# Ridiculously Obvious Stuff You Just Got, Part II **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 2, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743 "2008-05-02T12:52:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dactylic\_hexameter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@dactylic\_hexameter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dactylic_hexameter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/41 "2008-05-07T20:22:33Z")
The Morton’s Salt motto: When it rains it pours! I see this when I’m driving on 90/94 in Chicago. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get it, and even now, if I haven’t seen it in a while, it still hits me again - ‘hey, that’s a pun!’ ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/42 "2008-05-07T21:43:04Z")
I don’t get it. Salt pours when it rains? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/43 "2008-05-07T21:44:11Z")
It is iodized so it doesn’t clump from humidity, like other salt did (at the time when they came out with that slogan). So when it rains (becomes humid) your salt still pours (doesn’t clump up). Iodized salt is the norm now, so it doesn’t stand out and the slogan loses a lot of its meaning. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/44 "2008-05-07T21:49:33Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Eric Foreman - same as “That 70’s Show” This line confused me at first- I now realize it means that there’s an Eric Foreman on both _House_ and _That '70s Show_. At first, I thought it meant that the actor who played Eric Foreman on _That '70s Show_ was named Eric in real life. I thought to myself, “Isn’t his real name Topher?”…then while thinking about the name Topher, I realized that Topher is short for Christopher. [QUOTE=bouv] Fucking Disney logo [/QUOTE] Well, I can see why he changed his name to Walt… ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/45 "2008-05-07T23:18:41Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] That’s ok, despite KNOWING that it’s a fox, I still see the Firefox logo as a tomato with a leaf on it. [/QUOTE] Oh my goodness, that’s a fox?! I guess I only ever saw it really tiny and just thought it was a flame or something. My recent epiphany was Silk = **S** oy M **ilk**. I had thought they were just emphasizing how easy and smooth it goes down. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/46 "2008-05-08T00:49:10Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Oh my goodness, that’s a fox?! I guess I only ever saw it really tiny and just thought it was a flame or something. [/QUOTE] Well, it _is_ a flame. It’s a [fox on fire](http://www.library.drexel.edu/blogs/librarylog/firefox.jpg). Hence “Firefox”. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/47 "2008-05-08T04:53:40Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] It is iodized so it doesn’t clump from humidity, like other salt did (at the time when they came out with that slogan). So when it rains (becomes humid) your salt still pours (doesn’t clump up). Iodized salt is the norm now, so it doesn’t stand out and the slogan loses a lot of its meaning. [/QUOTE] I thought salt as iodized to prevent goiters, and the “yellow prussiate of soda” was the anti-clumper. (I got “yellow prussiate of soda” off the side of my Morton Sea Salt Course Salt- yes, it’s that redundant.) ---
**Author:** ![Spacegirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Spacegirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spacegirl)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/48 "2008-05-08T07:17:02Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Well, it _is_ a flame. It’s a [fox on fire](http://www.library.drexel.edu/blogs/librarylog/firefox.jpg). Hence “Firefox”. [/QUOTE] Well crap, I always thought it was a planet earth covered in flames. I figured that “fire” was in the name, so it must be right, and this “fox” character was just a cool name, meant to invoke feelings of awesomeness. Well, it’s really small in the dock! ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/49 "2008-05-08T09:50:29Z")
That Saturn’s logo was a stilysh version of Saturn the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/50 "2008-05-08T10:06:52Z")
[QUOTE=dactylic hexameter] The Morton’s Salt motto: When it rains it pours! I see this when I’m driving on 90/94 in Chicago. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get it, and even now, if I haven’t seen it in a while, it still hits me again - ‘hey, that’s a pun!’ [/QUOTE] I didn’t ever do the math on that either. I just always assumed it was kind of a crappy depressing slogan. In the Matchbox 20 song “Push,” I had to hear it like fifty times before I realized it wasn’t the anthem of some jackass guy pushing a girl around. The whole song is a quote from HER, which is clear at the beginning when he says (albeit quickly) “She said…” I’m just dense. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/51 "2008-05-08T10:44:45Z")
[QUOTE=Leiko] I thought salt as iodized to prevent goiters, and the “yellow prussiate of soda” was the anti-clumper. (I got “yellow prussiate of soda” off the side of my Morton Sea Salt Course Salt- yes, it’s that redundant.) [/QUOTE] Quite right. The iodine is not the anti-caking agent. The usual anti-caking agent in salt is what **Leiko** said, also known as [sodium hexacyanoferrate (II)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_ferrocyanide). I remember reading that off a salt packet when I was a kid and thinking it was the longest word in the world. 🙂 Re Firefox logo - apparently it’s actually a [red panda](http://riseagain.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/article-of-revelations-112/) (fire fox in Chinese). ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/52 "2008-05-08T11:24:01Z")
