Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[PastryGoddess]

I once put "this space unintentionally left blank" in a document.

HA! and you probably broke someones brain too

[Shalamar]

There's a story around (no idea if it's true but it illustrates the fear) that an actor playing a martial artist wanted a "really cool Chinese tattoo" for a movie so the artist who painted it on put really cool stylized characters that read "I can't act" on his arm.  So the producer was likely just playing it safe.

I remember hearing that one of the alien dudes in the Millenium Falcon in Return of the Jedi was saying "Oh s***, oh s***" in Swahilli.  Not sure if that's true or not.

[greencat]

greencat wrote:

"As I posted a bit earlier, this is due to revisions shortening sections, and leaving the pages blank allows them to handle that without needing to change the page numbers in the entire document."

I can see that happening, but it's been a long time since word processing software required manual repagination and even if this manual was written on something that old, given the choice between sinking a man-hour into doing it versus sending out a bunch of manuals with that in them I'd want to avoid looking dopey or lazy to the people who are buying my stuff.

Virg

Actually, I've seen this very recently.  When you have huge binders of rules and procedures, the publisher doesn't have to reprint the whole thing when it is updated - instead, they just print the new pages, and you just take the old ones out of the binder and put new ones in.  You pay to get updates to the manual rather than having to pay for a whole new one yearly (something that could get very expensive in fields like medicine,  where the initial purchase of the binder is a few hundred dollars at a minimum.)

[VorFemme]

artk2002 wrote:

"There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button."

I agree with this which is what makes my particular experience much more brain-hurty.  I was leafing through an old manual for a product that we use in the office (remember when manuals used to be a binder full of pages?) and I encountered the "This page intentionally left blank" message.  On both sides of a page, but not facing.  That's right, pages 101 and 102 both said that, so there's a sheet of paper in the middle of the manual that says that on both sides.  Does not compute.

Thipu1 wrote:

"Any one who could read a hymn to Amun in the background of an animated film would consider the effort impressive rather than offensive."

On the flip side, the producer is probably gun-shy of putting something in the movie that's coherent but that he can't understand, due to the risk that someone will decide to prank him, put ancient Egyptian erotica on the wall and cause an unnecessary uproar.  This sort of thing has happened before with signs or book text in film.  There's a story around (no idea if it's true but it illustrates the fear) that an actor playing a martial artist wanted a "really cool Chinese tattoo" for a movie so the artist who painted it on put really cool stylized characters that read "I can't act" on his arm.  So the producer was likely just playing it safe.

Virg

An old Jungle movie (possibly Tarzan - from the black & white or very early Technicolor era) is supposed to have a man running from one village to another to deliver a really important message (no drums - village & drums destroyed, for purposes of making the runner a vital plot point).

When played in that area - the "message" caused great laughter.

Apparently he had to run in for several takes, was exhausted, and started complaining about not being PAID enough for the scene by the movie crew...in his native tongue - which was what he'd been told to speak to the actors playing the male lead and the village chief of the village where he was supposed to run to with the "vital to the plot message".

[Iris]

artk2002 wrote:

"There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button."

I agree with this which is what makes my particular experience much more brain-hurty.  I was leafing through an old manual for a product that we use in the office (remember when manuals used to be a binder full of pages?) and I encountered the "This page intentionally left blank" message.  On both sides of a page, but not facing.  That's right, pages 101 and 102 both said that, so there's a sheet of paper in the middle of the manual that says that on both sides.  Does not compute.

Thipu1 wrote:

"Any one who could read a hymn to Amun in the background of an animated film would consider the effort impressive rather than offensive."

On the flip side, the producer is probably gun-shy of putting something in the movie that's coherent but that he can't understand, due to the risk that someone will decide to prank him, put ancient Egyptian erotica on the wall and cause an unnecessary uproar.  This sort of thing has happened before with signs or book text in film.  There's a story around (no idea if it's true but it illustrates the fear) that an actor playing a martial artist wanted a "really cool Chinese tattoo" for a movie so the artist who painted it on put really cool stylized characters that read "I can't act" on his arm.  So the producer was likely just playing it safe.

