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Strange questions that sometimes need answering (or not asking in the first place really).

rob666 said:
You hold prejudice against Bob the Builder?
Best drunken/kids crossover christmas number one ever.
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Bob the Builder had themes in both of his UK Number 1 singles.

"Can We Fix It?" was about collaboration, team work and fixing things.

"Mambo No. 5" had additional themes of self assurance, competence and pride in your work.
 
Because pop music is aimed at fleecing teenage girls out of their pocket money.

My music related question: Why the flying **** do sad songs get so popular?
Obviously they have a place in soundtracks, to set a mood. Or musicals, where they are a character's inner monologue. But who in their right mind chooses to listen to downer, depressing dirges? Music is supposed to be a happy thing! Music is for parties, or cheering yourself up! You know what I don't want to hear when I'm feeling ****? Radiohead.
 
Depends which sad song? Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt is amazing for example. Mainstream sad songs will get popular by being vague enough many people can relate to them.
 
I watch a lot of fellow Lego geeks on youtube. I've noticed something: When people have a spare bit of land to fill in their Lego town, different cultures have their set ways of filling it...

The Americans will fill every last stud with dark grey and call it a "parking lot".
The Canadians will leave the baseplates green and say, "let's build a nice tree to go there, eh?"
The Austrians will fill the town with criminals and police.
The Germans will cram in way too many trains.
The Dutch will, predictably, build canals.
The French will build fairground rides.
The Scots will build trains, and *only* trains.
The Irish will build zoos.
The English will come up with zany cartoony / Pythonesque scenes to fill every last space.

... I'm sure you could read a lot in to that.
 
Bowser said:
America… in a country with places famous for regular tornados, why do so many build their houses out of wood?
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Maybe because many in America are quite poor? There are considerable stretches of poverty in parts of America, particularly areas like the South, despite the country’s wealthy status. With that in mind, I guess wooden houses are all they can afford.

It is a good question, though!
 
Bowser said:
America… in a country with places famous for regular tornados, why do so many build their houses out of wood?
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They have regular tornados, earthquakes and similar diasters, so they build their houses out of wood.

They're quicker and cheaper to rebuild, as @James has already pointed out, but they're also safer when they're being ripped apart by the disaster itself.
 
As a "frontier" nation, developing land is ten times quicker using lumber than stone or brick.

"Build a house in a day" has been a regular frontier standard for a community running to the west...and it was done regularly.
You can't do that with bricks.
Wood construction became the standard through convention.
 
A question directed at our certain avian member...

Old history stuff, why does the term "being bitten by the goose" mean being given the clap?
Were geese identified with loose morals in the past?
Likewise being "goosed".

Any ancestral lights you could shine?
 
rob666 said:
A question directed at our certain avian member...

Old history stuff, why does the term "being bitten by the goose" mean being given the clap?
Were geese identified with loose morals in the past?
Likewise being "goosed".

Any ancestral lights you could shine?
Click to expand...
The connection derives from the term "Winchester goose," which was a historical slang term for a prostitute in the Liberty of Winchester, in Southwark, which was outside the jurisdiction of the city authorities and controlled by the Bishop of Winchester. The women were, for a period, licensed by the Bishop to operate in this area.

"Winchester goose" became synonymous with prostitution, and to be "bitten by a Winchester goose" was to contract a sexually transmitted infection from them. Which is rather offensive to all involved.

Goose was an early British slang word for prostitute, but I can assure you that I haven't waddled the cobbles in years.

One explanation for "goosed" (meaning to be poked or prodded), particularly in the buttocks, suggests it either comes from the resemblance of an upturned thumb to a our beaks or the idea of causing a startlement akin to a goose's sudden peck or hiss.

Given the sexual slang associated with "goose," it's also possible that "goosed" could allude to unwanted or suggestive physical contact, drawing on the historical link between "goose" and sexual activity.

The term "goosebumps" was also, at one point, used as slang for the visible symptoms of some STIs, further cementing the unfortunate link between my kind and venereal disease in historical slang.

