# Ridiculously obvious stuff you just got **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401 "2008-04-08T00:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/222 "2008-04-18T20:22:14Z")
[QUOTE=InvisibleWombat] Because it’s _really_ easy to slam dunk when you’re on horseback (although dribbling’s much harder). [/QUOTE] Also, Robert E. Lee’s horse was named Traveler, so it just seems obvious. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/223 "2008-04-18T20:37:05Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] :smack: I’m just going to curl up into a ball and weep now. I must have spent 20 minutes trying to figure out what you meant…“Is he dehydrated from his desert journey and cramping up? After basketball practice? But why’d he bring his horse to practice?” [/QUOTE] If it wasn’t for his horse, he wouldn’t have spent that year in college! ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/224 "2008-04-18T21:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] If it wasn’t for his horse, he wouldn’t have spent that year in college! [/QUOTE] Okay, at the risk of looking really stupid, I’m finally going to ask. What the heck is this, and where is it from? I’ve never seen it anywhere but here. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/225 "2008-04-18T22:26:18Z")
[QUOTE=thirdwarning] Okay, at the risk of looking really stupid, I’m finally going to ask. What the heck is this, and where is it from? I’ve never seen it anywhere but here. [/QUOTE] It’s from a Lewis Black routine in which he describes one of the dumbest things he’s ever heard. (Beautifully described as a moment “where the left half of your brain looks at the right half and says, ‘It’s dark in here, and we may die!’” :D) ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/226 "2008-04-18T22:31:12Z")
It wasn’t all that long ago I discovered the word detritus wasn’t pronounced de-tre-us. It’s not a word that gets said a lot, least of all by me. Though I’m perfectly willing to accept it and pronounce it the right way should the need occur, it sounds made up and goofy that way to me. Though no more goofy, I suppose, than dropping the second t and pronouncing it the way I’ve done all these years. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/227 "2008-04-18T22:40:41Z")
I agree that detritus sounds wrong. I always read it in my head pronounced differently (DEE-trih-dis), and it sounds more correct, though I know that it is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/228 "2008-04-18T22:46:22Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] I agree that detritus sounds wrong. [/QUOTE] Whew! I’m glad I’m not the only one. Maybe it doesn’t get spoken much because many others feel the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/229 "2008-04-18T23:10:10Z")
[QUOTE=Tikki] Whew! I’m glad I’m not the only one. Maybe it doesn’t get spoken much because many others feel the same way. [/QUOTE] I don’t know. I’ve always liked the word detritus. But I also like the word flotsam. It’s fun to say. I went to the beach, and there was some cool flotsam in the middle of all of that detritus. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/230 "2008-04-18T23:17:07Z")
It’s more fun to look at the detritus on the beach and try to determine which is flotsam and which is jetsam. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/231 "2008-04-18T23:45:19Z")
[QUOTE=MrSquishy] “Gaol” is not entirely archaic: [Prison - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jail#Gaol) [/QUOTE] I think it’s more used in Britain than the article suggests; **Potter** once used it completely unselfconsciously when chatting (online) with me about something unrelated; he casually said that he could “go to gaol” if he didn’t accomplish something or other. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/232 "2008-04-19T00:13:07Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] I was explicitly taught as a kid that cobwebs are dusty dry things that build up in the corners of the inside of your house, and that spider webs are webs that can’t be described in that way. I was also explicitly told, about many cobwebs, that they are just dust, not spider webs. So I wonder if this might be a regional usage that has gone under the radar or something. -FrL- [/QUOTE] Ever see a B-grade science fiction movie where to show how long the derilict spaceship has been abandoned (with hard vacuum inside), they depict it festooned with cobwebs? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/233 "2008-04-19T02:30:25Z")
Then how come I have a phobia of cobs? You mean they don’t even exist? > [@](#): > > **GargoyleWB** : I’m just going to curl up into a ball and weep now. Heh heh. I’ve been married to **Zeldar** for over twenty years. Have you ever seen the shell of a mad person turned inside out? This I just learned while looking up the ingredients for another cocktail: I had always thought that a “nightcap” was any cocktail that you offered someone at the end of a date or at the end of a day – especially in movies in the Forties, Fifties and early Sixties. No so. A “nightcap” is a specific cocktail made with rum, warm milk, a standard syrup, cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Damn! That’s essentially what Mummy was putting in my milk when I was five! