"F**k my Hat, I didn't know that!" Amazing things you've only just found out

[NoSleep]

Blade Runner and Alien share the same universe.

Although it's a clunky crowbarred afterthought from the Prometheus era.

[bgmnts]

Although it's a clunky crowbarred afterthought from the Prometheus era.

Is it? I saw this still when looking it up:

[NoSleep]

That's from Aliens (and it's the one thing) so I'm not sure whether it was canon back then or just Cameron having a little easter egg fun.

[bgmnts]

Yeah it confused me a bit.

[studpuppet]

Petra, the Blue Peter dog, wasn't the original Petra.

It was later revealed that the original (unnamed) puppy had died of distemper a few days after her first appearance on Blue Peter, broadcast just before Christmas 1962. Instead of informing viewers, and feeling there was no need to upset children needlessly, the programme's director and producer Edward Barnes and Biddy Baxter bought a similar-looking replacement puppy, which was subsequently named Petra by the viewers.

[JesusAndYourBush]

There were also at least 3 Sheps,
and 7 Peter Purves's.

[Gregory Torso]

Ducks are called ducks because they duck their head under the water. The verb came first.

Also kites are called kites because they look like kites.

[jamiefairlie]

There were also at least 3 Sheps,
and 7 Peter Purves's.

Make sense. the average life span of a Peter Purves being around 6 to 9 months.

[touchingcloth]

Make sense. the average life span of a Peter Purves being around 6 to 9 months.

Charlie Brooker married the first, second and fourth Konnie Huqs. It's a bit of a mystery what happened with the third.

[Paul Calf]

Which Charlie Brooker?

[touchingcloth]

The i^th.

[George White]

The Royal Variety Performance means you can link various actors to TV shows.
Royal Variety Performances have included in-character appearances by Cagney and Lacey, Carolyn Pickles as Margaret from BBC drama Bluebell, Robert Horton (star of the Green Slime), the Pub Landlord, Lily Savage, George Burns, Pinky and Perky, Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, Harry Secombe and the cast of Pickwick, the original cast of Me and My Girl, Stubby Kaye, Vivian Blaine and the West End cast of Guys and Dolls, the cast of Only Fools and Horses, the cast of Hi-De-hI, Ron Moody as Fagin,  Michael Crawford and the cast of Billy Liar, Alice Faye and the cast of 42nd Street, Gigi with Beryl Reid, Rula Lenska, THE CAST OF CORONATION STREET C.1989, cast of Bread, cast of Neighbours, Rod and Emu, the cast of  Dad's Army, the Muppets,  Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, Richard Harris as Arthur and the cast of Camelot  and Arthur English as the Spiv and Bill Fraser and the Army Game cast, Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady, Mame with Ginger Rogers and Sheila Keith (!), Steptoe and Son, the cast of Till Death Us Do Part, Mike and Bernie Winters, Half a Sixpence with Tommy Steele, Lamb Chop and Shari Lewis, Nookie Bear, and of course Little and Large, CITV star Dawson Chance, Savalas as Kojak, the Krankies, Hinge and Brackett, Yul Brynner and the cast of the King and I, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elaine Paige as Evita, Fiddler on the Roof with Topol, Clarke Peters and the cast of Kismet, and Last of the Summer Wine, Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson in Me and my Girl, Gene Kelly, and the Golden Girls and Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney in Sugar Babies,  Henry Goodman in Chicago, Riverdance, Fame the Musical, Annie the Musical, Birds of  a Feather, Robson and Jerome in Soldier, Soldier, Harry Hill, Clinton Derricks-Carroll (twin brother of Rembrandt in Sliders and frequent parallel Rembrandts),Michael Ball, Patti Lupone, Kiri te Kawana, Willard White, Michael Caine and Roger Moore, Lance Burton, Edward Woodward, Diana Rigg, Frank Bruno, David Essex

