Your “how did I not realise that” moments.

[Meruem]

I am getting too involved in the corona virus threads so wanted to start something lighthearted!

Went to visit DSis recently. She bought a wine box. I have bought the odd one in the past and once the little tap stopped producing wine just threw it out. I did not realise that there is nearly a whole bottle of wine left in the bag at that point! I felt really stupid but now view it as “free” wine given I would have thrown it away!

What silly things didn’t you realise until someone pointed it out to you?

Yikes! 35 years later! I just made myself 10 years older!

I remember deciding to stop drinking every day and go to the gym and be sensible....I forgot that I have three kids and I’m a single mum and wine is actually the reason why I’m still going!! I love Prosecco!

Real fleas were harnessed (not trained) onto tiny contraptions and their natural behaviour (often trying to escape) made it look like they were performing.

How the hell do you harness a flea? (apart from carefully) ?!

I'm always dubious of that Oxo cube thing. I can see it may be a better way to crush and pour them, but I think it was something someone on the internet made up rather than being the designers intention, or surely they'd have made it clear on the packaging/advertising (or maybe they do and I never noticed).

How the hell do you harness a flea? (apart from carefully) ?!

Glue.

Their 'tricks' were them trying to escape

I am simultaneously and by all the flea circus posts.

Flea circuses were a joke/con/act in which a small model apparatus was motorised and would appear to be moving by itself. As this was ingenious back in the day, the proprietors would claim it was being moved by trained fleas.

All the people who still think it was real fleas . . . did you watch Tom and Jerry when you were little? Flea circuses with actual fleas were sometimes on there too. As was "vanishing cream " which made you invisible; I was mightily disappointed to discover that in reality vanishing cream is just anti- wrinkle cream.

@BalloonSlayer

Perhaps you should inform the BBC

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2LF04Y9n5hJTHK1l6ffLhPc/the-rise-and-demise-of-the-flea-circus

And then let Tim Cockerill know

And David Attenborough

I saw a 'Flea Circus' At Belle Vue, amusement park, Manchester, c1970.
The guy was feeding them on his arm, so I doubt that they were 'motorised contraptions'.

When I used to use launderettes, in my 20s, I thought that you had to add fabric conditioner at the exact moment when the light came on saying “add fabric conditioner” so I used to sit watching ‘my’ washing machine and jump to it and add the fabric conditioner when the light came on, not a minute before. Fgs, what a numpty!

I only realised that ‘Sean’ as in Sean the Sheep was a play on words fairly recently (as sheep are shorn)

@sashh

@BalloonSlayer’s research seems to extend to watching Tom and Jerry and assuming anything featured in it is made up. I assume she’s never seen a real block of Swiss cheese or she really will be , and !

I'm always dubious of that Oxo cube thing. I can see it may be a better way to crush and pour them, but I think it was something someone on the internet made up rather than being the designers intention, or surely they'd have made it clear on the packaging/advertising (or maybe they do and I never noticed).

You’re absolutely right. In the very early Oxo ads of my childhood, the mum, Oxo Katy, used to crumble the cube between finger and thumb. Her husband was called Philip and used to look on admiringly while not lifting a finger to help in any way. 😂

@HarrietThePi

I'm always dubious of that Oxo cube thing.

Exactly. Those clickbait articles that always crop up - 30 Everyday Objects You've Been Using Wrong Your Whole Life (Number 17 Will BLOW Your Mind) - are generally just 30 ways you can use everyday objects in a slightly different way, but it's not actually what they were designed for.

Like the one about the holes in pan handles being designed to hold a wooden spoon. Bullshit. In some pans, you can, I guess, put a spoon in there, maybe, depending on how big the spoon is, and how big the hole is. And that might hold the spoon in the right position for drips to fall back in the pan, again depending on lots of factors. But to claim that's what the hole is actually designed for?! It's to hang the bloody pan up!

@AlexaAmbidextra

Precisely. You'd think that, if the makers of Oxo wanted them to be used like that, they might have at least let Linda Bellingham in on the secret!

youtu.be/hj-WJHUO6ag?t=22

I saw a 'Flea Circus' At Belle Vue, amusement park, Manchester, c1970.
The guy was feeding them on his arm, so I doubt that they were 'motorised contraptions'.
I think this was mentioned in one of the "Zoo Vet" books by David Taylor. A man came looking for fleas, as all his had been wiped out. He looked at all the different animal fleas.

NO! I don't believe it

I still don't believe they are real! How cruel.

I declare that Flea Circuses are an urban myth perpetuated by you guys, Tom and Jerry, and every other credible bit of evidence I encountered the minute I actually took the trouble to google them . . .

I used to think there was an Australian family vehicle called a Yoot. This is because as a child, in Home and Away and Neighbours they were always talking about chucking things in the back of the Yoot, or going to work in the Yoot etc. I only just realised (like 2 weeks ago) it is a UTE, i.e. short for utility vehicle. Which makes much more sense really

Like the one about the holes in pan handles being designed to hold a wooden spoon. Bullshit. In some pans, you can, I guess, put a spoon in there, maybe, depending on how big the spoon is, and how big the hole is. And that might hold the spoon in the right position for drips to fall back in the pan, again depending on lots of factors. But to claim that's what the hole is actually designed for?! It's to hang the bloody pan up!

Yes I agree! We haven't been using everything the wrong way, these are just tricks that sometimes work for some things. And number 17 never blows my mind.

I worked with a woman that didnt know rice was a grass crop, she thought it grew in water and each indiviual grain was scooped out of water

lowlandLucky You should have told her it was true and rice pudding is when they can’t be arsed to drain the water out properly.

I still don't believe they are real! How cruel.

I found myself thinking how cruel it was, even though I spend a lot of money on products for my pets that are designed to kill fleas. I suppose it's the idea of the flea being trapped and in pain rather than dying quickly.

That there were two 'r's in FEBRUARY. I'd managed to get through O levels, A levels, and five years of University, before some 18 year old Italians (I was er.....teaching them English) put me right.

Oxo cubes changed their consistency, they now crumble really well.

But, I, being an odd child and remaining so as an adult, like to eat them. The old sticky ones were much easier to eat.

@BalloonSlayer

I bet you think Australian Drop bears are made up, and Quokkas.

And have you ever visited Sabden treacle mines.

I've literally just found out when watching the news with the subtitles on that Arkansas and 'Arkansaaaw' are actually the same place.

The first time I heard about that Oxo cube thing, I made sure to crumble it in the foil next time I used one, then tear it open and neatly pour the granules in. But it didn't work like that, did it? You end up with a ripped up foily mess. It's easier to just crumble it in your fingers, in my experience!