[QUOTE=Stoid]
I didn’t JUSt get it, but I was very much an adult before it dawned on me that the Scarecrow was actually the smartest of the group…the Tin Man was the most loving and the Cowardly Lion actually the bravest.
Duh.
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t realize this until I was adult, either, upon rewatching it with my son. This says something about the power of labels, at least for children, anyway.
[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 notice this before, either.
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman]
I didn’t just get this recently, it was quite a few years ago, but one day I realized that in 19th century English literature (Dickens, Trollope, etc.) the word “gaol” is the same as “jail” - pronounced the same, just an archaic spelling. The sad thing is that I knew that a ‘gaol’ was a prison, but I thought it was pronounced “gall” (as in gall bladder) rather than ‘jail.’
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t realize that “gaol” was pronounced “jail” until after college.
[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
Anyone remember a game called Gnip Gnop?
It’s Ping Pong spelled backwards. Or Pong Ping, strictly.
[/quote]
I remember that game from when I was 6 or 7 years old! I never noticed the significance of this spelling until this thread.
[QUOTE=Bill Door]
Here’s an excerpt of a Lewis Black routine:
[/QUOTE]
I don’t get it.
I just watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for the upteenth time. When McMurphy tries to refuse his medication, Nurse Ratched says “If Mr. McMurphy doesn’t want to take his medication orally, perhaps we can find another way to administer it. But I don’t think he would like it.”
McMurphy thinks it over, then turns to Harding and says “But I bet you would like it.”
I just realized last night what that was all about.
It took me years of watching The Beverly Hillbillies being frustrated that both the Hillbillies and the Drysdales seemed to go out of their way to not understand things that should be maddeningly obvious to the other party after a little bit of thought until…
One day I realized that that was the point of the series! :smack:
It wasn’t until college that I discovered that this genre had a name:
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
It’s more fun to look at the detritus on the beach and try to determine which is flotsam and which is jetsam.
[/QUOTE]
Okay - here’s one, although I suspect many Dopers, being word geeks, know this: FLOTsam is FLOATing crap and JETsam is crap that has been JETtisoned over the side of a ship…
I used to wonder how in the world people came to the conclusion that certain names that seemed completely different to me were actually the same name in different languages. “Ivan” sounds nothing whatsoever like “John”. “Juan”, “Jean”, and even “Johann” seemed pretty obvious. But “Ivan”?
Back in high school I used to play around with different styles of handwriting. For a while I turned in a lot of assignments written in backhand (cursive that slants from top left to bottom right – e.g. \\\ rather than ////). After one too many viewings of Spartacus I started taking notes in faux Greco-Roman lettering, all straight lines and eliminating J and U. So when one of my classes was divided into groups, and I wrote down the names of the members of my team, Juan Rivera’s name came out as IVAN. I was stunned.
[QUOTE=WordMan]
Okay - here’s one, although I suspect many Dopers, being word geeks, know this: FLOTsam is FLOATing crap and JETsam is crap that has been JETtisoned over the side of a ship…
[/QUOTE]
We all know that. Flotsam belongs to the Queen, Jetsam belongs to the finder subject to ancient law.
I was floating in the pool reciting Hamlet to myself, zoning out. Some kiddies were playing behind me. Suddenly Momma ran from one end of the pool to the other.
Now I know why you must not run near the pool. It looks like an emergency.
Anyone who has children of a certain age has probably seen The LAnd Before Time. The first one was a pretty good Don Bluth kid flick and they have been cranking out made for DVD sequels for years. The main character is Little Foot, a long neck dinosaur. One of his friends is a spunky little Triceratops named Sara. Or so I thought through something like ten movies. Then it hit me. Her name is Cera. As in TriCERAtops.
For those of you who don’t like sherbert, time to get that stick out your ass. It is an alternate spelling and pronunciation which has become widespread. Sorry if the 17th century usage has changed. Language changes, get over it. I will continue to use and say sherbert and I will continue to be equally correct as those who use sherbet.
I remember having this same discussion here with people who can’t get over the fact that their “correct” way of saying forte is dying out.
[QUOTE=Loach]
I will continue to use and say sherbert and I will continue to be equally correct as those who use sherbet.
[/QUOTE]
And I will continue to find it annoying. shrug you tell me to get over it–I suggest you do as well (get over the fact that people like me are annoyed by such things, that is).
