0bvious things you’ve only just realised (2019 edition)

[Dewt]

This is actually something I realised in the 90s but I just remembered it. For a while I thought "comptroller" was a word made up by Ralph Wiggum in The Simpsons. It's so stupid that it sits right next to "Super Nintendo Chalmers".

Super Nintendo Chalmers is hilarious, BTW.

[beanheadmcginty]

I've just realised that since the mid 90s, every general election on both sides of the Atlantic has been won by the candidate who the public perceive as more cheerful (alright, in Trump's case it's more smug than cheerful but he still grins a lot).
Bill Clinton, Blair, Bush, Obama, Cameron, Clegg, Boris - all regarded as chipper.
Howard, Kerry, Brown, Gore, Dole, Major, Howard, Hillary, Corbyn - all come across as grumpsters.
The only outliers being: Hague, who was outcheered by Blair's stupid massive grin. McCain, who had the same situation against Obama. And of course the 2017 grump off, where the public decided that neither Corbyn nor May were cheerful and essentially delivered a hung parliament as a result.

[Bobtoo]

Major did win an election against Neil Kinnock.

[Replies From View]

A press release, as well as being a piece of information released by the press, also describes pressing and then releasing a button, for some reason.

Press it, go on.  Now release it.



There.

[the]

A press release, as well as being a piece of information released by the press,

Released to the press. (Who themselves are named after the mechanical act of pressing an inked block onto paper to effect printing.)

The button explanation is inventive and fun but also complete bollocks

[Replies From View]

Released to the press. (Who themselves are named after the mechanical act of pressing an inked block onto paper to effect printing.)

The button explanation is inventive and fun but also complete bollocks

Mechanical act of pressing and releasing.


It wasn't an "explanation" so much as a train of thought that I had.

[Bennett Brauer]

The Evening Standard is a measure of ironing quality in the dry cleaning industry. Failure to comply was dealt with by the Press Complaints Commission.

[beanheadmcginty]

R2D2 and C3PO are a complete rip off of Sweep and Soo from the Sooty Show.

[touchingcloth]

Reels of film don't have empty frames which each successive image is placed into; they're just continuous rolls of emulsion, the illusion of a frame coming from the blank space between one image and the next.

(I realised this when learning that IMAX film runs horizontally rather than vertically, meaning the height of the frames can be the full area the film can handle, rather than vertically shot film where less of the area can be used cos it's limited by the width rather than the height, at least without anamorphic lenses and whatnot.

I also learned that a 2 hour IMAX film reel weighs 200KG (!), that their projectors have larger lenses than necessary so they can be shifted on the fly if a speck of dust sticks to a spot in the middle of the screen, and that the risk of explosion from one of their dropped pressurised xenon bulbs made of quartz means that projectionists need to wear body armour when handling the bulbs.

IMAX.)

[Replies From View]

R2D2 and C3PO are a complete rip off of Sweep and Soo from the Sooty Show.

It's like the US version of Fawlty Towers where they binned Basil Fawlty.

[kittens]

st petersburg and peterborough have essentially the same name

[Replies From View]

st petersburg and peterborough have essentially the same name

"One of them's a saint and the other one ain't," as we used to say round the building lots in the 80s.

[kittens]

shorn of context, red dwarf is a strange name for a television program.

[NoSleep]

shorn of context, red dwarf is a strange name for a television program.

It's strange to name a TV program after a star?

[Replies From View]

It's strange to name a TV program after a star?

Strange name for a star as well, to be honest.  It goes back and back.  You know the colour red?  Well it has about the stupidest name ever for a colour.

Also dwarves prefer to be called "titchy scroates" now.  WHARRATHARRALLABOUT, LORRA LORRA.

[kittens]

It's strange to name a TV program after a star?

you know full well i meant an dwarf that is red. i was imagining what it would be like to hear of that program and not be aware of the kind of star. you'd be like 'that's odd, wonder why it's called that'

[Endicott]

Ftumch!

[Replies From View]

you know full well i meant an dwarf that is red. i was imagining what it would be like to hear of that program and not be aware of the kind of star. you'd be like 'that's odd, wonder why it's called that'

"It certainly can't be because it stars Craig Charles."

[NoSleep]

you know full well i meant an dwarf that is red.

Yes, a red dwarf star.

[Ambient Sheep]

That the thing you see on telly where a woman gives birth and then the baby is taken away and installed in a room of babies can't be a real thing.

I believe that's what happened when I was born, given an anecdote my mum used to tell, although I'm not sure there's anyone left alive who I could ask to make sure.

If so it might explain why I like cuddles so very much.

But yes, that was a real thing for decades.  I'm sure one could probably find some old newsreel-type footage to prove it.  Not quite sure when it stopped being practice and sanity prevailed.

[touchingcloth]

I believe that's what happened when I was born, given an anecdote my mum used to tell, although I'm not sure there's anyone left alive who I could ask to make sure.

If so it might explain why I like cuddles so very much.

But yes, that was a real thing for decades.  I'm sure one could probably find some old newsreel-type footage to prove it.  Not quite sure when it stopped being practice and sanity prevailed.

Was that in the UK? I've never seen it (I don't think) in British media, or possibly even European, but it's a trope which appears time and again in stuff produced in the US.

Can't be arsed to dig out links now, but I googled it after posting here and found that there was never any real justification for it medical-wise, but there are schools of thought among parents about whether it's better to have the hospital deal with the bairns on their first night - it gives them their last good night of sleep in a while if nothing else - or to have the kid with them to practice suckling from mum's dugs.

The viewing window you often see on tele seems to be unnecessary for any real reason, but in hospitals which still have them they're a popular haunt for the families of people who are in hospital at the other end of their lives. Ashes to ashes, and all that.

[thecuriousorange]

Everyone hates New Year, not just me.

[poodlefaker]

st petersburg and peterborough have essentially the same name

also Gainsbourg, Gainsborough and Ginsberg.

[Ambient Sheep]

Was that in the UK? I've never seen it (I don't think) in British media, or possibly even European, but it's a trope which appears time and again in stuff produced in the US.

UK, South London, 1964.

I'm now wondering if it's an invention of my own head.  I have stuff to say about the rest of your post, but the black dog has suddenly descended and so it'll have to be another time/day/week/month/year/life.  Meanwhile I will do some more research of my own. 

[Dewt]

also Gainsbourg, Gainsborough and Ginsberg.

Ginsters

[Ambient Sheep]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W6HhdqA95w

[touchingcloth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W6HhdqA95w

Chin up, dude. I've posted about wallowing with that same song on here in the past, so it'll pass. You know it'll pass.

[Dewt]

Rhys Thomas did not make that big Queen movie from this year.

[Dewt]

I've really been struggling with "wow, little Rhys Thomas must be living in the Hollywood Hills like Peter Baynham" for the past eight months.

[jamiefairlie]

UK, South London, 1964.

I'm now wondering if it's an invention of my own head.  I have stuff to say about the rest of your post, but the black dog has suddenly descended and so it'll have to be another time/day/week/month/year/life.  Meanwhile I will do some more research of my own.

Nah, you're right. They'd take the baby away to get cleaned, brought back to mum for feeding and then into the big ward at night with all the other babies. Not sure if they brought them to mum for night time feeding or if nurses fed from bottles.