Things you were shockingly old when you learned

As the lyrics are dissected and analyzed, we realize that the rhyme’s origins may be less merry than the one we sing along to today. The first little piggy went to market, but not to buy groceries. Instead, to be sold. The other piggy stayed home to help keep the pig pen filled with other newborn piglets. The piggy that had roast beef needs to fatten up before it makes its own trip to the market. The other piggy needs to loose some weight before making its own journey to the market. As for the final piggy, there is a debate on it yelling “Wee, wee, wee”. One interpretation suggests that it’s out of fear at the prospect of going to market. While other interpretations suggest the rhyme is French in origin and the little piggy screams “Oui! oui! oui!” (Yes! Yes! Yes!), celebrating its escape to freedom!

― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Sunday, October 22, 2023 4:19 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm even less convinced after reading this

this is the "ferris is a figment of cameron's imagination" of nursery rhymes

because i now know more than this little piggy than i ever thought i'd know and i'm ready to embarrass myself: the blog post this is from appears to be summarizing random reddit conversations, its only citation is to repeat the myth that the rhyme originated from blake, and the celebratory/french 'interpretation' makes no sense at all because the last line was "I can't find my way home" until at least the early 20th century

it is

HOGWASH

sorry, i linked to the wrong wrong blog post from that website

the correct interpretation of all eng-lang nursery rhymes is that they are about the black death

iirc from reading bits of the Opies all the sinister folk horror interpretations are retcon

recently discovered footage of that origin story:

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/24/2023/01/pop-goes-the-weasel-037e5fa.jpeg

Ok well I have no idea anymore but all I can tell you is this came up at work months ago in a discussion with about 6 ppl who all thought this was completely obvious and known about the piggy and that I was the idiot. These are Def not Reddit people. Shrugs.

The existence of the word matchet which accompanied a photo in Voodoo In Haiti. Only heard the Spanish form of that before as far as i can remember,
So is it still a word or did it just disappear from usage because most people use the foreign alternative

i looked matchet up in SOED and get the strong impression that it only ever really existed as an anglicisation of the more-used spanish original

which etymonline suggests has either the same root as the word "mace" (mattea = war club) *or* as the words "mallet" and "maul" (marculus = a small hammer, from marcus, but see also malleus lol) (maul noun not verb there, meaning a two-handed hammer)

in conclusion the romans had a whole bunch of words for instruments with which to hit stuff

machete...

= the more-used spanish original yes

Spike Milligan named himself after Spike Jones.

on every online community I've ever been on where there is a thread like this, the piggy going to market always comes up, so I think most people "know" it from those.

I heard a doozy today. from someone who commented that Irish dancing was everywhere a couple of decades ago. they had not realised that Irish dancing is not line dancing.

Until this very moment, I thought this little piggie was shopping for the rest of the pigs.

I still think it's an open question as to what this little piggy is up to...

I guess what I meant was, I thought it was settled.

I'm sure there was a video of this on Sesame Street or something, but I'd never seen it done before and honestly I could watch this all day.

Pad printing (also called tampography) is a printing process that can transfer a 2D image onto a 3D objectpic.twitter.com/yfO1Hz0F7E

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 23, 2023

So squishy

From an 1878 Harper's review of a new collection of children's songs:

"Even in the nursery songs there is an upward tendency, as in the decidedly improved version of 'This little piggy went to market':

'This little pig to market went, And carried a market basket.'"

This suggests that the shopping interpretation is not the original meaning, and that the original one is darker.

Interesting! I didn't care enough to try to find other sources but the group this came up with initially we're mostly all over 60 and claimed to have known the pig's sad fate all their lives. As far as I'm concerned the pig is doing what we the reader feels comfortable with. Shop on little dude.

(That should have read "whatever the reader.)

I was taught the grimmer market meeting by my parents, probably as part of my vegetarian indoctrination lol.

meaning

i learned that christmas was not a holiday in scotland until 1958

And I learned that in 2015 Brunei passed a law completely banning Christmas, and even dressing up as Santa Claus can get you 5 years in jail.

I saw The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover when it came out in the theatres in 1989 and then I never saw it again. I have seen the poster, the VHS tape, and the DVD a million times and it wasn't until last week while sorting a box of DVDs at work that I looked at it closely wondering if maybe I wanted to watch it again when I noticed for the first time: Holy shit, that's Helen Mirren!! I didn't know who she was when I first saw the film and apparently I have NEVER read about it!

Did you notice her outfit changed? when she crossed into the restroom

A series of euphemisms about being institutionalised in a mental asylum based on locations of hospitals across Ireland.
Including "To got to Ballinasloe". A place I'd associate more with horses and travellers. But apparently it was a phrase used quite widely.
It's a theme in a local art festival opening shortly that had a curator's talk yesterday.

Xp Is there a current version of the rhyme where the infants digits are replaced by tofu or reconstituted soya. Or eat the farmer who's had a heart attack in their pen.
Or to borrow an idea from David Thomas embark on a career as a poet.

That Macaulay Culkin was in Jacob's Ladder as was George Costanza/Jason Alexander

Ha, I just re-watched this a few weeks ago and was surprised by both of these despite having watched it many times in the past.

Culkin was in Jacob's Ladder....and the pavement

I am finally a homeowner and my flat is fully electric (no gas). I've always relied on landlords to do things like maintaining boilers and replacing shower taps etc, so the list of "shockingly old when I learned" is growing

The idea that Columbus was fighting against an idea of the earth being flat was made up by Wash8ngton Irving according to Terry Jones in Medieval Lives and citing a book by J.B. Russell.
It was widely known since Greek times that the world was round. Columbus had the dimensions wildly out for what he was planning to do by circumnavigating. & there was a theory there must be a landmass there somewhere before he sailed. Have heard he followed maps used by cod fishermen. So the new info I'm getting here is the invention of the story by Irving.

always wondered if Columbus might have been at least vaguely aware of the Norse people's western misadventures

There was no Duolingo back then so nobody understood Swedish.

it took them 140 years to finish their dictionary, not sure the swedes even understand it

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/25/official-swedish-dictionary-completed-after-140-years

What a complete shit Richard the Lionheart was. I remember from the tv series the Jones book ties in with that Richard had spent very little time in England. Hadn't realised he was born there, in Oxford . Or that he had managed to near bankrupt the country on a couple of occasions including paying his ransom from the German castle he;d been stuck in for a couple of years. He'd apparently been travelling incognito and in disguise on his own when he was kidnapped to there.

The book is quite great and really shouldn't have been shipped to the children's section here, quite ribald and bawdy and things. Which is how I remember the tv series too. I've enjoyed the history books I've read by Jones. I think I have a couple by Palin too that I haven't actually read including the one on the Erebus the Arctic exploring ship that appears in teh Terror.

UCAS is not a government agency or even a QUANGO, it's "a charity and private limited company based in Cheltenham"

It just occurred to me that B1FF is hex, and is probably, like, an opcode, or something. That was probably the joke. Helluva brick joke if so.

Love the pad printing!

That Oliver Reed was the nephew of film director Carol Reed

I did not know that until now.

That Robert Wyatt is the half-brother of (actor) Julian Glover.

Also that Petronella Wyatt is Robert's third-cousin.

I wonder if Julian Glover is related to Crispin Glover.

I can tell you that bit-part actor Bruce Glover was his dad! Truly the tendrils of acting dynasties spread far and wide.

It was Bruce that blessed him with the middle name "Hellion."

And Carol Reed was the bastard son of renowned Victorian actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree.