# Wait, that's real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103 "2012-01-02T01:59:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/221 "2012-01-09T23:21:50Z")
It’s fairly recent, at least here…maybe the last 2-3 years. I used to eat at a White Castle when I was doing work in the New England region, so I got some to try out…but they weren’t very good. Nothing like I remembered the real place being anyway. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/222 "2012-01-09T23:39:35Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > It’s fairly recent, at least here…maybe the last 2-3 years. I used to eat at a White Castle when I was doing work in the New England region, so I got some to try out…but they weren’t very good. Nothing like I remembered the real place being anyway. > > -XT I think the frozen ones are a pretty close approximation to the real ones. The ones from the restaurants are hardly gourmet quality but I like them both. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/223 "2012-01-10T00:19:24Z")
There’s an extensive listing [here](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AluminumChristmasTrees). ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/224 "2012-01-10T04:55:38Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, from the episode where Eric attends a child molester convention thinking it’s a good way to meet grown-up friends. When I saw the episode years back I had no reason to believe that it wasn’t just something that producers made up for the show. Then about a week later I heard an interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and was stunned to learn that the organization was indeed real. As referenced n the brilliant song by [The Wonder Stuff](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonder_Stuff),\*\* I Wish Them All Dead\*\* from their album [Construction for the Modern Idiot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction_for_the_Modern_Idiot), arguably their last brilliant track. > [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > This is a little obscure, but it Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange the ‘ **Milk Bar** ’ they go to. I had no idea these were a real British thing. I was positive it was just another wacky gag thought up by one of the film’s ‘visual futurists’… > [@Shakester](#): > > Here in Australia corner shops are generally referred to as Milk Bars. I’m pretty sure it’s a relic of the temperance movement. No idea why the term ended up applied to small general shops, though. Milk Bars were invented[in Sydney Australia in the 1930s](http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/about-town/the-shakes-that-caused-a-stir-20111229-1pe62.html) as a place for people to go, as all the pubs closed at 6pm. They served milk shakes primarily, but did become the 7-11s of their day as they tended to be open longer than the traditional stores. > [@Shakester](#): > > If you need a word for non-US English speakers, try “Commonwealth”, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, and (as far as I know) all of the native English-speaking countries except the USA. As noted, not Ireland. And some countries in the Commonwealth have no English-speaking heritage at all, viz Mozambique which despite having an entirely Portuguese colonial history and Portuguese being the only official language, joined the Commonwealth in 1996 as all the surrounding nations were in it. > [@Morbo](#): > > One of his favorites was that the “carrots are great for your eyesight” thing was bullshit invented by the British as misinformation to mess with German pilots. I was plenty surprised to find out that one was [real](http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp), lemme tell you. How carefully did you actually read that article? It’s flagged as “Status: False”, and confirms that: [QUOTE=snopes] … carrots are a good source of vitamin A (which is important for healthy eyesight, skin, growth, and resisting infection), **eating them won’t improve vision**. The purported link between carrots and markedly acute vision is a matter of lore, not of science. And it’s lore of the deliberately manufactured type. In World War II, Britain’s air ministry spread the word that a diet of these vegetables helped pilots see Nazi bombers attacking at night. \*\*That was a lie \*\*intended to cover the real matter of what was underpinning the Royal Air Force’s successes: Airborne Interception Radar, also known as AI. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/225 "2012-01-10T07:23:40Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > The AWESOM-O episode of South Park was from 2004. Speaking of which, this is one of my favorite episodes, but it wasn’t until my second or third viewing that it dawned on me that [AWESOM-O is real](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimo). ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/226 "2012-01-10T07:26:40Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > How carefully did you actually read that article? How carefully did you read **Morbo** ’s post? He said his dad’s assertion was real, which jibes with snopes. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/227 "2012-01-10T10:43:46Z")
[quote=“sco3tt, post:226, topic:608103”] … jibes…[/QUOTE] God Bless You. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/228 "2012-01-10T14:10:34Z")
My wife was startled to find out the narwhal was real, but that’s kind of understandable. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/229 "2012-01-10T22:41:30Z")
I thought that the writers of _The Big Bang Theory_ invented the game [Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iapcKVn7DdY), but then I learned that [the game predated the show by over a decade](http://www.samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html). ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/230 "2012-01-11T00:41:11Z")