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/234 "2008-04-19T02:57:15Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] Then how come I have a phobia of cobs? You mean they don’t even exist? [/QUOTE] Of course they do. They’re what corn comes on. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/235 "2008-04-19T03:49:38Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] I had always thought that a “nightcap” was any cocktail that you offered someone at the end of a date or at the end of a day – especially in movies in the Forties, Fifties and early Sixties. No so. A “nightcap” is a specific cocktail made with rum, warm milk, a standard syrup, cinnamon and/or nutmeg. [/QUOTE] Huh? [Merriam Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nightcap) defines it as your first description. I’ve never ever heard of anyone describing it as the latter. I see that a certain mixed drink recipe book describes such a drink, but I’d say the former definition is most certainly more common than the latter, as a quick perusal of various online dictionaries indicates (none of which mentions your specific drink). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/236 "2008-04-19T04:12:10Z")
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB] :smack: I’m just going to curl up into a ball and weep now. I must have spent 20 minutes trying to figure out what you meant…“Is he dehydrated from his desert journey and cramping up? After basketball practice? But why’d he bring his horse to practice?” [/QUOTE] [huge sigh of relief, hugs **GargoyleWB**] It’s not just me! Thanks for owning up **Zeldar** , you could have had me going for quite a while there. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/237 "2008-04-19T04:45:13Z")
> [@Valgard](#): > > Victoria Principal. > > Kind of like the collegiate head named “Martin”. I get Dean Martin, but not Victoria Principal. On a quick Wikipedia check, it looks like the problem is that I didn’t watch Dallas, not that I don’t watch South Park. > [@WordMan](#): > > believe that Horse with No Name is about getting through a bad Heroin (aka: Horse) trip… There is no such thing as a bad heroin trip. Heroin is not a psychedelic, and, IME, not even vaguely introspective like cannabis can be. Getting through a bad _addiction_, maybe–there are certainly plenty of those–but a bad heroin _trip_? Ain’t no such thing. _Trust me._ > [@Tuckerfan](#): > > It’s from a Lewis Black routine in which he describes one of the dumbest things he’s ever heard. Actually, IIRC it was about the most mind-boggling thing he ever heard, not one of the dumbest things. He described a vivid fear that he would suffer an anuerysm while trying to figure it out. (It’s much funnier when he says it.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/238 "2008-04-19T05:02:12Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] Actually, IIRC it was about the most mind-boggling thing he ever heard, not one of the dumbest things. He described a vivid fear that he would suffer an anuerysm while trying to figure it out. (It’s much funnier when he says it.) [/QUOTE] Nope. He calls it the dumbest thing he’d heard until Dan Quayle became VP. (And it is one of his best routines. “I was drinking the boysenberry. . .”) ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/239 "2008-04-19T06:56:29Z")
Thanks, **Darryl**. I just assumed that I had been wrong all of these years about what a nightcap is when I saw [this recipe](http://www.fineliving.com/fine/great_cocktails/article/0,3147,FINE_29736_5702969,00.html). But I will gladly accept **Webster’s** as the authority. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/240 "2008-04-19T11:40:46Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] Then how come I have a phobia of cobs? You mean they don’t even exist? [/QUOTE] “Cob” is an archaic English word for spider: Lazy Lob and crazy Cob are weaving webs to wind me" _The Hobbit_, J. R. R. Tolkien. Bilbo also taunts the spiders with “attercop”, which is cognate - rather than derived from; the word is probably Anglo-Saxon in origin - with the Norwegian “etterkopp”, or spider. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401/241 "2008-04-19T19:48:05Z")
[QUOTE=Tool of the Conspiracy] I never got it in the movie, but my daughters are reading the book right now, and it’s quite clear there. The scarecrow is always the one who comes up with plans to get around obstacles. In the book version of _The Wizard of Oz_, I have a hunch that the Emerald City isn’t really green. All visitors and residents have green-glass goggles locked around their heads “to protect their eyes” from the dazzling greenitude. It’s possible that this is revealed in a part of the book that they haven’t read yet or I wasn’t listening to. (We also had quite a discussion about whether the premeditated murder of the wicked witch was justified, to get Oz’s help.) [/QUOTE] Also, in the book, the Lion is really pretty brave. He fends off some of the Witch’s guards (who really are cowards) and later he attacks and kills a giant spider that’s terrorizing the forest. My own moment concerns the logo for [Tempurpedic](http://www.tempurpedic.com) products. They’ve been around for a long time, but I’ve never paid any attention to them. It wasn’t until about a month ago, at my chiropractor’s office, that I got a good look at their logo, and I realized that the sleeping woman is naked. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-obvious-stuff-you-just-got/444401.md?page=13)