Things you were shockingly old when you learned

!

That (most) BMWs are named according to engine size (I was a car freak as a child but never knew this until being informed by a German flatmate while I was a PhD student).

i.e. 318 = 3 series 1.8 litre engine etc.

Didn't know that black and green olives are identical, just different stage of maturity, until a few months ago.

Didn't realise that Adam Ant was a pun, until a year or so ago. Likewise Lipps Inc.

I've got a mac and I still don't know how to do any of, um, ^ those ^

I end up going to wikipedia and copy-and-pasting when I want unusual characters

The cows-and-bulls thing, plus Adam Ant, are the only things on this thread that I do know

how to cook an artichoke properly

(a julia child recipe steered me right)

How to tie my shoes (velcro, you see..)

Didn't realise that Adam Ant was a pun, until a year or so ago.

^^^ this. Same with Sandy Shaw.

Fay Fife of the Rezillos.

(i.e. it's a pun on "I am from the town of Fife, my good fellow" in broad scots)

What's the Adam Ant pun? Adam Ant = adamant? If so... pretty lame pun.

That's it.

xpost Tell that to Lai Mpun, the lead singer of Bangkok's Phleng Chat.

I am 33 and didn't know any of these things. Wait - how the hell DOES a candle work?!

Same with Sandy Shaw.

i don't know how to explain it but i used to think chickens had a really weird way of "mating", something to do with the rooster's legs. (!!?!?) :)

I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movie

"that SHIFT + 6 = ^. I think I figured it out a month or so ago. I always wondered how people got that character."

^^^Dude, you beat me by a month. Thanks!

I once spent a half hour trying to eject a cd from a Mac before someone finally told me there's an eject button on the keyboard. I was going through all these crazy menus and preferences...

I think I was like 16 or 17 when I learned that cows and bulls were the male and female versions of the same animal and not two distinct animals.

What sort of seemingly basic facts did it take you a surprisingly long time for you to learn?

― filthy dylan, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 5:30 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movie

loooool one of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory.

I think I've done that Mac eject button thing too :(

Pronounced lapels like 'labels' for years until corrected but happily don't dress well enough to use it often

My girlfriend was shocked to learn, at the age of 33, that a 'Flea Circus' is actually a rather charming mechanical toy, and is in no way operated by any parasitic insects.

Ismael, at the age of 32, is shocked to learn the same thing. This thread is getting embarrassing

WAT! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus

I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movie

one of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory

no but seriously, what is this about?

i mean i can see that there's rarely anything to size them against in the big white antarctic, but why would anyone then automatically think okay here's a bird i could play tag with

u could still play tag w/it tho

But you could make the same assumption with ostriches in the big yellow desert (or wherever they live), and in that case you'd be right!

I'm still in touch with several grown adults who genuinely believe there's 'something' to supernatural claims about ouija boards, despite its fairly obvious origins in parlour games / illusions which utilised the (admittedly fucking spooky) ideomotor effect.

aw no-one said 'where babies come from'

I've had a lot of experiences in my adult life with mispronouncing words I understood as part of written text, but hadn't heard aurally in the context of conversation etc. For example, I was well into my twenties before I knew the word "vehement" wasn't pronounced veh-hee-ment. I wish others would politely correct you when you do that instead of letting you blindly sound like an idiot.

I'm a bit like that, but now I'm in the habit of saying works incorrectly, I can't get out of it. Canal is not pronounced can-el, but there's fuck all I can do about it now.

^ This happens to me all the time too - so much so that I actually now find it quite amusing when I realise, midway through a sentence, that a word I've never heard before is looming at the end. I suppose that people who talk a lot, rather than reading, must find the same with spelling. It only annoys me when some moron uses it as an opportunity to score cheap points (sadly fairly often)

I was going to start a thread like this, but it was going to be more about 'life lessons' that took you forever to learn, rather than trivia.

