# 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:** 31
**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:** [January 9, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/601 "2010-01-09T20:02:26Z")
It took me a long time to realise that the opening notes of the Madness song [Cardiac Arrest](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fTkxwIlFpg) sound like a heartbeat. Nor did I notice the clock strike midnight at the start of [Danse Macabre](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM). ---
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/602 "2010-01-09T20:30:10Z")
If a map is a creative work … A friend of mine was bitching years back about how the Japanese were “taking over Hawaii.” I said it was understandable that it’d be a popular destination for Japanese tourists since it was a close to Japan as it was to the U.S. He called me an idiot and got out a map … which clearly showed Hawaii just off the coast of Southern California. In a handy box ---
**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:** [January 9, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/603 "2010-01-09T22:08:13Z")
Lethal Babydoll, while your friend may have been an idiot for not realizing that places in boxes on maps are not actually at that location, you are incorrect when you claim that Hawaii is as close to Japan as to the U.S. It’s distinctly closer to the U.S. The distance from San Diego to Honolulu is 4195 miles, while the distance from Tokyo to Honolulu is 6196 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/604 "2010-01-10T05:54:41Z")
I once read a short story called “Carol Oneir’s 100th Dream” by Diana Wynne Jones. Years later, I was in the middle of and English Lit exam when I described a novel as ‘oneiric’ (dreamlike). “Hey, that was a pun! Cool. I wonder if there are any more of those in her stories? … Oh, right, the exam.” ---
**Author:** ![MarkF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MarkF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarkF)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/605 "2010-01-10T19:47:48Z")
When I was younger, I saw an ad for a Tshirt depicting two vultures sitting on a branch and one say’s to the other, “Patience, my ass, I’m gonna kill somethin!’” I just never understood it at all. It was years later when, probably watching something involving vultures, that the penny dropped and I just giggled to myself for about 10 minutes. Not 'cos the joke was so funny, just my not getting it. Just in case you don’t either, here’s why… Vultures usually wait for things to die… ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/606 "2010-01-10T21:16:05Z")
The big reveal about the last line of “Do-Re-Mi” (the “_Do_, a deer” song) from _The Sound of Music_ hit me sometime in my 30’s: > [@](#): > > _Ti_ [tea], I drink with jam and bread— > That will bring us back to _do_! “Do” is a pun not just on “doe”, a female deer, but “dough”, hence the connection with “bread”. 😕 :eek: :smack: D’oh, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/607 "2010-01-10T21:48:38Z")
Its only when I recently bothered to Google it that I found out that Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn takes its title from a Wind in the Willows chapter. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/608 "2010-01-22T17:37:06Z")
So I am watching Kimba the White Lion with my son, and I hear the names of two of his friends: Bucky and Dodi (sp). BLAM! Buck (Male Deer) y and Doe (Female Deer) dy… ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/609 "2010-01-22T17:46:30Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Oh yeah. **Wizard of Oz** is just a series of embarrassments for me. > > I was probably 13 before I realized the farmhands were the same actors as the traveling companions in Oz. > > I was in college I think when I realized Scarecrow was smartest, Tin Man the most loving, and the lion was the bravest. > > I was a couple years _out of college_ when I realized the wizard sent them on a quest because he wanted them to die, or at least be taken prisoner by the witch, so they wouldn’t be his problem. I will defend the Wizard. Well, sort of. The Wizard knew that the Wicked Witch of the West had genuine magical power and that he did not. He also knew that the safety of Emerald City depended on the Witch **not** realizing this. Therefore, since he had no power to defend Dorothy if it came to it, but dared not be exposed as impuissant or pusillanimous, he had to send her and her fellow questers on a mission which would result in the WWoE killing them, but nonetheless still thinking him too great a power to oppose. Remember, as the Wizard does not have genuine magical knowledge, he probably doesn’t realize that he’s sending the WWoE a mystic totem she covets greatly. That’s one interpretation. Another, of course, is that–since portions of the movie in color are all a dream–it is Dorothy’s subconcious conjuring up the obstacles in the first place. Most worrisome of course is the erotic fixation Ms Gale seems to have had with straw. About that, I got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/610 "2010-01-22T17:59:41Z")
