Things you were shockingly old when you learned

I knew this for a long time but not surprised others don't.

had no idea Warren Beaty and Shirley MacLaine were siblings.

I don't know if I knew this and forgot, but this is blowing my mind.

To me it makes a lot of sense, but again....

I think if you see their faces from certain angles it's a bit visible that there is some resemblance.
Have known for a few decades. Not sure how I found out. Talk show guest appearance or something possibly. Maybe even quiz show trivia.

open question - when did people learn how to properly pronounce Autechre?

I think I probably heard them first on the John Peel show and I think he pronounced it the “right” way (maybe not at first? Can’t remember) so then

Today, I learned that the funny slidey thing at the top of my laptop is to close the camera.

Yes saw you do that.

The English word "compound", when referring to a development in a town, is derived from the Malay word 'kampung'. It entered English via either Dutch or Portuguese. (The Bahasa Indonesia word 'kampong' is still quite well-known in Dutch as a result of our colonial history there).

For more: http://singapurastories.com/kampungcompound-houses/kampungcampongcompound/

The Kennedy kampung

Today I learned that the original Adina Howard version of “Freak Like Me” has an uncensored version where she uses an expletive instead of saying “I need a roughneck brother that can satisfy me.” And I learned this in about the most embarrassing way possible. Thanks a lot, Alexa!

I heard a podcast last week talking about Stalin being a voracious reader who read 100s of pages a day.
Thought he was rumoured to be a thug, can one be both?

the existence of Nolan Thomas’ “Yo’ Little Brother” and its video

Whoa. From the video's comments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdQolRb25oM

I went to tbe Laurie Anderson exhibit

Today I learned that the original Adina Howard version of “Freak Like Me” has an uncensored version where she uses an expletive instead of saying “I need a roughneck brother that can satisfy me.” And I learned this in about the most embarrassing way possible. Thanks a lot, Alexa!

Ignore stray first line

o superman
o freak like me
o ruffneck person that can satisfy me just for me

vg+

Just been reminded that the melonfarmer censored version of Repo Man isn't the thetatrical release version.
SO I presumably saw it with the swears in . But that just seems to be a feature of teh film so seems to be what I'd expec of it melonfarmers and flipping.

I always thought Mary's Prayer by Danny Wilson was actually Sailing by Christopher Cross

And the chorus went

"So if I say sailing, sailing..."

Has never realised before today that Nichelle Nichols' brother was a member of the Heaven's Gate UFO cult, and died in the 1997 mass suicide. Or, possibly, transcended to a higher cometary realm, depending on who you believe.

only learned that baby carrots are regular sized carrots whittled down to baby size last week. i don't think i thought something significantly different before... i just never really thought about it at all! baby carrots are extremely weird to think about now though

that it's "anemone" not "anenome"

only got that this year, age 59

Oh no, I've corrected people on that.

I only learned that baby carrots are regular sized carrots whittled down to baby size last week.

i was definitely talking about the baby-cut ones sorry! ive seen the actual tiny carrots before, in fact i think my mom grew em once when i was a kid. i don't think i was under any illusions that that's what the wet bags of orange sticks were made of, but i had never really thought about it. (actually tbh, i ddidn't know the small carrots were even called "baby carrots," so i guess that's two things i learned at a shockingly old age)

Those whittled carrots were invented because carrots often refuse to grow in the nice 'carrot shape' that consumers expect to see and shoppers tend always to reject the oddballs. By whittling the weird-shaped carrots into acceptable little orange bullets the carrot farmers (mostly big agra-businesses) can get a much better price for them than if they sold them for pig feed. Plus they still can sell the leftover shavings to the pig farmers.

not sure I'd realised there were such things as baby-cut carrots. those last few posts were a real rollercoaster for me!

I thought the baby-cut carrots were a special variety bread for sweetness and then whittled down? Also bathed in chlorine

"... By whittling the weird-shaped carrots into acceptable little orange bulletssuppositories ..."

Fixed.

that it's "anemone" not "anenome"

only got that this year, age 59

― unknown or illegal user (doo rag), Wednesday, 23 March 2022 20:33 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Oh no, I've corrected people on that.

― peace, man, Wednesday, 23 March 2022 20:42 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"I've told people that I know, me
that it's actually supposed to be "anemone" "

See also the last track on Treasure by Cocteau Twins, of course. And (not as similar but still) the title of their 1985 EP that opens with "Pink Orange Red".

From 1925 to 1934, the Eiffel Tower was covered by big-ass illuminated Citroen signs on three sides:

https://static.messynessychic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Screen-shot-2012-02-22-at-18.52.19.png

whaaaat.

yep.

That looks kind of sick.

wait until you read about the hollywood sign... 8)

I knew that "Trapper John MD" was a spinoff of "MASH". I never saw it or knew much about it. I was surprised to learn that it takes place 28 years after the events of "MASH" and that the titular character was not played by the same actor as in "MASH".

There was also a shortlived MASH sequel called Aftermash. It focuses on Colonel Potter, Klinger & Father Mulcahy.

is it set 29 years after mash

And the "Trapper John" tv show wasn't based on the character from the M*A*S*H tv show, but from the M*A*S*H movie.

I was trying to think who was who in that. Is this an approximation of Elliot Gould?

Not shockingly, but just learned that Simon Frith is an OBE while trying to find what I thought was his quote about Sonic Youth - "smart people playing stupid music", or something like that. Anyway, I couldn't bring to mind any other 'rock critic' who had been similarly honoured.

I was wondering if the MASH thing had more to do with the book. Was trying to think if there had been a more famous book that the film was based on the popularity of. & there is a whole run of them. Think I must have seen a few of them around way bacck.
series by Richard Hooker.

Had been thinking that if it was written by somebody who had been through that war it would have been 20 something years later in the 70s.
So Trapper John M.D. would be at that stage at the time. Roughly

only this year - learned that fungi are not classed as part of the plant kingdom, they're their own separate thing

wait until you hear about algae

I found out last week about lichen being symbiotic entities of fungi and algae and bacteria instead of just being some weird scaliness on trees and rocks.

what a world

All my life I’ve just sort of accepted that palm trees are a very weird kind of tree and only recently learned that they’re not real trees at all, botanically speaking. The clues were all there: their trunks don’t grow wider in the way that tree trunks do; their fronds grow only from one central location; they don’t have bark, etc.

Ha! Never thought of that, but yeah of course....
Some kind of giant dinosaur ferns or something...