Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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.

Ismael, at the age of 32, is shocked to learn the same thing. This thread is getting embarrassing

WAT! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus

I thought penguins were as tall as humans until that march of the penguins movie

one of my friends thought this and it was since passed into running joke territory

no but seriously, what is this about?

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

u could still play tag w/it tho

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!

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.

aw no-one said 'where babies come from'

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.

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.

^ 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)

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.

but why would anyone then automatically think okay here's a bird i could play tag with

haha

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.

i like to tag birds. (runs)

There's a penguin here and he wants to say "you didn't touch me ner ner ner"

I thought penguins went "weh weh weh"

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, 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

I was about 35 when I figured out Open Sesame = Open Says Me.

i used to think HAZCHEM was a foreign word for danger like Achtung

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")

ooh i like that

lol mandee those are even better

Nothing, as I'm not shockingly old.

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".

My friend always thought that Op Ivy song Take Warning went "skate boarding", which is way better.

Same with Sandy Shaw.

Ok I sounded this out several times in several different ways and I still don't get how this is a pun. Help?

I think that 'Shaw' is meant to sound like 'shore' - I don't hear it either

Sandy Shore.

Shaw is pronounced exactly the same as Shore, in England.

hows it pron in USA?

Well I guess it must be different, if people are having problems hearing it? Dunno.

I didn't even know it was her real name, tho.

wasn't, rather

I knew someone who, if my friend is to believed, is said to have uttered at age 18 "wait, you can't get pregnant if your clothes are on, right" while making out.

'Shore' rhymes with 'oar'. 'Shaw' is the same as the first three letters in 'shopping' xp

i'm loving this thread. so many discoveries!

WAT! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus

― Øystein, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 1:59 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

http://www.noonco.com/flea/movie.htm

My flabber hasn't been gasted quite like this in a long time :-/

xp I only got that Sandie Shaw pun because I once attended a seminar about legal practice given by an English professor who made a big thing out of the difference between 'law' and 'lore'. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about

Wait - how the hell DOES a candle work?!

I know, right?!!??!

i too only figured out lipps, inc. lately. also, fear's lee ving. it never occurred to me until i was driving in the car one day and bam.

I just now got Lipps, Inc. I say in my head "Lipps Incorporated" whenever I read that.

I was pretty close to thirty when I was told that "prevalent" is not pronounced pree-VAY-lent. I liked my version better. "The PREE-VAY-LENT opinion in this country is that Barack Obama will be a force of change."

I didn't realize until sometime in my sophomore year of high school that being forced to listen to Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson (Focus on the Family) every morning on the way to school was completely fucked up. My dad used to drive me to school everyday for years, and that shit was always on the radio.

"i used to think HAZCHEM was a foreign word for danger like Achtung

― Cittaslow Mazza (blueski), Wednesday, 12 November 2008"

haha yes, i thought it must be turkish

I was pretty close to thirty when I was told that "prevalent" is not pronounced pree-VAY-lent.

probably some slippage with "prevailing" no?

I hadn't thought of that, but yeah, probably.

re HAZCHEM, we have HAZMAT around here, and i only figured it out in recent times

pleasant plains, ai lien has a coworker who is black and who claims that the black community calls it lipps incorporated. he was unmoved when she told him about the pun.

I probably would have "gotten" Lipps Inc sooner had I actually heard someone utter their name out loud. They tend not to be talked about a lot, shockingly.

(i never got it until right now)

Wonder how many firemen have chaffed themselves trying to recreate special moments.

I mean, if you look at the pole it's clearly
rotating.

well, that may explain my failed efforts

Pour Some WD-40 On Me

the pole rotates in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere

I think it was only a few months ago that I learned that when pole dancers swing around in circles, the POLE itself is actually rotating. Apparently?!? I thought the dancers were swinging themselves around and I couldn't figure out how they could stick enough to stay up but still be mobile, which in retrospect makes NO sense at all. Now I know the laws of nature and surface traction are intact and the world makes sense again.

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Wednesday, 12 June 2024 14:21 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

what

here's to the ppl who look at the pole when they watch poledancing 🍷

i mean it isn't a sin to appreciate both pole and dancer

today:

the opening "flute" sound of the theme for the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is meant to be a coyote howling

― budo jeru

it's an ocarina

it's the one thing people used to play on the ocarina before ocarina players were all link cosplayers who play zelda music

to be clear i love link cosplayers who play zelda music

i mean it isn't a sin to appreciate both pole and dancer

― he/him hoo-hah (map)

are we pole or are we dancer

Barre exercise is just pole dancing, sideways.

Change my mind.

I suspect you can't do a full 360 around the barre without looking like the Suspiria remake.

I think it was only a few months ago that I learned that when pole dancers swing around in circles, the POLE itself is actually rotating. Apparently?!? I thought the dancers were swinging themselves around and I couldn't figure out how they could stick enough to stay up but still be mobile, which in retrospect makes NO sense at all. Now I know the laws of nature and surface traction are intact and the world makes sense again.

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Wednesday, June 12, 2024 8:21 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok this isn't true?

WHAT

per Wiki:

Dance poles may have two different modes, spinning and static. In the spinning mode, the pole uses ball bearings to spin. This mode can be used to complete more experienced pole moves, make moves easier to complete, and add a more dramatic effect to the move. Most spinning poles can also be fixed to the static mode where the pole cannot rotate. The static mode is regularly used when pole dancing is first taught to beginners.

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

how they could stick enough to stay up but still be mobile

missed this part, i was just trying to say that dancers can spin like crazy on a stationary pole as the vid demonstrates, but obviously they slowly move down

i.e. i thought the claim was "all poles are rotating" which is why i said not true

Had the sudden realization while reading that the expression "drop a dime" very obviously traces to calling in police tips from a payphone

Eric André is not the "Eric" who co-created _Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!_. I don't know. You'd think I would be like more aware of this stuff maybe? But I kind of thought, you know, David Lynch-inspired takes on Public Access shows broadcast on Adult Swim, I mean. I thought they were kind of the same show. Look I'm gonna be honest I'm looking at this list of Adult Swim shows debuting from 2010 onwards and I've never heard of any of these except for the "Joe Pera" one people seem to like and the show by those Nazis. To be honest I kinda go out of my way to avoid both Tim and Eric's stuff and Eric André's stuff. Anxiety of influence.

I did know that the cheez-a-riffic guitar line in the Top Gun theme was Steve Stevens.

Did NOT know, I mean