that SHIFT + 6 = ^. I think I figured it out a month or so ago. I always wondered how people got that character.
― ILX MOD (musically), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 06:32 (sixteen years ago)
DO you have a Mac?
The best things about macs is that making any character is stupid easy.
¢™øºÖذ
― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 06:34 (sixteen years ago)
&¶¶¶¶¶¶
!
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 07:11 (sixteen years ago)
That (most) BMWs are named according to engine size (I was a car freak as a child but never knew this until being informed by a German flatmate while I was a PhD student).
i.e. 318 = 3 series 1.8 litre engine etc.
― krakow, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 07:54 (sixteen years ago)
Didn't know that black and green olives are identical, just different stage of maturity, until a few months ago.
Didn't realise that Adam Ant was a pun, until a year or so ago. Likewise Lipps Inc.
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 07:59 (sixteen years ago)
I've got a mac and I still don't know how to do any of, um, ^ those ^
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:01 (sixteen years ago)
I end up going to wikipedia and copy-and-pasting when I want unusual characters
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:02 (sixteen years ago)
The cows-and-bulls thing, plus Adam Ant, are the only things on this thread that I do know
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:03 (sixteen years ago)
how to cook an artichoke properly
― nelson algreen (get bent), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:09 (sixteen years ago)
(a julia child recipe steered me right)
How to tie my shoes (velcro, you see..)
― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:12 (sixteen years ago)
Didn't realise that Adam Ant was a pun, until a year or so ago.
^^^ this. Same with Sandy Shaw.
― NotEnough, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:34 (sixteen years ago)
Fay Fife of the Rezillos.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:35 (sixteen years ago)
(i.e. it's a pun on "I am from the town of Fife, my good fellow" in broad scots)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:36 (sixteen years ago)
What's the Adam Ant pun? Adam Ant = adamant? If so... pretty lame pun.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:37 (sixteen years ago)
That's it.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:43 (sixteen years ago)
xpost Tell that to Lai Mpun, the lead singer of Bangkok's Phleng Chat.
― I CRIED (G00blar), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:45 (sixteen years ago)
I am 33 and didn't know any of these things. Wait - how the hell DOES a candle work?!
― Savannah Smiles, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:53 (sixteen years ago)
Same with Sandy Shaw.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:54 (sixteen years ago)
i don't know how to explain it but i used to think chickens had a really weird way of "mating", something to do with the rooster's legs. (!!?!?) :)
― Ludo, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:55 (sixteen years ago)
I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movie
― I CRIED (G00blar), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:56 (sixteen years ago)
"that SHIFT + 6 = ^. I think I figured it out a month or so ago. I always wondered how people got that character."
^^^Dude, you beat me by a month. Thanks!
I once spent a half hour trying to eject a cd from a Mac before someone finally told me there's an eject button on the keyboard. I was going through all these crazy menus and preferences...
― Nate Carson, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:10 (sixteen years ago)
I think I was like 16 or 17 when I learned that cows and bulls were the male and female versions of the same animal and not two distinct animals.What sort of seemingly basic facts did it take you a surprisingly long time for you to learn?― filthy dylan, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 5:30 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
What sort of seemingly basic facts did it take you a surprisingly long time for you to learn?
― filthy dylan, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 5:30 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― With a little bit of gold and a Peja (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:23 (sixteen years ago)
loooool one of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory.
I think I've done that Mac eject button thing too :(
Pronounced lapels like 'labels' for years until corrected but happily don't dress well enough to use it often
― The Slash My Father Wrote (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:34 (sixteen years ago)
My girlfriend was shocked to learn, at the age of 33, that a 'Flea Circus' is actually a rather charming mechanical toy, and is in no way operated by any parasitic insects.
― Huey in Bristol (Huey in Melbourne), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:56 (sixteen years ago)
Ismael, at the age of 32, is shocked to learn the same thing. This thread is getting embarrassing
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:57 (sixteen years ago)
WAT! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus
― Øystein, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:59 (sixteen years ago)
I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movieone of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory
one of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory
no but seriously, what is this about?
― negotiable, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:01 (sixteen years ago)
i mean i can see that there's rarely anything to size them against in the big white antarctic, but why would anyone then automatically think okay here's a bird i could play tag with
― negotiable, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:03 (sixteen years ago)
u could still play tag w/it tho
― SNAKES! (ice crӕm), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:04 (sixteen years ago)
But you could make the same assumption with ostriches in the big yellow desert (or wherever they live), and in that case you'd be right!
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:07 (sixteen years ago)
I'm still in touch with several grown adults who genuinely believe there's 'something' to supernatural claims about ouija boards, despite its fairly obvious origins in parlour games / illusions which utilised the (admittedly fucking spooky) ideomotor effect.
