# 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:** 299
**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, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5967 "2024-08-24T23:23:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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” > [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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” Note that the first Harry Potter book was published on 26 June 1997. The first Arthur cartoon was shown on October 7, 1996. When was the first mention of Pigblisters? If it was before the first Harry Potter book, it was possible that it inspired the name Hogwarts. Of course, it’s possible that the first publication of a Harry Potter book happened on the same day as the first mention of Pigblisters. If this sounds improbable, consider the two Dennis the Menace cartoons. One appeared in the U.K. on the same day as one appeared in the U.S. purely by chance. ---
**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, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5968 "2024-08-24T23:40:40Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Note that the first Harry Potter book was published on 26 June 1997. The first Arthur cartoon was shown on October 7, 1996. When was the first mention of Pigblisters? If it was before the first Harry Potter book, it was possible that it inspired the name Hogwarts. No, the Arthur cartoon followed the publication of the first few Harry Potter books – the Pigblisters storyline didn’t appear until about 2009. And the headmaster is named “Albacore”. It’s pretty clearly based on Rowling’s books, not vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5969 "2024-08-24T23:51:12Z")
And the name of one of the other schools, Durmstrang, is pretty clearly a nod to the phrase “[Sturm und Drang](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturm_und_Drang)”. ---
**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 25, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5970 "2024-08-25T00:09:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > the Arthur cartoon followed the publication of the first few Harry Potter books The Arthur cartoon was first shown on October 7, 1996 according to this Wikipedia entry: > **[Arthur (TV series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_(TV_series))** > > Arthur is an animated television series for children ages 4 to 8, developed by Kathy Waugh for PBS and produced by WGBH. The show is set in the fictional U.S. city of Elwood City and revolves around the lives of Arthur Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other. > The television series is based on the Arthur book series written and illustrated by Marc Brown. WGBH Boston along with Montreal-based CINAR (now WildBrain) began production... It was based on a book series that was first published in 1976 according to this Wikipedia entry: > **[Arthur's Nose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%27s_Nose)** > > Arthur's Nose is a 1976 children's book written and illustrated by writer Marc Brown, the first book in the Arthur Adventure series. It was focusing on the experiences of Arthur Read, a fictional anthropomorphic bipedal aardvark. The character of Arthur later acquired fame and inspired several other picture books and the PBS animated television series adaptation. > Arthur is a young anthropomorphic aardvark residing in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals. His classmate Francine, who sits... If the Pigbusters storyline only began in 2009, that would indeed mean that it was inspired by the Harry Potter books. Can anyone say precisely when the Pigbusters storyline began? ---
**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 25, 2024, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5971 "2024-08-25T00:24:53Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Can anyone say precisely when the Pigbusters storyline began? You’re making too much of this. The Pigblisters storyline was undoubtedly a response to the popularity of Harry Potter – there’s no doubt about it. The one episode I looked up aired in 2009. My only uncertainty was if it was the first one that mentioned Pigblisters, or if tere was more than this two-part episode. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2024, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5972 "2024-08-25T00:26:42Z")
My daughter and I watched Die Hard a few days ago. Towards the beginning, when the police still think it’s a prank call, there’s a shootout on the roof. You’d think they’d be getting multiple calls about all the bullets raining down on the city. Also, unrelated, but Argyle (the limo driver) is the kid stealing a guitar from Ray Charles’ shop in The Blues Brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5973 "2024-08-25T00:30:26Z")
The first appearance of the Henry Skreever books in Arthur was 2001, and it’s a complete and obvious parody of Harry Potter. There are 7 books in the series, movies, and all the characters are fun takes on the originals. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5974 "2024-08-25T00:43:54Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You’d think they’d be getting multiple calls about all the bullets raining down on the city. Yeah, but it’s LA. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5975 "2024-08-25T01:59:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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. Maybe, that is one explanation, but hardly an “obvious thing” since it could well be wrong. Interesting opinion. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > You’d think they’d be getting multiple calls about all the bullets raining down on the city. In actions films the police are either just there for more targets are nowhere. I mean long shootout drives thru a town? Police everywhere- in a few minutes. ---
