# 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:** 192
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3823 "2020-11-25T20:08:13Z")
For me, on the Nth viewing of Shawshank Redemption, I realized that DuFresne was “The Framed”. Also, “shaw” means razor or knife, and shank is a handle or, in prison slang, a knife, so the prison’s name is “razor handle” or even “knife knife”. ---
**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:** [November 25, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3824 "2020-11-25T20:52:08Z")
This is such a common realization that TV tropes uses Aluminum Christmas Trees as the name for ‘Something obviously ridiculous and made up for the show that turns out to be very real’. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3825 "2020-11-25T22:07:16Z")
After reading your description, it seems it was no coincidence these trees and lava lamps were introduced around the same time. I wonder if being herbally enhanced also increased their novelty factor. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3826 "2020-11-25T22:43:22Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > it seems it was no coincidence these trees and lava lamps were introduced around the same time. I wonder if being herbally enhanced also increased their novelty factor. Hush, I was eight years old when the pink aluminum tree showed up in the living room. Come to think of it though, my father had a history for being thrown out of town for trafficking. Hmmm… ---
**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:** [November 26, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3827 "2020-11-26T01:46:45Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > After reading your description, it seems it was no coincidence these trees and lava lamps were introduced around the same time. I wonder if being herbally enhanced also increased their novelty factor. I think that the aluminum trees were somewhat earlier – late 1950s to early 1960s, when we still had beatniks. I don’t recall lava lamps showing up in numbers until the hippie era of the late 1960s. I don’t doubt that the aluminum trees with color wheels were enjoyed more until the influence of certain substances, but think it was more likely to be Scotch. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3828 "2020-11-26T02:53:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > \*A further abomination was the PINK aluminum tree, about which I will say no more. After going down the TV Tropes rabbit hole, I realized that was exactly the kind Lucy instructed Charlie Brown to buy. She said “Get the biggest aluminum tree you can find, Charlie Brown! Maybe painted pink!” ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3829 "2020-11-26T23:30:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > One of the features that shows up in modern depictions of the story of Medusa is that she’s surrounded by a “garden” of people she has petrified. […] But there’s noting at all like it in any Greek or Roman telling or depiction of the story of Perseus and Medusa. Perhaps influenced by C S Lewis, 1950, (_The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_). It was a memorable image, so no surprise to see it turning up elsewhere. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3830 "2020-11-27T04:50:26Z")
I’m sure I remember aluminum Christmas trees being still somewhat popular as late as the mid-1960s. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3831 "2020-11-27T05:20:40Z")
I’m pretty sure we had one around 1965. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3832 "2020-11-27T05:43:24Z")
That was the year the Charlie Brown special was made, so that would make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3833 "2020-11-27T14:57:23Z")
I think the more interesting question is, why was the Gorgon/Medusa not surrounded by a statue garden in the original stories? It is, as you say, a striking image, and it follows quite logically from her abilities. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3834 "2020-11-27T16:10:22Z")
Myths are not always logical. Also, it’s probable that, although the Gorgon was believed to be absolutely terrifying in appearance, she was not always thought to have the power of petrification. That may be a late addition to the myth, possibly inspired by the many depictions in which Perseus is shown cutting off her head while pointedly not looking at her. Yet the threat of the Gorgon’s head being called up from the underworld as a threat to Odysseus overstaying his welcome in Book 11 of the Odyssey isn’t accompanied by a warning about being turned into stone. Nor is Hercules petrified when he sees Medusa in the underworld. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3835 "2020-11-28T04:00:01Z")
I just rewatched _Fargo_. Twice in the movie we see Jerry Lundegaard in his office doodling on a pad. Well the first time he’s doodling, the second time he’s just scribbling back an forth. On previous viewings I’d just assumed it was something he did when he was nervous. But this time I noticed he was also filling in the VIN numbers on some financing paperwork, and it hit me – he was purposely making his pencil dull, so the VIN numbers would be illegible. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3836 "2020-11-29T04:32:06Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > This is such a common realization that TV tropes uses Aluminum Christmas Trees as the name for ‘Something obviously ridiculous and made up for the show that turns out to be very real’. Another thing I thought of that fits this trope – I can’t think of a specific work that used this, but I remember a lot of movies showing subway cars completely covered in graffiti, inside and out. My first visit to New York was in 2008, long after the city was cleaned up and gentrified, so I long assumed those graffiti covered subway cars were something the filmmakers did to create a gritty, almost dystopian look. Then I saw some historical photos and realized that in the 1970s and 80s New York’s subway cars really were covered in graffiti like that. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3837 "2020-11-29T19:22:13Z")
We watch International House hunters, and it always shocks me how supposedly great neighborhoods that have all the open spaces covered in graffiti. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3838 "2020-11-29T19:27:08Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > We watch International House hunters, and it always shocks me how supposedly great neighborhoods that have all the open spaces covered in graffiti What is the realization? Am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3839 "2020-11-29T20:56:06Z")
This is pretty obscure, so a pan of cashew fudge to anyone who gets this. I’ve watched seasons 1-6 of _Endeavour_ many, many times-- some a dozen times. I love the series. (Oddly, or maybe not, I can’t stand the adult Morse in the series that kicked it all off.) This plot point is something I didn’t understand until I had seen seasons 5 & 6 a million times. In the last episode of season 5 entitled “Icarus,” why does George Fancy go into the pool hall where Eddie Nero and Cromwell Ames are duking it out in a turf war, instead of waiting in the car for backup like Thursday told him to? It took me watching all of season 6 multiple times before the light bulb finally came on over my head. After George is killed at the end of season 5, season 6 reveals over four episodes the corruption in the upper ranks of the police department all the way to the top, corruption that we first saw in the pilot episode. In the first episode of season 6, “Pylon,” Thursday, Morse, and Bright, have all been demoted and now report to unprincipled and bent Ronnie Box and Alan Jago, promoted because of taking down Nero and Ames. Strange is holding his own because he’s cozy with a top cop who’s a Masonic Grand Poo-bah. What we ultimately find out is that George went into the pool hall instead of waiting for backup, because his bosses Box and Jago-- two cops-- showed up. He probably thought they **were** the backup. Once inside, Box and Jago killed Nero, Ames, all their foot soldiers AND George Fancy, too, because the corrupt cops wanted the drug trade for themselves. By the time Thursday and Morse get to the scene, Box, _et al._, have cleared out and all that’s left are bodies, including George’s. Trying to figure out what happened to Fancy and why is a theme that runs through the whole of season 6. Clues appear in the first episodes and heat up the trail. But it took many viewings for me to see this. All is brought to an emotionally and dramatically gratifying conclusion in the final episode of season 6, aptly titled “Degüello.” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3840 "2020-11-29T23:01:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > so a pan of cashew fudge to anyone who gets this I was forced to google “cashew fudge” upon reading this sentence. Lo and behold, the first hit was “ **Thelma Lou** ’s Cashew Fudge” - from Aunt Bee’s Mayberry Cookbook. So my obvious thing about a creative work that I just realized after the millionth time is that perhaps your username came from Barney Fife’s girlfriend on the Andy Griffith Show? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3841 "2020-11-29T23:08:51Z")
Bingo! [![](https://s24476.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_ORIGINALBarneysFirstCarInsideMagazine.jpg) ](https://s24476.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_ORIGINALBarneysFirstCarInsideMagazine.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/3842 "2020-11-29T23:14:17Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > So my obvious thing about a creative work that I just realized after the millionth time is that perhaps your username came from Barney Fife’s girlfriend on the Andy Griffith Show? My thought exactly [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=191) [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=193)