Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Xp Is there a current version of the rhyme where the infants digits are replaced by tofu or reconstituted soya. Or eat the farmer who's had a heart attack in their pen.
Or to borrow an idea from David Thomas embark on a career as a poet.

That Macaulay Culkin was in Jacob's Ladder as was George Costanza/Jason Alexander

Ha, I just re-watched this a few weeks ago and was surprised by both of these despite having watched it many times in the past.

Culkin was in Jacob's Ladder....and the pavement

I am finally a homeowner and my flat is fully electric (no gas). I've always relied on landlords to do things like maintaining boilers and replacing shower taps etc, so the list of "shockingly old when I learned" is growing

The idea that Columbus was fighting against an idea of the earth being flat was made up by Wash8ngton Irving according to Terry Jones in Medieval Lives and citing a book by J.B. Russell.
It was widely known since Greek times that the world was round. Columbus had the dimensions wildly out for what he was planning to do by circumnavigating. & there was a theory there must be a landmass there somewhere before he sailed. Have heard he followed maps used by cod fishermen. So the new info I'm getting here is the invention of the story by Irving.

always wondered if Columbus might have been at least vaguely aware of the Norse people's western misadventures

There was no Duolingo back then so nobody understood Swedish.

it took them 140 years to finish their dictionary, not sure the swedes even understand it

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/25/official-swedish-dictionary-completed-after-140-years

What a complete shit Richard the Lionheart was. I remember from the tv series the Jones book ties in with that Richard had spent very little time in England. Hadn't realised he was born there, in Oxford . Or that he had managed to near bankrupt the country on a couple of occasions including paying his ransom from the German castle he;d been stuck in for a couple of years. He'd apparently been travelling incognito and in disguise on his own when he was kidnapped to there.

The book is quite great and really shouldn't have been shipped to the children's section here, quite ribald and bawdy and things. Which is how I remember the tv series too. I've enjoyed the history books I've read by Jones. I think I have a couple by Palin too that I haven't actually read including the one on the Erebus the Arctic exploring ship that appears in teh Terror.

UCAS is not a government agency or even a QUANGO, it's "a charity and private limited company based in Cheltenham"

It just occurred to me that B1FF is hex, and is probably, like, an opcode, or something. That was probably the joke. Helluva brick joke if so.

Love the pad printing!

That Oliver Reed was the nephew of film director Carol Reed

I did not know that until now.

That Robert Wyatt is the half-brother of (actor) Julian Glover.

Also that Petronella Wyatt is Robert's third-cousin.

I wonder if Julian Glover is related to Crispin Glover.

I can tell you that bit-part actor Bruce Glover was his dad! Truly the tendrils of acting dynasties spread far and wide.

It was Bruce that blessed him with the middle name "Hellion."

And Carol Reed was the bastard son of renowned Victorian actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

Spencer Dryden was Charlie Chaplin's nephew or half nephew.

I didn’t know you could buy childs play chucky dolls before the movie, I always wondered why the doll in a late 80s movie looked like he belonged in the early 70s

I like to think they didn't warn the manufacturer

Only launched in 1985, apparently:

https://www.cbr.com/chucky-inspiration-my-buddy-doll

Different enough, I guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhtS2qcefKk

trying to remember where i was recently reading robert wyatt's (extremely low) opinion of petronella's dad woodrow wyatt (lord wyatt of weeford), labour MP turned rightwing peer?

and relative that RW knew and disliked in person

Different enough, I guess

📹

That the church on the sleeve of the Chemical Brothers mix album “Brothers Gonna Work it Out” is in Essex and not somewhere like Alabama or Georgia as I assumed.

the My Buddy commercials were a grind in the mid-80s and I think it was only a bit successful because the commercials became a dual feature quickly, for the complimentary product — Kid Sister

My Buddy for girls was an interesting proposition. You are a girl and wish you had a doll? My Buddy has a female equivalent now!

Wherever I go, you're gonna go!

from memory:

🎶My buddy
My buddy
Wherever I go, he goes

My buddy
My buddy
I’ll teach him everything that I know

My buddy and me like to climb up a tree
My buddy and me are the besssst friends that could be!

My buddy
My buddy —
My buddy and me!!🎶

you want Juicy Fruit and Cracker Jacks too I got you covered

Yep the my buddy song popped into my head immediately. I stg there was a girl version. What was that called? I wanna say my sister!

Hasbro also introduced a companion Kid Sister marketed toward girls. Hasbro discontinued the line before the start of the 1990s and Playskool took over production, making changes to the likeness and clothing.

I was close.

Never had one of those but I did have a My Pet Monster and was debated to learn that my dad gave him away when I was at university.

I was close.

Never had one of those but I did have a My Pet Monster and was debated to learn that my dad gave him away when I was at university.

Devastated not debated

Ah sorry - clearly didn't read MH's post!

I love that G-Unit interpolated the My Buddy melody for a hook only the buddy was a gun instead of a doll

That the church on the sleeve of the Chemical Brothers mix album “Brothers Gonna Work it Out” is in Essex and not somewhere like Alabama or Georgia as I assumed.

Ha - funny you should say that. I bought that album when it came out and thought the church on the front looked strangely familiar. I decided it must be the one used at the end of The Graduate. It's not as if I had access to the internet back in 1998 so that was the end of the matter until more than a decade later when I was a bit embarrassed to realise that the reason I had recognised it was because it was from the town I lived in for the first 16 years of my life and I must have been past it literally thousands of times. My mum even worked in the school that was right next to it.

I have never before today even thought about the cover of that record (though god knows I’ve seen it often enough) but I’ve visited that church too, it has some spectacular stained glass!

TBF a lot of modern churches look like that for some weird reason - I've seen a lot in Aus with the same kind of lines.

Woah, I only thought churches in America looked like that.

Catholic church too... in Harlow. Quite an impressive building in fact.

Yeah it’s a good one (the C of E church in Harlow town centre’s excellent too, really good John Piper mural IIRC).

Plenty of interesting Catholic Churches of roughly that age, partly (though not wholly) as a result of the second Vatican Council, reducing the divide between the priests and the punters meaning you can be much more flexible with the space… Liverpool cathedral being a v famous example obv.

I think the catholic cathedral in Liverpool was designed by Frederick Gibberd, who was the town planner for Harlow.

It only occurred to me today that the idea of the grim reaper is that he “reaps” people from life just as a farmer would reap a crop from the ground. And that’s why he carries a scythe.

Also realized earlier this year: brainstorm is a play on rainstorm (?)

I just realized yesterday that the hip-hop label Wild Pitch was a play on "wild pitch" the baseball term.