# 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:** 298
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5947 "2024-07-30T21:08:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But those cars stayed on the road for years, Years being- _three_. Other than things like the beetle and the odd Volvo, most detroit iron didnt last much more than three to five. In our local paper, there was an article about a man whose odometer clicked over to 100,000! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5948 "2024-07-31T00:44:18Z")
Sheee-it. 2 of the 3 Nissan pickups I’ve owned had over 200K on their odometers when I traded them in for a newer model. Not “Detroit iron” I’ll grant you. Nobody thought that was exceptional. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2024, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5949 "2024-07-31T02:58:01Z")
I had a BMW 2002 built in '75. It took leaded gas and I had no trouble finding it into the '80s. But I read about what the lead was doing to the air, and just stopped using it (a Bimmer forum suggested you could try using a high octane instead). So my car was partly responsible for creepy actors taking off their co-star’s pants. ---
**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:** [August 1, 2024, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5950 "2024-08-01T19:46:46Z")
I started watching the show _[Baskets](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3468798/)_ on Hulu recently. It took me until the final episode of Season 1 before I realized the twin brothers, both played by Zach Galifianakis, are named Chip and Dale, like the Disney cartoon chipmunks. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5951 "2024-08-02T16:12:30Z")
Jeez, I just heard _Backfield in Motion_. It was just a football term that I never thought about even for a second, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5952 "2024-08-04T04:45:47Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > He takes her back to his apartment, takes her dress off her unconscious body, puts her in his bed, and climbs in next to her for the night. They didn’t have sex, true, but was this not still _incredibly_ rapey even by the standards of the day? I mean, he might have slept on the couch or something. Very, very gross. No, not rapey. He took her home so she wasn’t raped by someone. He considerately took her clothes off to make her more comfortable rather than putting her in bed in her tight, nice dress and shoes and whatnot. Then, because he has no ill intentions, he lies down next to her because it’s his bed and he wants to sleep. No, what’s rapey is “Switch” from 1992, where Ellen Barkin plays a womanizer who is murdered and sent back to Earth by God as a woman. In that movie, Jimmy Smits is the guy’s best friend, but doesn’t know about the switch. So she gets drunk, he takes her home and strips her and puts her to bed, and does have sex with her. And the outcome? She gets pregnant and has the baby. And it’s just like “oh that was rude” not “I’m calling the cops you Rapey McRapeface Bastard”. > [@doreen](#): > > It wasn’t incredibly so - maybe a little but there was a very strange period from the 70s into the 80s where movies, TV and ads that weren’t acceptable before and after were somehow OK during just that time period. Off the top of my head, _Pretty Baby_ and _Little Darlings_ could only have been made during that time period. Try “Revenge of the Nerds” (1984), where the aforementioned nerds flip the tables on the jocks that normally pick on them. And the big gimmick is they trick the cheerleaders into thinking they are the jocks and have sex with them. And that’s “Ha Ha the Nerds win!” The '70s was sort of a weird cultural period where free love hippie ideas were mixing with women’s lib and sexual revolution to explore ideas about what was acceptable sexually. There was also the idea of “boys being boys” about sexual aggression with “Porky’s” and the like. This rolled into the '80s and such fun premises as “Weird Science”, where the nerds program a supercomputer and create “the perfect woman” for their personal sex slave. Except she doesn’t comply. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2024, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5953 "2024-08-04T04:59:25Z")
I remember old (say, 1960s and earlier) TV shows and movies where undressing the woman and putting her in bed wasn’t unusual. It really creeped me out. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5954 "2024-08-04T05:41:52Z")
I think it’s also a reflection of patriarchy, where men are supposed to take care of the women. So taking them home and taking off their clothes and putting them safely to bed is just being a proper man taking care of a woman in need. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5955 "2024-08-07T15:54:16Z")
After many years of hearing/ singing along with Billy Joel’s **Allentown** , I just noticed in the closing verse the contrast of the lines about keeping a man _down_ and the narrator, who won’t be getting _up_ “… Well I’m living here in Allentown And it’s hard to keep a good man down But I won’t be getting up today . . .” ---
**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:** [August 7, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5956 "2024-08-07T21:08:55Z")
I just realized yesterday that the CNN program _Morning Joe_ isn’t just called that because that’s the host’s name, but rather it’s a play on the slang term for coffee. 🤦‍♂️ ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5957 "2024-08-21T14:23:29Z")