Way back when on the AOL boards I would sometimes start to make a post with a list, and then realize after making
something relevant
some other relevant thing
that I didn’t actually have a 3) relevant thing.
I was always taught that it was bad form to have lists with fewer than 3 items–if you only have two, you’re supposed to just use “and” instead of making a list. So I would tack on something like:
well ok, I don’t have anything else but you can’t have a list with only two things
After a while other people started to put something like “3) there is no third thing, but Opal doesn’t like lists with less than 3 things” when they realized their list only had 2 items. Eventually it devolved to the point where people would just acknowledge me in some way as the third item, as it was already known to the group what that meant. It sort of stabilized out as “Hi, Opal” at some point.
From there it sort of became a weird tradition, and people with lists that were longer would still insert it in as item #3.
It’s kind of strange.
[/QUOTE]
I knew about this, but for the longest time I thought you were a guy . . . you know, a “cat.” So in my own little world of non-sequitur, I always read “Hi, Opal” as something like “Hey, dude.” Always as #3 in a list, of course.
[QUOTE=panache45]
No. If it’s floating, there’s no clog (yet). So we need a third term: flotsam, jetsam, and . . . I propose: clogsam. You heard it here, folks.
[/QUOTE]
The bluegrass cover band Hayseed Dixie got it’s name as a variant of “AC/DC”. They’d recorded a CD of AC/DC songs.
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
And I will continue to find it annoying. shrug you tell me to get over it–I suggest you do as well (get over the fact that people like me are annoyed by such things, that is).
[/QUOTE]
I have nothing to get over since I don’t care. I just don’t understand why someone would be annoyed by someone using a word properly.
I was telling my Environmental Science seniors (HS) about androgen insensitivity, in which an XY fetus does not respond to its testosterone, and stays externally female, but is not coded for a uterus, rendering her infertile. I was pointing out that “andro” is a root for “male”, and it hit me so hard that I made a stupid face in front of the class.
[QUOTE=panache45]
I knew about this, but for the longest time I thought you were a guy . . . you know, a “cat.” So in my own little world of non-sequitur, I always read “Hi, Opal” as something like “Hey, dude.” Always as #3 in a list, of course.
[/QUOTE]
You’re not the first, but it’s always confused me. I always thought of cats as being a fairly feminine animal, and opals are an iridescent, rainbow, girly stone. So opal+cat always seemed really girly to me, at about the level of “frilly unicorn” or something. So it’s always struck me as really strange when people assume I’m a guy based on my name.
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
You’re not the first, but it’s always confused me. I always thought of cats as being a fairly feminine animal, and opals are an iridescent, rainbow, girly stone. So opal+cat always seemed really girly to me, at about the level of “frilly unicorn” or something. So it’s always struck me as really strange when people assume I’m a guy based on my name.
[/QUOTE]
I agree - although I know a woman who will say something like: Those cats at the corporate office…
And when she uses the phrase that way she is saying the equivalently of “Those dudes at the coporate office…”
Before her I had only ever heard it used like that in a beach-blanket movie.
[QUOTE=Loach]
I have nothing to get over since I don’t care. I just don’t understand why someone would be annoyed by someone using a word properly.
[/QUOTE]
Because IMHO it’s not really and truly correct. It’s more like, “Well, since so many people are saying it like this anyway, we’ll capitulate and make it acceptable.”
Next thing you know, NOO-CU-LAR and JEW-LUH-REE will be in the dictionary as acceptable alternate pronunciations!
[QUOTE=Khadaji]
I agree - although I know a woman who will say something like: Those cats at the corporate office…
And when she uses the phrase that way she is saying the equivalently of “Those dudes at the coporate office…”
Before her I had only ever heard it used like that in a beach-blanket movie.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but I am not sure how my name being “OpalCat” and someone saying “Hi, Opal” (not “Hi, Cat” for example) would default to assuming that usage. Just odd to me.
[QUOTE=Chanteuse]
Because IMHO it’s not really and truly correct. It’s more like, “Well, since so many people are saying it like this anyway, we’ll capitulate and make it acceptable.”
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I expect that 100 years from now “ur” will be listed in the dictionary as an acceptable alternate spelling of “your”. :rolleyes: I dread the day. Just because enough people mess it up to get it reluctantly added to the dictionary doesn’t mean I have to like it.
