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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
I end up going to wikipedia and copy-and-pasting when I want unusual characters
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:02 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
how to cook an artichoke properly
― nelson algreen (get bent), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:09 (fifteen years ago) link
(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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
Fay Fife of the Rezillos.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:35 (fifteen years ago) link
(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 (fifteen years ago) link
What's the Adam Ant pun? Adam Ant = adamant? If so... pretty lame pun.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:37 (fifteen years ago) link
That's it.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:43 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost Tell that to Lai Mpun, the lead singer of Bangkok's Phleng Chat.
― I CRIED (G00blar), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:45 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
Same with Sandy Shaw.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:54 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movie
― I CRIED (G00blar), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:56 (fifteen years ago) link
"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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
WAT! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus
― Øystein, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 12:59 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
u could still play tag w/it tho
― SNAKES! (ice crӕm), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:04 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
aw no-one said 'where babies come from'
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 13:14 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
^ 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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
i like to tag birds. (runs)
― Sugar hiccup, Makes a pig soar and swoon (Pillbox), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:01 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought penguins went "weh weh weh"
― ╓abies, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:14 (fifteen years ago) link
― 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 (fifteen years ago) link
I was about 35 when I figured out Open Sesame = Open Says Me.
― Rotgutt, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:44 (fifteen years ago) link
i used to think HAZCHEM was a foreign word for danger like Achtung
― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 14:45 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
ooh i like that
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:07 (fifteen years ago) link
lol mandee those are even better
― Uncle Shavedlongcock (max), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Nothing, as I'm not shockingly old.
― Eric H., Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Misheard lyrics are always better. The singer of my old band had this (intentionally) corny line that went "sleep all day til the telephone ring / head to the bar and shake that thing", the latter half of which I always thought was "head to the barber and shave that thing".
― monkey bonkers (╓abies), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:28 (fifteen years ago) link
My friend always thought that Op Ivy song Take Warning went "skate boarding", which is way better.
― monkey bonkers (╓abies), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Ok I sounded this out several times in several different ways and I still don't get how this is a pun. Help?
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:40 (fifteen years ago) link
I think that 'Shaw' is meant to sound like 'shore' - I don't hear it either
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Epitome seems like a word used far more in spoken language as an intensifier (similar to "literally") and not nearly as frequently in writing.
― Theracane Gratifaction (bendy), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 14:55 (one week ago) link
was at a wedding for a good a friend years ago and his best man/brother gave a toast and pronounced it eppy-tomb.
― dan selzer, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:13 (one week ago) link
A repository for used medical pens?
― Stevo, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:38 (one week ago) link
Last resting place for a duelling sword?
― Stevo, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 15:44 (one week ago) link
I’m sure I have related this before but I was convinced there was a separate word “misled” that was pronounced “mizzled” and it meant pretty much the same thing as the correctly pronounced word except with a tinge of harried frustration about it
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 16:26 (one week ago) link
apart from epitome (also same as above) my example of the above (isnt there a term for a word you can use perfectly correctly but pronounce incorectly apart from "snobbery"?) is 'awry' which i pronounced awry for years until i heard it pronounced awry at which point the penny dropped
― tuah dé danann (darraghmac), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 16:32 (one week ago) link
I don't know about you.but if I can't find an acute accent,it's going to sound like epee to me.
― Stevo, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 17:13 (one week ago) link
I love these kinds of stories. For awhile as young i thought awry was a weird word of it’s own unrelated to a-wry. As a kid my word proficient dad didn’t realize facade was like, façade, he just didn’t get it.
― well below the otm mendoza line (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 18:54 (one week ago) link
Not when he was a kid, i meant he told me when I was a kid.
― well below the otm mendoza line (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 18:55 (one week ago) link
― Stevo, Wednesday, September 25, 2024 10:38 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Stevo, Wednesday, September 25, 2024 10:44 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Are you Will Shortz?
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 22:01 (one week ago) link
my version of this is "behemoth," which i'm pretty sure i first encountered on a magic: the gathering card and which i pronounced and stressed similarly to Beowulf, i.e., BAY-uh-moth
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 22:05 (one week ago) link
When I was a kid I encountered the "that door is a jar" word puzzle before I knew what "ajar" meant and I was so terribly confused
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 22:14 (one week ago) link
A kid on the playground once told me a joke
Q: What do you call a herd of cows masturbating?A: Beef Strokin-Off
Except I didn't know what 'masturbating' meant so I just laughed like I 'got it'
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 22:18 (one week ago) link
I worked as a valet parker in hs in the early 80s and i cannot remember which car brand but it always announced “your door is ajar” ad foreverr it was infuriatingly persistent.
― well below the otm mendoza line (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 22:20 (one week ago) link
I got into an argument around age 6 that the word curb was a mispronunciation of the word curve. I could not imagine there was actually a word “curb” that ended in a b nor that it referred to something with an obvious curve (a little elevated pavement connected to the road). I was wrong! I felt immense shame after that.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 23:16 (one week ago) link
I know someone whose first language is Spanish who consistently says "curve" when they mean "curb." They also talk about people "owning" them money.
