# 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:** 153
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3042 "2018-07-12T20:06:02Z")
I am a fan of the Netflix series GLOW, and last week I binged the recently released second season. Afterward, I was looking up some of the actresses on IMDB. One of the lead characters is played by an actress named Betty Gilpin, whom I was unfamiliar with before GLOW. Or so I thought. It turns out that she played the character Fiona on several episodes of the CBS series _Elementary_. I have watched Elementary since the beginning and I liked the Fiona character a lot. I never made the connection because the characters are so different and have very different ‘looks’. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3043 "2018-07-12T21:00:55Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > I am a fan of the Netflix series GLOW, and last week I binged the recently released second season. Afterward, I was looking up some of the actresses on IMDB. One of the lead characters is played by an actress named Betty Gilpin, whom I was unfamiliar with before GLOW. Or so I thought. It turns out that she played the character Fiona on several episodes of the CBS series _Elementary_. I have watched Elementary since the beginning and I liked the Fiona character a lot. I never made the connection because the characters are so different and have very different ‘looks’. The same thing happened to me when I watched the second season of _Agents of Shield_. A new villain named Whitehall was a prominent character in that season. I had watched _Dollhouse_ already and knew the actors in it. But somehow I didn’t realize that Reed Diamond, who played a main character on that show, was also the actor playing Whitehall until I happened to look it up. It wasn’t like I had any excuse. The two series were made by the same production company and several other actors had appeared on both shows. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3044 "2018-07-14T03:40:06Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > I just watched **Hannah and Her Sisters** for the first time in years. That’s the one where Woody Allen’s character has a crisis of faith and tries other religions/beliefs. First is Catholicism, and there’s a scene where he comes home with a paper bag and empties it. A crucifix. A Bible. A picture of Jesus. Then a loaf of bread and a jar of mayo. Previously, I’d thought the last two were random items, like the religion store was next to a 7-11 and he didn’t want to make two trips. Now I get it: the _Wonder_ bread and _Hellman’s_ mayonnaise are related to the first three items. If he’s going to be Catholic, or at any rate, not-Jewish, he’ll have to get used to bland food. > > (As an Italian-American, I find that inaccurate. My very Catholic great-aunt Rosie, for instance, was an epic cook and would have shot any Hostess product that dared cross her threshold. But not all Catholics are created equal.) Catholic nationalities on the whole I definitely do not associate with bland food. Doing a quick rundown in my mind of the major ones: - Polish, Lithuanian, Slovak, and Slovenian cuisines are decidedly bland. Austrian too, outside of Vienna. - Italian, as you said, is anything but bland. Same goes for Spanish. I don’t know what Portuguese is like, but Brazilian is not bland. Brazil even uses the blandest comestible on earth, cassava, to soak up its flavors, that’s how flavorful it is. - Hungarian—one word: _paprika_. - France is the famous pinnacle of haute cuisine, Cordon Bleu, gastronomy. Yet ironically one French product, _la sauce mayonnaise_, has become emblematic of blandness. But on the other hand, French bread is awesome just as American white sandwich loaves aren’t. - Irish cuisine tends bland, I suppose, except when infused with Irish whiskey. I haven’t seen the movie, and _à bas_ (down with) Allen, anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3045 "2018-07-15T19:04:19Z")
I try real hard to read a thread before posting to it, but ain’t gonna do so now. Anyway, I was talking with my brother today about the Truman Show, and for the first time since seeing the movie years ago, realized that this was a show in which everyone was fake except for its protagonist, the one True Man. Duh… ---
