Things you were shockingly old when you learned

The pac-man ghosts all move in different ways.

there's a great web page about that, right down to disassembly level, and points out an overflow bug.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-pac-man-dossier

http://donhodges.com/pacman_pinky_explanation.htm

and the other interesting thing is that because their movements are deterministic then you can use patterns that work every time.

with Ms Pacman they gave them a random factor so the patterns don't work.

I had no idea Babycham was perry either! I guess I thought it was like west coast cooler or some other godawful fruit alkypop.

Ed Grimley was not a real guy - it was just a character played by Martin Short!

I was too young to have seen his sketches on SNL and too old to care by the time he got a Saturday morning cartoon. I was just peripherally aware of a guy with a weird haircut named Ed Grimley. I guess I just assumed that he was some over-the-top 1980s comedy weirdo.

"Sieg Heil!" doesn't mean "Say Hail!"*, it means "Victory Hail!" as in "Hail victory!".

*) a misunderstanding probably easier to make in Norwegian, where the corresponding imperative is "si", archaic "sig"

"Pee-you" is written "P.U." a lot (or used to be), so I can see why you would thing that way.

Reminds me of that thing in Ulysses where someone gets an offensive postcard saying "U.P.: up" - I've never understood this.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-significance-of-U-p-Up-in-Ulysses

that extremely cool actor Pedro Pascal is Salvador Allende's great nephew.

That John Martyn's real name was Iain McGeachy and thus he wasn't called John Martyn at all!

I think he assumed that no-one in England would be able to pronounce McGeachy.

Plus, that's a Scots equiv to "John" isn't it?

i'll be Iaian McGeachy in a Taxi honey

"Your dressing is over here, Mr. Geeky... *headbutt* ... ugh..."

dressing room, that is

• Duluth
• Milwaukee
• Chicago
• Detroit
• Cleveland
• Buffalo
• Toronto

It wasn't until today that I realized... Detroit isn't really a "Great Lake" city.

OK, this one kind of blew my mind a bit. Jefferson Airplane drummer, Spencer Dryden was related to Charlie Chaplin. His dad, Wheeler Dryden, was Chaplin's younger half brother, Chaplin's mother was Spencer Dryden's granny!

read today that the bloke who wrote Strange Fruit also adopted the Rosenberg's children after they were electrocuted.

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

I don't know if that list of cities is a well-known litany, but if it's based on size, Hamilton, Ontario is twice the size of Buffalo.

A lot of that is the city-limits/metro-area distinction though - Buffalo's metro area population is a lot bigger than Hamilton's

That Meeropol bio whoa

I admit a U.S. bias to those cities.

Might also explain why I thought Detroit had a Great Lake shore.

I immed thought Toledo and Akron. Turns out just one. I mean, Toledo is 3x more populous than Duluth, offset by being 1/3 as wealthy I spose. I had to look up the sizes tbh.

Akron is just Akron, no lake.

Detroit IS basically on a great lake and is close to a 2nd one, don't be so hard on yourself

A 2nd not so great lake, that is

Was shocked to learn recently that part of Virginia is further west than Detroit.

For me the revelation was a couple years ago, lining up Detroit and Atlanta.

As a Virginian person, I'll say that the thing about the part of Virginia that is west of Detroit is... that appears to be the main thing people say about it. When someone speaks of far southwestern Virginia, they will almost certainly mention that it is west of Detroit. Even in conversations that don't have anything to do with longitude or the automotive industry or the relative positions of bits of American geography. I long for a new topic. Hey can we maybe talk about the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe or the Cumberland Gap or Appalachian geology or the trail or... nope. Hey did you know we're west of Detroit?

An analog is how often longtime St. Louisans will somehow find a way slip the 1904 World's Fair into conversations that don't require it. Wow, that person is eating an ice cream cone. Hey did you kno--- YES, YES I DO KNOW ABOUT THAT

Do you know that this building was built for the W- YES YES I KNOW, THE WORLD'S FAIR GAH SHUT UP SHUT UP

Hey, look, a golf course, did you know that under the golf course in Forest Park there's a Ferris Wheel from the- YEAH I KNOW, THE FUCKING WORLD'S FAIR can we please talk about Nelly or Chingy or the Cardinals please

(inches away from playlist containing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas")

Hey did you know that that movie is about the YEAH I FUCKING KNOW

For me the revelation was a couple years ago, lining up Detroit and Atlanta.

― peace, man, Saturday, December 25, 2021 3:15 AM

This, today, for me. (And don't get me started on Reno / Los Angeles).

Got a geography lesson the other week when I had to figure out the time zone to call someone in South Africa. (Seven hours ahead of the US east coast.)

That there was a format called Playtapes

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

Rae Dawn Chong is Tommy Chong's daughter. god, so obvious and yet....

I recently learned that some of the members of the band Queen (such as Brian May) are actually heterosexual.

How did I not know that Janice Long was Keith Chegwin's sister?!

tbf, she used her married name throughout. he died at 60, she at 66, which is no age at all really.

She was on the pilot episode of "3-2-1" with her husband, but they split not long after

They did win, a canteen of cutlery I think. (They avoided winning the Great Dane. Winning live animals on TV quiz shows is forbidden, so just as well)

Great Danes bum, it was a St Bernard. Still, though....

That the Wizard People, Dear Reader alternate soundtrack to the 1st Harry Potter movie, was done by Brad Neely, whose China, IL show on Adult Swim I am enjoying.

That jasmine rice is not rice mixed/flavoured with jasmine but is in fact a variety of long-grain rice. Caused my partner much incredulous amusement.

I was not aware of that

Ditto.

Edinburgh is further west than Bristol

and further north than Moscow!

Ok, not shockingly old but only discovered today after listening to her for past couple of years that the singer Spellling has 3 l’s in her name.

I was about to type something (probably heavily influenced by John McPhee) about how the geology of Manhattan affects the skyline, and I saw this

http://www.actforlibraries.org/the-geology-of-manhattan/

There is a persuasively made counterargument that it is economics, not the accessibility of bedrock, that accounts for the profusion of skyscrapers in lower Manhattan and midtown, and the relative paucity of skyscrapers in (say) Greenwich Village.

I am not convinced yet but I am intrigued that it's up for debate.

https://buildingtheskyline.org/bedrock-and-midtown-i/