Virg

An old Jungle movie (possibly Tarzan - from the black & white or very early Technicolor era) is supposed to have a man running from one village to another to deliver a really important message (no drums - village & drums destroyed, for purposes of making the runner a vital plot point).

When played in that area - the "message" caused great laughter.

Apparently he had to run in for several takes, was exhausted, and started complaining about not being PAID enough for the scene by the movie crew...in his native tongue - which was what he'd been told to speak to the actors playing the male lead and the village chief of the village where he was supposed to run to with the "vital to the plot message".

Then there's the story (again, possibly apocryphal) of a member of royalty who could lip read and loved to do so during silent movies. Apparently in one movie, during a particularly passionate love scene the actors were in actual fact discussing that one of them was worried that they were going to be evicted.

[Betelnut]

I once put "this space unintentionally left blank" in a document.

ETA: on purpose.

Very "Tristam Shandy"!

[VorFemme]

artk2002 wrote:

"There's actually a very good reason for "This Page Intentionally Left Blank," despite the apparent absurdity. When you have documents printed on two sides of the page, you'll frequently have one side blank. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell whether the blank page is because there's no text, or if it's blank because of a printing error. They print a bit of text on those pages to make it clear that there wasn't a mistake. Very useful when you have stacks of forms to copy and someone forgets to hit the "duplex" button."

I agree with this which is what makes my particular experience much more brain-hurty.  I was leafing through an old manual for a product that we use in the office (remember when manuals used to be a binder full of pages?) and I encountered the "This page intentionally left blank" message.  On both sides of a page, but not facing.  That's right, pages 101 and 102 both said that, so there's a sheet of paper in the middle of the manual that says that on both sides.  Does not compute.

Thipu1 wrote:

"Any one who could read a hymn to Amun in the background of an animated film would consider the effort impressive rather than offensive."

On the flip side, the producer is probably gun-shy of putting something in the movie that's coherent but that he can't understand, due to the risk that someone will decide to prank him, put ancient Egyptian erotica on the wall and cause an unnecessary uproar.  This sort of thing has happened before with signs or book text in film.  There's a story around (no idea if it's true but it illustrates the fear) that an actor playing a martial artist wanted a "really cool Chinese tattoo" for a movie so the artist who painted it on put really cool stylized characters that read "I can't act" on his arm.  So the producer was likely just playing it safe.

Virg

An old Jungle movie (possibly Tarzan - from the black & white or very early Technicolor era) is supposed to have a man running from one village to another to deliver a really important message (no drums - village & drums destroyed, for purposes of making the runner a vital plot point).

When played in that area - the "message" caused great laughter.

Apparently he had to run in for several takes, was exhausted, and started complaining about not being PAID enough for the scene by the movie crew...in his native tongue - which was what he'd been told to speak to the actors playing the male lead and the village chief of the village where he was supposed to run to with the "vital to the plot message".

Then there's the story (again, possibly apocryphal) of a member of royalty who could lip read and loved to do so during silent movies. Apparently in one movie, during a particularly passionate love scene the actors were in actual fact discussing that one of them was worried that they were going to be evicted.

I forget the names - but Victoria's DIL was deaf - so it might have been her - I think that her husband was one of the Edwards - I'm American - so I don't remember which Edward he was.....

[Jocelyn]

On the flip side, the producer is probably gun-shy of putting something in the movie that's coherent but that he can't understand, due to the risk that someone will decide to prank him, put ancient Egyptian erotica on the wall and cause an unnecessary uproar.  This sort of thing has happened before with signs or book text in film.  There's a story around (no idea if it's true but it illustrates the fear) that an actor playing a martial artist wanted a "really cool Chinese tattoo" for a movie so the artist who painted it on put really cool stylized characters that read "I can't act" on his arm.  So the producer was likely just playing it safe.

Virg

Or like the famous legend that in 'Cheyenne Summer' the real-life Indians hired to portray the Cheyenne were actually Southwestern tribes. They were told to sit around the campfires and talk in their native languages. Apparently, they could not resist the many, many possibilities associated with that command. They referred to the character of the US Army commanded as something that would translate as 'Underendowed in the Scrabble Equipment Arena', and shouted it at him with great gusto whenever he came into the scene.