We have been historically defamed and it generally isn't very nice.
 
After a conversation I had with my dad recently, I have a couple of random questions regarding football.

Now as someone with little to no interest in football, some may find these questions to have obvious answers, but I’ll ask them nonetheless:
  1. Why is it that the teams have location-based names, but the people in those teams very often aren’t from said location at a higher level of football? At a lower level, “[insert small town here] FC” will normally have people from that town and the surrounding area playing in it, yet that doesn’t translate to the higher level of football. When I was younger, I always assumed that (for example) Manchester United contained the best footballers living in Manchester and the surrounding area, and Liverpool contained the best footballers living in Liverpool and the surrounding area. I’ve always been confused as to why that isn’t the case given the teams’ location-based names.
  2. Why is football so tribal? By that I mean “why do people become so fixated on supporting one team that they’re unable to see positives in others or say anything nice about them?”. For example, my entire paternal male family supports Manchester United. In the past, whenever I’ve made the mistake of saying anything nice about Liverpool, Manchester City or one of Man Utd’s key opponents (e.g. after Liverpool won a big tournament and it was in the news), my dad rebuts me with words to the effect of “wash your mouth out!”. And even though I have little to no interest in football, I would still have to answer “Man Utd” if I was ever asked “Man Utd or Liverpool?” or “Man Utd or Man City?”, as I’d feel a little bit like a family-betraying heretic if I said anything else… the multiple generations of men in my family who support Man Utd have always implied that it runs in my blood! I also seem to remember someone on here saying that a ride like Steel Curtain (themed to the local football team) would never work in Britain because football here is too tribal, and when I once brought up Steel Curtain in a passing conversation with my parents, my mum said “A football-themed ride would never work here. If ever a theme park built a ride themed to Anfield, your father would probably refuse to do anything other than drop his trousers and p*** on it!” (I sense this was in gest, but the sentiment still stands).
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
The connection derives from the term "Winchester goose," which was a historical slang term for a prostitute in the Liberty of Winchester, in Southwark, which was outside the jurisdiction of the city authorities and controlled by the Bishop of Winchester. The women were, for a period, licensed by the Bishop to operate in this area.

"Winchester goose" became synonymous with prostitution, and to be "bitten by a Winchester goose" was to contract a sexually transmitted infection from them. Which is rather offensive to all involved.

Goose was an early British slang word for prostitute, but I can assure you that I haven't waddled the cobbles in years.

One explanation for "goosed" (meaning to be poked or prodded), particularly in the buttocks, suggests it either comes from the resemblance of an upturned thumb to a our beaks or the idea of causing a startlement akin to a goose's sudden peck or hiss.

Given the sexual slang associated with "goose," it's also possible that "goosed" could allude to unwanted or suggestive physical contact, drawing on the historical link between "goose" and sexual activity.

The term "goosebumps" was also, at one point, used as slang for the visible symptoms of some STIs, further cementing the unfortunate link between my kind and venereal disease in historical slang.

We have been historically defamed and it generally isn't very nice.
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I'm a little bit proud I actually *knew* all that goose lore. Had radio 4 on in the background on some random quiz show one day I think
 
Do kids actually like "drill" music, or do they listen to it because they think their friends like it, and/or they think it makes them look hard?

If you are one of the older generations on here that don't know what drill music is, it's a bit like rap but even more ****.
 
Alsty said:
Do kids actually like "drill" music, or do they listen to it because they think their friends like it, and/or they think it makes them look hard?

If you are one of the older generations on here that don't know what drill music is, it's a bit like rap but even more ****.
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I’m a Gen Z person (21 coming 22), and I don’t know what drill music is… does that make me “one of the older generations on here”?

On a serious note, I don’t know. To be fair, I think there’s always an element of “modern music is rubbish” and “music was far better in our day” among older generations; I’m sure your parents said the same about what your generation listened to as teenagers, and my parents certainly said the same about what my generation listened to as teenagers! Perhaps this stuff is just what’s popular among the younger generation nowadays?
 
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