Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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...

Apparently there's no such thing as a tree:
https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2021/05/02/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-tree/amp/

omg

The actor who played Trapper John in "Trapper John, M.D." also played Adam, the often-absent brother on "Bonanza." I always thought he had the coolest name: Pernell Roberts.

Interestingly, I just learned, having looked up his Wikipedia page, that he was an activist, and participated (among other things) in the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965.

Good looking hunk a man, too

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/c3/d3/eec3d36816918603302d7bc120d43219.jpg

saw him recently as a mercenary in an episode of mission: impossible

The Going for Gold theme tune was written by Hans Zimmer?

lol, fuck sake

that was still later than him doing a Band-Aid-style charity single complaining that although Dr Who’s cancellation had been cancelled, it was still going to take too long to restart production, so they should cancel something popular to make room for it

Bone china contains bones. Always thought it was called that for the ivory white colour of it.

that Merchant & Ivory were life partners as well as film making partners

that the little arrow on the fuel gauge tells you which side of the car the gas tank is on

third time that's turned up!

haha i am now dazzling all my colleagues and friends with this new knowledge

I am always excited when I rent a car and can exercise that knowledge.

not shocking as such, more interesting:

i watched The Art Of Persia ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k48j ) and The Warriors, the film about the gang trying to get back to coney island, within a couple of days of each other recently and they both mentioned a guy called Cyrus. turns out it's the same guy - the film was based on a book which was inspired by Anabasis of Xenophon which is a history of the persian leader.

would try and dazzle my colleagues with this new knowledge but they are too young to know of the film, let alone anything else.

You might be surprised. The Warriors has a surprising amount of traction among the younger generation.

The General Belgrano - sunk by THATCHER - was formerly the USS Phoenix and survived Pearl Harbor unscathed.

Blimey.

that was on QI. it's also the only ship to be sunk by a nuclear submarine.