# What have you learned today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 4, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526 "2021-12-04T22:44:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/1 "2021-12-04T22:44:35Z")
Growing up, a ‘brodie’ meant putting your foot down on your motorcycle, and spinning the rear tire around, making circles with your foot as the pivot point. There’s an old (short?) movie from the '30s on TCM where a woman wants to commit suicide by jumping off of a bridge. A man says something like, ‘Why would you want to do a brodie off the bridge?’ I understood it in context, but I’d never heard ‘brodie’ used that way. So [I looked it up](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brodie). > slang **:** [DIVE](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dive) **:** suicidal leap > //do a brodie My wife asked me why it’s called a ‘brodie’. I didn’t know. Fortunately the MW link above provided an answer [biographical link added]: > ## History and Etymology for _brodie_ > > after [Steve _Brodie_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Brodie_(bridge_jumper)) †1901 American who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 So today I learned that ‘brodie’ means a suicidal leap, and that it’s named after a person. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/2 "2021-12-04T23:01:26Z")
I knew about the jumping off the bridge bit thanks to the Looney Tunes of all thing. Steve Brodie was mentioned and then I learned more about him later. > **[Bowery Bugs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery_Bugs)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Bowery Bugs is a 1949 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Arthur Davis, and written by Lloyd Turner and Bill Scott. It was released on June 4, 1949, and features Bugs Bunny. The cartoon tells the story of Steve Brodie, who reportedly jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 and survived. > Bugs Bunny is standing at the base of the famous Brooklyn Bridge, (about half a mile from the southern end of the actual street called the Bowery), ... ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/3 "2021-12-04T23:17:29Z")
Today it just occurred to me that “omega” and “omicron” literally mean “big (mega) O” and “little (micro) O”. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/4 "2021-12-05T02:12:30Z")
I learned there is a plausible argument to be made that Edward Aveling murdered Karl Marx’s daughter Eleanor. The verdict at the time, and held by many biographers of Eleanor still, was suicide, perhaps due to despondency over Aveling’s terrible treatment of her. And he was undoubtedly a shit. But a new book suggests he chloroformed her, intubated her, and administered the prussic acid that killed her. The evidence is not overwhelming; the most pressing point is the autopsy noted Eleanor had a perforation in her stomach likely caused by prussic acid. This suggests she didn’t drink it but that it was administered through a tube. Aveling was a doctor and had the knowledge to administer the chloroform found in the house and intubate Eleanor. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/5 "2021-12-05T02:43:21Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Today it just occurred to me that “omega” and “omicron” literally mean “big (mega) O” and “little (micro) O”.   In fact, that’s been mentioned several times just recently on this board. Today, I learned what “granny parking” is, and surprise, surprise, it’s something I’ve been doing all along. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/6 "2021-12-05T02:48:02Z")
What’s ‘granny parking’? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/7 "2021-12-05T02:49:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > What’s ‘granny parking’?   You’re new around here, aint’cha? 🙂 > [@Are you familiar with the term ‘granny parking’ and if so, how would you define it? (Upd name: Batman parking)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-familiar-with-the-term-granny-parking-and-if-so-how-would-you-define-it/955513): > > Or if you’re not familiar with the term, what would you guess it to mean? My wife and I were in the car with our younger son who was driving on his learner’s permit, when my wife told him to ‘granny park’. I asked her what that was, having never heard the term in my life. She answered: as everyone knows but apparently you, it’s when Spoiler info in case anybody who doesn’t know wants to take a guess. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/8 "2021-12-05T12:17:15Z")
Watched a 3 hour program about the JonBenet Ramsey killing. It isn’t something I really followed, but I learned that: - The parents didn’t consent to a police interview until 4 months after the murder. - The parents swore that their daughter went straight to bed after arriving home that night and they had no contact with her. But the ME found undigested food (pineapple) that must have been eaten just before death, and the Mom’s fingerprints were the only ones on the bowl/utensil from which it was served. - The SOD\* theory which seems to appear in every murder defense asserted a stranger’s entry through a downstairs window – which crime scene photos showed covered by old cobwebs (impossible to go thru and leave them intact). - The parents wrote and sold a book about their daughter’s killing. I knew none of these things, as I hadn’t paid much attention. I had no idea how creepy and weird her parents were. Any questions I personally had about the poor kid’s fate have been answered. \*Some Other Dude (did it) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2023, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/9 "2023-01-01T05:26:53Z")
Not today, but in the past few days, I found out about an NGO organization called “Clitoraid”, where gynecologists go to areas plagued by female genital mutilation, and do their best to reverse the procedure and train local doctors. The best known participating surgeon is the prominent gender reassignment surgeon Dr. Marci Bowers, who used to be Dr. Mark Bowers. Now the story gets REALLY weird. Clitoraid was founded by the Raelians, a Canada-based UFO and sex cult. Dr. Bowers says she is not a Raelian, but some of the doctors involved with the organization are. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/10 "2023-01-22T15:11:55Z")
I saw this thread this morning: [I fell on my keister yesterday](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fell-on-my-keister-yesterday/978574). Having taken German in high school and college, I thought it was spelled wrong. In German, _ie_ makes the _ee_ sound, and _ei_ makes the _eye_ sound. (_Ei_, by the way, is the German word for _egg_. But I digress.) I found out that _Kiste_, pronounced _kee-steh_, is a German word for a satchel/suitcase/chest, especially one secured with straps and a lock. It’s from the Latin _ciste_, from which we get the English word _chest_. _Kiste_, meaning _buttocks_, [is recorded in Hans Ostwald’s _Rinnsteinsprache_ (_Gutter Speech_ ), a slang dictionary from 1906](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/keister). The English word _keister_ is attested to in 1881, as a name of a certain conman. So while it’s not clear how _keister_, as in a locked satchel, became a slang word for the buttocks, it _is_ plain to see how the English word _keister_, pronounced _kee-ster_ came from the similarly-pronounced German word _Kiste_. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/11 "2023-01-22T17:42:04Z")
I just learned half an hour ago that “onanism” (rightly) means coitus interruptus in English. I wanted to make a clever post in the “lascivious Bible passages” thread where someone posted about the sin of Onan, about how or why “onanism” became synonymous with masturbation, but gladly googled the word before. My confusion stemmed from the fact that in my native German, “Onanismus” and “onanieren” in fact mean masturbation and masturbate, which I’ve always found odd. Likewise, “Sodomie” in German doesn’t mean anal sex like sodomy in English, but sex with animals. Also prone to lead to much confusion between English and German speakers, but I’ve known this difference for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-learned-today/955526/12 "2023-01-22T18:08:05Z")
I hope it’s ok to cheat a little and share something I learned within the last week. The phrase “I have a dream” was not originally supposed to be in Dr. King’s famous speech. He’d been using the phrase a lot, so he was advised not to use it again. At some point while he was giving the speech Marian Anderson said, “tell them about the dream, Martin.”