> [@sco3tt](#): > > How carefully did you read **Morbo** ’s post? He said his dad’s assertion was real, which jibes with snopes. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood his post … when he said > [@](#): > > I was plenty surprised to find out that one was real I understood him to be saying that carrots did help eyesight, but perhaps by “that one” he meant his dad’s debunking of that rather than the original UL. If so I apologise. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/231 "2012-01-11T00:51:10Z")
This just happened to me. I was looking over the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s schedule and saw an entry for guest violinist Hilary Hahn. I didn’t realize she is a real person, and not just a made-up character in _9 Chickweed Lane._ ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/232 "2012-01-11T01:14:19Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Perhaps I’ve misunderstood his post … when he said > > I understood him to be saying that carrots did help eyesight, but perhaps by “that one” he meant his dad’s debunking of that rather than the original UL. If so I apologise. Yes, that’s what I meant. One of his stories, that “carrots helping eyesight” was WW2 propaganda, was actually true. But I can not not see why you would not get what he meant when he said that carrots not being good for you was not not false. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/233 "2012-01-11T19:45:11Z")
Another one I’ve just remembered, is Truckasaurus from an early episode of The Simpsons. I thought that was too over the top to have a [real-life equivalent.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robosaurus) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/234 "2012-01-11T22:42:36Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > He’s standing on his left leg with his right leg up on the step in front of him. So that’s where his other leg is. I swear I looked all over for it. Though I still content if you look at his left foot and look at his waist and shoulders, that position is, if not impossible, certainly downright uncomfortable. Try it yourself. > [@](#): > > He’s gesturing with his snake (hur hur) towards the woman looking straight out of the canvas over on the left hand side, whose attributes are so astonishing that the guy behind her, the one next to her, AND the woman to the far side of him are all gawking at them as well. The woman at the far end of that table can only pick her teeth and gaze dreamily from afar, sadly… They’re all looking at her like she farted - a noisy stinky fart. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/235 "2012-01-12T18:26:52Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I thought it was about some incident in the 1800’s. My jaw dropped when I read on these boards that it happened in 1975 when I was alive. > > I know people who think that IIIIIIIIIIII will always love YYYYOOOOUUU was written for The Bodyguard. By Whitney Houston. My ex-boss asked to get the lyrics, and actually chewed me out for getting “the Dolly Parton one.” Those people never saw The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, then. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/236 "2012-01-12T18:29:17Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Hey! I’ve got a PILE of Engelbert albums! I love the guy! > > I remember Poindexter being the dud guy on a board game called “Mystery Date.” I’ve even got the commercial jingle bouncing around in the cobwebby parts of my brain. > ~VOW Mystery Date… Are you ready for your Mystery Date? Don’t be late, It could be great. So open the door for your [sigh] Mystery Date… That was for the hamburger recipe…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/237 "2012-01-12T22:20:13Z")
> [@ministryman](#): > > Those people never saw The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, then. I saw that movie, but didn’t remember the song. A slightly different take on the OP… I saw an ad for a cheesy SyFy movie, “MegaPython vs Gateroid”, starring Debbie Gibson and Tyfany. The plot involve genetically modified pythons fighting steroid pumped alligators in Florida. I thought, “That would never happen, pythons wouldn’t attack alligators, at least not full grown ones.” Then someone linked a picture showing it was true - a carcass where a python had swallowed an alligator, then had burst its gut and died. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/238 "2012-01-13T02:45:12Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > What is that I don’t even! Reminds me of the time Reebok decided to name a shoe [Incubus](http://www.snopes.com/business/market/incubus.asp). Y’know. Because people want a shoe named after a demon who rapes women in their sleep. 😕 Well, I dunno about shoes, but they give Transformers characters various personalities, and the one they were giving this character pretty much made him out to be a spaz (in the American usage) so the name made perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/239 "2012-01-14T19:45:34Z")
In Pirates of the Carribean III: At World’s End, the council of pirate lords is a multi-ethnic assembly of rogues and villians from all over the world, including Mistress Ching. Mistress Ching was a real person, commander of perhaps the largest pirate fleet ever assembled. The Chinese government was forced to grant her forces amnesty on generous terms because their navy was outmatched by her fleet. Fascinating stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103/240 "2012-01-14T20:11:15Z")
In Gene Stratton Porter’s novel _A Girl of the Limberlost,_ one character recommends a tea of red clover bloom for another character who has cancer. I thought it was just a folk remedy, but apparently it’s actually used for this, or at least it was mentioned as useful on an episode of _House_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-thats-real/608103.md?page=13)