoming harder to find people who spoke the version of the language particularly since a fellow scholar of his who had almost been fluent had died.

Sophie Dahl's father was the actor, Julian Holloway, meaning her grandfathers were Roald Dahl and Stanley Holloway.

Guy Pratt, Pink Floyd sideman, is the son of Mike Pratt, of Randall & Hopkirk fame.

I just learned this week that he played bass on Like a Prayer by Madonna.

He also married Richard Wright's daughter.

The Like a Prayer chunk in his stand-up is vg (also his book, but you don’t get him doing Madonna voice)

His dad was also a songwriter/musician (as well as an actor) who wrote with Lionel Bart and Tommy Steele.

that Lotte Lenya played central evil and treacherous secret agent in early Bond movie.

most memorable character for me, I must say, in otherwise clumsy effort

The LGBQT acronym for indigenous Canada adds like 6 more letters. 2SLGBTQQIA Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual (2SLGBTQQIA)
which I heard a couple of weeks ago and couldn't work out what the 2nd Q was at the time.

whaaaaaat. damn

i've never seen 2S at the front, but i guess it changes more often than i check in

I think 2s is specifically indigenous. I think it has even been something there has been some debate about cultural appropriation when non indigenous people have attempted to claim it asa term. have seen a talk where teh speaker flatly denied taht anybody who is not of a tribal background can claim a status of 2 spirithood. He went on to say taht the term used in different tribes and the perspective on the role changed from tribe to tribe. But it was something that had been accepted in a pre Christian hegemonical indigenous epistemology or something along those lines, like it was a thing in existence and acccepted not shunned in a lot of tribes. But Christian morality when imposed frowned upon marginalised sexuality. Probably actively marginalised it in fact.

The Peter Principle was a 1969 satirical book exploring the phenomena of being promoted to the level of one's own incompetence.
I had come across the idea before but had no idea it wasa book until I found taht book in a charity shop yesterday.
It's written by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull. So the peter of teh name is one of the author's surnames. So maybe a bit narciossistic. I thought people named principles etc after other people and noramlly dead ones.
But yeah interesting little tome, a bit dated and illustrated with loads of Victorian era Punch illustrations or similar alongside some diagrams etc.

xp sorry point was speaker was an indigenous 2 spirit person themselves and saying that it was not a term that could be used by non indigenous people. I think I put in a double negative that I didn't mean to.

Just found out that it's Genesis and Cosey on the cover of UFO's Force It album, pre-TG.

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/when_half_of_throbbing_gristle_ended_up_on_a_ufo_lp_cover

Also, that all the facets on the cover was a pun on the title ("Force It").

facets = faucets (And I proof-read!)

The whole thing couldn't be any more Hipgnosis really

Robyn Hitchcock's father wrote the novel "Percy", about the world's first successful penis transplant, later a film starring Hywel Bennett with soundtrack by the Kinks.

I remember playing maniac mansion on the PC when I was 13 and being frustrated at being unable to select the tap, only something called a "faucet"

For some reason I had it in my head that Americans were more precise than us and distinguished between the spout and the thing you turn (the faucet). But now I see I’ve invented this and that faucet covers both things, just like tap does.

I’ve also just discovered that in some parts of America it’s called a spigot instead.

Often pronounced "spickit"

Spigot's more like what's at the end of a garden hose.

Yeah, I think I've only ever heard spigot in an outdoor context.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51cP7VnMmUL._AC_.jpg

Suzi Quatro is Sherilyn Fenn's aunt

No way

"Her sister Arlene is the mother of actress Sherilyn Fenn."

I don't see much resemblance.. maybe the eyes:

https://images.discovery-prod.axs.com/2020/11/suzi-quatro-tickets_04-21-21_17_5fc4dd4abf0fe.jpg

Here's Mom:

https://i.imgur.com/WTSc0Ep.png

I don't know if it's just seeing these posts in conjunction but suddenly I'm seeing a link between Peter Cook in Bedazzled and the Giant in Twin Peaks.

Good Suzi Quatro fact.