Which means you can directly link Only Fools with Will Fyffe, Vesta Tilley, Elaine Stritch, Red Buttons, Sheena Easton, Victor Borge, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Itzhak Perlman,  Charlie Drake, Rosemary Clooney, Sophie Tucker, Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine, Duke Ellington, Cyril Fletcher, Wayne Sleep, Max Boyce, Andy Stewart, Noel Edmonds' The World of Disco featuring Boney M, Amii Stewart and Charles "Queeg" Augins and Bill Hailey and his Comets (yes, realyl), Leslie Crowther, Count Basie, magician/Italian b-film actor Channing Pollock, Charles Aznavour, George Robey, the Crazy Gang, Sessue Hayakawa, Will Hay, Robb Wilton, Stephane Grappelli, Dionne Warwick, Andy Williams, Marty Feldman, Perry Como, Herman's Hermits, Jack Hylton, Harry Tate, Chirgwin (the blackface act Bluthal plays in The Great McGonagall), Harry Lauder, Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, Max Wall, Totó Gracie Fields, Cicely Courtneidge, Frank Ifield, Eartha Kitt, Jack Benny, Ivor Emmanuel (the singing soldier from Zulu), Frankie Vaughan, George Burns, Maurice Chevalier, Sammy Davis Junior with Lionel Blair, Richard Dawson (yes, Damon Killian), Norman Wisdom, Bob Monkhouse, Pearl Carr, Alma Cogan, Millicent Martin, Mireille Mathieu, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, Moira Anderson, Buddy Rich, Buddy Greco, Janette Scott, Paul Carpenter (star of Fire Maidens from Outer Space), the John Barry Seven with Adam Faith, Lonnie Donegan, Robert Horton (of the Green Slime), Brucie, Benny Hill, Frankie Howerd, Jimmy Edwards, Alfred Marks,Benny Hill, Lena Horne, Howard Keel, Donald Wolfit, Michael Denison, Nigel Patrick, Thorley Walters, Peggy Cummins, Shirley Eaton, Dulcie Gray, Shani Wallis, Bob Hope, Moira Lister, Arthur Askey, Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Joan Sims (oh, yeah, she was in Only Fools and Horses) Binnie Hale, Jack Buchanan, Thora Hird,  Hancock, Ted Ray, Josef Locke, Winifred Atwell, Saly Ann Howes, Max Miller, Patricia Morison (who was a soprano, but I know mainly from being in a Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone), the Wiere Brothers, Kaye Ballard, Dinah Shore, Wilfrid Pickles, Dolores Gray, Danny Kaye, Julie Andrews ("Britain's Youngest Operatic Soprano" in 1948), Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chester,  Tessie O'Shea, Vic Oliver, Disney act Wally Boag, George Formby, Senor Wences, Stanley Holloway, Gus Elen, Harry Champion, George Formby, Nat Mills and Bobbie (who I only know of via that reference with Blanco in Porridge), Wilson, Keppel and Betty, Terry-Thomas, Sid Field, , Tony Bennett, Harry Robinson and Lord Rockingham, Marty Wilde, Liberace, Pat Boone, Kenneth More, Rex Harrison, Robert Beatty, Terence Morgan, Douglas Byng, Pat Kirkwood, John Gregson, Bobby Howes, Salad Days with Michael Aldridge, Pat Heywood, George Jessell, Alfred Drake, Robert Dhery, Johnnie Ray, Emrys  Jones and Bruce Seton in Leslie Henson and Diana Dors' Judge Yourself, Morecambe and Wise with Bill "Percy Sugden" Waddington, Peter Glaze, Eddie Fisher, Charlie Cairoli, Albert Modley, Diana Ross and two of the Supremes, Petula Clark, Sacha Distel, Ron Moody, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Bob Hope, Henry Mancini, Leslie Caron, Matt Monro, Jerry Lewis, Paul Anka, Gene Pitney, Wayne Newton (good grief), Gilbert Becaud, Christpher Gable and La Fille Mal Gardee, Juliette Greco, Hope and Keen, Peter, Paul and Mary, Jack Benny, Peter and Dudley, Dudley and Peter, Shirley Bassey, Sylvie Vartan, Johnny Hallyday, Bob Newhart,  Cilla, Harry Belafonte, Rudolph Nureyev, Shirley MacLaine, Alan King (US comic), Bonnie Langford and Sylvester McCoy in some musical number for 1982 alongside Topol, Anton Rodgers, Jack Jones, Ethel Merman, Victor Spinetti, Esther Rantzen, Kenneth Connor,  Jean Pierre Cassel, Angharad Rees, Frank Finlay and Simon Callow doing Sonny Boy, Joan Collins, Celeste Holm, Lauren Bacall, Stephanie Lawrence, Nicholas Parsons, Cyd Charrisse, Peter Ustinov, Mel Torme, James Galway, Julio Iglesias, Jackie Mason, Elton John, the Jackson Five,  Martin Clunes, Al Murray,Marvin Hamlisch, the famed female mpersonator Jim Bailey, Rita Rudner,  John Mills and Gielgud,

