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Melbourne was originally going to be called Batmania, after John Batman. This would have lead to awesomely named football teams such as the Batmania Demons, Batmania Heart, (now Batmania City), and the currently defunct basketball team East Batmania Spectres.
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Nov 11, 2015 05:07
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chitoryu12 posted:
The incest is creepy enough, but look at the age difference between some of those uncle/niece marriages. Imagine being a 29 year old Phillip the 4th looking at your newborn niece and being told, "you will marry her one day".
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May 6, 2019 08:30
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To continue pube talk: There is a (now debunked) myth that if a fisherman wanted to have a good catch, he would add one of his wife's pubic hairs to the lure. Something something female pheromones something something. This has largely been discredited, so don't use your pubes for fishing ladies, save them for ancient and noble warriors.
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Jul 23, 2019 14:04
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Tunicate posted:The popular word for cell phones in German is "Handy", which German teachers *insist* is the English word for cell phone and not proper German. In Korean, it's "hand-phone". So similar to Handy, but without the language purity wank
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Dec 8, 2019 07:24
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Did you guys know that Hitler had a scat fetish? An Australian art band wrote a song about it in the 80s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgsebueN-o Seriously, young me thought that this song was based on historical fact, and as such could never take Nazism seriously, (because it is otherwise a completely reasonable and sane ethos.)
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Aug 16, 2020 02:53
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barbecue at the folks posted:In reality you just get a bunch of college kids stabbing each other in the face over the slightest insult because everyone must have a scar to be considered a Real fixed that for you
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Nov 28, 2020 11:37
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Josef bugman posted:Mainstream ideas of masculinity is just "honour" repackaged. I have always equated your olde-tyme ideas of 'honour' as being more closely analagous to ideas of 'face'. And as has already been mentioned ideas of tiered formal levels of social class. But you do make a good point in adding ideas of performative fragile masculinity into the mix.
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Dec 3, 2020 11:01
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christmas boots posted:What's France up to? I normally don't pay attention to the crimes of other countries because who cares, they're not us. But what's their deal these days? Australians are mad at France because of their testing of atomic bombs on Muroroa Atol New Zealanders are mad at France about their sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. (Also for the 1999 Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals) Edit: Re: Anglicans converting to Catholicism. Horrible barely human troll Anne Widdecombe converted from Anglicanism to Catholocism when teh Anglicans allowed women to become priests. Because, you know, why would you want to belong to a religion that believes that people of your gender can also be close to god. BrigadierSensible has a new favorite as of 10:00 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 09:56
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Samovar posted:It's why Frankenstein's monster is usually associated with being green in colour - 'cause that was the body paint that made him look palest with black and white. I always assumed that it was because the monster was made out of old, half rotten corpses. And that was the reason he was green. But your explanation makes more practical sense. Unrelated edit: Since y'all are talking about model train enthusiasts. What would happen to one of those fellows when their grand-daughter comes over and wants to play with their grandfather in his special basement, so brings along her toy Thomas the Tank Engine toy and starts toot-tooting it around his meticulously created model? BrigadierSensible has a new favorite as of 00:06 on Jan 2, 2021 |
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Jan 2, 2021 00:01
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The best, (and arguably only good), thing the British Empire ever did was introduce Test Cricket to the world. Well, the parts of the world civilized enough to listen. Historical fun fact: The first International cricket match was actually between the USA and Canada, decades before the first Ashes Test. There was also a tour of English professional cricketers to the US well before they burned that stump and put it in an urn. (Canada won the match by 23 runs. It was only a 2 day game.) And the one I always like to spout when talking to people. Australia had a national cricket team before we had a national parliament. Because ... priorities.
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Feb 14, 2021 08:27
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Hermsgervørden posted:I feel like this derail belongs to me and my moose A moose bit my sister once ... was it yours?
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Mar 29, 2021 10:11
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Dapper_Swindler posted:
I am reminded of a thing I saw where Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks were friends because both of them were so insanely rich and famous that everyone they met would act all weird and starstruck or obsequious etc. around them. So they became friends because to each of them, the other was the only person they knew who would act naturally in their presence.
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Mar 30, 2021 03:37
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Heres a historical factoid I recently heard. Back in 1945, just before the end of the war. If the Atomic Bombs didn't go as planned, America and the Allies were planning to invade Japan. But they envisaged such a bloody battle, with so many casualties and injuries, that they thought they had better be ready. So they commissioned about 1 1/2 million purple hearts to be made at the factory. Alas, the bombs did their job, and Japan surrendered, thus there was no need of a ground invasion. So the US military had boxes and boxes of purple hearts left over. So many that, even accounting for loss and wastage, the purple heart that gets handed out to a soldier that gets injured in the line of duty today, is from that batch of production.
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May 28, 2021 07:58
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A fun historical regional sports fact. In 1916 WW1 was still raging. And even though we are very far away, Australia still sucks the dick of the British Empire, so we were well involved. Moreso back then. But Melbournians couldn't let a little thing like a world war stop what was important, i.e. the footy season. But due to rationing, austerity, and the general lack of money, and able bodied young men etc. instead of fielding a full league, in 1916 only 4 teams competed in the VFL, (the Victorian Football League), the state and the countries finest football competition. Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond and Fitzroy. They still ran a full 12 round season, the teams just played each other over and over again. Anyway, at the end of the season Fitzroy were last, earning them the wooden spoon. But because it is footy, there still needed to be a finals series. So all 4 teams made the finals. Which Fitzroy won. Making them both Premiers and Wooden Spooners in the same year. In a season where they finished the regular season winning 2 out of 12 games. Today the Fitzroy Football Club does not exist at the top level. They merged with Brisbane in 1996.
