Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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Yes, this changed in living memory.

The advantage of sequential exit numbering is knowing when your exit is next. "Just passed exit 66; that means 67 is next."

The disadvantage with sequential exit numbering is that sometimes new exits get built between existing ones, requiring everything to be renumbered. The exit numbers that are mile-based don't have that problem.

As Neanderthal notes, for a while there were signs that said the old exit number, for people navigating based on the previous system. I remember one near my parents' house that said "OLD EXIT 37," and I always thought it had an evocative folk-wisdom kind of ring, like "Old Engine 42" or "It's just old Luke and Luke's waiting on the judgement day."

twas in the fleek midwinter (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 30 December 2017 17:10 (six years ago) link

Missouri blew my mind this year. Their mile markers are divided into tenths of a mile.

pplains, Saturday, 30 December 2017 17:38 (six years ago) link

Exit 73.4!

fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal), Saturday, 30 December 2017 17:41 (six years ago) link

They haven't gone that far, but I wish!

pplains, Saturday, 30 December 2017 18:27 (six years ago) link

we have a lot of exits at the same mile marker here and they always add an A, B, or a C in sequence.

fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal), Saturday, 30 December 2017 18:32 (six years ago) link

the chinese word for pedestrian is XING REN so that is totally believable

thought you were being funny but this turns out to be true!

new noise, Saturday, 30 December 2017 19:25 (six years ago) link

Missouri blew my mind this year. Their mile markers are divided into tenths of a mile.

was gonna ask if this means they have a marker every tenth of a mile (!) but it turns out they only place them every fifth of a mile.

new noise, Saturday, 30 December 2017 19:34 (six years ago) link

Aw, damn. You're right.

Missouri blew my mind this year. Their mile markers are divided into fifths of a mile!

pplains, Sunday, 31 December 2017 01:13 (six years ago) link

They are fancy compared to the normal kind.

https://i.imgur.com/Qq7b8ub.png https://i.imgur.com/trCmJeg.png

pplains, Sunday, 31 December 2017 01:19 (six years ago) link

srsly hoping pplains has a whole Pinterest page of "Highway Markers I Have Loved."

twas in the fleek midwinter (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 31 December 2017 14:37 (six years ago) link

That cobwebs are made of old spiderwebs, and not, I dunno, magic old dust like I previously thought.

Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 31 December 2017 14:50 (six years ago) link

I only learned what pimento cheese is 2? years ago (thanks warmleatherette!) It is astonishingly delicious.

Yerac, Sunday, 31 December 2017 15:51 (six years ago) link

srsly hoping pplains has a whole Pinterest page of "Highway Markers I Have Loved."

More like a Geocities page with a midi of "In My Life" playing in the background.

pplains, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:16 (six years ago) link

You might even think I'm kidding about this, but...

pplains, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:18 (six years ago) link

Dang, wish I remembered my geocities url.

Jeff, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:40 (six years ago) link

Only learned the proper pronunciation of "Coachella" a few weeks ago - it never occurred to me that the music festival is located in the same place as the carrot festival mentioned in that one Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Scape: Goat-fired like a dog! (Myonga Vön Bontee), Sunday, 31 December 2017 19:03 (six years ago) link

I've heard older people talk about "newsreels" all my life but only recently learned what they were. Also didn't know what "put through the wringer" literally meant.

Lee626, Monday, 1 January 2018 16:42 (six years ago) link

I think my grandparents on the farm had one of the last maytag wringer washers produced because they didn’t want to switch and had water supply problems. Tub with an agitator, no spin cycle, wringer to feed clothes through before hanging them on the line to dry.

mh, Monday, 1 January 2018 18:43 (six years ago) link

'young talent time' took its name from johnny young's surname. somehow i didn't make this bleeding obvious connction for 30+ years.

rove mcmanus island (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 1 January 2018 21:14 (six years ago) link

xpost my grandma had one

Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 01:27 (six years ago) link

didn't know what "put through the wringer" literally meant.

