Things you were shockingly old when you learned

I thought Canada had a straight border because it was following a line of latitude or something.
.

I live in Toronto. I just looked at a map, I knew we dipped south but I don’t think I’d ever really thought about it - we’re south of Boston!

Toronto: 43° 44′ 30″ N, 79° 22′ 24″ W
42° 21′ 29″ N, 71° 3′ 49″ W

So not really?

Err, second one is Boston.

El Paso is closer to San Diego than it is to Texarkana.

A sizable chunk of Virginia is west of Detroit. Geography is full of these little oddnesses.

The Mississippi is supposed to be the border between Missouri and Illinois, but the river has its own ideas about where it wants to be, and it shifts with some frequency. As a result, there are bits of Illinois on the Missouri side, and vice versa.

UK one that often surprises people is that Edinburgh, on the east coast, is further west than Liverpool and Bristol.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGpuNvQWcAAxTTp.jpg

Sorry, I just looked at some shitty jpg man, guess I was wrong.

Toronto: 43° 44′ 30″ N, 79° 22′ 24″ W
42° 21′ 29″ N, 71° 3′ 49″ W

So not really?

You'd think if you 5hought your country was the centre of the universe you'd stop it stooping like.
& try to set it more firmly on a North South compass axis.
Should make that a Brexit precondition. If they can't straighten it they can't leave. Makes about as much sense dunnit.

That in 1970, Rod Stewart told the International Times magazine:

"I think Enoch Powell is the man. I’m all for him. This country is overcrowded. The immigrants should be sent home."

Courtesy of clemenza, on this thread.

I never knew that tbh but always thought he was a colossal twat and a waste of space anyway. Did his PR team go around every newspaper archive in the UK with a hidden bottle of tippex or something lol!

I always thought Itchycoo Park was a fascist anthem about attending a National Front rally tbh!

nah its a smutty thing about a park in Ilford or Stratford or vicinity.
Lover's lane type thing. BUt surrounded by stinging nettles which is presumably less painful than poison ivy but gives you an itchy coo.
I think its a childish pun on the actual name

you are absolutely correct Stevo, my humour-fail deserves that level of pedantic contempt!

Now I've learned from the Itchycoo Park – which has a separate section on critical reaction to the M-People cover version – that Steve Marriott was childhood friends with Tony Robinson of Blackadder and centrism fame, which makes a certain amount of sense.

That Azerbaijan has a non-contiguous exclave, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

That E.B. White was Roger Angell’s stepfather!

That white stuff covering Judy Garland? Pure asbestos, of course—in chrysotile form, making the material a bit more dangerous than, say, in building material. (By the way, not exactly a nice gesture on the part of the Good Witch there, but odds are good she didn’t know about mesothelioma, because not a lot of people did.

that they often used to shower actors with the most deadly form of asbestos on 30's Hollywood sets as fake snow!

oh yeah and also the Good Witch's broomstick in the Wizard of Oz was made out of asbestos as well.

That Azerbaijan has a non-contiguous exclave, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

He was a law unto himself.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,pg_1,q_80,w_800/uxz7oenzptsfzexuwelo.jpg

A "buttload" is 108 imperial gallons.

Buttpipe

stfu lil rundlet

(xp not you)

Where do Kilderkins, Pins and Firkins fit into that lot then? Specialist vocabularies are the best thing.

that there's a 1971 stackridge song called 'dora, the female explorer' and so

That the lead singer of Canned Heat died just before Jimi and Janis, also at the age of 27. Like I didn't even know he was dead (but then I've spent maybe a sum total of thirty minutes thinking about Canned Heat in my entire life).

"Going Up the Country" remains one of my least favorite songs of all time. I guess I'm just not into the whole blues flute thing.

wait how much is a liquid shit tun though

Why We Think Outhouses All Had Crescent Moons in Their Doors

i have always assumed that the song "tommy's holiday camp," on the album tommy, was sung by keith moon, since he played uncle ernie in the movie. i've just learned that it was actually pete townshend doing a funny voice.

.

That Mama Cass and Keith Moon died in the exact same room, both at the age of 32.

that teeth aren't bones

Simon!

Sorry, there should be no shame here.

But... calcium!

I sort of vaguely knew that but never knew any of the details until I just read about it now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF7V2dSvxpo

Sorry, wrong thread!

xp Pretty much every depiction of a skeleton ever nudges towards the wrong belief there, it must be said.

That when, in the Middle Ages, if people gave instructions involving 'say two paternosters' or 'say three hail marys' (often used in preparations, e.g. cooking and folk remedies) - this wasn't so much ~superstitious nonsense~ as it was a measure of time? Much like 'wash your hands for the length it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice'?

Prior to the invention of wristwatches and eggtimers and reliable measures of short-term time, the most reliable indication of how long something took was 'X repetitions of prayers everyone knew'.

I've never heard of that practice before, but it sounds really cool.

Yes, I read one of the oldest written recipes (for ravioli) and it said to boil them for the time it takes to say two paternosters.

"I'm going to take a nap. Say the rosary four times and then come wake me up."

one rosary = 10 winks

see the first few pages of e.p. thompson's "time, work-discipline, and industrial capitalism"

Envisioning mediaeval townsquare sitcom theatre where a cooking gag is based on the fact that in the next fief over, where the recipe is from, the custom is to append a full kyrie eleison to each paternoster, but the cook doesn't know this! so the archbishop's egg is hilariously underdone.