Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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.

Spencer Dryden was Charlie Chaplin's nephew or half nephew.

I didn’t know you could buy childs play chucky dolls before the movie, I always wondered why the doll in a late 80s movie looked like he belonged in the early 70s

I like to think they didn't warn the manufacturer

Only launched in 1985, apparently:

https://www.cbr.com/chucky-inspiration-my-buddy-doll

Different enough, I guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhtS2qcefKk

trying to remember where i was recently reading robert wyatt's (extremely low) opinion of petronella's dad woodrow wyatt (lord wyatt of weeford), labour MP turned rightwing peer?

and relative that RW knew and disliked in person

Different enough, I guess

📹

That the church on the sleeve of the Chemical Brothers mix album “Brothers Gonna Work it Out” is in Essex and not somewhere like Alabama or Georgia as I assumed.

the My Buddy commercials were a grind in the mid-80s and I think it was only a bit successful because the commercials became a dual feature quickly, for the complimentary product — Kid Sister

My Buddy for girls was an interesting proposition. You are a girl and wish you had a doll? My Buddy has a female equivalent now!

Wherever I go, you're gonna go!

from memory:

🎶My buddy
My buddy
Wherever I go, he goes

My buddy
My buddy
I’ll teach him everything that I know

My buddy and me like to climb up a tree
My buddy and me are the besssst friends that could be!

My buddy
My buddy —
My buddy and me!!🎶

you want Juicy Fruit and Cracker Jacks too I got you covered

Yep the my buddy song popped into my head immediately. I stg there was a girl version. What was that called? I wanna say my sister!

Hasbro also introduced a companion Kid Sister marketed toward girls. Hasbro discontinued the line before the start of the 1990s and Playskool took over production, making changes to the likeness and clothing.

I was close.

Never had one of those but I did have a My Pet Monster and was debated to learn that my dad gave him away when I was at university.

I was close.

Never had one of those but I did have a My Pet Monster and was debated to learn that my dad gave him away when I was at university.

Devastated not debated

Ah sorry - clearly didn't read MH's post!

I love that G-Unit interpolated the My Buddy melody for a hook only the buddy was a gun instead of a doll

That the church on the sleeve of the Chemical Brothers mix album “Brothers Gonna Work it Out” is in Essex and not somewhere like Alabama or Georgia as I assumed.

Ha - funny you should say that. I bought that album when it came out and thought the church on the front looked strangely familiar. I decided it must be the one used at the end of The Graduate. It's not as if I had access to the internet back in 1998 so that was the end of the matter until more than a decade later when I was a bit embarrassed to realise that the reason I had recognised it was because it was from the town I lived in for the first 16 years of my life and I must have been past it literally thousands of times. My mum even worked in the school that was right next to it.

I have never before today even thought about the cover of that record (though god knows I’ve seen it often enough) but I’ve visited that church too, it has some spectacular stained glass!

TBF a lot of modern churches look like that for some weird reason - I've seen a lot in Aus with the same kind of lines.

Woah, I only thought churches in America looked like that.

Catholic church too... in Harlow. Quite an impressive building in fact.

Yeah it’s a good one (the C of E church in Harlow town centre’s excellent too, really good John Piper mural IIRC).

Plenty of interesting Catholic Churches of roughly that age, partly (though not wholly) as a result of the second Vatican Council, reducing the divide between the priests and the punters meaning you can be much more flexible with the space… Liverpool cathedral being a v famous example obv.

I think the catholic cathedral in Liverpool was designed by Frederick Gibberd, who was the town planner for Harlow.

It only occurred to me today that the idea of the grim reaper is that he “reaps” people from life just as a farmer would reap a crop from the ground. And that’s why he carries a scythe.

Also realized earlier this year: brainstorm is a play on rainstorm (?)

I just realized yesterday that the hip-hop label Wild Pitch was a play on "wild pitch" the baseball term.

there's a great Ray Bradbury short story about the reaping

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scythe_(short_story)

(you'll have to cut and paste that)

we did that one & The Pedestrian in my school English class! both really creeped me out as a kid, I should go back and read them.

Those two, and "All Summer in a Day," have stayed with me since childhood.

Bradbury totally haunted my childhood, I think I've read nearly every story he wrote

(i have the two 900+ page volumes of his short stories and even those aren't complete)

Does the Grim Reaper take his crops to market?

I figured out the reaper thing a couple of days ago while explaining it to my daughter after she asked me why she/he carries a scythe. I can't count the number of times one of my kids' questions led me to figure out some obvious thing I had never considered.

current grim reaper has stepped his game way up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest#/media/File:Agriculture_in_Volgograd_Oblast_002.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest#/media/File:Agriculture_in_Volgograd_Oblast_002.JPG

Grim Reapah uhburhburhburhbuhrubh

Nick Drake played saxophone before he picked up guitar. Had no idea, but am in early school year parts of Richard Morton Jack's biography.
& he's just screwing up A Level grades for the 2nd time, impacting University applications.

I think the catholic cathedral in Liverpool was designed by Frederick Gibberd, who was the town planner for Harlow.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Monday, October 30, 2023 5:14 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Went to a wedding there 20 years ago. It's gorgeous.

1982: I hear and enjoy Loverboy’s “Workin’ for the Weekend”
2023: someone uses the phrase and I realise it means “grinding thru the work week to get to the weekend” and not “has overtime hours and has to work on Saturday and Sunday”

Swaddling clothes were seriously unhealthy and seriously dirty.
Wrapping a baby up this way restricted movement and forced underlayers into closer contact with skin. Created sores ext.
Also had guardians hanging kids up by the wrapping. On nails on walls etc.
At least if Elizabeth Badinter in her book The Myth of Motherhood is to be believed.
She talks about it being common practise to send babies off to be looked after for first few years of their lives in insalubrious baby farms in the 18th century. Until Rousseau helps create a trend to create better bonds with one's children and breastfeed instead of getting somebody else to. & the lack of getting process during the time wet nursing proliferated.
Interesting book, pretty harsh if true.

Tornado sirens are just regular sirens slowed down.

in that Old Grey Whistle Test footage from 1975, Lee Brilleaux of Dr Feelgood was 22 years old. people you found out were shockingly young

Swaddling being unhealthy or dirty is pure bullshit. When my gals were babies I swaddled them for bed in muslin wraps as tight as cordwood, they slept peacefully and both are ridiculously healthy young adults. Neither has had so much as a dental filling.

cosine

Badinter was trying to paint a picture of widespread neglect of children in the couple of centuries prior to Rousseau. Horror story level including leaving babies wrapped up for days not just overnight.

Autocorrect in earlier comment swaps the word vetting process to getting process.

I did wonder how sensationalist the book was. But is one that was recommended elsewhere.