[kalowski]

The Royal Variety Performance means you can link various actors to TV shows.
Royal Variety Performances have included in-character appearances by Cagney and Lacey, Carolyn Pickles as Margaret from BBC drama Bluebell, Robert Horton (star of the Green Slime), the Pub Landlord, Lily Savage, George Burns, Pinky and Perky, Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, Harry Secombe and the cast of Pickwick, the original cast of Me and My Girl, Stubby Kaye, Vivian Blaine and the West End cast of Guys and Dolls, the cast of Only Fools and Horses, the cast of Hi-De-hI, Ron Moody as Fagin,  Michael Crawford and the cast of Billy Liar, Alice Faye and the cast of 42nd Street, Gigi with Beryl Reid, Rula Lenska, THE CAST OF CORONATION STREET C.1989, cast of Bread, cast of Neighbours, Rod and Emu, the cast of  Dad's Army, the Muppets,  Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, Richard Harris as Arthur and the cast of Camelot  and Arthur English as the Spiv and Bill Fraser and the Army Game cast, Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady, Mame with Ginger Rogers and Sheila Keith (!), Steptoe and Son, the cast of Till Death Us Do Part, Mike and Bernie Winters, Half a Sixpence with Tommy Steele, Lamb Chop and Shari Lewis, Nookie Bear, and of course Little and Large, CITV star Dawson Chance, Savalas as Kojak, the Krankies, Hinge and Brackett, Yul Brynner and the cast of the King and I, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elaine Paige as Evita, Fiddler on the Roof with Topol, Clarke Peters and the cast of Kismet, and Last of the Summer Wine, Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson in Me and my Girl, Gene Kelly, and the Golden Girls and Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney in Sugar Babies,  Henry Goodman in Chicago, Riverdance, Fame the Musical, Annie the Musical, Birds of  a Feather, Robson and Jerome in Soldier, Soldier, Harry Hill, Clinton Derricks-Carroll (twin brother of Rembrandt in Sliders and frequent parallel Rembrandts),Michael Ball, Patti Lupone, Kiri te Kawana, Willard White, Michael Caine and Roger Moore, Lance Burton, Edward Woodward, Diana Rigg, Frank Bruno, David Essex