**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:** [July 16, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3046 "2018-07-16T00:41:45Z")
Casablanca. People have devoted a lot of time to finding really tiny goofs and discrepancies (his cigarette moves and it’s longer than it was two minutes ago, and stuff like that). If you look in IMDB there are a ton of them, some of them noted twice (by contributors who apparently didn’t read the others before posting). It was on TMC again today and I noticed a BIG one that I should have noticed a long time ago. The first time Ilsa meets Rick at Rick’s, in the company of Captain Renault and Victor Laszlo, they reminisce slightly about the last time they had seen each other: (from memory) Ilsa: Let’s see, the last time we met… Rick: was La Belle Aurore. Ilsa: How nice, you remembered. But of course, that was the day the Germans marched into Paris. Rick: Not an easy day to forget. Ilsa: No. Rich: I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray. You wore blue. Ilsa: Yes, I’ve put that dress away. When the Germans march out of Paris, then I’ll wear it again. But in the flashback scene that shows that last meeting at La Belle Aurore, she’s wearing a SUIT and not a dress. It might have been light blue, hard to tell in a black and white movie, but it was definitely a wool suit (must have been kind of hot for June 14). What woman would make that kind of mistake, referring to a dress when she was wearing a suit. Hah! ---
**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:** [July 16, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3047 "2018-07-16T12:35:29Z")
Totally made up excuse: English is not Ilsa’s first language, and she may not know that “suit” is a word that can be used to describe a woman’s outfit of a certain type, she may only know “dress” as the word for a woman’s outfit and “suit” as the word for a man’s. English is chock-full of odd male/female dichotomies for clothing, some of which have rules which are mystifying even to native speakers (as I when I first learned that there actually is a type of men’s upper-body garment correctly referred to as a blouse, which until then I had thought exclusively referred to a type of women’s garment). ---
**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:** [July 17, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3048 "2018-07-17T05:03:17Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Totally made up excuse: English is not Ilsa’s first language, and she may not know that “suit” is a word that can be used to describe a woman’s outfit of a certain type, she may only know “dress” as the word for a woman’s outfit and “suit” as the word for a man’s. English is chock-full of odd male/female dichotomies for clothing, some of which have rules which are mystifying even to native speakers (as I when I first learned that there actually is a type of men’s upper-body garment correctly referred to as a blouse, which until then I had thought exclusively referred to a type of women’s garment). Indeed, I think it’s a permissable mistake. Anyway, I did not think this thread was about bloopers but rather intentional things one missed before. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3049 "2018-07-19T22:59:04Z")
At 49 years of age, I happened to be cleaning out a cut with astringent this morning and it struck me for the first time ever that the Warner Bros. cartoon character, sometime antagonist of Bugs Bunny [Witch Hazel](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1280&bih=667&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=FRdRW8yMHfHD_QbM3ZPwAg&q=Witch+Hazel+Bugs+Bunny&oq=Witch+Hazel+Bugs+Bunny&gs_l=img.3..0l3j0i30k1j0i24k1l2.1562.4124.0.4349.11.7.0.4.4.0.116.646.5j2.7.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.11.707...0i67k1.0.LeB0ytsMeX4#imgrc=_) is named for … [witch-hazel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hazel)! I couldn’t believe that I’d never made that connection before. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3050 "2018-07-23T18:26:28Z")
I’ve been reading Teen Titans since the '80’s and just today I realized that Starfire’s real name Koriand’r of Tamaran is comprised of the name of two spices. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3051 "2018-07-23T18:55:12Z")
Tamaran’s a spice? (Her sister is Commander, and her father is Meander. I haven’t been able to figure out what Ryand’r or Luand’r (brother and mother, respectively) are supposed to mean.) ---
**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:** [July 23, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3052 "2018-07-23T19:52:43Z")
Wiki on [Tamarind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarind) Koriand’r is a takeoff on coriander. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3053 "2018-07-23T20:28:17Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > There are plenty of things to seriously criticize. Like the trash compactor - where does all the trash go? The room starts out twenty feet wide and by the end of the sequence it is only a couple feet wide, but somehow all the trash got compacted without spreading into the upper half of the chamber. And somehow Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewy manage to not get tangled in the debris and crushed by the stuff that is getting mushed. Hmmmmm, maybe the toy got it _right_. [Star Wars News, Articles & Quizzes | StarWars.com](https://www.starwars.com/news/the-vintage-vault-thats-no-moon-its-a-playset) (Scroll past the glowing review to the pic of the trash compactor.) LOL, I had that thing. I wished I kept it, but then I just looked it up on ebay. It’s going for like $100. Not much more than when it was brand new, adjusted for inflation. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3054 "2018-07-23T22:40:27Z")
