# Things You've Never Noticed, and Now You Can't Stop Noticing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 26, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368 "2004-06-26T23:28:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![usar\_jag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/1 "2004-06-26T23:28:43Z")
Have you ever been oblivious to something, and then all of a sudden someone points something out, then that’s all you see?? For me, I have never noticed the arrow in the Federal Express (FedEx) logo, until someone pointed out what a smooth, almost subliminal advertising technique that is… Has this happened to you? If so, what can’t you stop noticing now? ---
**Author:** ![leenmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@leenmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leenmi)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/2 "2004-06-26T23:38:07Z")
When I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of the FedEx logo. I catch myself staring at it, wondering how I could possibly look at it for years and never notice that. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/3 "2004-06-26T23:49:17Z")
If you watch reruns of _The Golden Girls_, pay attention to when they’re in the kitchen. Under the ice dispenser on the refrigerator, there’s a mug. Sometimes it’s yellow. Sometimes it’s white. Sometimes it’s not there at all. I wish I had never noticed it. Why is it there? Is it an inside joke? Did Sophia forget it? Stupid mug. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Means\_Go](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cc9497/32.png) [@Green\_Means\_Go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Means_Go)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/4 "2004-06-27T00:00:17Z")
I’d never noticed this so of course I had to immediately go to the FedEx site so I could look at their logo. Wow… there IS an arrow there. Now I have to quit my job and go full time into checking corporate logo’s for hidden messages. Boy is my wife gonna be pissed… ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/5 "2004-06-27T00:04:21Z")
This happens to me with people’s nervous tics and speech mannerisms. I’ll be completely oblivious about them till someone says “isn’t it annoying how Bob always licks his lips/stutters/plays with his pencil”. Then I’ll see ONLY that, and it’ll drive me nuts. Also, after going to [movie-mistakes.com](http://movie-mistakes.com), I always see all the mistakes in the movies I watch. They just JUMP out at me now, but I never saw them before that website told me about them! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/6 "2004-06-27T00:07:10Z")
If the FedEx arrow (which it took me some time to spot) was intended to be subliminal, then surely it’d go left-to-right? Seems more like a smart-arsed designer to me. Nonetheless, it’ll bug me 😃 … On _Friends_ - listen to the laugh track. Ignore the script, and listen to how obviously cut-and-pasted the laughter is. Once you notice it, it’s really fucking irritating. (And I’m not making it up - I’ve seen a ‘behind the scenes’ programme, where they show the guy with his stock of laughter files sorted by length and loudness.) ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/7 "2004-06-27T00:26:27Z")
I’m looking… and I don’t see the arrow at all on the website. And yet I seem to recall seeing it before so I wonder why I don’ see it now. ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/8 "2004-06-27T01:02:25Z")
Just look… between the second E and the X, pointing to the right. It’s there! ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/9 "2004-06-27T01:05:32Z")
Thanks, yeah I’d noticed before but forgot lol I do that sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/10 "2004-06-27T01:07:30Z")
> [@cheddarsnax](#): > > Just look… between the second E and the X, pointing to the right. It’s there! FROM the right, surely? Or do we Fedex on the other side, in Britain? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/11 "2004-06-27T01:13:39Z")
OK, here’s one for almost everyone to observe - Microsoft’s cursors are wonky. Look closely, and you’ll see the tail isn’t in line with the point. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/12 "2004-06-27T01:14:18Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > FROM the right, surely? Or do we Fedex on the other side, in Britain? 😃 No, to the _other_ right! Seriously, can you describe your arrow? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/13 "2004-06-27T01:19:05Z")
[Ailanthus](http://www.delhi.edu/page/plantsci/plantsciencedelhi/wpf/images/Ailanthus/Ailanthus_altissima/ailalt.html). One day I started noticing the ugly weedy tree all over the place, and I finally searched the internet until I found its name. Now, I’m completely obsessed with it. I have nightmares about it sprouting under my bed. I wish the damn tree-of-hell would leave me alone! [sub]Not really. I love it.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/14 "2004-06-27T01:20:13Z")
> [@kellner](#): > > No, to the _other_ right! > Seriously, can you describe your arrow? The arrowhead is the right half of the bottom of the D, with the stalk of the arrow extending rightwards - so the arrow is pointing right-to-left. Surely it can’t work any other way? ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/15 "2004-06-27T01:34:07Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > [Ailanthus](http://www.delhi.edu/page/plantsci/plantsciencedelhi/wpf/images/Ailanthus/Ailanthus_altissima/ailalt.html). One day I started noticing the ugly weedy tree all over the place, and I finally searched the internet until I found its name. Now, I’m completely obsessed with it. I have nightmares about it sprouting under my bed. I wish the damn tree-of-hell would leave me alone! > > [sub]Not really. I love it.[/sub] **Monstro** , you have given a name to my bane. Oh, I hate that damn stinking trash tree. Hate it. [sub]Really.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/16 "2004-06-27T02:02:06Z")
Dammit, I had to go look at the FedEx logo… Not one of mine but John Byrne wrote when he was retconning Superman a couple decades ago he said that he never saw the “S” in Superman’s chest logo but instead always saw it as two fish swimming past each other. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/17 "2004-06-27T03:23:14Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > The arrowhead is the right half of the bottom of the D, with the stalk of the arrow extending rightwards - so the arrow is pointing right-to-left. Surely it can’t work any other way? The empty space between the E and the X makes a right-pointing arrow. It’s ridiculously obvious once you spot it. ---
**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:** [June 27, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/18 "2004-06-27T03:32:52Z")
By contrast, I can’t see **GorillaMan** ’s at all. The right half of the bottom of the D? Buh? ---
**Author:** ![Shaolinrabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Shaolinrabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shaolinrabbit)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/19 "2004-06-27T03:33:48Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > OK, here’s one for almost everyone to observe - Microsoft’s cursors are wonky. Look closely, and you’ll see the tail isn’t in line with the point. I hate you, I just wanted you to know that 😃 ::goes to look for straight cursor:: And the FedEx logo…remarkable. It actually took a few minutes to see, since it’s in negative space. Those bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368/20 "2004-06-27T03:38:08Z")
Well smack my ass. There _IS_ an arrow. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-never-noticed-and-now-you-cant-stop-noticing/252368.md?page=2)