Which means you can directly link Only Fools with Will Fyffe, Vesta Tilley, Elaine Stritch, Red Buttons, Sheena Easton, Victor Borge, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Itzhak Perlman,  Charlie Drake, Rosemary Clooney, Sophie Tucker, Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine, Duke Ellington, Cyril Fletcher, Wayne Sleep, Max Boyce, Andy Stewart, Noel Edmonds' The World of Disco featuring Boney M, Amii Stewart and Charles "Queeg" Augins and Bill Hailey and his Comets (yes, realyl), Leslie Crowther, Count Basie, magician/Italian b-film actor Channing Pollock, Charles Aznavour, George Robey, the Crazy Gang, Sessue Hayakawa, Will Hay, Robb Wilton, Stephane Grappelli, Dionne Warwick, Andy Williams, Marty Feldman, Perry Como, Herman's Hermits, Jack Hylton, Harry Tate, Chirgwin (the blackface act Bluthal plays in The Great McGonagall), Harry Lauder, Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, Max Wall, Totó Gracie Fields, Cicely Courtneidge, Frank Ifield, Eartha Kitt, Jack Benny, Ivor Emmanuel (the singing soldier from Zulu), Frankie Vaughan, George Burns, Maurice Chevalier, Sammy Davis Junior with Lionel Blair, Richard Dawson (yes, Damon Killian), Norman Wisdom, Bob Monkhouse, Pearl Carr, Alma Cogan, Millicent Martin, Mireille Mathieu, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, Moira Anderson, Buddy Rich, Buddy Greco, Janette Scott, Paul Carpenter (star of Fire Maidens from Outer Space), the John Barry Seven with Adam Faith, Lonnie Donegan, Robert Horton (of the Green Slime), Brucie, Benny Hill, Frankie Howerd, Jimmy Edwards, Alfred Marks,Benny Hill, Lena Horne, Howard Keel, Donald Wolfit, Michael Denison, Nigel Patrick, Thorley Walters, Peggy Cummins, Shirley Eaton, Dulcie Gray, Shani Wallis, Bob Hope, Moira Lister, Arthur Askey, Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Joan Sims (oh, yeah, she was in Only Fools and Horses) Binnie Hale, Jack Buchanan, Thora Hird,  Hancock, Ted Ray, Josef Locke, Winifred Atwell, Saly Ann Howes, Max Miller, Patricia Morison (who was a soprano, but I know mainly from being in a Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone), the Wiere Brothers, Kaye Ballard, Dinah Shore, Wilfrid Pickles, Dolores Gray, Danny Kaye, Julie Andrews ("Britain's Youngest Operatic Soprano" in 1948), Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chester,  Tessie O'Shea, Vic Oliver, Disney act Wally Boag, George Formby, Senor Wences, Stanley Holloway, Gus Elen, Harry Champion, George Formby, Nat Mills and Bobbie (who I only know of via that reference with Blanco in Porridge), Wilson, Keppel and Betty, Terry-Thomas, Sid Field, , Tony Bennett, Harry Robinson and Lord Rockingham, Marty Wilde, Liberace, Pat Boone, Kenneth More, Rex Harrison, Robert Beatty, Terence Morgan, Douglas Byng, Pat Kirkwood, John Gregson, Bobby Howes, Salad Days with Michael Aldridge, Pat Heywood, George Jessell, Alfred Drake, Robert Dhery, Johnnie Ray, Emrys  Jones and Bruce Seton in Leslie Henson and Diana Dors' Judge Yourself, Morecambe and Wise with Bill "Percy Sugden" Waddington, Peter Glaze, Eddie Fisher, Charlie Cairoli, Albert Modley, Diana Ross and two of the Supremes, Petula Clark, Sacha Distel, Ron Moody, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Bob Hope, Henry Mancini, Leslie Caron, Matt Monro, Jerry Lewis, Paul Anka, Gene Pitney, Wayne Newton (good grief), Gilbert Becaud, Christpher Gable and La Fille Mal Gardee, Juliette Greco, Hope and Keen, Peter, Paul and Mary, Jack Benny, Peter and Dudley, Dudley and Peter, Shirley Bassey, Sylvie Vartan, Johnny Hallyday, Bob Newhart,  Cilla, Harry Belafonte, Rudolph Nureyev, Shirley MacLaine, Alan King (US comic), Bonnie Langford and Sylvester McCoy in some musical number for 1982 alongside Topol, Anton Rodgers, Jack Jones, Ethel Merman, Victor Spinetti, Esther Rantzen, Kenneth Connor,  Jean Pierre Cassel, Angharad Rees, Frank Finlay and Simon Callow doing Sonny Boy, Joan Collins, Celeste Holm, Lauren Bacall, Stephanie Lawrence, Nicholas Parsons, Cyd Charrisse, Peter Ustinov, Mel Torme, James Galway, Julio Iglesias, Jackie Mason, Elton John, the Jackson Five,  Martin Clunes, Al Murray,Marvin Hamlisch, the famed female mpersonator Jim Bailey, Rita Rudner,  John Mills and Gielgud,

Leonard Bernstein!

[beanheadmcginty]

Is George White a manifestation of the raw data that the hyperintelligent AI known as Buzby draws his answers from?

[Endicott]

The i^th.

Blimey this is getting complex.

[touchingcloth]

Blimey this is getting complex.

Don't worry, it's just imaginary.

[buttgammon]

Is George White a manifestation of the raw data that the hyperintelligent AI known as Buzby draws his answers from?

Nah, that post is just the light entertainment version of Losing My Edge - I spotted Gil! Scott! Heron! somewhere in the middle.

[Jumblegraws]

The European mink and the European polecat are capable of breeding to produce a hybrid known as a khonorik:

Always knew that polecats and ferrets could breed, after all polecats are to ferrets as wolves are to dogs, but was completely unaware that they were capable of playing house with a distinct mustelid species like the mink.

[touchingcloth]

Always knew that polecats and ferrets could breed, after all polecats are to ferrets as wolves are to dogs, but was completely unaware that they were capable of playing house with a distinct mustelid species like the mink.

It makes you wonder what might have happened to that chimp I knew.

[Zero Gravitas]

It makes you wonder what might have happened to that chimp I knew.

Slightly related, no one used to give a shit about distinguishing orangutans from isolated speciated populations and took the view "if they're both orange they'll fuck" leading to admittedly boring bornean/sumatran miscegenation.

[Inspector Norse]

Nah, that post is just the light entertainment version of Losing My Edge - I spotted Gil! Scott! Heron! somewhere in the middle.

