Today I learned...

[johnnyboy]

On 1/5/2024 at 1:32 PM, Dead Mike said:

TIL that Stanley Tucci has got merch?!?!

That looks like the War Child charity shirt he did,  I'm an absolute Stanley Stan.

[Gus Mears]

TiL the holes in Swiss cheese are called eyes.

[Keith Houchen]

TIL that Soweto in South Africa is called Soweto because it’s a syllabic abbreviation of South West Township. It could be a New York borough with a name like that. 

[Devon Malcolm]

In Portugal it is against the law to dub foreign TV shows and films into Portuguese unless they're animated due to a law that was passed decades ago during dictatorial rule and that still hasn't been rolled back.

They trialled running Friends in a dubbed form when the repealing of the law was being discussed but it received such universally negative feedback that plans were ditched and the law stayed.

[Frankie Crisp]

That first episode must have baffled them when Ross said Carol left him because she was a Lisboan.

[Devon Malcolm]

23 minutes ago, Frankie Crisp said:

That first episode must have baffled them when Ross said Carol left him because she was a Lisboan.

[SuperBacon]

[deathrey]

TIL that it's a Sherbert Dip Dab not a Sherbert Dib Dab as I've always read it/thought it was

[Loki]

Why do fake banana flavoured things not taste like bananas?

 Because that fake banana flavour is based on the Gros Michel type of banana, which was the main banana eaten around the world until the 1950s when it was almost wiped out by a fungal disease.

 Banana exporters switched to the Cavendish banana which is the one you find in the supermarket today.  Cavendish bananas taste quite different to Gros Michel.

But wait!  All Cavendish bananas are clones and unfortunately a new disease is beginning to rip through banana plantations again.  So bananas might become quite scarce in the future.

[gmoney]

On 11/13/2023 at 3:48 PM, gmoney said:

The Beach Boys version of Barbara Ann is not the original, The Reagants version is. 

Sloop John B is an old Bahamian folk song! Did these cunts write anything?! (I know they did, please don't talk to me)

There's a Johnny Cash version of it  called I Want to Go Home, recorded in 1959. 

[Harry Wiseau]

13 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Sloop John B is an old Bahamian folk song! Did these cunts write anything?! (I know they did, please don't talk to me)

 

And the less said about Surfin USA the better!

[SuperBacon]

Just now, Harry Wiseau said:

And the less said about Surfin USA the better!

Good Weezer song that.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

That James Michael Patrick Aloysius Bradford is the real name of Jimmy Nail. 

[Chili]

TIL on hearing 'Replica' by Blood Brothers that the tune ended up with the lyrics removed and used in WCW by murderer Chris Benoit. It's jarring.

 

[Chris B]

On 1/20/2024 at 4:40 PM, Loki said:

Why do fake banana flavoured things not taste like bananas?

 Because that fake banana flavour is based on the Gros Michel type of banana, which was the main banana eaten around the world until the 1950s when it was almost wiped out by a fungal disease.

 Banana exporters switched to the Cavendish banana which is the one you find in the supermarket today.  Cavendish bananas taste quite different to Gros Michel.

But wait!  All Cavendish bananas are clones and unfortunately a new disease is beginning to rip through banana plantations again.  So bananas might become quite scarce in the future.

Gros MIchel skins were also more oily than Cavendish bananas - so the whole 'slipped on a banana peel' thing probably wouldn't be a thing now if they were new, because the skins aren't that slippy.