# 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:** 22
**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:** [September 16, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/421 "2009-09-16T02:49:02Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > For that matter, why “the Hun”? Because the Kaiser ordered his men to “fight like Huns” ---
**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:** [September 16, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/422 "2009-09-16T14:01:44Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Or what are the odds that Hannibal Lecter would have a first name that just happened to rhyme with ‘cannibal?’ And a last name similar to [Lechters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechters_Housewares), the kitchen supply store chain? I seem to be the only person who caught that connection straightaway. ---
**Author:** ![snoopygal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@snoopygal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoopygal)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/423 "2009-09-16T14:45:33Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > And a last name similar to [Lechters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechters_Housewares), the kitchen supply store chain? > > I seem to be the only person who caught that connection straightaway. It’s more likely to suggest his academic proficiency though, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/424 "2009-09-16T14:58:48Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > It’s kind of ironic how nowadays, tans are considered sexy and rich idle people get fake ones in tanning booths : for most of Western history, it was the other way 'round : the paler you were, the more high class. It’s not really ironic at all. In both cases, it’s the skin tone of the leisure class that defines the aesthetic for people with a naturally low melanin level. (The poor work all day in the fields? Pale skin is in! The poor work all day in the factory? Tanned skin is in!) Same thing applies to weight, too. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/425 "2009-09-16T18:52:27Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > For that matter, why “the Hun”? Comes from an admonition from the Kaiser to his troops during the Boxer Rebellion, to be as savage and warlike as the Huns of old days. That Kaiser, what a card. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/426 "2009-09-16T19:08:40Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > That Kaiser, what a card. You put an extra “r” in there. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/427 "2009-09-16T21:54:30Z")
I had read the Cordwainer Smith stories for years before I realized that Meeya Meefla, the city on Manhome (Earth) where Spaceport was located, was Miami, Fla. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/428 "2009-09-17T00:46:52Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > I mentioned this in another thread before, but I don’t know how many years I heard the song _ **Life in the Fast Lane** _ before I realized that “there were lines on the mirror” was referring to cocaine. I’d been hearing the song since I was a young teenager, but I was 40 when I finally made the connection. Indeed, the _entire_ song is describing an extended, cocaine-fueled bender. “Call the doctor, I think I’m gonna crash!” “Doctor says he’s coming, but you gotta pay him cash” He’s coming down hard off his high and needs more coke to prevent a big downer. The “doctor” is his cocaine dealer. > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I have seen the Dead Parrot Sketch more than a few times. At some point I noticed that when John Cleese is yelling at Polly to wake up, he opens the door of the cage! I mean, a birdcage isn’t exactly soundproof with the door closed, is it? But he hold it right up to his mouth and opens the door, all the better to rouse him from dreams of the fjords. There’s something about that action that fits perfectly with the over-exacting nature of the character. This is duplicated (or perhaps originated) in _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_, wherein the “smart” knight (whose name I can’t recall) who is always wearing his helmet _constantly_ lifts his visor when he speaks, despite the fact that the visor is nothing more than a series of widely-spaced vertical bars (like a … birdcage) that would present no obstacle to his speaking audibly and intelligibly if he left the visor down. > [@Morbo](#): > > I’ve owned Subarus for years…and only recently found out that “Subaru” is Japanese for Pleiades, hence the logo. Did you notice that the constellation in the logo is reversed 😃 > [@DWMarch](#): > > No no, it’s “Hurts So Good” that’s about anal. Sometimes love don’t feel like it should. I’ve heard of a guy out there somewhere who for years has written articles that attempt to analyze Rush lyrics to prove that Neil Peart is a closeted homosexual. For example, the song “Secret Touch” from the band’s _Vapor Trails_ album. “Secret Touch”? \ “The way out is the way in”? \ “Out of touch with the weather and the wind direction”? \ “There is never love without pain”? \ “Out of touch with the rhythm of my own reactions”? \ … and so on. > [@palindromemordnilap](#): > > On the Rush song “Spirit of Radio,” there is a couplet at the end, set apart from the rest of the song. I always knew these two lines were a take-off of “The Sound of Silence”\* lines: > > And the words of the prophet were written on the subway walls, and tenant halls/ > whispered in the sound of silence" (a previous line had used the word “echoed”) > > So I get partial credit for making that conenction. But the first 1,000 times or so I heard the Rush song I heard the lyrics as: > > “For the words of the profits were written on the stadium wall, and concert hall/ > And echoes with the sound of salesmen.” > > It wasn’t until I heard a Rush tribute band sing the song live that I discovered the word was “studio”, not “stadium”. Which in the context of the song makes more sense. > > And yes, I got that Rush changed “prophets” to “profits”. > > \*Also known as “Sounds of Silence” but I prefer the singular version and apparently either is correct. The truly hilarious part is that Rush wrote the song in response to critics who complained about the long, “epic” songs they’d been recording up to that point, and all the other music industry pundits who kept telling them they needed to write shorter, more “accessible”, radio-friendly songs. These same critics then praised this song as being a celebration of listening to music on the radio. Completely failing to notice that Rush was actually _mocking_ them and the idea that artists should do everything with commercial success in mind. > [@Histrion](#): > > [The Electric Company - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Company_%281971_TV_series%29#Selected_recurring_characters) I am constantly surprised by the number of people my age who have no recollection of that show. It was a daily TV staple for me as a kid in the '70s. > [@Nobody](#): > > OK, I have another one, although, like some others around here, I had to be told about it. I was talking to my wife about reading the movie spoiler for the recent star trek movie and the conversation about how Dr. McCoy got his nick name of bones\* and she thought it was stupid. When I said that they never gave an explanation of his nick name in the original series she said that doctors use to be called sawbones and she figured that bones was just a