c4countdown

The BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell was the first man on the moon.

It was illegal to be outside about 11pm, and infidelity meant jail time.

Elephants are blue.

Peter Sellers and Saddam Hussein were the same person.

"Mininim" was a word, and even though I didn't know what it meant, I got very cross if this was disputed.

Dogs had 360-degree vision.

If you ate more than one different fruit at the same time, you would be sick.

I thought the word capacity was pronounced kappa city.

I thought Jimmy Saville's first name was Jimil and Fixit was his surname.

I thought my parents knew what they were doing. I thought at some stage you just become an adult and have everything figured out. I'm 40 now and realise that doesn't happen so they've gone up in my estimation.

Mark James wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 3:47 pm I thought my parents knew what they were doing. I thought at some stage you just become an adult and have everything figured out. I'm 40 now and realise that doesn't happen so they've gone up in my estimation.

When adults say they don't feel like adults it's likely to be because they haven't shaken off their views on what being an adult is like from their childhood.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 5:56 pm

Mark James wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 3:47 pm I thought my parents knew what they were doing. I thought at some stage you just become an adult and have everything figured out. I'm 40 now and realise that doesn't happen so they've gone up in my estimation.

When adults say they don't feel like adults it's likely to be because they haven't shaken off their views on what being an adult is like from their childhood.

I prefer the way I said it.

Eating my crusts put hairs, on my chest, but I did wonder what it did to girls.
Boys mustn't cry.
Every house has its own smell pertaining to its inhabitants ( these were days before glade air fresheners.)
Flea darts gave you fleas.
Playing with matches meant you wet the bed

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 12:33 pmEvery house has its own smell pertaining to its inhabitants

I still believe this - is it not just true?

Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 9:01 pm

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 12:33 pmEvery house has its own smell pertaining to its inhabitants

I still believe this - is it not just true?

Maybe my sense of smell has diminished

When I was young, I thought snooker balls all had two white stripes on the top and wondered how they managed to stay there when the ball was rolling.

I used to think that canned laughter was real.
Also I called a German shepherd dog an old station

I thought a strip mall was a mall containing a strip club. To be fair it was often accurate.

I may have thought that a pawn shop was a porn shop.

If i closed my eyes nobody could see me
I was around 5 at the time.

Teachers lived in the school.

If you forgot your PE kit you had to do PE in your pants.
(actually this was true)

I watched a lot of television/played a lot of video games as a little wienerschnitzel. I remember I used to stand in front of the bathroom mirror every Saturday/Sunday night to check that my irises hadn't developed any corners.

Also, respect to whatever schoolteacher came up with the idea of calling something the "magic [thing]" in order to stop all the kids from messing around with it. I fell into that trap as well.

That a plant nursery was somewhere you took plants when you went on holiday so that they could be watered.

This seemed perfectly rational to me, as knew that sometimes people would ask someone to come round and feed the cats/water the plants, and thought maybe if you didn't have anyone you'd trust enough, you'd drop the cats in at the cattery and the plants at the nursery.

My parents used to have a copy of Constable's The Haywain in their (incredibly 1970s) front room. I didn't know you have copies of things at the time, sooo, yeah.

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2023 1:55 pm My parents used to have a copy of Constable's The Haywain in their (incredibly 1970s) front room. I didn't know you have copies of things at the time, sooo, yeah.

I remember my daughter getting very excited when she read in her teletubbies comic that Van Gogh's sunflowers sold for over £20,000,000 as we had (still have) one hanging on the wall.

Perhaps for the 'really obvious things...' thread, but aside from the one on my wall, Van Gogh painted seven Sunflowers, which I didn't know until I started learning about art.

I remember as an 8 year old before tinternet, game consoles etc. I used to look for 'treasure' walking the streets
I know it was the late 60s early seventies but there was still bomb sites from WW2.
I sometimes would find costume jewelery and I was convinced I'd found real diamonds and my elder brother would wind me up and say they were real

I thought Microsoft had misspelt Tilting in the name of the font Perpetua Titling MT, or I was like "what the hell is a tit-ling"

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 7:38 pm I thought Microsoft had misspelt Tilting in the name of the font Perpetua Titling MT, or I was like "what the hell is a tit-ling"

Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:29 am I used to think that canned laughter was real.

A lot of the time the laughter on comedy shows is real isn't it?

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 9:03 pm

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:29 am I used to think that canned laughter was real.

A lot of the time the laughter on comedy shows is real isn't it?

If its taped before a studio audience the yes.

Here is a list of shows with a laughter track, (canned laughter.)
https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?ke ... augh-track

I thought "fr." under the name of each recipe in my mum's copy of Mrs Beeton meant "fried" - even though that seemed really weird sometimes. (she did rely on her frying-pan for using leftovers)

Adam Gillard wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 7:58 pm Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

Fiona T wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 11:40 pm

Adam Gillard wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 7:58 pm Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 1:07 pm

Fiona T wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 11:40 pm

Adam Gillard wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 7:58 pm Watching golf on the TV I'd occasionally see players sporting the brand 'Tit-leist', which I parsed similarly (second half rhyming with 'heist').

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

Title-ist? I mean, I've not heard of it before this discussion.

Peter Mabey wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 9:58 pm I thought "fr." under the name of each recipe in my mum's copy of Mrs Beeton meant "fried" - even though that seemed really weird sometimes. (she did rely on her frying-pan for using leftovers)

And what did it mean?

And what does it mean here?

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 6:25 pm Was it really them who got HARUSPEX? Fr.

For real, presumably?

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 1:38 pm

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 1:07 pm

Fiona T wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 11:40 pm

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

Title-ist? I mean, I've not heard of it before this discussion.

Yes, one time I heard an advert during the golf coverage that pronounced it "Title-ist" as if that just rolls off the tongue, and that's when I learned that it wasn't pronounced "Tit-leist". Presumably they want the wearer to feel that they will win titles or something.

I've had problems parsing similar words as well, like reading "misled" as rhyming with Faisal-ed (as the past tense of an imagined verb "to misle"), rather than mis+led.

I was probably rather older than I should have been when I realised that the River Thames I'd read about was actually the same one as the River Tems I'd heard about. And there was also Paul Gallen pronouncing SUNDRIES as if it's what they do to tomatoes.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 1:38 pm

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Mon Dec 18, 2023 1:07 pm

Fiona T wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 11:40 pm

That's how it's pronounced in our house.

I don't understand how else it would be pronounced, I assume the 'correct' makes it sound like "tight least".

Title-ist? I mean, I've not heard of it before this discussion.

Ahh, that makes a modicum of sense. Confirms its an utterly shite name too.

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 2:08 pm Confirms its an utterly shite name too.

It's getting it talked about - you've heard of it now!

Fiona T wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 2:21 pm

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 2:08 pm Confirms its an utterly shite name too.

It's getting it talked about - you've heard of it now!

Oh I'd heard about it for many years, but just thought it was a silly name.

I heard it first on Beavis and Butt-Head where they pronounced it tit-liest, like the most titly. The way I've heard the "correct" pronunciation is tide lest.

I used to not know that actors on television were a thing, and that programmes were all just made "from scratch" using some sort of technology. A bit like how things are going to be in a few years anyway.