The Wizard could also be hoping that they’ll just give up because the quest is too difficult. It isn’t necessary that they die, just that they go away. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/611 "2010-01-22T18:14:06Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > …he had to send her and her fellow questers on a mission which would result in the WWoE killing them, but nonetheless still thinking him too great a power to oppose. Well, defend him, but we agree that he’s sending them on a suicide mission. The dumb part is it never occurred to me. How could I watch the movie where they do what he says, and then when they come back he can’t help them, and it not occur to me his request of them was so mean? He’s even got Dorothy calling him a humbug over and over - maybe because I think of ‘humbug’ as a Christmas-hating stick in the mud because of _Christmas Carol_. Maybe because the characters don’t react as angrily as they ought to. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to the pattern of ‘to get X, you must go on this big dangerous journey’ that I didn’t question that there was nothing to gain from it. I don’t know, but they should be screaming ‘You tried to KILL US!’ while beating him with tire irons. > [@Yllaria](#): > > The Wizard could also be hoping that they’ll just give up because the quest is too difficult. It isn’t necessary that they die, just that they go away. There are better ways to do that. He could have even imprisoned them for a while, then released them, and it would have been nicer than what he did. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/612 "2010-01-22T18:17:32Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Well, defend him, but we agree that he’s sending them on a suicide mission. Well, yeah. I’m just **justifying** his doing so. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/613 "2010-01-22T18:26:06Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Well, defend him, but we agree that he’s sending them on a suicide mission. On the other hand, it could be that he expects them to succeed. Dorothy has killed one wicked witch already, and has crossed paths with another and survived. The team has shown themselves to be brave, brainy, resourceful and lucky, so he thinks they have a good chance of success. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/614 "2010-01-23T04:23:34Z")
I don’t think I posted this before, but I’m not searching for it right now. My Wizard of Oz ‘can’t believe I didn’t catch that’ thing is that my mental image of the map of Oz was reversed. I always pictured the witch of the wests castle as being the eastern side of the map and Munchkin land as being to the west. I really don’t know why except that I have a vague recollection of seeing a map of Oz that way…though I could very well be mistaken. ---
**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:** [January 23, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/615 "2010-01-23T05:03:36Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Which reminds me, it took me forever to realize that the “down” in “fenix down” refers to a feather. I thought it referred to the fact that you used it when one of your characters was down. Hah, I’d missed this one the first time around. Glad I’m not alone. In my defense though, English isn’t my first language, and I had no idea “down” had another meaning. Then some day a book I was reading mentionned a character enjoying her “down comforter” very much. I went :dubious:, thinking it was some kind of euphemism for a dildo or something :o. So I looked it up. A few minutes later, a cog went “click” and “oooooh, Phoenix down, all riiiight ! So it wasn’t Engrish after all.” ---
**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:** [January 23, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/616 "2010-01-23T05:40:36Z")
“Down” has several meanings in English. One of them is "not very happy. " Could this possibly be the meaning in down comforter? Something that cheers you up when you are not very happy? Without seeing the context it’s hard to tell. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/617 "2010-01-23T07:25:45Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Damn you. Up until your post this had been one of my favorite songs. Actually, I think Tim is full of shit on this. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/618 "2010-01-23T08:06:13Z")
I’ve seen “Hot Fuzz” about 100 times. I thought I knew just about everything about it. But my boyfriend had to point out all the Village of the Year awards visible in the background of several scenes. Somehow I’d just never seen them before. > [@Antinor01](#): > > I don’t think I posted this before, but I’m not searching for it right now. > > My Wizard of Oz ‘can’t believe I didn’t catch that’ thing is that my mental image of the map of Oz was reversed. I always pictured the witch of the wests castle as being the eastern side of the map and Munchkin land as being to the west. I really don’t know why except that I have a vague recollection of seeing a map of Oz that way…though I could very well be mistaken. Maps of Oz have often been printed with east and west swapped, deliberately or accidentally. I think it had something to do with a backwards projector slide that had been used in the stage plays. ---
**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:** [January 23, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/619 "2010-01-23T12:02:43Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > “Down” has several meanings in English. One of them is "not very happy. " Could this possibly be the meaning in down comforter? Something that cheers you up when you are not very happy? Without seeing the context it’s hard to tell. Nope, from context it was clearly the blanket kind. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/620 "2010-01-23T14:42:32Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Hah, I’d missed this one the first time around. Glad I’m not alone. > In my defense though, English isn’t my first language, and I had no idea “down” had another meaning. > Then some day a book I was reading mentionned a character enjoying her “down comforter” very much. I went :dubious:, thinking it was some kind of euphemism for a dildo or something :o. So I looked it up. A few minutes later, a cog went “click” and “oooooh, Phoenix down, all riiiight ! So it wasn’t Engrish after all.” :smack: And now I just got that! Even though I inspired that example in the first place. [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=30) [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=32)