I heard that you and your band
Sold your guitars and bought lamé suits

[buzby]

That's from Aliens (and it's the one thing) so I'm not sure whether it was canon back then or just Cameron having a little easter egg fun.

Yes, it's a still from the 'Nostromo Dossier' created for Ripley's Debrief scene in Aliens, and was eventually released as an extra from the Alien 20th Anniversary DVD in 1999. That particular line is never seen on-screen in Aliens, it only cuts to Dallas' profile over Ripley's shoulder after it has scrolled past.

It's full of easter eggs - note that it also says he had previously worked for the SEYMOUR-COBB Genetics Corp (Alien's production designer Michael Seymour and concept artist Ron Cobb), as Warrant Officer on the U.S.C.S. SHUSETT and went to O'BANNON Preliminary School (the co-writers for Alien). He also went to RAMBALDI High School (Carlo Rambaldi, the Alien creature effects designer)
Parker went to MILIUS Publish School, and was crew on the U.S.C.S. TERMINATOR before joining the Nostromo. Prior to that he was crew on a ship owned by the Pacific-Western Corporation. Brett was also crew on the TERMINATOR (where he met Parker) and prior to that was engineer on a ship owned by the American Gothic Company.
Kane had previously served on the U.S.C.S. GIGER and U.S.C.S. RIDLEY and was previously crew on the U.S.C.S. GILER for the HILL Transport Company and as Captain of the U.K.C.S. POWELL (Walter Hill, David Giler and Ivor Powell, three of the producers of Alien), and went to Gunning FOSS Military School (Chris Foss, the other Alien concept artist).
Lambert had previously been the navigator of the U.S.C.S CAMERON and had gone ot the CARROL High School (in GORDON, Arkansas - Gordon Carrol another of the producers of Alien) and the HEINLEIN Preliminary School.

Other non-canon details included in that file:
Parker was hostile to authority and below-average intelligence and was bring given intelligence-boosting drugs.
Brett had an abusive childhood which led to his passive personality. He had been admitted to the company' engineering school as part of a Federal juvenile prison rehab programme, which meant he could not be promoted without a review with the Federal authorities.
Kane was studying for a medical degree but the pressure led him to start taking drugs and he was thrown out after being hospitalised for 107 days. He then completed a Masters in Enginnering and got his pilots licence and joined the crew of a U.K. Socialist Medical Authority Hospital ship where he started taking drugs again.
Lambert went through a male-to-female transgender process at birth and her hyperactive and nervous personality made her unsuitable for crew of a large vessel.
Dallas was hostile to authority and the treatment he had been given to reduce it caused him to suffer from mild psychosis. He was due to be re-evaluated at the end of the voyage.
Ripley had been privately educated and had graduated top of her class at high school and was being fast-tracked for promotion to the Weyland-Yutani flagship fleet until it was discovered she had become pregnant and had a child between voyages. She had subsequently been pushing the company to take a period of maternity leave, which had been granted on condition that she went on the voyage.

[Icehaven]

The European mink and the European polecat are capable of breeding to produce a hybrid known as a khonorik:

How could they not call it a Minkat?

[Jumblegraws]

How could they not call it a Minkat?

Russian, innit? It's a mashup of xopec (pronounced khorek) and norka.

[touchingcloth]

Slightly related, no one used to give a shit about distinguishing orangutans from isolated speciated populations and took the view "if they're both orange they'll fuck" leading to admittedly boring bornean/sumatran miscegenation.

I know, I've got a pornhub search for that kind of stuff. Well, I say "kind of" but it's more "exact".

[Zero Gravitas]

I know, I've got a pornhub search for that kind of stuff. Well, I say "kind of" but it's more "exact".

...gyaruFan2844?

[touchingcloth]

...gyaruFan2844?

The very same. You're not Monkey?-Man! are you? Love the vids if so, pal, keep it up - I know I do.

[badaids]

Lambert went through a male-to-female transgender process at birth and her hyperactive and nervous personality made her unsuitable for crew of a large vessel

I dare someone to point that out to Glinner.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Not expecting much of a reaction to this one as due to many an unsuccessful thread I don't think anyone watches it, but just in case, I've only today found out that the actor who plays Josh in The Magicians was also Frederick Crane in Frasier!

[Hand Solo]

Gordon, retired police officer, interests: Lynn, Building Society books, knocking your block off.



Parkin, The Farmer, interests: Polythene, Chickens, Shutting the gate.