Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE)

Well, the actual lyric are:

And our friends are all aboard
Many more of them live next door

I suppose it’s possible that they’re using “all aboard” not in the literal sense meaning all of their friends, but more in the way a train conductor will shout “all aboard” before a train leaves a station. Which leaves open the possibility that there are additional friends someplace else.

As to what’s next door to a submarine, I got nothing.

An octopus’s garden?

Somewhere, Paul and Peter Yarrow are having a drink to sooth their mutual annoyance.

In the song “Up To Me” by Jethro Tull, there is a line “Well I’m a common working man with a half of bitter bread and jam” and for decades I didn’t know how to parse it. Mainly because I didn’t know that “bitter” could be used alone for a type of drink, and just last month or so I realized that it was a “half [pint] of bitter [ale]” rather than a “half” of “bitter bread”, whatever that is. And there was a long pause between the words “bitter” and “bread” but Ian Anderson sometimes just puts those in for no reason so that didn’t really help me.

I also went for years without knowing what their title “Cheap Day Return” (a return bus ticket) or one of the meanings of The Jam album title “All Mod Cons” (short for All Modern Conveniences in an apartment) meant, but reruns of the britcom The Good Life cleared that up. But those don’t really count because they aren’t very obvious to cross-pond listeners.

Finally made it to London in the '70s with some friends, and we discovered we were in a Jethro Tull song: “Look, there’s a Wimpy Bar!” "And here’s Leicester Square, where Jeffery went, and Preston Platform and Hampstead Fair… and Piccadilly Circus! (where the foreign student asked ‘Is it really true/there are elephants and lions, too/in Piccadilly Circus?’)
“And after our rudder slowly turns us into the Marylebone Road, we could go Up The 'Pool! … and find a candy floss salesman.”

We spent an entire week, seeing places we’d heard of and discovering idioms we hadn’t understood before.

Had a similar experience with the same friends, visiting LA after a youth immersed in Firesign Theater… “Guys, we’re at the corner of Pico and Alvarado!” (two characters in Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers)

Perhaps you are thinking of the Virgin of Guadalupe? There was a miracle involving roses in winter.
Or Our Lady of the Rosary?

I’ve never heard Mary referred to as “the lady” of anything, only as “our lady”.

Therese of Lisieux is called ‘the Little Flower’.

Our Lady of Guadalupe maybe?

In that link, under “Churches named in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe” is:

“El Santuario de Guadalupe, Santa Fe, New Mexico: the oldest extant shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States.”

I spent a lot of time in Santa Fe back in the day and remembered that. Could that be it?

“Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (Spanish: Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a venerated image enshrined within the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The basilica is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, and the world’s third most-visited sacred site. Pope Leo XIII granted the venerated image a Canonical Coronation on 12 October 1895.”

“In Japan, the constellation is mentioned under the name Mutsuraboshi (“six stars”) in the 8th century Kojiki.[19] The constellation is now known in Japan as Subaru (“to unite”). It was chosen as the brand name of Subaru automobiles to reflect the origins of the firm as the joining of five companies, and is depicted in the firm’s six-star logo.[20]”
(Wikipedia on the Pleiades)

There are a lot more than seven, anyway. Supposedly you can see about 14 without a telescope. But there are around 800 ‘solar masses’ in the cluster.

You think that was what stuck out as odd in that film?

The story I heard when I started doing astronomy was that in ancient times, seven bright stars were visible to the naked eye but one has since disappeared. I’ve seen it through a telescope (it is awesome!), but I’ve never bothered to count the stars I can see without one.

Nowhere near as dramatic that way. :wink:

In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, Penny asks “What is Sheldon’s deal? Is it girls, guys, sock puppets?”

It was only in the rerun I realized that’s reference to masturbation.

Per Subaru’s promotional literature, the reason there are only 6 stars instead of 7 in their logo is that you, the driver, are the 7th star.

No, I’m pretty sure she’s asking if he’s got a sock-puppet fetish, which is a lot more likely to be the case than being an exclusive masturbator, or gay or straight guy who never masturbates.

I long assumed “beatle” was a UK spelling of “beetle.” Color/colour and all that. I would not be suprised if some fourth grade essay of mine existed where I spelled it that way, as I had an odd obsession with using alternate / archaic spellings.

Then again, I’m the guy who still takes the time to use an ash when writing æther and keeps the diaeresis in naïve, so I can’t say I’ve exactly grown out of it…

It becomes more obvious when you realize that one of the biggest bands in rock and roll preceding them was Buddy Holly & the Crickets
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I may have seen the movie Trading Places 100 times, can quote dozens of lines, etc…

I JUST today for the first time realized the title is an obvious double entendre.

Yes, obviously Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd spend the movie trading places.

But the big finale is at the commodities exchange… full of traders. It’s a trading place.
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That just became another one for me :smack: I knew there were Wimpy Burger franchises in the UK and I knew that “bar” there meant an establishment with a literal bar (or maybe just an establishment in that style) and not necessarily a place with alcohol but didn’t connect the two until now. Especially since “wimpy [pub]” also works in the context.

My “omg london!” reference happened last year: I’d seen a lot of the stuff on the ground on Google Maps beforehand so I wasn’t surprised usually, but I was walking on Fulham Road* aiming for Kensal Green but walked too far and the signs said I was in Chelsea and I literally said to myself “but I don’t want to go to Chelsea” and I stopped and laughed for a minute out loud since I had inadvertently made an Elvis Costello reference.

*Passion Play reference!

There are not enough :smack: s! This is one of my favorites and like you, I have seen it many, many times and I never realized this either.

In the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous Gladys Leeman wins the beauty pageant for 17 olds, watched it 10 or more times before I realised Gladys was 34 when her daughter won the pageant.