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Thursday, 26 September 2024 00:10 (six days ago) link
In "free stuff" posts on social media I see "curve alert" posts now and then.
― nickn, Thursday, 26 September 2024 00:20 (six days ago) link
Kind of a relief that at least my logic was good.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, 26 September 2024 00:58 (six days ago) link
Ditto for awry!
― bert newtown, Thursday, 26 September 2024 02:05 (six days ago) link
I try to kerb my enthusiasm, which definitely keeps it damped. Lightly moist really.https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2020/05/curb-kerb.html?m=1english is ridiculous
― well below the otm mendoza line (Hunt3r), Thursday, 26 September 2024 13:58 (six days ago) link
During the first lecture of my MA the professor (a brilliant woman I was desperate to impress) asked the student sitting next to me to read a passage that contained the word 'gaol'. To my shock he pronounced it 'jail', not 'gaul'. It was a close one.
― Sam Weller, Thursday, 26 September 2024 14:12 (six days ago) link
yeah as a yank i love the existence of the spelling “gaol” it doesnt even look like a fucking word
― well below the otm mendoza line (Hunt3r), Thursday, 26 September 2024 14:29 (six days ago) link
squad gaols
― this train don't carry no wankers (doo rag), Thursday, 26 September 2024 19:03 (six days ago) link
nice
― tuah dé danann (darraghmac), Thursday, 26 September 2024 19:41 (six days ago) link
when i was young i thought there was a place called "yurip", which was a different place from the "europe" people wrote about in magazines and newspapers
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 26 September 2024 19:45 (six days ago) link
it was only recently that I learned a charwoman was not a tea lady
― fetter, Thursday, 26 September 2024 20:00 (six days ago) link
I learned how to pronounce gaol from the Selling England By The Pound album, which had printed lyrics.
― nickn, Friday, 27 September 2024 00:15 (five days ago) link
I've just realized that's Bryan Cranston playing the annoying neighbour in The King Of Queens.
― pisspoor bung probe prog (Tom D.), Friday, 27 September 2024 07:14 (five days ago) link
til that grover cleveland is on the $1000 (still in circ, but not printed anymore). william mckinley on the $500 also not currently issued.
ok ilx, kamala should say if elected she's gonna put out a new $1000 bill-- who should she say she will try to put on there, come on. who would trump put there to signal virtue and trigger libs? (fake question because the answer could only be hisself obv).
― i dunno, you can just read them (Hunt3r), Saturday, 28 September 2024 12:47 (four days ago) link
Trump should be on the 1 billion note, he'll never own one in person
― StanM, Saturday, 28 September 2024 12:48 (four days ago) link
Just now: That the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen are entirely different characters from the Alice books of Lewis Carroll. The first is a playing card, the other a chess piece. I blame Disney, as well as myself apparently never having read Through the Looking-Glass.
― anatol_merklich, Monday, 30 September 2024 08:00 (two days ago) link
Debbie Harry was adopted and her birth name was Angela Trimble.
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 30 September 2024 09:14 (two days ago) link
I never knew that either, so thanks for that. Wiki says she tracked down her birth mother, who didn't want to know her, which I find kind of sad.
― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Monday, 30 September 2024 10:15 (two days ago) link
Helen Keller had personal links to the Wobblies. Viewed herself as a socialist and was in contact with a network of people on the left.
― Stevo, Monday, 30 September 2024 11:16 (two days ago) link
That Linda McCartney was Jewish
― Alba, Monday, 30 September 2024 12:22 (two days ago) link
xp
I used to think anyone living with disability would skew towards socialist left-leaning politics, but no -it doesn't always happen like that.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Monday, 30 September 2024 12:27 (two days ago) link
I assume that most right-wingers are blind and deaf. Only explanation I can come up with.
― pplains, Monday, 30 September 2024 18:23 (two days ago) link
John Larroquette is the opening voice of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGMSTzXOSNU
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 2 October 2024 00:34 (five hours ago) link
Yep! Sets the tone well
― if this site were a food it would have NO nutritional value!!!!!!! (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 2 October 2024 00:52 (five hours ago) link
Was he like 22
― i dunno, you can just read them (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 2 October 2024 01:45 (four hours ago) link
John Larroquette performed the narration in the opening credits,[28] for which he was paid in marijuana.[29]
I think I remember JL saying he was at rock bottom during this time, maybe living in his car?
― WmC, Wednesday, 2 October 2024 01:51 (four hours ago) link
That is some grammer dark things shit right there lol. But weed positive.
― i dunno, you can just read them (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 2 October 2024 02:03 (four hours ago) link
always disliked that dude
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 2 October 2024 03:04 (three hours ago) link