As for the tattoo, my nephew discovered, when he was deployed to Korea, that his tattoo that he thought meant 'Strong Warrior' (or something like that) really meant something like 'Butterfly Boy.'

[finecabernet]

One of my favorites. It's after high school graduation, and I was at "senior week" at the Jersey Shore sharing a house with six or seven girls. Renting the floor above us were members of a football team. One afternoon about 3 or 4 of us were chitchatting on the couch while the football team upstairs was getting drunk and making a ton of noise. Suddenly the landlord furiously knocks on the door and tells us to keep the noise down. I always figured he had to yell at somebody and was probably afraid of the boys upstairs!

[Nora]

As for the tattoo, my nephew discovered, when he was deployed to Korea, that his tattoo that he thought meant 'Strong Warrior' (or something like that) really meant something like 'Butterfly Boy.'

In that line, here's an awesome collection of translated tattoos of that kind:

http://hanzismatter.blogspot.no/

Some are so so BAD!

[Thipu1]

I heard a similar story about lip-reading and silent movies. 

There was a scene in which the hero sweeps the heroine into his arms and saves her from danger.

According to the titles, she was saying something like, 'thank you, thank you, my darling!'

What she was actually saying was, 'Drop me,you b-----d, and I'll break every bone in your body!'

We now return to our regularly scheduled thread. 

[Twik]

One of my favorites. It's after high school graduation, and I was at "senior week" at the Jersey Shore sharing a house with six or seven girls. Renting the floor above us were members of a football team. One afternoon about 3 or 4 of us were chitchatting on the couch while the football team upstairs was getting drunk and making a ton of noise. Suddenly the landlord furiously knocks on the door and tells us to keep the noise down. I always figured he had to yell at somebody and was probably afraid of the boys upstairs!

I've seen that happen a couple of times in fast food places, where the manager tells the one table that is sitting eating quietly to get out. I'm not sure if it's what the animal psychologists call "displaced aggression", or if they hope that the rowdies will think "Oh no, I'm next!"

[snowflake]

One of my favorites. It's after high school graduation, and I was at "senior week" at the Jersey Shore sharing a house with six or seven girls. Renting the floor above us were members of a football team. One afternoon about 3 or 4 of us were chitchatting on the couch while the football team upstairs was getting drunk and making a ton of noise. Suddenly the landlord furiously knocks on the door and tells us to keep the noise down. I always figured he had to yell at somebody and was probably afraid of the boys upstairs!

I've seen that happen a couple of times in fast food places, where the manager tells the one table that is sitting eating quietly to get out. I'm not sure if it's what the animal psychologists call "displaced aggression", or if they hope that the rowdies will think "Oh no, I'm next!"

I was a quiet kid and got lots of teachers' lectures.  I guess they thought I was the only one that would listen.

[KimberlyM]

As for the tattoo, my nephew discovered, when he was deployed to Korea, that his tattoo that he thought meant 'Strong Warrior' (or something like that) really meant something like 'Butterfly Boy.'

In that line, here's an awesome collection of translated tattoos of that kind:

http://hanzismatter.blogspot.no/

Some are so so BAD!

My husband's nephew has what he thought said "flesh and blood" tattooed on his leg until a guy on the bus asked him why he tattooed "meat and blood" on himself.  We still laugh at that everytime we see it!

[Twik]

I heard a similar story about lip-reading and silent movies. 

There was a scene in which the hero sweeps the heroine into his arms and saves her from danger.

According to the titles, she was saying something like, 'thank you, thank you, my darling!'

What she was actually saying was, 'Drop me,you b-----d, and I'll break every bone in your body!'

We now return to our regularly scheduled thread.

Singin' in the Rain does a take on that.

Don Lockwood: [while filming a passionate love scene, interrupted with kisses] Why, you rattlesnake! You got that poor kid fired.

 Lina Lamont: That's not all I'm gonna do if I ever get my hands on her.

Don Lockwood: I never heard of anything so low. Why did you do it?

Lina Lamont: Because you liked her. I could tell.

Don Lockwood: So that's it. Believe me, I don't like her half as much as I hate you, you reptile.

 Lina Lamont: Sticks and stones may break my bones...

Don Lockwood: I'd like to break every bone in your body.

Lina Lamont: You and who else, you big lummox?