Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Devious Little Imps OR This Is Not a Conspiracy


Have you ever been to CVS, looking for your specific brand of whatever (skin care products, hair products, etc.) and after making your purchases discovered that instead of what you went in there to get you actually purchased a CVS lookalike? Isn't that just the worst feeling of disappointment ever? I think yes.

 It is really important to pick the best quality chocolate coins. Seriously.

It's a rather devious tactic used by CVS to create their own brand of the products that people know and love and then specifically design the packaging so that it looks almost exactly like the name brand products you were probably searching for. And if you're in a hurry or weren't paying particular attention and just grabbed whatever bottle or box looked familiar, then you might find yourself disappointed with your purchases.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

“Frankly My Dear...”


“...I don't give a damn.” You know this quote because it is famous and not only that, but over the years it has become quite iconic. But can you name which movie it came from? I can. It comes from Gone with the Wind, the film adaptation of a novel by the same name. But my knowledge ends there because other than the fact that Clark Gable's character says this to Scarlet O'Hara, I have absolutely no context for the quote because I have never seen this movie.

 Not giving a damn must be nice.

There are other iconic film quotes out there. “I believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” came from the movie Casablanca. And while I've actually seen this movie and know the context for the quote, there are plenty of other people out there that have not seen it.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Reversal Demon And The Primo Heathen


There are some pretty ridiculous band names out there. Some of my favorites include Throw Me the Statue, Fall on Your Sword, and The Phenomenal Handclap Band. And there are plenty more out there, these are just ones I can think of off the top of my head. So why all the weird names?

 The delightful ABBA.

I think that there are two factors at play here. One is originality and the other is...originality. Let me explain. There are an awful lot of bands out there, which means that an awful lot of band names are already taken. If you're a band on the rise I guess you could use your own names, but even those can repeat. I heard somewhere that David Bowie is not actually David Bowie, but had to change his name because some other famous singer had his real name (Davie Jones or some such; I'm not particularly familiar). And if everyone just used their given names for a band title, not only would that result in a super long string of names (for everyone in the band, naturally), but it would also get super boring.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Language Oops, and Some More Serial Killers, and the Spoken Language, and Other Stuff Too


Ever have one of those moments when you intend to say something and it sounds right in your head, but when you say it out loud it just comes out all wrong? This is the land of the “that's what she said” jokes and endless mockery from friends, naturally. I have fallen victim to this myself, like the one time I was debating whether to say “hold your horses” or “chill out” and I ended up saying “chill your horses.” That might not sound funny to you now, but I guess it's just one of those “you had to be there” things. And I do this all the time. Perhaps the reason I have so many language blunders is because English is my second language, though considering how long I've been speaking it, maybe I'm just an awkward person.

But I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one. Like this entertaining image I found on tumblr some time ago.


So I guess this also applies to the malleable nature of Wikipedia.