Author Topic: what I have learned today. (Read 859351 times)

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4875 on:** 27 November, 2020, 02:22:36 pm »

Quote from: Ham on 27 November, 2020, 11:53:37 am

I have learned about Martin "Sinker" mahogany

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/news/140610/

I was expecting something like pernambuco!

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #4876 on:** 27 November, 2020, 06:47:48 pm »

I learned that Tom of Finland was the art director at the Helsinki office of McCann Erickson long after his homoerotic art became [famous|notorious].

andytheflyer · « **Reply #4877 on:** 27 November, 2020, 08:24:56 pm »

Quote from: rafletcher on 27 November, 2020, 09:39:05 am

Quote from: andytheflyer on 27 November, 2020, 08:58:27 am
If only for my weekly fix of Suzie......

I think that belongs in the "You know you're middle aged when..." thread

Efrogwr · « **Reply #4878 on:** 27 November, 2020, 10:49:20 pm »

I learned that someone else has heard of Tom of Finland.

ElyDave · « **Reply #4879 on:** 28 November, 2020, 09:03:27 pm »

That Monopoly is far older than I thought, and was deigned to teach of the evils of capitalism

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/11/secret-history-monopoly-capitalist-game-leftwing-origins

L CC · « **Reply #4880 on:** 28 November, 2020, 11:16:14 pm »

That explains why every game ends in conflict - I've always hated it.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #4881 on:** 30 November, 2020, 10:25:42 am »

Nick Lowe's middle name is Drain

citoyen · « **Reply #4882 on:** 30 November, 2020, 11:05:51 pm »

I've been a massive fan of Stereolab for many years. But until today it never even occurred to me to wonder who - or what - Jenny Ondioline is or was...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondioline

Presumably the song was so called because they used one on the recording, right? Er...

Quote

English-French band Stereolab, known for their use of early analogue synthesizers, recorded a song called "Jenny Ondioline", which was released on the 1993 album Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements, as well as the 1993 EP Jenny Ondioline. However, the song's lyrics have nothing to do with the Ondioline or Georges Jenny, and the band does not use an Ondioline on the track (or elsewhere on the album).

Jean-Jacques Perrey was apparently the world's foremost ondioline virtuoso - you can hear his playing on this utterly charming Charles Trénet track:
https://jean-jacquesperrey.bandcamp.com/track/l-me-des-po-tes

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4883 on:** 01 December, 2020, 06:41:33 pm »

The intricate subdivisions of the pre-decimal Cypriot pound.

Quote

Initially the Cyprus pound was divided into 20 shillings, in common with its United Kingdom counterpart. However, unlike the United Kingdom shilling, the Cyprus shilling was divided into 9 piastres, thus establishing a nomenclature link to the earlier Ottoman currency. The piastre was itself divided into 40 para (like the kuruş). The para denomination did not appear on any coins or banknotes but was used on postage stamps.

rafletcher · « **Reply #4884 on:** 04 December, 2020, 05:13:43 pm »

That “relief rainfall” is properly “orographic rainfall”. That’ll stand me in good stead.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4885 on:** 04 December, 2020, 06:08:05 pm »

That Manon Lescaut is a novel as well as an opera. I expect there's a whole subcategory of 'operas based on novels'.

hatler · « **Reply #4886 on:** 04 December, 2020, 06:22:42 pm »

For reasons I can't recall I went to see the opera, and then, about two years later at Uni (where I was reading nuts and bolts and stuff), was able to seriously impress a rather lovely lady who was reading French by being able to discuss the plot of her current study piece.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4887 on:** 04 December, 2020, 06:30:12 pm »

There was a boy at my school whose surname was Paccini, so it took me years to see Puccini as not a weird spelling.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #4888 on:** 04 December, 2020, 06:32:53 pm »

Apparently there are three operas all based on the same novel! The other two by people I've never heard of. $:-\$

Quote

Manon Lescaut is an opera or opéra comique in 3 acts by Daniel Auber to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and, like Puccini's Manon Lescaut and Massenet's Manon, is based on the Abbé Prévost's novel Manon Lescaut (1731). Auber's version is nowadays the least-performed of the three.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manon_Lescaut_(Auber)

ElyDave · « **Reply #4889 on:** 12 December, 2020, 09:30:27 pm »

That it is possible to sufficiently deplete the O2 in a room by closing door such that the flame on my cooker can go from blue to yellow/orange. Wife was cooking, I was chopping, kitchen door closed to coral No1 Son.

I'd never seen that before and thinking it might be a problem with the CV of the supply or something called the gas emergency number. Chappy turned up, had a natter and said it was not unusual, and that another source of the same issue is excess odorant in the system.

Logical once explained, but even having done bits of work in that industry it had never ocurred to me

Kim · « **Reply #4890 on:** 12 December, 2020, 09:44:29 pm »

I've managed to do that by applying ultra-violence to a nearly-empty container of salt in order to get to the dregs that weren't finding the hole in the lid. Put enough salt dust into the air that the cooker flame went sodium orange.

ElyDave · « **Reply #4891 on:** 12 December, 2020, 09:56:59 pm »

This wasn't just the "I've nudged a burner out of alignment" it was all burners, and ongoing which made me call. I don't fuck around with either gas or electric.

Snakehips · « **Reply #4892 on:** 13 December, 2020, 06:03:24 pm »

There is a cheese called Pavé Cobble. Ideal for lovers of the classic races. Must get some for Xmas.

Asterix, the former Gaul. · « **Reply #4893 on:** 13 December, 2020, 08:08:53 pm »

Quote from: fboab on 28 November, 2020, 11:16:14 pm

That explains why every game ends in conflict - I've always hated it.

We never played Monopoly for long enough to reach the end. It's too boring.

Today from google I learned that on Zwift I'll know when I am drafting someone when my avatar sits up. News to me, I am still getting the hang of drafting in a virtual world.

Quote from: ElyDave on 12 December, 2020, 09:56:59 pm

This wasn't just the "I've nudged a burner out of alignment" it was all burners, and ongoing which made me call. I don't fuck around with either gas or electric.

Our gas cooker is slowly ceasing to work. It is incredibly ancient and pre-decimal so now we have to buy an entire new kitchen because nothing now available will fit in the space it occupies. Just as well I bought the turbo trainer before that happened.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #4894 on:** 16 December, 2020, 11:12:59 am »

In 2011, former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno got eight months for benefit fraud.

tiermat · « **Reply #4895 on:** 16 December, 2020, 01:10:44 pm »

That there is a website called Cheese.com

It is about cheese, cheese and wine parings and all dairy comestibles.

That's my afternoon gone!

TimC · « **Reply #4896 on:** 16 December, 2020, 01:18:05 pm »

Never pare wine.

Salvatore · « **Reply #4897 on:** 16 December, 2020, 02:28:37 pm »

That for most of 1811 and 1812 my Royal Marine great great great grandfather James Entwistle* served on the same ship (HMS Briseis) as future polar explorer James Clerk Ross, then 12 years old. He (Ross) currently has 4 places in the Arctic named after him, as well as 4 in the Antarctic, a seal, a gull, a ship and a mountain. And a crater on the Moon.

*For reasons I'm yet to discover, three of the marines on HMS Briseis (out of about 20) were called James Entwistle. None has anything named after him as far as I am aware.

Legs · « **Reply #4898 on:** 16 December, 2020, 08:28:28 pm »

That there is a ~~font~~ typeface yclept 'year supply of fairycakes' (sic).

T42 · « **Reply #4899 on:** 18 December, 2020, 05:13:46 pm »

During WW2 Maidenform made bras for paratroopers to carry pigeons in.