Anyway it's taken me this long to fully realize how unreliable first impressions can be when it comes to people.

but why would anyone then automatically think okay here's a bird i could play tag with

haha

TAL have an episode on this in the "best of" section on their wesite. people who thought unicorns were real, etc., lots of awkward silences at cocktail parties: good stuff.

i like to tag birds. (runs)

There's a penguin here and he wants to say "you didn't touch me ner ner ner"

I thought penguins went "weh weh weh"

I'm still in touch with several grown adults who genuinely believe there's 'something' to supernatural claims about ouija boards, despite its fairly obvious origins in parlour games / illusions which utilised the (admittedly fucking spooky) ideomotor effect.

― Huey in Bristol (Huey in Melbourne), Wednesday, November 12, 2008 7:08 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you couldnt get me in the same room as a ouija board

I was about 35 when I figured out Open Sesame = Open Says Me.

i used to think HAZCHEM was a foreign word for danger like Achtung

I just figured out, like 2 days ago, that the lyrics are "highway to the danger zone"

(until then, thought they were "I went to to the danger zone")

ooh i like that

lol mandee those are even better

Nothing, as I'm not shockingly old.

Misheard lyrics are always better. The singer of my old band had this (intentionally) corny line that went "sleep all day til the telephone ring / head to the bar and shake that thing", the latter half of which I always thought was "head to the barber and shave that thing".

My friend always thought that Op Ivy song Take Warning went "skate boarding", which is way better.

Same with Sandy Shaw.

Ok I sounded this out several times in several different ways and I still don't get how this is a pun. Help?

i also did not know that abt "kidding mr hitler"! furthermore i had no idea till just now that it was sung by bud flanagan of flanagan and allen (his last recording, made the year of his death)

(it was written for the series as an affectionate pastiche of the kinds of war songs F&A did sing, so its likeness was worked for and achieved)

Liikewise the film New York, New York is set in the 1940s thus the theme song is supposed to sound of that period.

I'm absolutely astounded by that 'New York, New York' fact. I assumed it was from the 40s or 50s, but it was a (surprisingly minor) hit in the summer of 1980. This reminds me of something else I was shockingly old to learn. When I was a little kid, there was a song that went 'New York, New York: so good they named it twice, New York, New York: all the scandal and the vice, New York, New York, oh isn't it a pity....what they say about New York City". Those words might not be 100% correct, it's not as if I've heard this song a lot since the 70s. Anyway, for some reason I got it into my head that it was sung by Elton John and I believed this for about 40 years. Hold on, I need to do some googling....

So at some point during lockdown fever for some reason I was looking to see what had been Elton John's biggest hit and couldn't understand why that song wasn't listed. And then when I googled the lyrics I discovered that it was actually by some bloke called Gerard Kenny who I've never heard of. And apparently it wasn't even a hit in Britain. And yet as a 4 or 5 year old I convinced myself itself it was a chart topper by Elton John and nothing shook this belief for many decades. It doesn't even sound anything like Elton John now that I hear it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsi5lXxzByU

wtf

Although it only reached number 43 on the UK Singles Chart, it remained on the chart for two months.

... also wrote "I Could Be So Good for You!

I remember that song! surprised it wasn't a bigger hit in the UK, the radio must have played it a lot.
these days sounds more like a sitcom opening song, like Cheers.
Gerard Kenny also wrote the Minder theme song "I Could Be So Good For You"!

xpost dammit Tom!
wouldn't be surprised if there was a clip of him singing New York New York on 3-2-1

now that we have AI we can finally hear what a Jo Stafford / Tommy Dorsey rendition of "NY, NY" would sound like circa '43

have you actually drunk a fizzing alka-seltzer?
― mookieproof, Monday, June 10, 2024 7:21 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I bought some aspirin the other day. I wanted to pop one in a public toilet when I realized they had sold me effervescent tablets. I was in a hurry. I took some water in my mouth and let it dissolve in my mouth. I didn't learn anything, but it was the first time at a shockingly old age.

at first I thought you meant you were planning to put the alka-seltzer in the toilet and then drink out of the toilet

You mean, an Anal Alka-Setzer ?

(xp) Waiting till it had stopped fizzing of course.

