# 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:** 59
**Author:** ![Cryptic\_C62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cryptic\_C62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cryptic_C62)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1161 "2011-10-19T16:46:34Z")
_Blood Sugar Sex Magik_ is one of my all-time favorite albums. I had been listening to it for several years before I realized that Flea recorded two bass tracks on “If You Have to Ask”. Most of the song they’re just parallel octaves of the same melody, but in the outro you can very clearly hear them playing two different things. I don’t know how I never noticed that! ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1162 "2011-10-19T17:48:21Z")
[Gold locks=blond hair] Originally, this story was about an elderly woman breaking in. She was first called Gray locks, then in a subsequent version Silverlocks, which turned into Goldilocks. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1163 "2011-10-19T21:54:13Z")
Cite? (Not the Gold Locks bit, the part about originally being about an old woman.) ---
**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:** [October 19, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1164 "2011-10-19T22:02:02Z")
Yeah, not only would that be an odd chain of events, it would go against the general format of fairy tales, which have young protagonists, for the most part (children or young, unmarried adults). ---
**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:** [October 19, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1165 "2011-10-19T22:11:56Z")
Wikipedia says it was originally an old woman > **[Goldilocks and the Three Bears](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldilocks)** > > "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an obscene old woman who enters the forest home of three anthropomorphic bachelor bears while they are away. She eats some of their porridge, sits down on one of their chairs and breaks it, and sleeps in one of their beds. When the bears return and discover her, she wakes up, jumps out of the window, and is never seen again. The second version replaces... ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1166 "2011-10-19T22:59:26Z")
I remembered reading about it in Bruno Bettelheim’s book, The Uses of Enchantment. When I checked after posting, it didn’t mention “Gray locks” though. It did say that the first version of the story was about a vixen (a female fox), which fits in more with talking bears anyway. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1167 "2011-10-19T23:02:29Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > (“Black Friday” - so called because it is the day when retailers go into the black for the year - right? Where I come from its known as Black Friday because it is the day when a lot of companies have their christmas parties, and a small town full of overexcited people getting very drunk very quickly often tends to get fractious at times. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1168 "2011-10-21T13:52:28Z")
The A.A. Milne poem, later turned into a song, has the line: King John put up a notice Lost, stolen or strayed. James James Morrison’s mother Seems to have been mislaid. Mother went to the end of the town after being warned not to. It’s obviously a bad place. Could “mislaid” refer to being “mis-laid” or raped and disposed of? She has been heard of since, and “if people go down to the end of the town, well what can anyone do?” Blame the victim, you cretins. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1169 "2011-10-21T18:15:02Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > _Young Frankenstein:_ > > The Candles. Are Not. Lit. Wow. I love YF, I’ve seen it a couple of dozen times (probably), and I never noticed it. She’s even holding the candles out right in front of us. I love it. . ---
**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:** [October 21, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1170 "2011-10-21T18:26:38Z")
24 pages? Holy crap. Is that a record? Okay, so mine is really bad, you guys. Elsewhere on the internet someone remarked that their childhood was full of naive questions, such as, ‘‘Why are tree stars good for the dinosaurs in _The Land Before Time_ but we don’t eat them?’’ And mentally I was like, ‘‘What is she talking about? How can humans possible eat tree stars? They’re a fictional concept in a children’s movie…’’ And that’s when I realized that ‘‘tree stars’’ are what the dinosaurs call leaves. _hangs head_ I mean, thinking back on it, it’s blatantly obvious. A part of my child brain understood that they were exactly like leaves in every way but name. But I never once looked at a real-life leaf and thought, ‘‘tree star.’’ ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1171 "2011-10-24T02:39:43Z")
