Things you’ve only just found out

[TheChosenTwo]

About 2 days ago I discovered that Skegness isn’t in Scotland 😳 How did I never know this before? Embarrassingly, I’m 38 😂

We've had that converation before, in the same way the the Dutch team's colours reflect their royal House of Orange.
I recall someone referring to the Swedish forward line as 'the flat-pack four'.

Lawrence of Arabia, the film with no speaking roles for women! I recall coming out of the cinema after seeing L of A, walking like I was bouncing up and down on a camel and with a thirst that need a couple of buckerts of water, this was before cinemas sold extortionatly priced drinks etc, an ice cream in the interval was all you got!

I was only 4 at the time of Suez, but Vietnam was in my mid teens to early 20s, and greatly engaged me.

Learjet was one of the first companies to manufacture a private, luxury aircraft. It was founded by William Powell Lear.

In the 1960s and 1970s people who weren't plane geeks often called any small private jet a 'Learjet', like people still call all vacuum cleaners 'Hoovers'.

In the 1960s and 1970s people who weren't plane geeks often called any small private jet a 'Learjet', like people still call all vacuum cleaners 'Hoovers'.

Is there a word for that does anyone know?

Where something is known by a brand name?

@diddl , genericization.

@diddl , I did some hoovering earlier. I gave me a headache so I took a panadol, and needed to wear my ray-bans when i drank a coke in the garden. I've got an old walkman somewhere and I might listen to it when I get the marigolds and fairy liquid out.

Thank you!

I thought I'd heard of it many years ago but just couldn't think of it!

😁😁😁😁😁😁

Very good!

Very interesting and that's intriguing about the map, something new learned today! Both my parents were born in Guy's hospital, Southwark & raised round there so I guess Cockneys but like your mum, didn't make much of it. They did say that the Bow bells could be heard especially on a Sunday or quieter days.

@diddl , did you have a big mac for your dinner? Have you googled for something today? Is your XH a disney dad? Do you skype people or xerox documents at work? Do you have a jacuzzi or a flymo? Does your toddler wear velcro-fastening shoes? Do you use biros, sellotape, sharpies and post-it notes?

...and spell them all using lower case?

yes when genericized. There was a thread recently about women who hoover above their loo.
You wear a onesie around the house and write with a biro.

When I was young, it was not always so. Americans novels would have things like 'I saw a Xeroxed copy' and UK people might write 'writing with a Biro ruins a child's handwriting'. My infants school teacher talked about 'seal-o-tape' though.

In theory, @CharlottenBurger, but this isn't Pedants' Corner. If I got out my hoover to do some hoovering, I don't actually mean a Hoover, and really I'm using my vaccuum cleaner to do some vacuum cleaning.

One person's pedantry is another's style preference.

Some American genericizations..we adore them
If when you were a child and cut your toe, your mum would put a bandaid on it ( we don't call them plasters) Not necessarily a Band-Aid, though. Every plaster was called a band-aid
In the days (60s) before there were a zillion different fizzy drinks ( no diet, non-caffiene, etc) whenever anyone ordered a coke at a restaurant or sporting event, the server would ask you what kind of coke you wanted...you'd say something like, ' oh , I'd like a Sprite, please'. In other words, any fizzy drink was called a coke and you needed to then specify which flavour you actually wanted.

Oh, and let's not forget 'q-tip' (earbuds) any cotton covered little stick that you stuck in your ear was a q-tip not a cotton swab.

I worked for Johnson & Johnson ( maker of the real Bandaid) as an adult and it was a mortal sin if you didn't say 'Band-Aid Brand' when referring to J&J plasters!

I could go on, but you get the gist

You missed my point, @CharlottenBurger . My style preference is to not use brand names unless I need to.

I’ve just found something out, age 48. Batteries - on the packaging it tells you what they’re suitable for. I’ve been going through batteries in my computer mouse like water and was complaining to my friend who said “are they the ones meant for clocks and remote controls?” and wtf I just checked and she’s bloody right. No wonder they’re a bit shite.

I have three mice. The one I'm using now has one Duracell Plus AA battery, they usually last about a year, I never bother switching it off using the switch underneath. My husband uses the same model mouse with a laptop, he uses the same battery type, he switches it on and off religiously, they last about a year. The third one has 2 different makes, one is a Kodak Extralife AA from a pound shop, the other is an 'Excell Alkaline', and God knows how long they've been in there. A year I daresay.

"My infants school teacher talked about 'seal-o-tape' though."

Or sticky-back-plastic on the BBC.

No. Sticky-back plastic was not Sellotape. Sticky-back plastic was the big sheets of clear, sticky plastic used to cover books etc. Sticky tape was Sellotape.

Fablon! When I lived in Australia there was a brand of sticky tape called Durex. My supervisor suggested I put an office poster up using 4 bits of Durex.

Q-tip = cotton bud to a Brit. Earbuds are a type of headphone surely?

We used to say "pop" for fizzy drinks. "Council pop" was what my granny called tap water.