Did you know that...

[Sibling DavidH]

Did you know that if der alte Fritz was alive today, he'd be turning in his grave?

It's the same here.  A friend of mine had to explain to an A-Level English student that a certain poem was not about the First World War, since it spoke of arrows and knights in armour.

[pieces o nine]

DYKT a co-worker was framing a composite image from Gone With the Wind; she had no idea what the image was about, nor had she ever heard of either the book or the movie.  Moreover, she's more savvy than many of her peers.

[Aggie]

Doesn't surprise me too much.  For myself even, there are many, many, many of the classics that I've never read nor seen, although I may be aware of them.  At certain times in my life, I've consciously tried to catch up on certain classic books, but I can't say I've gone out of my way to see many classic films (I'll occasionally watch one if it happens to be on TV - I saw Citizen Kane this way - but I very rarely watch TV in the first place).

With the amount of new content available to (and the lack of attention span of) the next few generations, most of these works will be known to only the most dedicated aficionados within the next 50 years.  The one thing I'm sure will be in the public's consciousness a century after its creation is Beatles music.  I hope to live long enough to play it for some young'un at that time.

[Swatopluk]

A friend of mine had to explain to an A-Level English student that a certain poem was not about the First World War, since it spoke of arrows and knights in armour.

The how do you explain this?
http://www.battle-bowler.co.uk/images/L%20tank%20masklarge.gif
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3592/3306381912_a04af3fc3f.jpg

[Sibling DavidH]

DYKT the names of Beachcomber's red-bearded dwarfs, who constantly appeared before Mr Justice Cocklecarrot, "appear to be" Scorpion de Rooftrouser, Cleveland Zackhouse, Frums Gillygottle, Edeledel Edel, Churm Rincewind, Sophus Barkayo-Tong, Amaninter Axling, Guttergorm Guttergormpton, Badly Oronparser, Listenis Youghaupt, Molonay Tubilderborst and Farjole Merrybody.

[Swatopluk]

Yes, I did know that. It is the origin of Rincwind from Terry Partchett's Discworld books.

[Sibling DavidH]

^ Why am I not surprised?

Did you know that today, 26^th November, is the official day of the following saints:

St. John Berchmans, St. Conrad Siricius, St. Alypius, St. Amator, St. Basolus, St. Bellinus, St. Dominic Doan Xuyen, St. Faustus, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, St. Martin of Arades, St. Nicon the Metanoeite and St. Phileas?

[Sibling DavidH]

Did You Know That it's St David's Day?

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus!

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (the one prominently assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914 ) was such an excessive hunter that at the time of his death he had officially shot 277769 pieces of game? (yes that is more than a quarter million, not a typo)

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that Aussies are secret cannibals?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8627335.stm

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

...one recipe listed "salt and freshly ground black people" instead of black pepper.
---
"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind, and why anyone would be offended, we don't know,"

Why indeed? Is not like grounding black people sounds racist or insensitive anywhere in the world...

[Roland Deschain]

^ I remember that. Penguin should just have apologised and left it at that. Still, it was a misprint, and as such was not meant to cause offence. It's a case of overreaction from some members of the public. If it had said "white people" instead of "black people", how many would find that offensive? I found it amusing, and definitely wouldn't have taken offence if it had been "white people" instead. I wonder how many copies exist now, and how much they'll be worth in the future?

Did you know I was awoken 2 hours after falling asleep by an attention-hungry cat?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

The misprint is and accident, the comment by the editor after is politically incorrect (and racially insensitive). He should've apologized without further comment and leave it at that.
---
Besides, I'm sure that if the typo "grounded white people" were found by some of the US right-wing hacks they would make a stir (and a stink) about it (you can set them off quite easily actually).

[Swatopluk]

And they may well invent such a thing, if they can't find it (erfinden statt finden)

[Sibling DavidH]

Did you know that the small intestine of an ostrich is up to 46 feet long?

(We took Cap'n B to the zoo yesterday.)