― Huey in Bristol (Huey in Melbourne), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:08 (sixteen years ago)
aw no-one said 'where babies come from'
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:14 (sixteen years ago)
I've had a lot of experiences in my adult life with mispronouncing words I understood as part of written text, but hadn't heard aurally in the context of conversation etc. For example, I was well into my twenties before I knew the word "vehement" wasn't pronounced veh-hee-ment. I wish others would politely correct you when you do that instead of letting you blindly sound like an idiot.
― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:16 (sixteen years ago)
I'm a bit like that, but now I'm in the habit of saying works incorrectly, I can't get out of it. Canal is not pronounced can-el, but there's fuck all I can do about it now.
― NotEnough, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:39 (sixteen years ago)
^ This happens to me all the time too - so much so that I actually now find it quite amusing when I realise, midway through a sentence, that a word I've never heard before is looming at the end. I suppose that people who talk a lot, rather than reading, must find the same with spelling. It only annoys me when some moron uses it as an opportunity to score cheap points (sadly fairly often)
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:40 (sixteen years ago)
I was going to start a thread like this, but it was going to be more about 'life lessons' that took you forever to learn, rather than trivia.
Anyway it's taken me this long to fully realize how unreliable first impressions can be when it comes to people.
― invisible jet (wanko ergo sum), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:42 (sixteen years ago)
but why would anyone then automatically think okay here's a bird i could play tag with
haha
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:57 (sixteen years ago)
TAL have an episode on this in the "best of" section on their wesite. people who thought unicorns were real, etc., lots of awkward silences at cocktail parties: good stuff.
― rent, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:00 (sixteen years ago)
i like to tag birds. (runs)
― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:01 (sixteen years ago)
There's a penguin here and he wants to say "you didn't touch me ner ner ner"
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:12 (sixteen years ago)
I thought penguins went "weh weh weh"
― ╓abies, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:14 (sixteen years ago)
― Huey in Bristol (Huey in Melbourne), Wednesday, November 12, 2008 7:08 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
you couldnt get me in the same room as a ouija board
― a country packed with ponies (sunny successor), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:42 (sixteen years ago)
I was about 35 when I figured out Open Sesame = Open Says Me.
― Rotgutt, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:44 (sixteen years ago)
i used to think HAZCHEM was a foreign word for danger like Achtung
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:45 (sixteen years ago)
I just figured out, like 2 days ago, that the lyrics are "highway to the danger zone"
(until then, thought they were "I went to to the danger zone")
― homosexual II, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:03 (sixteen years ago)
ooh i like that
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:07 (sixteen years ago)
lol mandee those are even better
― Uncle Shavedlongcock (max), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:22 (sixteen years ago)
Nothing, as I'm not shockingly old.
― Eric H., Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:23 (sixteen years ago)
Slow sure but there is no world in which "More More More" is a ballad!
― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 1 July 2025 12:17 (three weeks ago)
"rust never sleeps" was a slogan for a rust preventing painthttps://kellyipblog.lexblogplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/551/2018/03/RUST-2.jpgmark mothersbaugh mentioned it to neil young who made it the album titlefor some reason i thought of it is as "i am rust man, i am always awake" like he's tetsuo or something
― adamt (abanana), Thursday, 3 July 2025 16:16 (three weeks ago)
for some reason i thought of it is as "i am rust man, i am always awake" like he's tetsuo or something
https://images.theconversation.com/files/44518/original/w7qjbkmw-1395629312.jpg
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Thursday, 3 July 2025 16:25 (three weeks ago)
Just learned the phrase “Salad days” comes from Shakespeare and is not a modern American thing (I kind of thought it was a 60s california surfer thing)
― ed.b, Thursday, 3 July 2025 19:45 (three weeks ago)
I mean, sure — living in England in Shakespeare's time, the day you got to eat a salad was probably the best day of your entire life.
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Thursday, 3 July 2025 19:52 (three weeks ago)
They preferred to go surfing
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 3 July 2025 19:53 (three weeks ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHuIpse1nM4
― Blake the Messenger (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 July 2025 19:53 (three weeks ago)
the day you got to eat a salad was probably the best day of your entire life.
lol. it's more likely derivation is the metaphoric connection between greenness and youth, but I liked yours better.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 3 July 2025 20:16 (three weeks ago)
A green salad would have killed an Elizabethan child
― The "W" and Odie Trail (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 3 July 2025 20:40 (three weeks ago)
not paired with a good stout, I bet
― sleeve, Thursday, 3 July 2025 20:44 (three weeks ago)
Until earlier today I assumed zebra crossings had been invented in the 1920s, when cars were relatively new. It seems like an obvious idea. But no, they were apparently invented in the late 1940s, and the name was coined by James Callaghan:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_crossing
The first one was painted on Slough High Street. Until that point there were Belisha Beacons, and studs, but no zebra stripes. For a while crossings just looked like this:https://i.imgur.com/j0VYbZl.jpeg
You learn something every day.
