Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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)

that 'broadway' was shorthand for a bunch of separately owned theaters rather than a single entity like disneyland or something

that causal ≠ casual

I DID NOT KNOW THAT ABOUT OLIVES

omg

well, i agree that it likely comes from "bloody mary" > "virgin mary." my point was just that for that to even make sense in the first place, you have to make an association between virginity/purity and not drinking alcohol

Speculation re: bloody mary here...

When did 'virgin' start referring to non-alcoholic drinks

Per a response there, OED cites usage of "virgin mary" going back to the mid-1970s.

But someone else finds a reference to "virgin daiquiri" from 1963.

a quick search of Google Books shows various recipes for a "virgin cocktail" from the 1910s e.g. https://www.google.ie/books/edition/Jack_s_Manual_on_the_Vintage_and_Product/309Bz16lfIcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22virgin+cocktail%22&dq=%22virgin+cocktail%22&printsec=frontcover

although when you look up the full recipe it contains gin dammit https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1913-Straub-s-Manual-of-Mixed-Drinks/46

ah but here's a recipe for a "virgin bloody mary" from 1924

https://archive.org/details/betterhomesgarde72juldesm/page/n1033/mode/2up?q=%22virgin+bloody+mary%22

I think we can safely say that the Shirley Temple (ginger ale, grenadine & a cherry) was a product of the temperance years.

In unrelated news, 7 Up just released a limited edition Shirley Temple flavor.

And hey whattayaknow, there was also a Roy Rogers, which was a Shirley Temple with cola instead of ginger ale. Thanks, Wikipedia!

I had many a Roy Rogers in my youth

/ old guy

ah but here's a recipe for a "virgin bloody mary" from 1924

That's a misprint. That magazine is actually from 1994.

oh balls

Lime Rickey or nothing

(cola/cherry/lime)

I was in Tijuana years ago and asked the bartender if he wanted to do a shot, and he said he didn't really drink much and then he did a shot of straight, fresh-squeezed lime juice to my mezcal

You know, Shirley Temple eventually had three kids.

One of whom was in the Melvins!

what!?

The Melvins thing sounds so much like a King Buzzo prank story but it's actually true! He was apparently dating Lori/Lorax at the time too, I wonder if he ever met Shirley?

I think I saw them with her on bass. New Cross Venue with Steel Pole Bathtub.

Was going to mention Shirley Temples as non alcoholic cocktail substitutes. But somebody beat me to it.
Also the popularization of the cocktail to disguise the taste of bad quality spirits during prohibition which I've heard in a few places.

Do think there are a load of potential alternatives to denote non alcoholic. So it falling on one word without an absolute direct connotation relies on a popular term. So having something like Bloody Mary => Virgin Mary where both are referents with some vague weight gain traction and then spread onto other usage makes sense to me and others. Virgin Mary being a bit risque or similar due to being semi blasphemous seems a good reason for popularity. Otherwise they don't catch on do they? & thete are always alternative names with less popularity that die out and so on.

Would be interested in another valid etymology as to why the name virgin caught on. & I don't think the drinker being too young to have sex etc is a selling point to that drinker. Would think that would bring about another name being used. One more attractive to that drinker.