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
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?
― 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
Sandy Shore.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Shaw is pronounced exactly the same as Shore, in England.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:45 (fifteen years ago) link
hows it pron in USA?
― Mark G, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:47 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:48 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Their time's limited, hard rocks, too (mehlt), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:51 (fifteen years ago) link
'Shore' rhymes with 'oar'. 'Shaw' is the same as the first three letters in 'shopping' xp
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
i'm loving this thread. so many discoveries!
― baaderonixx, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
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 :-/
― StanM, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:57 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Wait - how the hell DOES a candle work?!
I know, right?!!??!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:00 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:07 (fifteen years ago) link
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."
― ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:18 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― z "R" s (Z S), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:25 (fifteen years ago) link
"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
― Shacknasty (Frogman Henry), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:30 (fifteen years ago) link
I was pretty close to thirty when I was told that "prevalent" is not pronounced pree-VAY-lent.
probably some slippage with "prevailing" no?
― rent, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I hadn't thought of that, but yeah, probably.
― ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:38 (fifteen years ago) link
re HAZCHEM, we have HAZMAT around here, and i only figured it out in recent times
― andrew m., Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:39 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:41 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― ILX MOD (musically), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:46 (fifteen years ago) link
(i never got it until right now)
― rent, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link
that 'broadway' was shorthand for a bunch of separately owned theaters rather than a single entity like disneyland or something
that causal ≠ casual
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link
I DID NOT KNOW THAT ABOUT OLIVES
― goole, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:51 (fifteen years ago) link
omg
I mean, even Kids Incorporated was Kids Incorporated. Is Public Image, Ltd also some sort of pun I'm not getting?
― ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ ⊂⊃ (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:58 (fifteen years ago) link
there is quite a lot of stuff on here that i didn't know...
re mispronouncing words: this happens to me A LOT. i've always been a big reader, but rarely heard many of the 'big' words i encountered spoken out loud (eg. my mum would never even use the word 'prevalent'). it is quite embarrassing to discover you have been saying a word wrong forever!
― undiscovered cuntry (Rubyredd), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 16:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Ditto for awry!
― bert newtown, Thursday, 26 September 2024 02:05 (four 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 (four 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 (four 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 (four days ago) link
squad gaols
― this train don't carry no wankers (doo rag), Thursday, 26 September 2024 19:03 (four days ago) link
nice
― tuah dé danann (darraghmac), Thursday, 26 September 2024 19:41 (four 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 (four days ago) link
it was only recently that I learned a charwoman was not a tea lady
― fetter, Thursday, 26 September 2024 20:00 (four 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 (three 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 (three 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 (two 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 (two 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 (four hours ago) link
Debbie Harry was adopted and her birth name was Angela Trimble.
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 30 September 2024 09:14 (three hours 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 hours 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 (one hour ago) link
That Linda McCartney was Jewish
― Alba, Monday, 30 September 2024 12:22 (one minute ago) link