[QUOTE=Northern Piper] … I just figured out from this post that “Hee-haw” is the American version of “eeyore”, the sound the donkey makes. All the time I watched the [Hee-Haw](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hee_Haw) show back in the 60s and 70s, I thought the name came from loud laughing at corny jokes - didn’t associate it with a donkey at all. [/QUOTE] I always knew that about Hee-Haw. That’s the sound a donkey makes, after all. However, I did _not_ make the connection with Pooh’s buddy’s name, and the donkey sound. Not until just now. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/53 "2008-05-08T12:10:12Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] Ha! Oh man, I had to stop reading that thread when someone posted about the Fucking Disney logo for the umpteeth time, which then was followed by about twenty responses on how that was mentioned already…several times. But seriously, _why_ would you think it’s a G? It’s DISNEY! Logic dictates that it HAS to be a D, a malformed and really world looking D, yes, but it can’t be anything else! [/QUOTE] Gisnep, man! Gisnep! I’m usually pretty good when it comes to figuring things out on my own, but sometimes I get real epiphanies years later after spotting a reference in a completely unrelated context. Usually these “great discoveries” of mine are ridiculously obvious to the people who have the right cultural background in the first place. Reading Pratchett does this a lot: for example, in The Fifth Elephant, I skimmed past the “Scone of Stone” as just another humorous reference to dwarf bread, until I found out about the Stone of Scone a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/54 "2008-05-08T12:20:33Z")
At nearly every party store ( convenience store to those outside of Michigan) there is a sign saying, **Walt’s Crawlers**. Selling worms for fishermen. For my entire life, I am 41, I never connected that Walt’s Crawlers was an actual BUSINESS that supplied worms to fisherman. I just thought it was a guy named Walt. Even though all the signs everywhere are the same, it dawned on me about two years ago with a, " Ohhhhhhh, Walt’s is EVERYWHERE like a business of worm selling." [Walt’s site](http://www.waltscrawlers.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/55 "2008-05-08T12:45:53Z")
[QUOTE=Mama Zappa] I always knew that about Hee-Haw. That’s the sound a donkey makes, after all. However, I did _not_ make the connection with Pooh’s buddy’s name, and the donkey sound. Not until just now. :smack: [/QUOTE] Oddly enough, I’ve lived on the east coast of America all my life and a couple years ago realized that Eeyore was onomatopoeic, but just recently, maybe even on the board here in the last thread that mentioned it, realized that Hee Haw also was onomatopoeic of a donkey. ---
**Author:** ![Bravo\_Romeo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bravo\_Romeo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bravo_Romeo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/56 "2008-05-08T13:06:45Z")
There’s a (D-Grade, maybe even worse) celebrity drag queen in Australia called Courtney Act, I only realised it was a play on words after a few years. Even though I already knew that drag queens’ names tend to be plays on words. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/57 "2008-05-08T13:39:41Z")
My last residence had a woodstove, as does our current house. Cleaning the glass in the door, so we can enjoy looking at the fire, has been an ongoing chore in our lives for probably 10 yrs or so. We used, in the past, oven cleaner (toxic, must wear gloves, glass must be completely cold and not terribly effective for all the work and product involved!), and then, when we came across it, a cleaner specifically designed for this purpose. But it was also toxic, more effective than oven cleaner, but also very expensive and the glass must be completely cold, as well. I spent a lot of years, letting the fire go out so the glass would cool and I could clean the window, inhaling horrid fumes, scrubbing and scouring and spending lots of money. But, what are you going to do? It’s no fun having a wood stove if you can’t see the fire, dammit. Then, this very year, I discovered a solution that was staring me right in the face for all those years and I just couldn’t see it. The store was out of the expensive but more effective product and the stove glass was completely black. Thinking there had to be a better way, I spent an entire day surfing the internet and searching for something, anything that would work. Turns out, the easiest and cheapest and most effective cleaner for the glass door is ashes! D’oh! Truly, I read it, didn’t believe it, but tried it anyway. On a glass that was almost black. A damp paper towel, dipped in the cooled ashes (of which there is always a metal bucket outside the side door) and, voila, clear glass. No chemicals, no retched smell and it worked like a charm. Went right through that thick soot, like it was nothing. I was stunned, when my husband came home he couldn’t believe it. Best of all,you can do this when the glass is still a little warm, so you don’t have to let the fire go completely out to clean the glass. I look back now at all the money spent, chemicals inhaled, and unnecessary toil and am amazed that the solution was right in front of me the whole time and I couldn’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/58 "2008-05-08T13:40:47Z")
I just had a :smack: moment after reading the other thread. On another forum I go to occasionally, someone’s sig includes the line “Ice melted? Hoof hearted!” I never got it until someone mentioned the race horse named “Hoof Hearted” in the other thread – and then the light came on, which illuminated the first half of that sig. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/59 "2008-05-08T13:41:38Z")
I wonder if that would work as a cleaner for a regular electric oven… ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743/60 "2008-05-08T18:16:35Z")
[QUOTE=Leiko] I thought salt as iodized to prevent goiters, and the “yellow prussiate of soda” was the anti-clumper. (I got “yellow prussiate of soda” off the side of my Morton Sea Salt Course Salt- yes, it’s that redundant.) [/QUOTE] It’s iodized to help prevent iodine deficiency, yes. I was using “so” in the “and so” not the “so that” sense. I had been told by my grandfather that the anti-clumping was a side benefit of this process and I never questioned it, but reading this thread apparently it’s an additional thing that Morton did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got-part-ii/447743.md?page=4)