# Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117 "2009-07-24T13:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 125
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2481 "2016-05-25T10:00:35Z")
At what age would someone who grew up speaking Afrikaans begin learning English while going to an Afrikaans-language school in South Africa during the time that Theron was in school? Be more specific than “at an early age.” How well would they speak English when they leave school? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2482 "2016-05-25T10:53:57Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > At what age would someone who grew up speaking Afrikaans begin learning English while going to an Afrikaans-language school in South Africa during the time that Theron was in school? Be more specific than “at an early age.” 7 0r 8 depending what half of the year they’re born in. > [@](#): > > How well would they speak English when they leave school? Pretty poorly, they’d have a thick Afrikaans accent and probably limited vocab, if school learning was _all_ they had to go on. If, however, they were also constantly exposed to English-language TV & movies, and lived in a bilingual city… ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2483 "2016-05-25T11:45:22Z")
I was watching this on Netflix today on my computer, which somehow seemed to allow closer scrutiny of details (compared to watching on TV). The opening scene has Waldo Lydecker being interviewed by Lt. McPherson while sitting in his bathtub, with a little desk and typewriter across the tub. Later in the scene he pushes away the desk, stands up (off camera) and asks McPherson to hand him his robe. While doing so, McPherson looks at him and gives a small snicker. I always assumed that Waldo was supposed to be nude in the bath, and that McPherson was snickering either at his body or at his lack of modesty. Today I noticed on two separate shots that Waldo was clearly wearing either shorts or a bathing suit in the bathtub. You can see the waistband. So now I have to wonder what McPherson was snickering at. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2484 "2016-05-25T12:40:52Z")
First guess, he was snickering at Lydecker’s over-abundance of modesty. Same joke, better told. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2485 "2016-05-25T13:41:49Z")
And hours later, you’re still wondering what she was looking at, a bit like later in the film when she and her date apparently stare up at something although there’s nothing there, and ages later pass by again and there are still people looking up to see what it was… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2486 "2016-05-25T14:42:40Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Today I noticed on two separate shots that Waldo was clearly wearing either shorts or a bathing suit in the bathtub. . I’m not familiar with the film, but I’d guess that’s a blooper. He was, in-story, naked but didn’t actually film while naked. The camera accidentally caught a glimpse of his costume. I guess that in 1944 they didn’t foresee people watching at home with freeze-frame capabilities. [IMDB](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037008/goofs?ref_=ttcnn_ql_2#revealing_mistake)lists it as a revealing mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2487 "2016-05-25T16:17:35Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > But that verse is probably about Altamont, the Hell’s Angels, and Mick Jagger. Nothing referencing Black Power in there at all, so it seems more likely to be a reference to the audience fighting with bikers. Maybe there’s a double meaning there, I guess, but I don’t really see any reason to think that. For Don McLean to have been around in the 1960’s and not know the Black Power Salute is impossible. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2488 "2016-05-25T17:01:00Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > For Don McLean to have been around in the 1960’s and not know the Black Power Salute is impossible. I don’t see where **JSexton** was suggesting McLean didn’t know what the salute was, just that he wasn’t referencing it in that line. I must say, I don’t know why “hands clenched in fists of rage” wouldn’t be just that – a salute’s generally with only one hand, if nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2489 "2016-05-25T19:33:05Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > For Don McLean to have been around in the 1960’s and not know the Black Power Salute is impossible. Of course he knew what it was. I just don’t think he had it in mind when he wrote that verse, because nothing else in that verse seems to point to it, whereas it’s allvery consistent with Altamont. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2490 "2016-05-26T03:28:41Z")
OK, this isn’t about a creative work, unless a trademark is creative, and I guess the guys that come up with them think so, but here goes. For around the last five years I’ve been shopping at a little grocery store that caters to a significant Spanish speaking clientele. There’s a brand of beef they sell called SuKarne. I don’t buy it often, because I get most of my beef from Costco, but for five years I’ve been seeing and occasionally purchasing that brand and until last week I never made the connection. SuKarne - Su carne. Your meat. What a maroon. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2491 "2016-05-27T21:27:45Z")
