Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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

I just learned today that early '80s AOR dude Billy Squier is American, and not Canadian, as I had always thought for some reason.

How old were you when you figured out gaol is pronounced the same as jail? I was 49.

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 25, 2018

I was 43, which is coincidentally how old I am right now.

I've known that probably since my 20s, but some part of my brain didn't get the memo since I still always subvocalize it as 'gowl' ('gowler').

I learned when I got the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway LP.

born knowing it, ethnically ingrained cos of what they done on us the brits

I learned when I got the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway LP.

I remember learning this from my "A Trick of the Tail" CD while reading the lyrics to "Robbery, Assault and Battery"

I probably should read To Kill A Mockingbird.

Today I learned that that concrete bunker at the end of the Mall is not the Cabinet War Rooms, it's the Admiralty Citadel. 25 years I've lived in London.

Yeah, they're at opposite ends of Horseguards.

I learned when I got the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway LP.
- me

I remember learning this from my "A Trick of the Tail" CD while reading the lyrics to "Robbery, Assault and Battery"

― silverfish, Thursday, October 25, 2018 7:23 AM

Oops, likewise for me, just remembered it was a Genesis LP.

When I was a wee innocent I believed that, as befitted their power, swear words all must have complicated, difficult spellings, like fuocq and shieght.

When I was little I thought all swear words had 4 letters, and got in trouble for saying piss and bloody in public (I thought piss was spelt pis) because I thought if they didn't have 4 letters they weren't swear words. I was 6 though so probably not shockingly old.

I remember thinking swear words were all fairly recent inventions because people in the "olden days" would never say fuck or shit.

that’s great

GODDAMMIT it has just occurred to me right now, whilst I am in laid in bed pondering other matters, that guy in that house I wasn't meant to hang around about as a child... that long nail was A COKE NAIL! This was deep south of Italy, early '90s, my father told me to keep away from him, cos he was clearly in the mob, "you can tell by his little finger nail, it means he doesn't have to do any manual labour"... NO I get it now IT'S A DRUG THING!

That 'Fugazi' isn't just a proper noun…

slang term for fucked up situation, does it double as a verb too?

I don't think so. Anyway, I thought it was a made-up proper name or an Italian word.

IT's a term that was popularised during the Vietnam war, though I've got it running through my head that it might make an appearance in Catch 22. KInd of hyper-portmanteau shortening of a couple of words.

you are thinking of FUBAR, no? ("fucked up beyond all recognition"?)

"The group still needed a name, so MacKaye chose the word "fugazi" from Mark Baker's Nam, a compilation of stories of Vietnam War veterans, it there being a slang acronym for "Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In [into a body bag]"." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugazi#Formation_and_early_years_(1986%E2%80%931989))

there you go

that the Brooklyn Dodgers are still around and they are not called the Brooklyn Dodgers.

There are alternative views on that word derivation
http://www.yourdictionary.com/fugazi

"The group still needed a name, so MacKaye chose the word "fugazi" from Mark Baker's Nam, a compilation of stories of Vietnam War veterans, it there being a slang acronym for "Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In [into a body bag]".

Yeah, right, we all know where he really got it from.

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/233/cover_18291617102008.jpg

saying you were inspired by Derek Dick aka battered Fish Masala doesn't sound so cool!

I have to confess I've never heard a single note, crotch, demisemiquaver of Fugazi, the band, and it might well because I automatically think of Fish capering about with his big face painted.

I can remember them on Peel when I was a kid. Never felt compelled to listen any further.

I have never heard a note of that Fugazi, but could 99% assuredly say it sounds nothing like Ian MacKaye's band, based on that album cover alone.

OK, I take it back. For about 15 seconds, starting here - https://youtu.be/XOHhDsVV-DY?t=257 - both Fugazis sound the same.

i love all of these Fugazis tbh

Despite Portishead being one of my most listened-to bands of my adult life, I only just became aware that Beth Gibbons had a solo album in 2002

I love that album

I enjoyed it on first listen last night, yeah

I listened to that so much at the time, it still holds up

I love it but it isn't a solo album

No no I know, but still

Paul Webb, right. Talk Talk guy

when I was a teenager "1 Fugazi" was written on show flyers and meant $5

not to leave my tablet on the plane

:/

when they've done the controlled explosion I'm sure they'll send you the bits

Um, how is it possible that I've only just this morning realized that an asterisk has five points, not six? This feels like some 'Berenstein/Berenstain'-esque revisionist history shit tbrr.

citation needed

wikipedia has 5-pointed in the text but 6-pointed in the big box-out on the right. so i think it's a typeface thing, the way 'a's can be different in different typefaces.

6 in Georgia, Times New Roman, Garamond, Verdana. 5 in Helvetica, Arial, Courier, Comic Sans.

actually, if i'd gotten further than the picture

"In English, an asterisk is usually five-pointed in sans-serif typefaces, six-pointed in serif typefaces [citation needed]"

mine are normally 5-pointed when i'm hand-writing stuff because you can draw one without lifting the pen from the paper

Okay, so I'm only partially crazy, then. Whew.

Well, I was at least shockingly old when I realized that asterisks have a varying number of points.

Pompey is pronounced Pom-pi and not Pom-pay.