# 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:** 295
**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 27, 2024, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5887 "2024-05-27T02:31:22Z")
What can I say? I did have a problem understanding some of the lyrics. I congratulate you on your hearing. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2024, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5888 "2024-05-27T12:28:41Z")
This is one of those things that I’ve surely realized already, but if I did, I didn’t remember until just now. I was looking for a clip from Little Monsters and thought Fred (and Ben) Savage’s dad looked familiar. It’s Daniel Stern, who did the voice over (as Fred Savage’s character, Kevin) in The Wonder Years. So, in the middle of filming The Wonder Years, where they played the same person, they also played a father and son in a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2024, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5889 "2024-05-27T12:43:59Z")
I’ve seen this song/concert plenty of times over the years and only just realized that they’re _running_. I just assumed it was some odd ‘dance’, he certainly has plenty of them, but they’re running. I’m not finding a whole lot of confirmation on that, so maybe it is just some odd dance, but running certainly fits with the theme of the song. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MkMTPnLdzzQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Talking Heads - Life During Wartime (Live in LA, 1983) [4K Remastered]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkMTPnLdzzQ) ---
**Author:** ![AshleyWilliams78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@AshleyWilliams78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AshleyWilliams78)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2024, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5890 "2024-05-27T22:56:46Z")
One of my favorite movies is “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Growing up, my family had an illegal cable box, so I saw the movie on TV many many times during the year after its release. I was about 10 at the time. Last year, I noticed a joke that I had missed all those previous times. Socrates and Billy the Kid are at the mall, trying to flirt with some girls. Sigmund Freud comes over to join them, and I just noticed that he’s eating a very phallic looking corn dog. Then as the girls laugh and walk away, you can see his hand moves so that the corn dog droops slowly downward. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5891 "2024-05-28T02:06:08Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve seen this song/concert plenty of times over the years and only just realized that they’re _running_. I just assumed it was some odd ‘dance’, he certainly has plenty of them, but they’re running. I saw this concert for the first time last week and watching this number made me want to fall down dead with exhaustion. _And then they kept going._ ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5892 "2024-05-28T03:21:38Z")
In **Ghosts (UK)**, S1, ep2, Alison has just accepted that she really can see the ghosts and is confronting them, asking what they want in exchange for leaving her alone. Mike still thinks she’s sick in the head as she yells at “invisible” people. He says “I think I need to call someone” and she exasperatedly replies “who you gonna call?”. I think I realized it after the 3rd viewing but it’s such an obvious and funny line, I can’t believe I didn’t get it the first time. The whole scene is excellent, btw. ---
**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:** [May 28, 2024, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5893 "2024-05-28T17:47:19Z")
Re: _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_. It took me awhile to realize that the Phone Booth George Carlin travels around in is a parody of Doctor Who’s Police Box. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5894 "2024-05-28T19:04:41Z")
Yes, but it’s definitely not bigger in the inside. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5895 "2024-05-28T19:06:16Z")
> [@AshleyWilliams78](#): > > One of my favorite movies is “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” > [Snip] > > Socrates and Billy the Kid are at the mall, trying to flirt with some girls. Sigmund Freud comes over to join them, and I just noticed that he’s eating a very phallic looking corn dog. Then as the girls laugh and walk away, you can see his hand moves so that the corn dog droops slowly downward. Definitely on obvious thing you missed. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5896 "2024-05-28T20:42:25Z")
I think THAT was part of the joke ---- it was _smaller_ on the inside ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5897 "2024-06-03T20:43:25Z")
The Phish album “Rift” has a track titled “All Things Reconsidered”. It just occurred to me when I was listening to it over the weekend that it’s a riff on NPR’s “All Things Considered” theme music. 🤦🏻‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5898 "2024-06-03T23:32:06Z")
Which itself “borrows” from John Williams’ score for _Jaws_: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/y-FUlMas2AA/maxresdefault.jpg "Promenade (Tourists On The Menu)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-FUlMas2AA) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2024, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5899 "2024-06-09T01:20:04Z")
