OH! I’ve mentioned this before but I was in my 20s when I realized the shadowy laboratory in Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH is the super-secret National Institute of Mental Health. :smack:
This is really embarrassing because I harbored this belief until about 2 weeks ago, but. . .laser fingerprint scanners. I thought they were more of the fancy unrealistic crime-solving machines on CSI.
Imagine my surprise, 2 weeks ago, when I went down to the DC police department for fingerprinting for a job and they had one. And apparently they’re quite standard. And aren’t there consumer laptops with fingerprint scanners as an added security measure for logins? I’m dumb.
Now, you gave me a Felix the Cat flashback, there.
There really is an Engelbert Humperdinck. He’s not a running gag made up by stand-up comedians. He’s not a 13th century Flemish botanist or anything of the sort, either. And he *chose *that name for himself.
At my job in 2005 or 2006 we switched from time cards to a biometric system to “punch in and out” of work. We had fingerprints made of all our fingers, using ink, and those were scanned into the system, so to punch in or out we would put our right index finger (we could use any finger but that was the finger they preferred we use) and punch in our employee number.
Oh, it’s worse than that. There are *two *Engelbert Humberdincks. The other one is a dead German composer.
And actually a damn funny one if you’re, oh say, 38-48 years old.
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
I’ll see your Englebert Humperdinkle and raise you a Fyvush Finkel.
Also, mostly due to the sources that I first heard of them from, I assumed for years that the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission were fairy tales told to scare the young Rand Pauls of the world.
I first saw the band name “Death Cab for Cutie” in an Onion article and, for a couple years, assumed it was a made-up name for the story. Who knew, eh?
There were even Milk Bar Cowboys.
Open the door for your
Ahhh
Mystery Date!
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.
You’ll find that most Commonwealth people outside the UK - and that’s many times more people than there are in the entire USA - do not like to be referred to as “British”.
Another hijack: I still have my Barbie, Queen of the Prom game.
Watching old Disney cartoons when I was younger, I’d see the name Ub Iwerks in the credits. Obviously, this was a made-up name for some other animator.
Nope. Not only was Ub Iwerks a real person, it was actually the real name he was born with. (Barring a little spelling adjustment - it was originally Ubbe Iwwerks.)
Maybe he’s not familiar with them and so was only refering specifically to the British. Find something else to get upset about.
[QUOTE=VOW;14630788
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[/QUOTE]
that’s exactly how I remember Poindexter. I think Mystery Date predates Barbie Queen of the Prom by 10 years or so.
There really is a song / poem by Robert Burns with the unfortunate title Cock Up Your Beaver.