Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[mmswm]

Speaking of untrue 'facts'...I was playing a puzzle game where, after you solved the puzzles in a category you got a Fun Fact pertaining to that category.  The Fun Fact for politics:  The word 'Politics' comes from the Latin Poli meaning many and Tics meaning blood-sucking creatures.

Facepalm! That's an old joke and I've told it many times, but it's not an actual historical fact! 

This reminds me of my favorite automobile/engine joke.  I'll often times tell people that the reason it's called the "serpentine belt", is because it's just plain evil.  Most people realize it's a joke.  I've had a few encounters where I've had to explain that.

[Shalamar]

The only flying mammal is a bat.

Not according to my Grade 4 teacher.  I mentioned her before - when I said "bats" as an example of a mammal, she laughed at me and said "Bats aren't mammals!".  Then she encouraged the entire class to laugh at me.  Yes, I'm still a bit bitter!

[VorFemme]

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...." 

I still remember some clueless person in 2002 complaining about the LOTR #2 being a reference to 9-11 - The Twin Towers & The Two Towers.....

I might have been the first but I should't have been the only poster letting the OP know that the book that the movie was based on had been in print for decades before the events of 09-11-2001.  For some reason the site closed later that same day.

I could scarcely believe that anyone over age six with internet access to start a blog didn't have the forethought to compare publication dates...until after reading the ravings on that web blog.....

[KenveeB]

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...." 

I remember coming out of Fellowship of the Ring and hearing a girl behind me ranting about the "lousy ending". When her companion explained it was a trilogy, she snorted, "So, they're trying to rip off Star Wars, are they?"

I heard someone rant after Return of the King that they just "copied the spider from Harry Potter. LAME!"

And all the people who told me they didn't want to see John Carter because it was just ripped off form Avatar. I wanted to cry.

[VorFemme]

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...." 

I remember coming out of Fellowship of the Ring and hearing a girl behind me ranting about the "lousy ending". When her companion explained it was a trilogy, she snorted, "So, they're trying to rip off Star Wars, are they?"

I heard someone rant after Return of the King that they just "copied the spider from Harry Potter. LAME!"

And all the people who told me they didn't want to see John Carter because it was just ripped off form Avatar. I wanted to cry.

Nobody knows their classic literature any more.....Burroughs, Doyle, Verne, Asimov, Clarke, or the rest who wrote before 2011....or so it seems.

[Piratelvr1121]

Speaking of deadpan jokes, I once asked my dad what the difference between a king and a California king bed was and he said "Lower emissions."

[amandaelizabeth]

You all know that kiwifruit are actually the unfertilised eggs of the Kiwi.  If you keep them in the warm dark, you might be lucky eough to get one to hatch. 

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

The only flying mammal is a bat.

Not according to my Grade 4 teacher.  I mentioned her before - when I said "bats" as an example of a mammal, she laughed at me and said "Bats aren't mammals!".  Then she encouraged the entire class to laugh at me.  Yes, I'm still a bit bitter!

My sister’s 4th grade teacher was convinced that Ben Franklin was a U.S. president. Even with my mom’s intervention, I don't think she ever got her grade corrected for that assignment. (IIRC, it was about presidents and our currency. I guess since Franklin and Hamilton are on bills, they clearly must have been presidents or something)

Another thing that made my brain hurt: in high school, I spent one year at a different school and since I was a new student in the district who enrolled a week into the year, they put me in the only history class for my grade with an open spot. It was… I don’t want to say remedial, but certainly not even honors level, let alone the AP class I would have been in at my other school. Without much effort since the coursework was simplistic and there was a lot of available extra credit, I generally had about a 110% in the class. Being the full-of-myself kid I was, I stopped caring at some point and just didn’t do an assignment. Instead of lowering my grade or disciplining me in any way, the teacher gave me full credit anyhow. She was also convinced that Pres. Buchanan was pronounced "Buck-nan"… and her specialty really was (supposedly) American History.

[Twik]

OK, I might give the teacher a small break here. Where I grew up, in an area with heavy Scottish heritage, the name "Buchanan" was pronounced "Buckan" by older residents. Possibly, this same pronunciation was used by the President in question. As a name with Gaelic origins, the original pronunciation is not necessarily going to match the English spelling.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

OK, I might give the teacher a small break here. Where I grew up, in an area with heavy Scottish heritage, the name "Buchanan" was pronounced "Buckan" by older residents. Possibly, this same pronunciation was used by the President in question. As a name with Gaelic origins, the original pronunciation is not necessarily going to match the English spelling.