The other night, TCM was showing the musical _On the Town_. There’s a scene where the three couples march out on the street arm-in-arm to begin their night of revelry. It’s such a good image that MGM put it on the [lobby poster](https://movieposters.ha.com/itm/movie-posters/musical/on-the-town-mgm-1949-six-sheet-785-x-79-musical/a/161315-52382.s). Then I realized MGM used the same idea in [Singing in the Rain](https://imgc.allpostersimages.com/img/posters/singin-in-the-rain_u-L-F4JAT90.jpg?src=gp&w=300&h=375); [Guys and Dolls](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/72/1d/5b/721d5b54dc5638391aa89fc0d4b27527--cinema-posters-film-posters.jpg); [The Wizard of Oz](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-mTiIZJAL._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg); [Babes on Broadway](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDhhZjdjYTUtYTIxZi00ZmFkLWEwYmEtMjE2YzM4OGVlZTg3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDY1NzU5NjY@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,1226,1000_AL_.jpg) and more movies than I have time to look up. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3055 "2018-07-23T23:41:00Z")
I am, at this moment, watching the Star Wars original trilogy, and was struck by something I’ve never noticed before. After Luke got Lucassed by Vader in Empire, he’s shown getting a replacement hand. It’s covered in fake skin, and has full feeling, which the medical droid is shown testing. But, in Jedi…he wears a glove over it. Which defeats the nerves, and draws attention to it, which the skin would have prevented. [Dude just wants to show off that he has a mechanical hand, clearly.](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1898) (As of The Last Jedi, he’s wearing a clearly mechanical hand, so the glove makes sense.) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3056 "2018-07-23T23:59:27Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > I am, at this moment, watching the Star Wars original trilogy, and was struck by something I’ve never noticed before. > > After Luke got Lucassed by Vader in Empire, he’s shown getting a replacement hand. It’s covered in fake skin, and has full feeling, which the medical droid is shown testing. > > But, in Jedi…he wears a glove over it. Which defeats the nerves, and draws attention to it, which the skin would have prevented. [Dude just wants to show off that he has a mechanical hand, clearly.](https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1898) > > (As of The Last Jedi, he’s wearing a clearly mechanical hand, so the glove makes sense.) He only wears the glove in RotJ after he gets [shot in the hand](https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-631141e8c553006ac913559f0d67aee5) while fighting on the sail barge. When he first meets Jabba, both hands are bare. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3057 "2018-07-25T19:46:36Z")
Saw episode 2 of the first year of The Big Bang Theory yesterday, when Sheldon & Leonard go into Penny’s apartment when she’s sleeping and clean it. They have the following dialog: Sheldon: When Louis/Louisa lived here, his closet was immaculate: evening gowns, cocktail dresses, police uniforms. Leonard: When were you in his closet? Now that Jim Parsons is totally out and married, I think that line was a wink_wink, nudge_nude insider’s joke about his sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3058 "2018-08-05T20:32:30Z")
This is SO obvious it may not even be worth sharing, but the movie title “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a play on the poem “[‘Twas] The Night Before Christmas.” Yes, I JUST realized that. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3059 "2018-08-06T14:24:38Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > After Luke got Lucassed by Vader in Empire… Okay, I only just realized, on reading **Kamino** ’s wordplay here, that George Lucas named the protagonist in Star Wars after _himself_. :smack::smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3060 "2018-08-06T22:18:19Z")
There’s something from Quint’s monologue about the Indianapolis in _Jaws_ that bothers me a bit. I can’t remember exactly when I noticed it. > [@](#): > > … > > What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. > > … > > At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Why would the Navy list a ship as overdue two days after the sailors from its sinking have been rescued? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3061 "2018-08-07T17:44:43Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Why would the Navy list a ship as overdue two days after the sailors from its sinking have been rescued? Note the context. This was part of the “so secret” statement. Despite everything, they still didn’t list it due to secrecy. [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=152) [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=154)