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May 29, 2021 03:20
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This reminds me of the famous origin of the word "kangaroo". Which is initially told as when Captain Cook and the first White people came to Australia they saw this giant hopping beast that they had never seen before, so asked a local what it was. The aboriginal bloke replied "kang garoo", which meant in his own language "I don't understand what you are saying to me." It turns out this story is only half true, and the "I don't understand" stuff comes from when Cook and his party ventured further inland and came across another aborigine who belonged to an entirely different tribe and spoke an entirely different language. So when the invaders tried to communicate using the few words they had learned from the coastal people, this new bloke was still baffled.
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Aug 23, 2021 08:23
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Arthur MacArthur is a great name. This reminds me of the first ever Australian born Governor General of Australia. Sir Issac Issacs It's a petty and obscure historical fact that I like to pull out every so often because it has stuck in my brain
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May 11, 2022 08:24
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Since we are talking about names. Both my brother and I were named after West Indian cricketers from the 1970s. Me after an elegant left handed batsman and my younger brother after a demon fast bowler. To this day it breaks my fathers heart that my brother grew up to be an opening batsman, and I grew into a handy medium pace bowler.
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May 13, 2022 05:19
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In unimaginative naming: The Capital of South Korea, Seoul, (서울), just means "West City in Korean. The Capital of Mainland China, Beijing, ( 北京) just means "North City" in Mandarin. There's more than a couple of these type of names of cities in India in local languages as well.
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May 17, 2022 02:59
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Going back to the "guns for bicyclists" stuff. Russian Cosmonauts used to carry a gun. To shoot at wolves once they landed, in case they got stuck out in the wilds of SIberia. 
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Jul 20, 2022 06:31
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chitoryu12 posted:Duff McKagan and Anthony Kiedis are both very ripped because they took up exercise and martial arts as an addictive substitute for stuff like heroin. Similarly Alice Cooper says the same about Golf. i.e. It is an addictive time consuming activity which rewards repetition and practice. And he got into it as a substitute for his drug addictions. Seeing as how he is now rich enough to afford it and has the time availlable. Apparently he has gotten quite good. Not as as ripped as the other two mentioned however.
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Aug 3, 2022 00:35
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ChubbyChecker posted:could you share more information about how fast you local trains are? No. But I can reliably inform you that they go "Choo Choo" as they pass. Which is cool.
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Nov 30, 2022 03:53
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Ghost Leviathan posted:I'm reminded of how English in India often comes off as weirdly formal and old-fashioned because, of course, it was primarily imported during the colonial era as Victorian english, and that's the say they've been studying and speaking it since then. Also they apparently take that as a point of pride. The fetishism of colonial stuff in India is indeed weird. It was mostly by the higher castes and older people. These days there is a more official disdain for all things Colonial, and a push for a "everything good is actually Indian, and the Indian way is the best way" like Modi and his insane Hindu-nationalism/islamophobia and pushing poo poo like Ayurvedic Medicine as a replacement for the evil Western Medicine in Hospitals. etc. But on the language stuff: My dad learned English as a second language in Bengalaru. So when he moved to Australia, everybody he met thought that he was talking like Little Lord Fauntleroy because he was taught the ye olde posh formal ways of speaking English. Given his first job in Australia was working in Burnie, (a small town in Tasmania), the blokes at the cricket club soon taught him how to speak Australian. oval office
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Dec 9, 2022 06:22
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Ichabod Sexbeast posted:I mean they can't day drink like euros yet, they gotta keep working on that I am not European, nor American. But I will tell you that day drinking is the best drinking. And to add related historical fun fact content, the best sport in the known universe, (Test Cricket), was invented largely to get around bullshit Sunday drinking laws in ye olde England.
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Mar 14, 2023 11:34
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Sockington posted:Are you calling out siestas? I could always got for a quick nap after a good lunch and heck yeah if there is party when it is not scorching hot out. Siestas are awesome. There is nothing grander anyone can do on a warm sunny day, than head out into the park, find a bench, lay a hat over one's eyes and have a nap just like a hobo.
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Mar 15, 2023 05:13
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Amongst all this talk about military relatives, and all the death and destruction they had seen. Here's my tale of a cool relative that was never in the armed forces, let alone a war. My mum's uncle played the saxophone on this famous TV theme tune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNRkwNC9Ms4 He also was a part of Cliff Richard's touring backing band for a time. And he tells the story of one time in a pissy hotel somewhere in the midlands where due to a mix up, (Cliff Richard isn't his real name, and the hotel knew Cliff Richard was staying there, but didn't know which room), one of the opther band members got sent a bunch of free booze/food/etc. meant for the star. So the band had a grand old time partying it up, whilst Cliff himself spent the night alone in his room reading the bible.
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Mar 22, 2023 04:01
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Arsenic Lupin posted:St. Kilda, way out in the Hebrides off Scotland, was inhabited way back to the Bronze age, maybe to the Neolithic age. It's desolate, the soil's poor, and you don't (didn't) get many visitors. Peak known population was in the late 1700s, maybe 180 people. Silly St. Kilda fact. It's also the name of a beachside suburb in Melbourne. Home to an AFL football team who last won the Premiership in 1966.
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Jun 26, 2023 03:30
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venus de lmao posted:I like the guy who brings poo poo from far away Local poo poo not good enough for you eh?
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Sep 10, 2023 03:06
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As I understand it, this is actually a story about Doug Anthony. Who was Deputy PM for a time. The guy the Doug Anthony All Stars took their name from.
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Nov 12, 2023 11:40
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Platystemon posted:People who make barrels are “coopers”, and people with the name “Cooper” are problematic. But Tommy Cooper famously wore a silly red hat. Surely that absolves him of the crimes of his ancestors?
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Mar 29, 2024 08:18
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