Things you were shockingly old when you learned

h/t Ned. This was news to me too.

SUBWAY PERSON: OK, I marked your roast beef "RB".
ME: Heh. I didn't realize for YEARS that that's why it's called Arby's.
SUBWAY PERSON: ... oh my god. OH MY GOD.

— large monstrosity, unaligned (@zgryphon) January 11, 2018

except it's not right?

The brothers wanted to call their restaurants "Big Tex", but that name was already used by an Akron business. Instead, they chose the name "Arby's", based on R. B., the initials of Raffel Brothers.[9][10]

fake beef

I recently had a similar non-revelation that 'sic' is clearly an abbreviation of 'spelled incorrectly' (duh!). It took me way too long to realize that my discovery very obviously fails to hold any water.

(My revelation which failed to acknowledge that the abbreviated version of 'incorrectly' would technically be spelled incorrectly in that scenario.)

Today I realized that water tastes different when I’m actually thirsty. I

Old Lunch, I think I had a similar thought when I was younger - "whoah, 'sic' must mean 'spelling is correct!'," and a condescending smart person in the room said, "no, you idiot, it's Latin for 'yes.'"

Oh, y'know, your 'spelling is incorrect' translation is probably what I actually had in mind during my 'eureka!' moment. I mean, I'm kinda stupid but not stupid stupid.

Just occurred to me that Young Thug called his album "Barter 6" and not "Carter 6" not only because of Wayne but also because he's a Blood and they're averse to Cs.

Well I guess I'm slow on the uptake because that's covered in the Wikipedia entry.

Silly Bunt!

I recently had a similar non-revelation that 'sic' is clearly an abbreviation of 'spelled incorrectly' (duh!). It took me way too long to realize that my discovery very obviously fails to hold any water.

― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Thursday, January 11, 2018 5:30 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(My revelation which failed to acknowledge that the abbreviated version of 'incorrectly' would technically be spelled incorrectly in that scenario.)

― the smartest persin in the room (Old Lunch), Thursday, January 11, 2018 5:33 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

holy shit...

a condescending smart person in the room said, "no, you idiot, it's Latin for 'yes.'"

They weren't that smart; it isn't.

a condescending smart person in the room said, "no, you idiot, it's Latin for 'yes.'"
They weren't that smart; it isn't.

How it was explained to me was that there *wasn't* a Latin word for 'yes' and that 'sic' is actually the Latin word for *thus* which is used in some of the situations when we would use 'yes'.

And when 'sic' is used when something has been spelt incorrectly in the original source it means 'rendered thus'.

Can't quite remember how it came about now, but I had to very belatedly break the news of Patrick Swayze's death to a mate a couple of days ago.

I broke the news that Leonard Cohen died to a mate on the anniversary of his death, at a wee tribute concert to him. He thought it was a living tribute thing.

I think sic is 'like' or 'just as' and is actually itself a shortening. It was usually accompanied by 'veritas' or 'erat scriptum' meaning truth or as written respectively.

I think 'sic' as used to indicate a misspelling basically means 'your spelling is gross' or 'you are a grody speller', as in 'it's totally sic how bad you are at spelling, it's literally making me sic right now'.

checks out

this is why I'm confused when gruff American men in movies tell their fierce dogs to sic somebody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2cnRCCHR1k

I had always presumed it was a British turn of phrase!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RALZY9-TJE

(at 2:36)

sic is normally used to indicate a direct reproduction of something previously written that the writer/editor can't believe was written that way. Or would expect the reader to look at and accept straight off. So it has been used to demonstrate bad spelling, bad grammar and gross inaccuracy.

and big dogs

and doctor who knowledge

and balls

i just learned that phil hartman designed the aja cover

I learned that Bruce Springsteen had a trainer named Phil Dunphy

I'd read a few books by Flannery O'Connor but didn't realise she was a woman until I checked her wikipedia article.

That the reason why a number squared or a number cubed is called that is coz if you have a square (or cube) with that number of little squares per side on it and you add them all up then.....

Also, that there wasn't a really prolific writer called Franklin W. Dixon who wrote all the Hardy Boys books, but also a big team of people writing under a pseudonym.

You call 101 for minor police issues, not 999 - just now lol

I knew 112, but not 101... And, apparently, there's a 4th

http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/emergency/

Oops, I thought 112 was the non-emergency number. In fact I think I once rang it for a non-emergency. Which turned out while I was on the phone to be a total non-event anyway.

(hangs head for accidentally wasting emergency service time)

Will try to remember 101 for next time.

I'm listening to "The Visitors" for the first time today

That the reason why a number squared or a number cubed is called that is coz if you have a square (or cube) with that number of little squares per side on it and you add them all up then.....

You just made me doubt my own (limited) math abilities.

I was all, but there are only six sides on a cube? Everything squared would then be the number x 6?

But now I get it.

xp haha wow I did that on NYE! That opening track eh?

i just learned that phil hartman designed the aja cover

this is an oft-repeated fact that doesn't seem to be true.

haha wow I did that on NYE! That opening track eh?

Anni-Frid sounds like Liz Fraser like so much on it

omg you're right!

aside from the entirety of odessey and oracle (yeah, file that one under this thread lol ffs), the two old-timey songs to blow me away recently were 'the visitors' and 'fotzepolitic', there's something about that wild psychedelic hyper-pop sound that just pins me to the spot

You're never too old to learn how amazing those two songs are, as long as you learn it eventually.

It's a fucking amazing album

That the reason why a number squared or a number cubed is called that is coz if you have a square (or cube) with that number of little squares per side on it and you add them all up then.....

You just made me doubt my own (limited) math abilities.

I was all, but there are only six sides on a cube? Everything squared would then be the number x 6?

But now I get it.

I think this is incorrect, the way it was originally written, unless I'm misunderstanding? x^3 is the volume of a cube with sides of length x, not 6x?

(Also, I don't think you can have e.g. a cube with only two squares on each side.)

i think the post is trying to describe volume, in terms of a cube made up of smaller 1x1x1 cubes.

Ah

That Sturgeon’s Law also applies to recipes.

isn't the square/cube thing about dimensions?

Something squared is 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, etc.? Chess board is a square, so this fits. (8x8= 64)

But something cubed? That's 1x1x1, 2x2x2, 3x3x3, etc.

3-cubed is 27. So how do you divide that into 6?