Things you were shockingly old when you learned

"trailblazing" has the literal meaning of marking trees to create a path. i always imagined someone running and leaving fire behind them.

... and Ireland.

― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.)

your country is basically fine but tainted by proximity to The Worst Country

kind of like canada

Cardiff has only been the capital city of Wales since 1955. Wales had never had a capital city prior to 1955(!) and Cardiff, Caernarvon and Aberystwyth were all in contention.It was never even formally announced...

On 20 December 1955, Gwilym Lloyd-George, then Minister for Welsh Affairs and Home Secretary, proclaimed that Cardiff was the capital of Wales, in a reply to a Parliamentary question from David Llewellyn. Lloyd-George said that "no formal measures are necessary to give effect to this decision"[14]

haha wtf

Americans call it "soccer" because It's a truncation of "association football"

having watched man u all season, i'm more into disassociation football these days

(xp) Like rugger. It's English public school speak.

The person on the cover of REM's Lifes Rich Pageant is Bill Berry. I always thought it was Boris Karloff or someone who looked like him.

Ouch.

all of Western Europe is on the same time zone. Except for Portugal and the UK

Lots of "how are you getting on with the time difference" jokes when I moved.

hms resolute was one of quite of lot of ships dispatched to find the lost franklin expedition. franklin's two ships had become trapped in the ice (from which fate no one returned). resolute was one of at least three three further ships that that also became trapped in the ice!

luckily everyone got off them ok, since there were by so many other ships also searching nearby that ((unlike with the franklin crews) rescue was possible

jesus imagine if i was a professional proofing editor or something

that the US military didn't ban smoking on its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines until 2010

Formica was a mica substitute and the name is from 'for mica'.

xp I think if I was a mile underwater with a nuclear reactor I could probably use a cigarette now and then

Just step outside, if you hafta.

the designated smoking areas were called "smoke pits". I just never knew this happened on modern submarines loaded with nuclear warhead armed ballistic missiles. But yeah I can imagine the appeal of a pensive smoke before the end of human civilisation, but it does seem very much like a remnant of 1950's H+S protocols.

TIL this is a saluting emoji:🫡

It’s mystified me for years. I could never figure out what that appendage was.

Dave and Ansell Collins, who recorded the great reggae single “Double Barrel,” are not related. Dave’s surname is Barker, actually born David Crooks.

you could add to that the davis sisters and james & bobby purify (actually cousins)

Very much hoping James Purefoy has a cousin called Robert.

I don't think it's Dave Collins & Ansell Collins - more like 'Dave, and Ansell Collins'. How confusing.

Ansell Collins and Dave would have been more sensible.

Which reminds me, when I was very young Tony Orlando & Dawn were always on TV and the name confused me because I couldn’t figure out which of the two ladies was Dawn. I finally got it at the shockingly old age of 8 or so.

I never knew Dick Van Dyke played the old banker in Mary Poppins until a rewatch with my kids some 20+ years later.

deferred interest

pull the other one, it's called Smith

As this is in the news, thought I’d look into its history. Anyway….

During the 1950s there was a prohibition on serving members of the armed forces standing for election to Parliament. A few National Servicemen stood for election in the 1951 and 1955 general elections in order to be dismissed from service.

Diana Ross has got a daughter called Chudney

The icon you see when a page or graphic is loading, usually a spinning ball or wheel, is called a Throbber.

medieval estonia was inhabited by a tribe called the chuds

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOlgpWcXEAAoxUN?format=jpg&name=medium

“punic” in punic wars just comes from the latin word for phoenician (punicus).

also the place name “cartagena” is carthage tho it now seems sooo obvious. i knew ‘carthago delenda est,’ but never figgered cartagena.

Didn't know about Viking settlements in Sicily/southern Italy - although looking at the Wikipedia page, that map is a little disingenuous. It was the Normans who invaded Italy, around the same time as the Norman conquest of England. By that time, they were pretty much gallicised and spoke French.

The icon you see when a page or graphic is loading, usually a spinning ball or wheel, is called a Throbber.

More from the fun fact department, but… there are 41 (or maybe 42) buildings in Manhattan that have their own Zip Code. And that’s not the +4 Zip Code extension, that’s the traditional 5-digit Zip Code.

It's Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, not Bob Willis

how did you not know that?

I have no idea! I guess the double Ls threw me off, and while I have been aware of both the man and his music for most of my life (thanks, Bob Dylan), I'm not sure I have ever heard his name spoken aloud. I'd have gone on believing that his last name was "Willis" if I didn't notice the spine of some Rhino comp I just found

>>>Giorgio Moroder composed and produced "Danger Zone" and "Take My Breath Away"<<<

Perhaps everyone knows this; I didn't.

"I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow is a cover

yeah its by the Strangeloves 3 brothers from Australia

It was also a hit for the Count Bishops in 1978.

... well, not sure if it was a hit but they got on TOTP with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HntZDao0Tkg

Singer had been with these guys before. They were from Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ZbENMWVzM

The Strangeloves were not 3 brothers from Australia. They were a fake studio band created by three NY songwriter/producers including Richard Gottehrer, who has one of the longest running careers in the music biz.

Bert Berns too. Insane careers. And not based on some dancer but the Terry Southern novel Candy.

that the count bishops had hits

They didn't.

A surprising place to learn some of the history of I Want Candy is the Astral Weeks episode of The History of Rock-n-Roll in 500 songs, because co-songwriter Bert Berns was deeply involved in Van Morrison's early career, from Them to Brown Eyed Girl. You also learn a bunch about Neil Diamond. All before getting to Astral Weeks itself.

https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-170-astral-weeks-by-van-morrison/

*eighteen minutes shockingly older* that the count bishops didn't have hits