My entry, realized today, was going to be about the song “Free” by Sarah Bareilles, but in Googling to figure out the song’s full title, I discovered that it’s actually “[Brave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4)”, and the titular lyric is not “I want to see you be free” but “I want to see you be brave”. That is not the obvious thing I realized about it, because A) I didn’t realize it and B) it is not remotely obvious, as evidenced by the fact that the first Google suggestion for the lyric as I typed was “I want to see you be free,” and the word “free” fits the meaning and rhyme scheme. Anyway. As shown a thousand times in this thread, when you hear a song in passing, you tend to take your first interpretation of the lyrics and stick with it. The first time I heard it, I took the chorus of the song (ignoring the free/brave thing, which is irrelevant to the meaning) as: _Say what you want to say And let the words fall out Honestly, I want to see you be free_ …and I thought, well, I get what you’re getting at, but that’s kind of a weird way to say it. And then proceeded to not think about it again the next umpteen times I ran across the song, as you do. Well, today as I was eating lunch by myself, the song came on, so I was forced to pay attention to it for its full duration…and so I thought, “Okay, WHAT THE SHIT. What’s with the ‘honestly’? Is she concerned that whoever she’s singing this to is going to think she’s lying about wanting them to be free? And ‘let the words fall out’ is such a bizarre clause to leave on its own. I get the point, but you’d either want a modifier on the front like ‘just let the words fall out’, or else an adverb on the back, like ‘let the words fall out naturally’ or…” :smack: _Say what you want to say And let the words fall out honestly I want to see you be free_ In my defense, four out of the five lyrics listings I looked at (because I didn’t quite believe the “brave” thing) had the line parsed the way I originally took it, because that’s what the song’s meter suggests. The latter was confirmed by the lyrics on the official video, though, and it’s pretty obvious once you see it. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2016, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2492 "2016-05-28T01:55:43Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > OK, this isn’t about a creative work, unless a trademark is creative, and I guess the guys that come up with them think so, but here goes. For around the last five years I’ve been shopping at a little grocery store that caters to a significant Spanish speaking clientele. There’s a brand of beef they sell called SuKarne. > > I don’t buy it often, because I get most of my beef from Costco, but for five years I’ve been seeing and occasionally purchasing that brand and until last week I never made the connection. SuKarne - Su carne. Your meat. What a maroon. If we can go brands, I just recently realized that Chips Ahoy are supposed to make you think of Ship Ahoy. Understandable delay though, as really I don’t encounter Ships Ahoy! that often. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2016, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2493 "2016-05-28T11:11:29Z")
I knew someone who was colorblind. He was blown away when someone pointed out to him that part of the B and the R in the Baskin-Robbins logo made the number 31. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2494 "2016-05-30T05:26:17Z")
I was just listening to “Midnight at the Oasis” on Internet radio. For the first time in more than 40 years, I caught the significance of lines like _You won’t need no **camel** , honey, when I take you for a ride!_ Ew! :eek: :smack: (I’m reminded of the joke in which the new commander of a Foreign Legion post struggles with his conscience before “mounting” his camel. When he asks his aide if _all_ the men do this when they’re in the mood, the latter answers “_Mais non, mon Colonel!_ Zey simply saddle zeir camels and ride into ze village on ze ozer side of ze sand dune!”) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2495 "2016-05-30T05:35:33Z")
I don’t believe this… The same station just played a Reggae song whose chorus included (I swear to God!) _Seamen, seamen are we!_ Again: EW! :eek: :smack: (Okay, I have a dirty mind. So sue me! :mad: ) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2496 "2016-05-30T08:44:09Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I was just listening to “Midnight at the Oasis” on Internet radio. For the first time in more than 40 years, I caught the significance of lines like > > _You won’t need no **camel** , honey, when I take you for a ride!_ > > Ew! :eek: :smack: Would that be one hump or two? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2497 "2016-05-30T09:49:52Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Would that be one hump or two? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2498 "2016-05-30T10:00:07Z")
> [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > I’m old enough to have seen \*Have Gun, Will Travel \*on original broadcasts (barely.) I never knew what the heck the title meant until a couple of weeks ago when a skoshi bit of insomnia had me watching Encore Western at 4 a.m. I was born in 1955, but it wasn’t until I was in, oh, maybe my late 30s when it finally dawned on me why Paladin had that chess piece (a freakin’ **KNIGHT** ) on his holster! \*\*DUH! \*\* :smack: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2499 "2016-05-30T10:13:32Z")
… And about ten years earlier, I had suddenly realized why there were all those rooms at the top of the stairs in the Longbranch Saloon on _ **Gunsmoke** _. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2500 "2016-05-30T10:20:57Z")
One more: I’m editing an article on carbon nanotubes. Apparently, the favored abbreviation is CNTs. :o [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=124) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=126)