Mae West: “I used to be Snow White, but I _drifted_.” Okay, she’s saying that she no longer is “innocent.” Obviously. But it wasn’t until the local Dryden Theater showed some of her films, and I caught two in a rare double-feature, that the play on words hit me: Snow… drifted. Duhhhh! :o ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1172 "2011-10-24T12:56:15Z")
In the musical Sweeney Todd, I had managed to pick out that the melody to the “Rape Waltz” was the same as the Beggar Woman’s Motif, indicating very early on in the show that Lucy was the Beggar Woman.(Sondheim’s such a clever guy.) It was only very recently that I realized that the amazingly creepy Organ Fugue Prologue is the minor transposition of “Green Finch and Linnet Bird.” Neatly done! ---
**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:** [October 27, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1173 "2011-10-27T13:27:21Z")
One I learned from the Cliff Notes to _Catcher in the Rye_ Holden Caufield has a red hunters cap that he likes to wear backwards, with the bill in the back. This was not the style in the 1950’s. In that era, the only person who would wear a cap that way would be a baseball _catcher_. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1174 "2011-10-28T05:43:56Z")
After sitting through **Bram Stoker’s Dracula** again, a movie I _really_ don’t like, I finally figured out where the industrial band Carfax Abbey got its name. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1175 "2011-10-28T14:42:47Z")
I’ve been a fan of Discworld for ages. I think I read my first when I was fourteen, and have read each of them at least twice. Up until yesterday I hadn’t figured out that the “smallest unit of magic”, the thaum, was not just a pun on thaumaturgy but also on atom. All these lines about splitting the thaum, or finding sub-thaumic particles flew right over my head. Goddamn, but I’m thick. Especially since I’m well aware that the high-energy magic building was supposed to bring a nuclear power plant to mind, and lots of high-energy magic safety jokes were from Pratchett’s days as a nuclear engineer. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1176 "2011-10-28T16:51:37Z")
Do sports team logos count? I figured this out a while ago, but was reminded today because one of my co-workers is wearing the team’s jersey. The logo for [the Jersey Devils](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_Devils) hockey team is not just a cleverly enhanced N and J…it’s meant to look like the popular depiction of THE [Jersey Devil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil), with the N being a wing. ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1177 "2011-10-29T09:46:08Z")
Niall is Neel, not _Nee_-all. I read nearly five hundred pages of that crap-tastic book with Nee-all clunking in my head every time I read it. It wasn’t until my neighbor Neal turned out to be Niall that it all clicked. Also, did you know that Circle-Kay is okay and at Kaye jewelers every kiss begins with the\* letter\* k? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1178 "2011-10-29T14:27:26Z")
> [@Ashes\_Ashes](#): > > Niall is Neel, not _Nee_-all. I read nearly five hundred pages of that crap-tastic book with Nee-all clunking in my head every time I read it. > > It wasn’t until my neighbor Neal turned out to be Niall that it all clicked. Niall is pronounced Nile here. Neil is the other one. Two simple ones, I didn’t get the puns in [futilitycloset.com](http://futilitycloset.com) and Chips Ahoy! until a couple of days ago. :smack: ---
**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:** [November 1, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1179 "2011-11-01T00:26:36Z")
I’ve been reading the Order of the Stick webcomic since it began several years ago, but it wasn’t until strip [#807](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0807.html) that it suddenly dawned on me that the cute white cat, Mr. Scruffy, is Belkar the halfling ranger’s freakin’ _animal companion_. Probably more odd, since I used to play D&D, is the fact that it never occurred to me while reading the _early_ strips that Belkar didn’t have an animal companion in the beginning, something rangers acquire at 4th level (IIRC), despite his being several levels higher than that. The cat was originally introduced in the comic, 2-3 years ago, as simply the pet of an elderly man, and when the man died the cat just started following Belkar around. I think the problem is that when I think of “ranger’s animal companion”, I think of something like a wolf, or a hawk, or some other obvious “wild” predator. Not a freakin’ housecat. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/1180 "2011-11-01T00:37:20Z")
The names of the 3 male characters on _3rd Rock From the Sun_ – Tom, Dick, and Harry. [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=58) [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=60)