**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 25, 2024, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5976 "2024-08-25T04:12:36Z")
TIL that the Australia proportional representation electoral system [was invented by Charles Dodgson](https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-s-a-democratic-wonderland-a-vote-of-thanks-to-one-rather-strange-man-20240823-p5k4tt.html), AKA Lewis Carroll. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5977 "2024-08-25T05:33:15Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > TIL that the Australia proportional representation electoral system [was invented by Charles Dodgson](https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-s-a-democratic-wonderland-a-vote-of-thanks-to-one-rather-strange-man-20240823-p5k4tt.html), AKA Lewis Carroll. Paywalled. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5978 "2024-08-25T09:54:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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. I don’t know if it’s about nomads per se, but it’s definitely about pastoralists and their frictions with agriculturalists. But then, the Jewish Bible is full of heroic shepherds - the Patriarchs, Moses, King David and more - while heroic farmers are few and far between. ---
**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 25, 2024, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5979 "2024-08-25T10:41:34Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Towards the beginning, when the police still think it’s a prank call, there’s a shootout on the roof. You’d think they’d be getting multiple calls about all the bullets raining down on the city. Even if a bullet landed near enough to someone to be noticed, and they found it, they’d have no way to know where it came from. However, I think someone would have noticed the noise. Gunshots inside the building would be muffled, but once the firefight moves to the roof it should be loud enough. When Al get the radio call at the minimarket, he’s only a few blocks away. He should definitely hear it. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2024, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5980 "2024-08-25T12:56:16Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Even if a bullet landed near enough to someone to be noticed, and they found it, they’d have no way to know where it came from. But a few calls from people with bullets coming through their windows or otherwise hearing/seeing bullets land near by, even without knowing where they’re coming from, would (should) suggest to the police that the guy saying he’s at Nakatomi Plaza being shot at isn’t a prank caller. To be clear, I’m not saying this is a gaping plot hole that ruins the movie, it’s just something I happened to notice during my most recent re-watch. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5981 "2024-08-25T13:45:32Z")
Okay, this one is fairly trivial. I was re-reading _A Meeting with Medusa_ by Arthur C. Clarke. This first chapter of the story relates how the protagonist was crippled in an airship crash. In the first paragraph it describes it as _“a ship half a kilometer long”_. But a few paragraphs later, Clarke describes the view from inside the ship; _“The ten spherical gas cells, each more than 100 meters across, were arranged one behind the other like a line of gigantic soap bubbles.”_ The math doesn’t seem to work. Ten spheres in a line, each with a diameter of over one hundred meters, would not produce a ship that’s half a kilometer long. My guess is that Clarke didn’t really mean the gas cells were spheres; that would seem to leave a lot of empty space inside the frame. The gas cells were more likely to be cylinders with a hundred meter diameter but a length that was around fifty meters. I blame Hugh Hefner. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5982 "2024-08-25T14:15:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The gas cells were more likely to be cylinders with a hundred meter diameter but a length that was around fifty meters. That doesn’t sound like soap bubbles. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5983 "2024-08-25T14:23:47Z")
That’s just nitpicking tho ---
**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:** [August 25, 2024, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5984 "2024-08-25T14:35:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > That doesn’t sound like soap bubbles. It wasn’t my metaphor but I think it does a little. A soap bubble by itself will form a sphere. But when two or more soap bubbles come in contact and stick together, they don’t touch at a single point. Their spherical shapes flatten together at the area where they meet. [![](https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/twobubbles_scale2.jpg) ](https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/twobubbles_scale2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5985 "2024-08-25T14:36:33Z")
That’s true, and interesting; still, Occam’s Razor still seems to indicate that Clarke just made a mistake. ---
**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 25, 2024, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/5986 "2024-08-25T15:23:15Z")
Or there were actually two lines of them. [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=298) [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=300)