It’s literally Psalm 137 from the King James version of the Bible:

― assert (matttkkkk)

hardly anybody adapts the ending of that psalm where the psalmist sings "blessed are they who smash your babies' heads against the rocks"

the early mega man games picked the robot masters from designs submitted from fans. the kid who designed dust man and crystal man for the "mega man" series of games went on to create the manga "one punch man".

i don't know if that's really what the thread is intended for but i feel like i should have known that already, it seems like the kind of random trivia i know

woah! that also feels like the kind of thing I should know. but i guess the last time I was really learning new Mega Man trivia it was 2001. i also know nothing about the manga, except that it's very popular.

today:

the opening "flute" sound of the theme for the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is meant to be a coyote howling

oh wow

TIL that "pooterish" means self-important in the manner of Charles Pooter, nothing to do with farts

I beg you to set out the context or, ideally, contexts in which you have read "pooterish" as "farty" and it made sense

Most Farty Adrian Chiles Column

I think it was only a few months ago that I learned that when pole dancers swing around in circles, the POLE itself is actually rotating. Apparently?!? I thought the dancers were swinging themselves around and I couldn't figure out how they could stick enough to stay up but still be mobile, which in retrospect makes NO sense at all. Now I know the laws of nature and surface traction are intact and the world makes sense again.

OMG

I learned that sometime in the past year as well.

Oh man, that’s a good one. I had no clue.

Wonder how many firemen have chaffed themselves trying to recreate special moments.

I mean, if you look at the pole it's clearly
rotating.

well, that may explain my failed efforts

Pour Some WD-40 On Me

the pole rotates in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere

I think it was only a few months ago that I learned that when pole dancers swing around in circles, the POLE itself is actually rotating. Apparently?!? I thought the dancers were swinging themselves around and I couldn't figure out how they could stick enough to stay up but still be mobile, which in retrospect makes NO sense at all. Now I know the laws of nature and surface traction are intact and the world makes sense again.

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Wednesday, 12 June 2024 14:21 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

what

here's to the ppl who look at the pole when they watch poledancing 🍷

i mean it isn't a sin to appreciate both pole and dancer

today:

the opening "flute" sound of the theme for the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is meant to be a coyote howling

― budo jeru

it's an ocarina

it's the one thing people used to play on the ocarina before ocarina players were all link cosplayers who play zelda music

to be clear i love link cosplayers who play zelda music

i mean it isn't a sin to appreciate both pole and dancer

― he/him hoo-hah (map)

are we pole or are we dancer

Barre exercise is just pole dancing, sideways.

Change my mind.

I suspect you can't do a full 360 around the barre without looking like the Suspiria remake.

I think it was only a few months ago that I learned that when pole dancers swing around in circles, the POLE itself is actually rotating. Apparently?!? I thought the dancers were swinging themselves around and I couldn't figure out how they could stick enough to stay up but still be mobile, which in retrospect makes NO sense at all. Now I know the laws of nature and surface traction are intact and the world makes sense again.

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Wednesday, June 12, 2024 8:21 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok this isn't true?

WHAT

per Wiki:

Dance poles may have two different modes, spinning and static. In the spinning mode, the pole uses ball bearings to spin. This mode can be used to complete more experienced pole moves, make moves easier to complete, and add a more dramatic effect to the move. Most spinning poles can also be fixed to the static mode where the pole cannot rotate. The static mode is regularly used when pole dancing is first taught to beginners.

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

how they could stick enough to stay up but still be mobile

missed this part, i was just trying to say that dancers can spin like crazy on a stationary pole as the vid demonstrates, but obviously they slowly move down

i.e. i thought the claim was "all poles are rotating" which is why i said not true

Had the sudden realization while reading that the expression "drop a dime" very obviously traces to calling in police tips from a payphone

Eric André is not the "Eric" who co-created _Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!_. I don't know. You'd think I would be like more aware of this stuff maybe? But I kind of thought, you know, David Lynch-inspired takes on Public Access shows broadcast on Adult Swim, I mean. I thought they were kind of the same show. Look I'm gonna be honest I'm looking at this list of Adult Swim shows debuting from 2010 onwards and I've never heard of any of these except for the "Joe Pera" one people seem to like and the show by those Nazis. To be honest I kinda go out of my way to avoid both Tim and Eric's stuff and Eric André's stuff. Anxiety of influence.