I think of this from time to time. Every once in a while I stumble on something that blows my mind. Or I realize that I’m literally the only one who missed out on something and today is the day I catch up. Either way, it’s nearly always interesting.
So here’s a thread for us to share the glory. Either:
A) Share where you fell through the cracks and only just caught up - so we can alternatingly celebrate/mock your achievement
B) Share whatever unexpected thing you encountered today such that the world/universe is not exactly as you thought it was
I recently discovered that Chrysanthemums and Mums are the same flower. WTF EVERYBODY.
I had this idea that Chrysanthemums were some exotic, high class flower (likely the halo effect of chrysanthemum tea) and that Mums were some dollar store varietal you got on Mother’s Day if you didn’t know one flower from another.
I put this together myself in a moment of chrysanthemum…chrysanthemum…mum… mum… “EVERYBODY STOP, I HAVE A QUESTION.”
On the other side, did anyone know there are no snakes in New Zealand?
It feels like a snakey place. Who are our kiwis? @Chewy77? @Phil? I don’t always keep our geography straight. And it’s right next to one of the snakiest places on Earth!
It wasn’t until I watched reviews for Wingspan: Americas Expansion that I learned hummingbirds are only native to the Americas. I live in the Americas, so I was biased.
It wasn’t until I was doing research for an rpg scenario that I learned kingfishers were a global family and not restricted to Australia. I don’t know why I had it in my head they were only in Australia. Obviously, I’m not a bird guy.
I was so surprised to see hummingbirds in Canada! I’d previously assumed that they were tropical birds. My housemates were very surprised that I’d never seen wild quail, either, and wanted to know whether in the UK we had:
I was roughly 47 when I realised ‘vanguard’ meant being right at the front instead of out to one side, as I had previously believed. Very glad I never volunteered.
I have reached a stage in life where I feel secure enough to say ‘I don’t know what that means’ rather than pretending I do. Only took me nearly half a century to reach this point.
The other day, I was thinking about the tendency for people to say, “Good luck” to an opponent before a game.
I’ve always thought this was odd and sort of disingenuous. One of the conceits of competition is for all parties to do their best- so wishing someone else a better chance to win? That doesn’t make sense.
And then I realized, quite suddenly, that telling someone “good luck” before going into a competition scenario is likely more along the lines of “don’t have bad luck, because if I win, I don’t want my victory to feel lessened because you rolled your ankle or got something in your eye”. I mean, generally speaking, that sounds meaner than is intended, but it boils down to “may the best drummer† win”
†: Assuming we’re talking about a drumming contest
Basically a default assumption in most conversations as far as I can tell. Any deviation from “drumming contest” would have to be explicitly stated within the context of the conversation to avoid confusion.
Confirming no land snakes in NZ :). Despite that bit of red on that map cutting across the top of the country. There are sea snakes. We also have plenty of lizards. And we have the Tuatara which is a very interesting reptile (it’ll crop up in most lists of so-called “living dinosaurs”).
Looking at that map, the lack of snakes in NZ seems less surprising to me than the lack of snakes in regions that have land borders with regions which have snakes! But I can also confirm that Australia has a much hotter climate than NZ, which rather looks like a defining characteristic of “regions with snakes”.
Islands like Hawaii only have snakes because some humans brought them there. Given how they can decimate local bird populations (eggs are built to be eaten by snakes), if the land of kiwis had snakes, there would be no kiwis, I’d imagine.
Snakes definitely wouldn’t help! There are plenty of other introduced predators having a go, though. Whether through hunting or introduced species, humans are responsible for about half of NZ’s flightless bird species having been wiped out, and the rest being generally endangered.
Sort of. Paprika is dried and ground red peppers. Which peppers depends on how spicy it is supposed to be. Dolce paprika probably contains bell peppers, because they have lots of other flavors, and no capsaicin. But the dolce paprika in my spice rack definitely has some heat. The other paprikas I have ( at least three…) are not made from bell peppers , and range from mild to almost hot.
The stuff my wife’s relatives in Serbia made from the peppers they grew was pretty hot, even by my standards.
