# 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:** 147
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2922 "2018-01-22T21:37:11Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > In the song “Up To Me” by Jethro Tull, there is a line “Well I’m a common working man with a half of bitter bread and jam” and for decades I didn’t know how to parse it. Mainly because I didn’t know that “bitter” could be used alone for a type of drink, and just last month or so I realized that it was a “half [pint] of bitter [ale]” rather than a “half” of “bitter bread”, whatever that is. And there was a long pause between the words “bitter” and “bread” but Ian Anderson sometimes just puts those in for no reason so that didn’t really help me. And, “sarnies” are “sandwiches,” and the “candy floss salesman” is selling cotton candy (“Up the 'Pool”). And, a “cherebang” is an old, open-top car (“Wond’ring Again”). And, “LEM” was the first name for what soon became known as just “LM” – lunar module (“For Michael Collins…”). You surely know all this – just thought I’d mention it. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2923 "2018-01-22T22:21:32Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > And, “LEM” was the first name for what soon became known as just “LM” – lunar module (“For Michael Collins…”). Yes; the “E” was for “Excursion.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2924 "2018-01-26T12:49:54Z")
Well, maybe not all that obvious, but it kind of fits together… I just watched a movie I’ve wanted to for a long time – the Swedish silent film **Haxan** (“Witches”) by Bejamin Christensen. Here’s an image of The Devil from that film. [https://www.google.com/search?q=Haxan+The+Devil&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8rPmc1PXYAhWEzFMKHYOXDKgQ\_AUICygC&biw=1440&bih=729#imgrc=XRtQr61PryMO2M:&spf=1516970700579](https://www.google.com/search?q=Haxan+The+Devil&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8rPmc1PXYAhWEzFMKHYOXDKgQ_AUICygC&biw=1440&bih=729#imgrc=XRtQr61PryMO2M:&spf=1516970700579) [https://www.google.com/search?q=Haxan+The+Devil&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8rPmc1PXYAhWEzFMKHYOXDKgQ\_AUICygC&biw=1440&bih=729#imgrc=VTvMHXYKx3QpWM:&spf=1516970700582](https://www.google.com/search?q=Haxan+The+Devil&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8rPmc1PXYAhWEzFMKHYOXDKgQ_AUICygC&biw=1440&bih=729#imgrc=VTvMHXYKx3QpWM:&spf=1516970700582) That looked familiar. Then I remembered that I had seen something very similar in two places. One was a poster for the play _Dracula_: > **[Dracula poster at Ford’s Theater](https://kinoimages.wordpress.com/2016/11/27/dracula-poster-at-fords-theater/)** > > Dracula vintage poster at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C (1931, by Tod Browning).  Check out this early movie Dream of a Rarebit Fiend from 1906! I’ve always wondered where that image came from. It shows a character with a narrow, green face with eyes and lips outlined in red, and with big fangs, flanked by a huge pair of ears that resemble bat wings. It resembles nothing in the play at all. If I were a theater-goer back then (especially a very young one), I’d be disappointed by the play for lacking this distinctive monster. But it kind of makes sense if it’s meant to invoke the devil from the film. The dating’s right – the poster came out after the 1922 film. The other image is Etrigan the demon from Jack Kirby’s 1970s DC comic _The Demon_: > **[Etrigan (Comic Book) - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/Etrigan)** > > Created by Jack Kirby and appearing for the first time in The Demon #1 (August, 1972), Etrigan has played many smaller roles in several DC comics from The Sandman to Wonder Woman, with occasional stories and miniseries wholly to himself (such as … Other artists tended to enlarge those fin-like (as well as bat-wing-like) ears: [https://www.google.com/search?q=Etrigan+the+Demon&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje5NDf1PXYAhXD2VMKHZInARYQ\_AUICigB&biw=1440&bih=729#imgrc=hxOmVxshJ6EcxM:&spf=1516970936719](https://www.google.com/search?q=Etrigan+the+Demon&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje5NDf1PXYAhXD2VMKHZInARYQ_AUICigB&biw=1440&bih=729#imgrc=hxOmVxshJ6EcxM:&spf=1516970936719) ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2925 "2018-01-26T20:37:26Z")
Vito Corleone: _“I will not be the one to break the peace that we have made today.”_ He didn’t lie. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2926 "2018-01-27T16:36:54Z")
In Peanuts, Charlie Brown was bald with one strand of hair. He loved his father, and never mentioned his mother. His father was a barber. ---
**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:** [January 27, 2018, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2927 "2018-01-27T23:04:01Z")
Both Charlie Brown’s and Charles M. Schulz’s fathers were barbers. Charlie Brown was like Schulz in other ways too. There was a red-haired girl that Schulz was in love with as a young man, for instance. ---
