[QUOTE=Natch!]
A couple months ago I laughed myself silly at a friend who hadn’t realised until that moment that cobwebs are the same as spider webs.
‘But I thought cobwebs were just build up of dust and crap in the corners of the room! They’re spider webs?!?’
[/QUOTE]
I’ve always known this, but I’ve never been able to convince my wife. She still thinks they’re two different things.
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
Speaking of sports teams, it was years before I realized the University of Connecticut’s teams were the “Yukon Huskies.” I heard the phrase “Yukon Huskies” mentioned on sports reports about a thousand times before it dawned on me they were actually talking about the “UConn Huskies.” :smack:
[/QUOTE]
In your defense, I think UConn deliberately chose to be the Huskies, just so they could get pun points.
More of an age thing than a straight misconception, but I just re-watched Spaceballs for the first time since I was a kid, and I was surprised that basically the ENTIRE movie is one big Jew joke. “Druish,” “druish princess,” they’re going to give her back her old nose, “use the schwartz,” etc. etc. etc. I had no idea, but I guess I was like seven and didn’t know what jews were when I last saw it.
[QUOTE=Tool of the Conspiracy]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think it’s ever explicitly revealed, but I never thought otherwise than that it was the goggles that were making things look green.
-FrL-
After years of watching the show and frequently quoting it, my SO just realized this week that Mila Kunis does the voice of Meg Griffin on Family Guy. Even though her name is in the credits of every episode. Twice.
To make him feel better, I admitted that until I was 10 or 12, I thought a pacifier was a kind of weapon, because the word “fire” is in it. The thing they give to babies to suck on is different… somehow…
[QUOTE=phil417]
I recently finished a Pratchett Discworld book where the wizards’ home was something like “Dunromin”. It didn’t occur to me until earlier this evening that it was “Done Roaming”..is this something like the Dew Drop Inn?
[/QUOTE]
“Dunromin” is a house name that has become a cliche of English suburbia - what couples name their house once they have “done roaming” and settled down, as well as sounding like a typically Celtic (?) place name.
I don’t recall Pratchett using “Dunromin” itself, he would be more likely to use a play on it, like “Dunspellin” for wizards, like the “Dunmanifestin” mentioned above.
As for “Dew Drop Inn”, I think that would have taken me a while. In England, “dew” and “due” are pronounced with a “y” sound (dyoo) almost like “Jew”, whereas I gather in America they are pronounced like “do”. (At least if the number of times I see it written “do to” instead of “due to” is anything to go by!)
[QUOTE=Tool of the Conspiracy]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I remember that somewhere, either as they approached or as they left the city, it appeared white in the distance, and they explained that by saying it was the effect of the bright sunshine. I was young enough when I read it that discovering the puns and the “secrets” was really cool for me.
[QUOTE=Greg Charles]
That’s similar to J.K. Rowling’s Diagon Alley and Knock Turn Alley. I totally whiffed on those until Ron’s dad said in one of the movies, “Did he say diagonally?”
(Apologies if I missed those somewhere else in the thread. Probably it was somewhere obvious too.)
[/QUOTE]
I caught Diagon Alley, but I’m not sure if I got Knock Turn Alley until just now. I don’t remember catching that one. Which makes me feel pretty dumb, after I was so tickled with the other one. Why the heck didn’t I notice?
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest]
Sports Related I never knew the Washington Redskins were based out of DC. I always thought they were out of Washington State. My logic was that DC was too small too hold a stadium.
[/QUOTE]
I thought the same damn thing up until about a year ago. With all the Native American stuff in that region, the name just made sense. DC never even entered into the equation.
Imagine my surprise… :smack: 
[QUOTE=thirdwarning]
I caught Diagon Alley, but I’m not sure if I got Knock Turn Alley until just now. I don’t remember catching that one. Which makes me feel pretty dumb, after I was so tickled with the other one. Why the heck didn’t I notice?
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t get Knock Turn Alley until somewhere in middle of the series. And the sad thing is, I got there by thinking, “It’s a shame she didn’t have some pun with the other … oh, I get it.”
Here I am on the downslope of life only to realize that it’s not the horse that doesn’t have a name, but the rider, in America’s Horse with no Name. The title’s misleading. Either that or it’s about basketball or leg cramps.
[QUOTE=Tool of the Conspiracy]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Huh. You’re absolutely right. I had forgotten this.
[QUOTE=Yllaria]
Isn’t ‘The Embraceable Ewes’ the name of the cheerleader squad for the Rams? Or maybe I should say ‘wasn’t’. I don’t keep up with football (American or otherwise) and couldn’t even tell you what city the Rams are in, now, let alone whether they still have cheerleaders.
[/QUOTE]
Ewe are right,sorta.
The Rams cheerleaders used to be called that, but now are just the plain 'ol St.Louis Rams Cheerleaders.
From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, chapter 15, “The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible”:
Not “just,” since I was in my 20’s, but after listening to it for a good portion of my teenaged years, I think I was around 25 when I figured out what the lyrics of Styx’s “Light Up” were referring to.
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Here I am on the downslope of life only to realize that it’s not the horse that doesn’t have a name, but the rider, in America’s Horse with no Name. The title’s misleading. Either that or it’s about basketball or leg cramps.
[/QUOTE]
I always thought it was obliquely about that “Man With No Name” portrayed by Clint Eastwood in those spaghetti westerns.
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Here I am on the downslope of life only to realize that it’s not the horse that doesn’t have a name, but the rider, in America’s Horse with no Name. The title’s misleading.
[/QUOTE]
:eek:
No. No.
Seriously?
Here I was, thinking, “What’s wrong with these people that they don’t know these obvious things,” when I should have been dreading the inevitable one that was just waiting for me.
[QUOTE=chucksters]
I never understood why people have trouble “…making Ends Meat.”
Can’t you afford the ingredients? Or is the recipe too complicated??
[/QUOTE]
Actually, you missed an important word, the phrase is “Can’t make BOTH ends meet” Although the spelling has changed, it comes from traditional Cornish Pastys. The wealthier people could afford to make pasties with meat at both ends, while poorer families had to fill theirs with vegetables on one side. Really.
My own :smack: moment, Terry Pratchett’s Soul Music. If you don’t know it, it’s a series of book about a fantasy world. The hero of this particular book is a musician who invents Rock And Roll on his world. Anyway, he’s tall and thin and pale, so people keep asking him: are you elvish? Took me quite a while to twig that one.
Also, the name of one of the countries on that world is Hersheba. Another one I didn’t understand until it was pointed out.
I do this all the time, but I’ll share my favourite with you:
I was 22 when I realized that the Bible literally meant “the Book”. Not so bad (okay, bibliography is a clue), except: 1) I speak French, so was well aware what a ‘bibliotheque’ (library) was. 2) I was learning ancient Greek, and had known for three months at that point that ‘to biblion’ meant book!
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Here I am on the downslope of life only to realize that it’s not the horse that doesn’t have a name, but the rider, in America’s Horse with no Name. The title’s misleading. Either that or it’s about basketball or leg cramps.
[/QUOTE]
What? Isn’t the chorus something about “I went through the desert on a horse with no name?” What am I missing?