Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Have also been obsessively clicking my fingers in the regular way probably slightly more than usual, hope my neighbours don’t think I’m insane

holy shit

Whoa

THere was a Virgin Megastore in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Just read that in passing in the Guardian from yesterday.

I was completely unable to snap my fingers until I realised that's how it worked. I'm still not very good at it

Oh yeah!

That Edgar and Johnny's real last name is Winter.

That Kurt's real last name is Vile.

yeah I thought that was a stage name derived from Mr Lotte Lenya

Wait what, it isn’t?

Apparently not! Unless his parents were fans.

I mean, I've literally never otherwise seen or heard the last name Vile before but anything is possible.

I think somebody specifically pointed out it wasn't what I'd taken it to be a couple of years ago. I had just assumed Weill was so well known it would have to be a reference

oh & I also think it had been something that had run through my head as a great punk name prior to me hearing about it being in use,

Curt Vile was a pseudonym used by Alan Moore early in his career.

Apparently not! Unless his parents were fans.

I seem to remember reading about this a while ago and him saying the parents didn't know anything about Kurt Weill. It does all seem a bit 'it was something little Julian Lennon said, not LSD' but they you go.

Here you go. From this NY Times article:

Mr. Vile – whose father and stay-at-home mother weren’t aware of the Weimar-era composer Kurt Weill when they named him – played the trumpet throughout elementary and middle school, initially intrigued that he only had to learn to work three valves before he’d be able to “make some cool sounds.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/arts/music/25wein.html

Kurt Vile also claims he doesn't smoke weed, so... take with a grain of salt

I had just assumed Weill was so well known it would have to be a reference

That may be a bit of a culture-bubble thing (no shade intended, just sayin).

Brimming with disambiguation:

https://i.imgur.com/Es5sUTY.png

Kurt Weil a Swiss vibraphonist born 1932, apparently. Maybe his parents really were Threepenny Opera fans.

Wait until you guys hear about Paul Potts!

OMG

the snapping thing is blowing my mind

Jennifer Jason Leigh is Vic Morrow's daughter?! I swear everyone in Hollywood is related to someone else in Hollywood.

Yeah, I think last week I learned that Josh Brolin's dad was an actor.

TWL
Today We Learned pic.twitter.com/oaUsivOIqK

— TRL Mailorder (@TRL_Mailorder) August 25, 2021

As a kid, always wondered which cities were in the other guitar/horseshoe crab-spaceships.

Cambridge and Dedham, iirc

actual LOLs

That 'Slav' and 'slave' have the same root, because Slavic peoples were in fact used as slaves in Carolingian Francia.

We may well still be in the age of Pisces, not the age of Aquarius. Hippy misinformation!

Probably. Inasmuch as there are ages at all.

https://earthsky.org/human-world/when-will-the-age-of-aquarius-begin/

Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle are sisters.

heh I feel like I learn that every ten years or so and then somehow manage to forget it

Robert E Lee lead the army unit that stopped John Brown from his attempted raid. I think that was in Ibram X Kendi's Stamped From The Beginning, definitely read about it somewhere over the last week. So does that already put him on the wrong side of history before the civil war?

I heard a few years ago that Arlington cemetery was located so that it went right up to Lee's door so he would be continually reminded of the mess he had caused.

back to the snapping!

That the loud clicking sound generated by clicking/snapping one’s fingers is the sound of the finger hitting the fleshy part of the palm

i've been experimenting, and this is only partly the case. the snap sound is the wave being amplified through the little tube created by your ring and pinkie being closed against the palm. if you block the hole of your downturned pinky, no snap sound. just the dull thud of your middle finger.

the little tube created by your ring and pinkie

Ban this filth

long live the new flesh

I heard a few years ago that Arlington cemetery was located so that it went right up to Lee's door so he would be continually reminded of the mess he had caused.

I don't think the Union ever planned for the Lees to ever reclaim the property anyway.

He may have been on the wrong side of history when he captured John Brown, but he was wearing stars and stripes while doing it.

I swear I was at least 20 when I learned that you could only legally terminate a pregnancy in the first several weeks

Plan B not legal?

That Dublin was established as a Viking town.

(Basically the entire history of the Vikings in the UK has eluded me until very recently.)

Norse Gaels, for instance

Plan B not legal?

Notably not referred to as “the month or two after pill”

Plan B doesn’t terminate pregnancy.

oops, i misread

okay I just learned today that Ocelots live wild in the United States

https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/02/65/03/17518821/3/2400x0.jpg

I just learned that Cadillac and Rolls Royce are makes, not models.

I am wearing my favorite t shirt right now. It has a picture of a margay on it, but everyone thinks it's of an ocelot.

last night, looking up what the heck is kohlrabi, i learned that it, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale and collard greens are all the same species --- just been cultivated and bred from the original wild cabbage into these extremely different forms.

https://kottke.org/plus/misc/images/brassica-oleracea.jpg