**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:** [January 27, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2928 "2018-01-27T23:23:07Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Both Charlie Brown’s and Charles M. Schulz’s fathers were barbers. Charlie Brown was like Schulz in other ways too. There was a red-haired girl that Schulz was in love with as a young man, for instance. They both also knew someone named Shermy. The real Shermy (Sherman) was one of my professors in college. I must have gone past Schulz Sr’s barber shop a thousand times on my way to class without realizing it. Finally, I saw it in a TV documentary about _ **Peanuts** _. ---
**Author:** ![Mavic\_Chen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mavic\_Chen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavic_Chen)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2929 "2018-01-28T18:50:06Z")
Just watched Ghostbusters (1984) for about the tenth time. It’s finally dawned on me that the bungaling guy next door (Rick Moranis) who keeps locking himself out of his apartment finally becomes the eponymous keymaster. Should have kept hold of his keys I guess. [I mean the very guy who can’t keep his keys becomes the keymaster]. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2930 "2018-02-03T04:00:31Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > They couldn’t have seen it in, say, Hamburg? :dubious: 😕 Unlikely, since it would have been dubbed and they didn’t speak German. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2931 "2018-02-15T19:32:16Z")
Kind of obscure but the Superman villain “The Parasite” once made himself up as human and used the alias “Larcon P. Leech”. Leech, Parasite. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2932 "2018-02-15T22:08:51Z")
When Kendrick Lamar’s father asks about his dominoes throughout _good kid, m.A.A.d city_, he’s not talking about pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2933 "2018-02-15T23:20:39Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > Then again, I’m the guy who still takes the time to use an ash when writing æther and keeps the diaeresis in naïve, so I can’t say I’ve exactly grown out of it… Don’t you mean æþer and diaereſis? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2018, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2934 "2018-02-15T23:22:25Z")
I’ve seen is used as a business name many times but I just this week noticed that Gentle Dental rhymes. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2935 "2018-02-19T19:07:51Z")
I was listening to “Hail Columbia” (the USA’s first national air) on WNED FM the other day, and realized it’s basically the same tune as “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” ---
**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:** [February 19, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2936 "2018-02-19T19:09:08Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Unlikely, since it would have been dubbed and they didn’t speak German. Germans don’t use subtitles? :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2937 "2018-02-19T23:16:23Z")
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but in “The Red-Headed League” Holmes says something about “there being no woman in the house” he’s “dismissed the idea of a mere vulgar intrigue.” I didn’t have the faintest idea what he was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2938 "2018-02-20T02:34:07Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > And, a “cherebang” is an old, open-top car (“Wond’ring Again”). No, a [_charabanc_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charabanc) is an archaic term for an [early type of bus, usually open-topped and commonly used for day trips.](https://familyfractals.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/charabanc_postcard.jpg) > [@The Stranglers](#): > > Oh shit, there goes the charabanc > Looks like I’m going to be stuck here the whole summer. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2939 "2018-02-21T13:40:03Z")
In **Beauty and the Beast** , Gaston boasts of his toughness by saying, “Every last inch of me’s covered with hair.” He pulls open his shirt to reveal that his chest is hairy, but of course, he doesn’t compare to the Beast. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2940 "2018-02-21T14:16:28Z")
The Big Bang rerun last night was the one where Howard and Bernadette get married. It’s told in flashbacks, their quick wedding before Howard goes into space, and held on a rooftop where the google earth satellite is going overhead. The last scene is a panning of the wedding, going up until the Earth is in view. The Earth that Howard is now viewing from the space capsule as he is telling the story. ---
**Author:** ![Swampwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Swampwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swampwolf)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2941 "2018-02-22T01:13:43Z")
Having been around in ‘77 when Star Wars came out, and being an instant fan, I’ve seen it an infinite number of times. Last October, I noticed that one of C-3PO’s legs is silver! ������ [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=146) [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=148)