An interesting thing I didn't know until today

[ad hoc]

Just hoi polloi. Hoi is the so the hoi polloi is redundant.

Correction on this thread leads me to become aware of something that fits the thread.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Gastropod = stomach foot - a completely accurate description of a snail (or slug).

So snails and armies have something in common then.

[Patrick Thistle]

Just hoi polloi. Hoi is the so the hoi polloi is redundant.

Hehe high level pedantry.

Borrowed term, innit. Like lasagna or stadiums.

[Etienne]

Hoi oligoi level pedantry.

[ad hoc]

This probably doesn't belong on this thread because I strongly suspect it's bollocks, but my neighbour just told me that Turkish Delight kills rats. Another neighbour nodded in agreement.

However, Google in English, Hungarian, or Romanian does nothing to confirm this frankly unlikely sounding piece of folk wisdom. My inclination is to trust Google over my neighbours

[Southport Zeb]

This probably doesn't belong on this thread because I strongly suspect it's bollocks, but my neighbour just told me that Turkish Delight kills rats. Another neighbour nodded in agreement.

However, Google in English, Hungarian, or Romanian does nothing to confirm this frankly unlikely sounding piece of folk wisdom. My inclination is to trust Google over my neighbours

It depends how hard you throw the Turkish Delight

[S. aureus]

I can well imagine that the abomination found in the UK called "Turkish Delight" would kill rats, not so much the real thing.

[Sits]

According to Wikipedia, the 1986 Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush hit Don't Give Up helped Elton John on his road to sobriety:

In a 2014 interview, Elton John attributed his sobriety to the song, in particular the lyric from Bush, "Rest your head. You worry too much. It’s going to be all right. When times get rough you can fall back on us. Don’t give up." He states, "she [Bush] played a big part in my rebirth. That record helped me so much.

[slackster]

The Catch Up, Grandad thread going all ‘Remember Spangles?’, set me off thinking about Rowntree’s Tooty Frooties. Sure enough, evil ol’ Nestle have discontinued them.

Anyway, that sent me down a further rabbit hole about the song Tutti Frutti, which lyric I only now learn were originally about anal sex (wiki has details). Unsurprisingly, the producer got another lyricist in to clean up Little Richard’s original ditty before it was released.

And though it charted, it was outperformed in the hit parade by boring Pat Boone’s cover.

[Patrick Thistle]

The mention of Dr Nefario on the Misogyny thread led me to this factoid...

Despicable Me is is the highest-grossing animated film franchise and the 15th highest-grossing film franchise of all time.

[Foot of Astaire's]

The North Sea, as late as the 1860s was known as the German Ocean.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Currently reading Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s history of the Romanov dynasty, I was puzzled at one point by a reference to Tsar Alexander I praying in Kazan Cathedral at a time when events were hotting up, Napoleon-wise. Woah, that sounds like a bad time to be doing a provincial tour, mate, I thought. But it turns out the cathedral in question is not in Kazan. *The* Kazan Cathedral is apparently in St Petersburg (but named after Our Lady of Kazan). There’s also a significant Kazan Cathedral in Moscow. And there’s a cathedral in Kazan, but it’s not called “Kazan Cathedral”, but “The Epiphany Cathedral”. All clear?

[ursus arctos]

I would have bet you had visited it.

It it is on Nevsky Prospekt and was a (rather mediocre) Museum of Atheism under the USSR, but has since been reconsecrated.

[Balderdasha]

I just learned that there is a Russian city called Kazan.

[scratchmonkey]

Over a million residents, and the capital of Tartarstan (and the Khanate of Kazan prior to Ivan the Terrible taking it).

[Patrick Thistle]

There is a lost sunken continent between Australia and Antarctica that's been dubbed Zealandia. (New Zealand is all that remains above sea level.)

[Nocturnal Submission]

Not sure if it's anything but in an inconsequential glitch Snake Plissken, but despite the last (well, now previous) post being as above, this is what I see on the main page:

[Sporting]

Not sure if it's anything but in an inconsequential glitch Snake Plissken, but despite the last (well, now previous) post being as above, this is what I see on the main page:

I was just going to post something similar. The WTF thread was also showing up on Unread Posts even though I'd read it.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

There’s a 15 foot high colour statue of Tony Soprano (in boxers and dressing gown) at Vilnius train station.

[Nocturnal Submission]

There’s a 15 foot high colour statue of Tony Soprano (in boxers and dressing gown) at Vilnius train station.

What risible nonsense!

Oh...

[Hot Pepsi]

A physiologist-type scientist estimates the fastest 100m time possible is about 9.27 sec.


https://www.runnersworld.com/races-p...-9-27-seconds/

[Gangster Octopus]

Not with those feet...

[Nocturnal Submission]

I suppose that we should assume that it's apocryphal, but:

Robert-François Damiens, a French man who attempted to assassinate king Louis XV, was sentenced on March 26, 1757, to be executed in a gruesome and painstakingly detailed manner. He would first be led to the gallows, holding a torch with 2 lbs of burning wax. Pliers would then be used to tear his skin at the breast, arms and legs. Then his right arm, which held the knife he had used for his crime, would be burned with sulfur. The aforementioned areas with ripped skin would then be poured upon with molten lead, boiling oil, burning pitch, wax and sulfur. His body would then be dismembered by four horses, the members and trunk consumed in fire, and the ashes would be spread in the wind. After hearing the sentence, Damiens is reported to have replied: "Well, it's going to be a tough day."

[Nocturnal Submission]

Ben Goldacre's mum is Noosha Fox, of S-S-S-Single Bed fame.

[Hot Pepsi]

Linda Ronstadt was really angry about the cover for the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen.
https://ew.com/article/2014/10/21/ge...an-whigs-list/