I was listening to the radio adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s _Green Hills of Earth_ for the 1950s series _X Minus One_and I caught that the title of one of Rhysling’s songs was “Death Song of a Woods Colt”, which I immediately recognized as one of the works Jubal Harshaw composes in _Stranger in a Strange Land_. I somehow missed it in my readings of GHoE and previous times I’d listened to this recording. I ought to have caught it long ago – I read SiaSL before I read GHoE, but somehow it never registered. It suggests a connection between SiaSL and Heinlein’s “Future History” SiaSK already seems to be connected with the Heinlein Juvenile _Red Planet_, and the juveniles sometimes appear to be connected to the Future History and sometimes not. Or it could simply be a coincidence that both works feature a poem with the same title. I never heard “Wood’s Colt” outside this connection. Apparently it directly refers to a horse born of parents not intentionally mated, who met “in the woods”, as it were. By extension, it can also refer to an out-of-wedlock human child. It’s sort of an Ozarkism. The dramatization makes Rhysling an Ozark native. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5958 "2024-08-21T21:09:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It suggests a connection between SiaSL and Heinlein’s “Future History” SiaSK already seems to be connected with the Heinlein Juvenile _Red Planet_, and the juveniles sometimes appear to be connected to the Future History and sometimes not. Some of the juvies are definitely Future History, and some are not. For instance, Space Cadet is absolutely, definitely, in the same continuity as “The Long Watch”, because John Ezra Dalquist, protagonist of the short story, is one of the Four who are always included in any roll call of the Patrol. Then again, some of the Future History stories are definitely not part of the Future History. “We Also Walk Dogs”, despite being published in The Past through Tomorrow, clearly doesn’t fit with the others: If it were, the gravtech would have been invented by Libby, and the company would have been owned by Harriman. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5959 "2024-08-23T18:45:59Z")
Not really an “obvious” thing (unless you live in Chicago), but I always assumed the Jackson Park Express was just a fictional bus route Weird Al made up for his [song of the same name](https://youtu.be/FZvgT4pVC_w?si=9HDaKLCiiDTBxBku). But while planning my upcoming trip to Chicago, I just learned that that’s a real bus in that city. It’s one of the possible buses I could use to get to the Museum of Science and Industry, which is located in… Jackson Park. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5960 "2024-08-23T18:50:43Z")
More than two decades after the first _Harry Potter_ book was published, I realized that “Hogwarts” is “warthogs” with the syllables (almost) switched. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5961 "2024-08-23T19:21:06Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Not really an “obvious” thing (unless you live in Chicago), but I always assumed the Jackson Park Express was just a fictional bus route Weird Al made up for his [song of the same name](https://youtu.be/FZvgT4pVC_w?si=9HDaKLCiiDTBxBku). There is (or was) a bus route in Seattle named “Jackson Park, Express”. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5962 "2024-08-23T19:34:53Z")
Early in “This Is Spinal Tap,” they are read a review of one of their albums which includes, “The musical growth of this band cannot even be charted. They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry.” It wasn’t until much later that I realized just how spot-on this review was. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5963 "2024-08-24T00:14:48Z")
I found out today that David Gilmour was instrumental (ha!) in [the early career of Kate Bush](https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/aug/23/post-your-questions-for-david-gilmour) - paying for the 16-year-old to record her demo tape, then pushing it to her eventual label, EMI. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2024, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5964 "2024-08-24T01:04:48Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > “Hogwarts” is “warthogs” with the syllables (almost) switched The Wikipedia entry for Hogwarts offers several other possible sources, but it could be that several things unconsciously caused Rowling to use the name. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5965 "2024-08-24T21:15:30Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > More than two decades after the first _Harry Potter_ book was published, I realized that “Hogwarts” is “warthogs” with the syllables (almost) switched. on the PBS kids’ cartoon **Arthur** , the kids were all obsessed with a fantasy book series about magic that was taught at a school named :“Pigblisters” ---
**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:** [August 24, 2024, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5966 "2024-08-24T22:54:57Z")
Here’s one going old-school. The story of Cain and Abel isn’t about two individuals. It’s about the expanding boundaries of civilization marginalizing nomadic peoples. As written by a nomadic people. [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=297) [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=299)