Ohhh... NOW I get it!

[Whatsahoe]

There was an article about the NBA's Lakers a long time ago and it talked about how good they were. The article had a picture of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the prominent caption was "The Kareem rises to the top"

Oh, Kareem as in "cream" pronounced differently

[Sequin]

I was once under the impression that there was a famous Irish poet called Che Massini

[Whatsahoe]

The logo (or picture) used for the 1970s movie "Grease" is in the shape of a car

[skullturfq]

I'm almost 38 and I just learned how to pronounce "eponymous" about an hour ago.

My whole life, I was saying it in my head something like "EP-oh-nim-us". But apparently it's "ee-PON-uh-muss", kind of like "anonymous" or "synonymous".

[Left Field]

I've been listening to Tom Leherer since my early teens 40 years ago. In the introduction to The Vatican Rag, he refers to the "ecumenical council in Rome known as Vatican II." I only recently realized that there was a joke in there.

I think that when I was 13, I didn't know what ecumenical meant. Then after that, I was so familiar with the line, that I never thought about it. But on the other hand, it seems that most of the audience missed it too.

[AJD]

There isn't a joke in there. Vatican II was an Ecumenical Council.

[AJD]

I always thought the University of Alabama had an elephant for a mascot because their campus is in Tuscaloosa (like "tusk"aloosa) but apparently not. :?

Similarly, the University of Connecticut has the Husky as its mascot; but it's not because of the pun "UConn" = "Yukon"; the Husky mascot actually predates the name "UConn".

[AJD]

"I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole" is not a reference to a really tall guy from Warsaw.

I usually follow that up with a 6 foot Czech.

Shouldn't the analogue of a 10-foot pole actually be a £500 cheque?

[skullturfq]

For me as a Canadian living in the US, the UConn Huskies are the most confusing conversation topic ever.

[Left Field]

I guess his joke's on me, then. Though I still suspect he used the term with a sense of irony regarding ecumenical in the meaning of "interdenominational."

[SMWinnie]

Reading Unseen Academicals, I discovered that I have, for quite some time, been misreading chaise longue as chaise lounge.

[skullturfq]

Today I was told that the full version of the expression "happy as a clam"

is

"Happy as a clam at high tide."

(Because people can't dig them up.)

That makes a lot more sense.

[Momma Snider]

Thanks for that, skullturf! I've always wondered about that one. I thought maybe it was because a cartoon drawing of a clam might have the shell forming a smiling face.

[billiej]

I've been wondering why I keep screwing up the spelling of cavalry - everytime I thought I got it straight, it seems I saw it spelled differently than I remembered.

Only recently did I realize that "cavalry" and "calvary" are separate words spelled differently.

[skullturfq]

Kim Carnes, "Bette Davis Eyes"

Her hair is HARLOW gold. Not HOLLOW gold.

(I had no idea who Jean Harlow was when the song first came out.)

[Whatsahoe]

Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz says "with the thoughts you'd be thinkin' you can be another Lincoln" not "with the thoughts you'd be thinkin' you can be an Arthur Lincoln"

[goroshnik]

I was putting together a video for my wife's 40th birthday a few years back, and at one point in the video I wanted to have a nice little montage of each of my kids, with a name-appropriate song playing in the background.

For my daughter, Tess, I was having a hard time trying to find the right song until I came across one on iTunes. It was part of some parody CD, but I never caught on to why it was on there until I showed the video at my wife's surprise birthday party.

The title of the song was "Tess Tickles Me".

Yep, I was so focused on finding a happy song about my daughter that I completely overlooked what happened when you hear the phrase "Tess tickles... Tess tickles..." during the song.

[skullturfq]

"Space Oddity" sounds like "Space Odyssey".

[gameshowcongress]

"I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole" is not a reference to a really tall guy from Warsaw.

I usually follow that up with a 6 foot Czech.

Shouldn't the analogue of a 10-foot pole actually be a £500 cheque?

This thread makes me think of £800 gorillas, and 39-1/2ft poles

[rockgolf]

I was putting together a video for my wife's 40th birthday a few years back, and at one point in the video I wanted to have a nice little montage of each of my kids, with a name-appropriate song playing in the background.

Hoping your other kids aren't named Lola and Timothy.

[naurae29]

Counting Crows have a song called "Murder of One". I just got that.

[grodney]

In a discussion of liquid measurement with our 6 and 9 year old daughters, my wife pointed out that a "quart" is so-named for being a QUARTer of a gallon. Yes, I've long-known there are 4 quarts in a gallon (and have had no trouble remembering it), but I'd never realized the name. Wow.

[Cannon]

I have often wondered whether I am one of a very few people who did not learn/understand how to blow a bubble with bubble gum until AFTER my children learned. Although I probably didn't, it felt like I spent years trying to blow a bubble when I was a kid... finally giving up. My daughter taught herself, then taught her younger brother, and while she explained it to him, something clicked and I immediately was able to blow a bubble. I have no need for this skill, and I don't really ever blow bubbles with gum, but there is a certain satisfaction of now knowing that I can. I don't know why.

I know, not exactly the same thing, but sort of related.