― Ashley Pomeroy, Thursday, 3 July 2025 21:13 (three weeks ago)
cold roast parsnips and wild fennel with brown sauce, there you go
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 3 July 2025 21:15 (three weeks ago)
africa is the 2nd largest continent and larger than north america.
― five six seven, eight nine ten, begin (map), Friday, 4 July 2025 00:55 (three weeks ago)
i just now realized that "electric guitar" is a riff on the old show "juke box jury"
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 4 July 2025 01:27 (three weeks ago)
(the talking heads song "electric guitar")
innocent is the opposite of nocent
― adamt (abanana), Friday, 4 July 2025 19:11 (three weeks ago)
^ I just learned a new word today ;-)
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 4 July 2025 19:24 (three weeks ago)
when you piss on someone's chips, you are pissing on their kindling, so it won't light. Not chips from the chippy.
― Proust Ian Rush (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 4 July 2025 19:30 (three weeks ago)
Oh! Still, may as well piss on their chips from the chippy as well.
― Alba, Friday, 4 July 2025 19:32 (three weeks ago)
Yeah I guess once you've got going it's hard to stop
― Proust Ian Rush (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 4 July 2025 19:40 (three weeks ago)
Does this mean the chips in Whizzer and Chips are also wood chips?
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 4 July 2025 19:42 (three weeks ago)
that would be a no
― tuah dé danann (darraghmac), Friday, 4 July 2025 21:58 (three weeks ago)
I wouldn't know, I was a whizz-kid (death death death to chip-ites)
― Proust Ian Rush (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 4 July 2025 22:05 (three weeks ago)
Sorted out for chips and whizz
― psychopompatus (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 5 July 2025 09:04 (two weeks ago)
forever a Whizzkid!
― Ste, Saturday, 5 July 2025 09:07 (two weeks ago)
The Spanish equivalent of "lefty loosey righty tighty" is "La derecha oprime, la izquierda libera" - "the right oppresses, the left liberates" (this may be a load of bollocks as it comes from some rando on the internet)
― Proust Ian Rush (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 5 July 2025 12:11 (two weeks ago)
that the placenta is named after a type of cake.
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 18 July 2025 13:33 (one week ago)
let them eat placenta does not resonate or whatever
― bloozmonica noodling inc. (Hunt3r), Friday, 18 July 2025 19:42 (one week ago)
idk about that, it resonates pretty well for some folks
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Sunday, 20 July 2025 02:44 (five days ago)
Richard Simmons had a bit part in Fellini's Satyricon.
― nickn, Wednesday, 23 July 2025 06:04 (two days ago)
i feel like such an idiot, but reading Tom Crewe’s The New Life somehow made me aware for the first time that “sod” was a shortened of “sodomite.” I might have known this at some point, but I don’t think so! God, i am such stupid fucking sod.
― czech hunter biden's laptop (the table is the table), Thursday, 24 July 2025 13:20 (yesterday)
I thought it was calling someone a lump of grassy dirt!
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 24 July 2025 13:24 (yesterday)
If I'd thought ever thought about it I probably could have worked it out but I never did so, yeah, I had no idea either.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Thursday, 24 July 2025 13:55 (yesterday)
You can tell who hasn't had enough exposure to traditional British bigotry
― baka mitai guy (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 24 July 2025 14:00 (yesterday)
I believe the traditional phrasing is "posing somdomite."
― je ne sequoia (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 24 July 2025 14:10 (yesterday)
“sod” was a shortened of “sodomite.”
I too have never put this together.
― Kim Kimberly, Thursday, 24 July 2025 15:22 (yesterday)
https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b2734b15e7fef9e7485811b835d3
― Posts That Witness Madness (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 July 2025 15:25 (yesterday)
"Bugger on, Garth!" "Bugger on, Wayne!"
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 24 July 2025 18:54 (yesterday)
i thought you were gonna say “traditional british sodomy,” which i dont think is a thing.
― bloozmonica noodling inc. (Hunt3r), Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:05 (yesterday)
Sodomy Manor
― czech hunter biden's laptop (the table is the table), Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:34 (yesterday)
pretty sure that's the name of a live Fall album xpost
― fluffy tufts university (f. hazel), Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:37 (yesterday)
― bloozmonica noodling inc. (Hunt3r)
Clearly someone didn't go to public school...
― emil.y, Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:43 (yesterday)
Rum and the lash just feel empty without it.
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:46 (yesterday)
Have you never heard of the Royal Navy?
― Posts That Witness Madness (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:50 (yesterday)
traditional british sodomy
First with the driving on the wrong side of the road...
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:53 (yesterday)
Rum, bum and concerti a
― Dan Worsley, Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:54 (yesterday)
Concertina even
― Dan Worsley, Thursday, 24 July 2025 21:55 (yesterday)