Things you were shockingly old when you learned

I just learned that P.D.Q. Bach orchestrated three Joan Baez albums.

This week: that the Sean O'Hagan who writes for the Observer and the one in the High Llamas are two different people.

it took a long time for me to figure that one out

think I learned that from this very thread

"sleeper prince"

I remember that Prince Edward tried to join the Royal Marines, but gave up after about six weeks into the training. Looking it up it seems he went to Cambridge as part of a scholarship deal whereby he would join the army after leaving university, but after graduating he put in a perfunctory effort and paid his way out. Apparently he got a 2:2 in History. Hearteningly the college let him study there despite the fact that his A-level results were dismal. But at least unlike e.g. Polly Toynbee he did finish the course and has a degree. It must have been tempting to get someone to do the work for him! And only do well enough for a 2:2 so as not to arouse suspicion. But that would be wrong.

It was probably a bad moment, but he just doesn't look very impressive in military uniform, despite carrying an SLR:
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/13/23/46504FB500000578-5079315-image-a-2_1510617058122.jpg

He still wears military uniform on special occasions, presumably because he's an honorary something or other. Prince Edward is fascinating in that he had all the ingredients to be a popular Royal but the execution was all wrong and no-one liked him. He just didn't look like a man who commanded respect. He had the air of Wesley Crusher about him but without the ability to reconfigure the phase matrix of the chronometric feedback loop:
https://editorial01.shutterstock.com/wm-preview-1500/3026200a/dba4e22e/Shutterstock_3026200a.jpg

Whereas conversely Prince Andrew came across as a massive arse even before The Modern Era and Princess Anne was obnoxious. I wonder if republicans rue Diana's memory. Without her the modern-day Royals would be an unappealing lot, instead of the universally-beloved people they are in our world.

Prince Edward has never been fascinating even for a nanosecond. As for Princess Anne, she is literally the only one of the Queen's children anyone ever has anything good to say about, and always has been.

haven't eaten it, but i had no idea squab was a fucking immature pigeon.

I have eaten squab and pigeon many times and never new that! Thought it was just a different bird.

A hectare (100x100m) is made up of 100 ares (10x10m).

no way

What the hec!

Wait till you hear about the decare

dan i’m not sure about that math

The math is right afaics?

...one hectare contains about 2.47 acres.

wait what is an 'are'

In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as 100 square metres

okay, I learned a new word usage today

Wikipedia can’t be wrong surely?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Hectare_Diagram.svg

I've been reading about advanced LEGO techniques. They might come in handy one day. In particular I've learned about "SNOT", which stands for "Studs Not On Top". It's a technique where the studs are not on top:
https://toweringbrickcreations.com/2022/01/20/isnt-that-stud-supposed-to-be-on-top-no-its-snot-building-sideways-using-lego/

That's not the thing I was shockingly old to learn. I knew that already. I've built LEGO models with studs not on top. No. The thing that I was shockingly old to learn is that wedging a piece into the gap between the studs is, or was, an actual legitimate official old-school LEGO technique:
https://media.brickinstructions.com/00000_thumbs/0611/004.jpg

A legitimate technique from the instruction manuals. When I saw that image a weight lifted from my soul. I thought I was wrong. That I had been wrong. That what I did when I was younger was unnatural and wrong. But I realise now that there is no wrong. Everything is permitted. I was not wrong at all.

There is no centre. No edge. No solid ground. The universe is a mass of motion and nothing is at rest. Nothing.

woah

(i had that Lego car)

Probably determines the width of a flat layer dunnit. Or that is the thickness.
So not so arbitrary but absolutely planned. Intelligent design like.

everything is very simple when measured in 16ths of an inch - a 1x1 brick is 5x5x6, stud is 1 high, diameter 3, walls are 1 thick, plates are 2 thick...

re maths yeah duh. i was thinking 10x100 = 1000. for some reason squaring always confuses my head

i also had that little car

ilx lego-cops assemble (all senses)!

ALCAB ("builders" of course)

I technically still have that little car but it's in a giant bin of legos in my kids room

I thought I was so smart for having figured this lego hack as a kid. It's how I managed to make lego tie fighters way before lego star wars was a thing.

The universe is a mass of motion and nothing is at rest.

I think some of the energy is not motion tho i am p ignorant

A year or two back I learned that the UK holiday company Hoseasons was founded by a person called Hoseason and not just a shortened form of 'holiday season', which is just a lucky coincidence which has no doubt benefited the company over the years.

Similarly, Paddy Power betting shops - a person, rather than 'the luck of the Irish, betting on the gee-gees'.

the diner in Suzanne Vega’s “tom’s diner” is the same diner used for the establishing shots of Monk’s Cafe in Seinfeld

I used the "wedging a piece" technique on at least one lego starfighter I designed but it was never clear if it was a sensor array, an energy weapon, or a combination of both.

I also had the little lego police car, but I turned around the bricks with the "POLICE" labels because even as a kid I didn't like cops.

that the reason many songs are titled “23” is because the number refers to Michael Jordan, and therefore can also signify “(being) (a) baller”.

i have to disagree. 23 is always a reference to jim carrey

https://i.imgur.com/MLk8Wn5.png

Not strictly true, 23 appears a lot in the UK free party / techno with a k scene and that comes from Spiral Tribe adopting it from Robert A Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger

Pretty sure Genesis P-Orridge started all that 23 business.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTVgwfpwWzSlPNfJkhQMWl6G3KKE3p3QH6xYKS1BPXWonREawCJeQpMFIOHiVLQawEUljc7Uw&usqp=CAc

who got it from Robert Anton Wilson, who got it from William Burroughs, who ...
it's 23's all the way down!

I forgot Burroughs!

Talent: Burroughs, Genesis steals

the original secret # was 32, but then Burroughs used his cut-up method one wild night, and the mechanizations of chance delivered 23

weird al heads know the real answer is always 27. why? because it's a funny number! not to be confused with "42" references which i think may have faded out a bit since the geek internet of the 90s.

lollll Will

Shuggie Otis, 1971.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbhIZe3smr0

obvious counterpoint to that: the *Ballers* Johnson cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0bdLdTJdKI

Trying and failing to find that scene in Quiz Show where Herbert Stempel brags about knowing everything about any two-digit number and waiter says “I dunno… 23?” and then Stempel starts rattling off a dozen random facts about the number 23.

xp
Mostly trying to show an early reference, it pre-dates Michael Jordan (as does the BJ version).

23 is also on the album art of "yellow submarine"!

xp
Mostly trying to show an early reference, it pre-dates Michael Jordan (as does the BJ version).

That Serial podcast is supported by WBEZ of Chicaco, not WB-Easy of Chicago.

Unless I've missed something, Alban Berg predates the ones mentioned on this thread in 23-obsession:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/945968