shortening of that. I had never heard the term sawbones before to refer to a doctor, which is why I never got his nickname. > > \*After a divorce he said the only thing he had left to his name were his bones Off-topic, but I just wanted to mention that as I was reading this particular post, Rush’s song “Roll the Bones” came up on my iTunes random mix 😛 Oh, also, from Hank Williams, Jr’s song, “Family Tradition”: _When that doctor asked me “Son how’d you get in this condition?” I said, “Hey Sawbones, I’m just carryin’ on an old family tradition”_ So I strongly suspect that “Sawbones” was a indeed a common nickname for doctors, at least in the Southern US, where McCoy came from, and that fact was probably well-known in the 1960s. By the time this most recent movie came out, the “Sawbones” thing was out-of-date, archaic even, and so they came up with a new explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/429 "2009-09-17T02:19:28Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I’d been hearing the song since I was a young teenager, but I was 40 when I finally made the connection. Indeed, the _entire_ song is describing an extended, cocaine-fueled bender. > > “Call the doctor, I think I’m gonna crash!” > > “Doctor says he’s coming, but you gotta pay him cash” > > He’s coming down hard off his high and needs more coke to prevent a big downer. The “doctor” is his cocaine dealer. I never thought about that before, but what you said seems to make a lot of sense. Thanks. > [@](#): > > So I strongly suspect that “Sawbones” was a indeed a common nickname for doctors, at least in the Southern US, where McCoy came from, and that fact was probably well-known in the 1960s. By the time this most recent movie came out, the “Sawbones” thing was out-of-date, archaic even, and so they came up with a new explanation. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/430 "2009-09-17T03:35:25Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > No no, it’s “Hurts So Good” that’s about anal. Sometimes love don’t feel like it should. > > Apologies to all who will now never be able to hear that song without thinking of anal sex. “Rock Me Gently” - ‘rock me gently, rock me slowly, take it easy, don’t you know, that I have never been loved like this before’ 'I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) ‘I’ll do anything that you want me to, but I can’t go for that (no can do), I can’t go for that..’ 😃 ---
**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:** [September 17, 2009, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/431 "2009-09-17T08:42:49Z")
My memory was that “Bones” as a nickname for a doctor was so common throughout the U.S. that McCoy being called that wasn’t even an obscure reference at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/432 "2009-09-17T09:05:30Z")
Before he managed the Beatles, Brian Epstein worked in his father’s appliance store, which also sold records, which is how he first became aware of the Beatles. The movie **That Thing You Do!** has a few Beatles parallels, like the “Careful girls, he’s engaged” caption, but there was one I didn’t catch until literally two days ago. Guy Patterson, the main character, works in his dad’s appliance store, which also sells records. ---
**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:** [September 17, 2009, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/433 "2009-09-17T09:15:07Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > By the time this most recent movie came out, the “Sawbones” thing was out-of-date, archaic even, and so they came up with a new explanation. Yes, both in the real-world and in the movie-verse - it’s obscure in the early 21st century…by the mid-23rd, what are the chances that anyone would know it, aside from historians and literature scholars? Especially with medical technology shown in the Trekverses, making amputations - or even surgery invasive enough to require cutting through bones - even rarer. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/434 "2009-09-17T09:39:52Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > This is duplicated (or perhaps originated) in _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_, wherein the “smart” knight (whose name I can’t recall) who is always wearing his helmet _constantly_ lifts his visor when he speaks, despite the fact that the visor is nothing more than a series of widely-spaced vertical bars (like a … birdcage) that would present no obstacle to his speaking audibly and intelligibly if he left the visor down. Look more closely. The bars of [Bedevere’s visor](http://www.pythonline.com/files/pythonline/images/TWOSWALL.preview.png) are right in front of his eyes - meaning he can’t see much at all when the visor’s down, despite it offering little protection. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/435 "2009-09-17T14:06:58Z")
So after my friends and I hashed over the Puff the Magic Dragon (ouch)… One of them mused over the significance of [Paul McCartney’s first album](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCartney_(album)): Life isn’t a bowl of cherries… ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/436 "2009-09-17T15:08:40Z")
> [@ministryman](#): > > So after my friends and I hashed over the Puff the Magic Dragon (ouch)… > > One of them mused over the significance of [Paul McCartney’s first album](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCartney_(album)): > > Life isn’t a bowl of cherries… I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/437 "2009-09-17T16:17:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I don’t get it. Click the link and look at the album cover. ---
**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:** [September 17, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/438 "2009-09-17T16:28:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Or what are the odds that Hannibal Lecter would have a first name that just happened to rhyme with ‘cannibal?’ In the book (IIRC) and in the first movie, **Manhunter** , Hannibal doesn’t eat people, and isn’t called “The Cannibal”. It looks like a thought Thomas Harris had while writing **Silence of the Lambs**. So, in the Real World, there was at first no coincidence. But after the second book, you had to retcon it in. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/439 "2009-09-17T20:13:34Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Yes, both in the real-world and in the movie-verse - it’s obscure in the early 21st century…by the mid-23rd, what are the chances that anyone would know it, aside from historians and literature scholars? Especially with medical technology shown in the Trekverses, making amputations - or even surgery invasive enough to require cutting through bones - even rarer. I’ve often thought that the character of James T. Kirk would make more sense if it was given that he came from a sect of people who had decided to freeze their culture at the mid-twentieth century level. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/440 "2009-09-17T21:29:26Z")
> [@ministryman](#): > > So after my friends and I hashed over the Puff the Magic Dragon (ouch)… There has been speculation that the song was about smoking pot or doing other drugs but this has been denied repeatedly and consistently by the composer. If you were going to write a song that was intended to be obviously about drugs, why would you deny it forever? Is that what you meant? [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=21) [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=23)