I had some literal experience with that one. There was a wringer washing machine in the basement of the house where I grew up and I got my hand stuck in the wringer at about age 4 or 5. My dad had to do some disassembly to free me.

A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 01:48 (six years ago) link

hurts your liittle fingers ouuuuch

Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 02:38 (six years ago) link

my grandma had one as well

mh, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 02:48 (six years ago) link

Maingled

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 02:50 (six years ago) link

'young talent time' took its name from johnny young's surname.
AAAARGH

attention vampire (MatthewK), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 03:21 (six years ago) link

Only learned the proper pronunciation of "Coachella" a few weeks ago

wait, is it pronounced in some other way than how it looks?

Monster fatberg (Phil D.), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 11:56 (six years ago) link

it's pronounced "twat picnic"

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 11:59 (six years ago) link

sorry, some of my best friends are picnics, etc

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 12:00 (six years ago) link

I'm amusedly picturing people saying Coach Ella

mh, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 14:27 (six years ago) link

My grandparents had a lot of seemingly prewar stuff in their house. Which I think Included a mangle. Definitely had a weird drying rack that was attached to a piece of rope so it could be winched up near the ceiling.
Also had a coal hole for delivery by the coalman.
I say prewar but I think they only moved in there in the 50s

Stevolende, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 14:37 (six years ago) link

'ko-ACK-hella' IIRC

Bobby Buttrock (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 14:38 (six years ago) link

I think it's supposed to be 'koh-ah-cheh-lah' rather than 'kough-cheh-lah'.

pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 14:42 (six years ago) link

Pretty sure that both pronunciations are acceptable now. Usage trumps all, etc.

pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 14:43 (six years ago) link

otm

mh, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 14:48 (six years ago) link

I'd seen refs to the festival in print and online 2 million times but never heard it spoken by an irl human until recently.

I don't get out much.

Scape: Goat-fired like a dog! (Myonga Vön Bontee), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:11 (six years ago) link

So it's not Coach Ella.

pplains, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:19 (six years ago) link

To be honest, I was pronouncing it more like "COH-chella."

pplains, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:19 (six years ago) link

Been pronouncing it Co-Chella in my head lo these many years.

bread bags of courage (brownie), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:20 (six years ago) link

Cloaca

Monster fatberg (Phil D.), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:23 (six years ago) link

Cockula

Bobby Buttrock (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:25 (six years ago) link

Cockerella

pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:26 (six years ago) link

I think I can top being shockingly old when you find out how to pronounce Coachella properly, I've just googled Coachella to find it what it is.

Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:29 (six years ago) link

http://languagehat.com/a-bastard-name/

mh, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:29 (six years ago) link

I mean en español it would be “co-ah-CHE-ya” so

The Bridge of Ban Louis J (silby), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:40 (six years ago) link

xxpost steveolende my gran had one of those racks too

Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:42 (six years ago) link

Shockingly older and still learning!

xxp

Scape: Goat-fired like a dog! (Myonga Vön Bontee), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:47 (six years ago) link

I've got a coal hole outside my current house and we get coal poured down it. It's the highlight of my year tbh

kinder, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 17:50 (six years ago) link

I don't have a coal hold, but I do have one of those boxes cut into the side of my house by the side door where the milkman could put each day's dairy order. (House was build in 1946.) Need to get it filled in one day, since it has an R-value of minus infinity.

Monster fatberg (Phil D.), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 18:28 (six years ago) link

Early maps show the area as "Conchilla," the Spanish word for "seashell." Since the area was once a part of a vast inland sea, tiny fossilized mollusk shells can be found in just about every remote area. Local lore explains the change in the name from Conchilla to Coachella as a mistake made by the map-makers contracted to transcribe the data supplied by the Southern Pacific Railroad's survey party. Rather than redraw the expensive maps, the railroad chose to instead begin calling the area by the misspelled name "Coachella" rather than its traditional name "Conchilla."

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 18:38 (six years ago) link

'koh-ah-cheh-lah'

No other pronunciation ever occurred to me tbh.

No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 January 2018 19:44 (six years ago) link


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