This is going back aways in terms of _creative work_ but there’s a picture that is the first depiction of people. You can see a guy getting a shoe shine from another on the bottom left, in line with the row of trees. [![](https://i.ibb.co/xYfqJ3T/IMG-1837.gif) ](https://i.ibb.co/xYfqJ3T/IMG-1837.gif) I recently realized that this is _not_ an otherwise empty street. The only reason the shoe shine guy duo are depicted alone is because they were the only ones standing still enough to end up in the picture. It took a long time to take the picture. Those walking along weren’t captured in the image. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5900 "2024-06-09T01:33:46Z")
(first photograph of people, of course, not first picture) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2024, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5901 "2024-06-09T02:02:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > first photograph of people, of course, not first picture Cite? (I kid, I kid. Do I need to be worried about dementia? Yeah, I meant photograph; actually, the reason I was avoiding using that word was because I wasn’t certain if it was something like a daguerreotype, and perhaps not technically a _photo_). ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5902 "2024-06-09T05:28:51Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > I wasn’t certain if it was something like a daguerreotype, and perhaps not technically a _photo_). It is a Daguerreotype, taken by Daguerre himself in 1838. But this is generally considered the first photograph: [![](https://cool.culturalheritage.org/byorg/abbey/an/an26/an26-3/an26-3a.jpg) ](https://cool.culturalheritage.org/byorg/abbey/an/an26/an26-3/an26-3a.jpg) [Cite](https://cool.culturalheritage.org/byorg/abbey/an/an26/an26-3/an26-307.html). > Long before the first public announcements of photographic processes in 1839, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a scientifically-minded gentleman living on his country estate near Chalon-sur-Saône, France, began experimenting with photography. Fascinated with the craze for the newly-invented art of lithography which swept over France in 1813, he began his initial experiments by 1816. > By the summer of that year, 1826, Niépce was ready. In the window of his upper-story workroom at his country house, Le Gras, he set up a camera obscura, placed within it a polished pewter plate coated with bitumen of Judea (an asphalt derivative of petroleum), and uncapped the lens. After a day-long exposure of **eight hours** , the plate was removed and the latent image of the view from the window was rendered visible by washing it with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum, which dissolved away the parts of the bitumen that had not been hardened by light. The result was the permanent direct positive picture you see here—a one-of-a-kind photograph on pewter. It renders a view of the outbuildings, trees and landscape as seen from that upstairs window. Emphasis mine. Where the picture of a man getting a shoeshine might have been exposed for 10-15 minutes, this one took _all day_. It explains why there are no distinct shadows: the sun had moved across the entire sky. Any area in shadow at the start of the exposure was probably in sunshine later on. Daguerre and Niepce were partners, but Daguerre invented the Daguerreotype process after Niepce’s death in 1833. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2024, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5903 "2024-06-09T06:30:04Z")
I am probably the last person on Earth having seen GRRM’s map who notices that you get the approximate shape (but not the size) of the continent of **Westeros** if you rotate the island of **Ireland** by ~180 °, put the island of **Great Britain** on top and add a land bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5904 "2024-06-20T17:05:14Z")
The song [Nightshift, by the Commodores,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightshift_(song)) was their tribute to the then-recently departed Marvin Gaye. (Also their only hit after Lionel Richie went solo.) I haven’t heard it in years, but yesterday, it came up on an R&B channel I was listening to in the car. The opening: “Marvin (Marvin, Marvin…)/You were a friend of mine” is a callback to “Brother, brother, brother/There’s too many of you dying” from What’s Going On. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5905 "2024-06-20T20:43:16Z")
Reading how “bolso” is used for handbag, while the feminine “bolsa” for shopping bag. “Juan Bolsa” … “Johnny Sack” ---
**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:** [June 27, 2024, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5906 "2024-06-27T13:58:14Z")
Doing some re-reading. My favorite Discworld novel is _Going Postal_ with Moist Von Lipwig. I’ve read it many times. But I’m going thru the lesser _Making Money_ now (and _Raising Steam_ is junk). Moist’s special lady is Adora Belle Dearheart. She cautions people about this when introducing herself. Anyway, I was noting a similarity of this name to **MrsFtG** ’s mother’s name. I was thinking of telling her this so I was sounding out the name in my head for the first time. “Adora Bell”, um “Adorable.” Oh. That space on the page prevented me from seeing this before. [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=294) [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=296)