I tried for a really long time to give her a pass there, but scholars all pronounce it with the English pronunciation (I’ll allow that his immigrant Irish father may have not) and the teacher herself was definitely not Scots-Irish.

[Hillia]

There's a Lake Buchanan in south central Texas; the local accent often turns it in to 'Buck Canyon'.

[MommyPenguin]

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...." 

I still remember some clueless person in 2002 complaining about the LOTR #2 being a reference to 9-11 - The Twin Towers & The Two Towers.....

I might have been the first but I should't have been the only poster letting the OP know that the book that the movie was based on had been in print for decades before the events of 09-11-2001.  For some reason the site closed later that same day.

I could scarcely believe that anyone over age six with internet access to start a blog didn't have the forethought to compare publication dates...until after reading the ravings on that web blog.....

I remember reading Nelson DeMille's "Lion's Game" not long after September 11th, and there's a scene in which an Arab terrorist, leaving New York City, turns around and looks at the Twin Towers and mutters something like, "We'll get you next time."  (His terrorism goal was something else.)  I immediately checked the copyright date and was astounded to realize he'd written it before September 11th!  I thought he was rather cleverly prescient until I mentioned it to my dad (I was like 21 or 22 at the time) and he pointed out that the towers had long been a goal of terrorists and there had been another attack years ago, etc., so it was logical that the author would have considered that the terrorist would *want* to take them out even if his assignment was something else in that particular book.  I felt rather let down afterwards. 

[VorFemme]

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...." 

I still remember some clueless person in 2002 complaining about the LOTR #2 being a reference to 9-11 - The Twin Towers & The Two Towers.....

I might have been the first but I should't have been the only poster letting the OP know that the book that the movie was based on had been in print for decades before the events of 09-11-2001.  For some reason the site closed later that same day.

I could scarcely believe that anyone over age six with internet access to start a blog didn't have the forethought to compare publication dates...until after reading the ravings on that web blog.....

I remember reading Nelson DeMille's "Lion's Game" not long after September 11th, and there's a scene in which an Arab terrorist, leaving New York City, turns around and looks at the Twin Towers and mutters something like, "We'll get you next time."  (His terrorism goal was something else.)  I immediately checked the copyright date and was astounded to realize he'd written it before September 11th!  I thought he was rather cleverly prescient until I mentioned it to my dad (I was like 21 or 22 at the time) and he pointed out that the towers had long been a goal of terrorists and there had been another attack years ago, etc., so it was logical that the author would have considered that the terrorist would *want* to take them out even if his assignment was something else in that particular book.  I felt rather let down afterwards. 

On the day - I was sitting at my desk, watching the managers crowd around the tvs tuned to the developing story (car insurance company - tvs were usually used to track weather conditions that might impact car insurance claims - hail, wind that broke off large branches that drop onto vehicles, tornadoes, ice storms where cars skid off the road, and so forth).  I was thinking that the terrorists had read one Tom Clancy's then recent Jack Ryan books....the one where a pilot lands a plane in a governement building...which doesn't do much good to the building when it is a large passenger jet.  The "real world" terrorists used somewhat smaller airplanes (and they weren't empty - the fictional pilot "stole" a plane being ferried unoccupied from one location to another).

[rose red]

I was at a used book sale and a teenage girl held up an old book and said to her mother "Twilight.  This guy ripped off the title from Stephanie Meyers.  She should sue."  Her mother rolled her eyes and told her that book is old and way before Stephanie Meyers.  The girl then said Stephanie Meyers should copyright "Twilight" (yes, the word) so nobody can rip her off.  The mother just walked to another table.

eta: I debated on buying that book just so if anybody ask what I'm currently reading, I can say Twilight.  Then watch their faces when I whip out the old book.

[Elfmama]

I was at a used book sale and a teenage girl held up an old book and said to her mother "Twilight.  This guy ripped off the title from Stephanie Meyers.  She should sue."  Her mother rolled her eyes and told her that book is old and way before Stephanie Meyers.  The girl then said Stephanie Meyers should copyright "Twilight" (yes, the word) so nobody can rip her off.  The mother just walked to another table.

eta: I debated on buying that book just so if anybody ask what I'm currently reading, I can say Twilight.  Then watch their faces when I whip out the old book.

I'm not sure that titles are copyrightable.  Search Amazon for "Circle of Stone" and see how many different authors used that title, for instance.

ETA: And YAY for fellow posters who know that the term is "copyright" and not "copywrite!"