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The Girl with the Unnecessary Title Change

July 25, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT224 •••

To add to last week’s conjecture about the reason for the BLATANT MISTRANSLATION of the Millennium Trilogy’s titles, Jessica writes:

I thought that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo didn’t use the original name Men Who Hate Women in English because there is a self help book for women in abusive relationships with a similar name already: Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: When Love Hurts and You Don’t Know Why.

Could get confusing!

Sure…but if people are liable to confuse a 10-year-old self help book with a Scandinavian crime novel/publishing phenomenon, then they probably aren’t all too likely to be able to get through either book, are they? Similarly, anybody who bought a copy of The Holy Bible by the Manics and sprinted back to Our Price the following day shouting, “I thought I was buying an audiobook of a sacred text, you bastards!” needs to have their credit cards impounded.

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Killer Net U

July 18, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT223 •••

I’m surprised to discover that it is not only Olly who decides his tertiary education venue via late-90s TV dramas, as recounted in AMT222; Phil from Biggleswade is also that sort of reckless student:

I too was gripped and thrilled by 1998 classic Killer Net, starring Paul Bettany (the albino goddy bloke in Tom Hanks’ factual exposé “The Da Vinci Code”, and the voice of Robert Downey Jr’s computer in the Iron Man films) and in fact have strong recollection of recording this onto a VHS cassette which I believe is still living in a box at my mother’s house “just in case I need to re-watch it one day.”

Rather sensationally, my top choice was the University of Surrey in Guildford, where incidentally the university scenes of Killer Net were filmed despite the rest of the series being shot in Brighton. Rather like Olly, the decision to apply there may have been influenced at least in part by the Channel 4 blockbuster, as well as the awesome Jim Al-Khalili and the great reputation for physics.

A young (25 years old!) colleague of mine stared at me in disbelief when I mentioned that I still have old VHS tapes sitting in a box somewhere and so please answer me this: do you still cling onto articles of yesteryear technology (such as VHS cassettes) ‘just in case’ you might want to revisit them?

Of course! A box of videos still resides beneath the sofa (including Tom Waits’s Big Time and the BBC adaptation of The Box of Delights), but we no longer have a video player. I have, however, disposed of my minidiscs.

Readers, tell us in the comments what you’ve got stashed away, just in case you wake up one day and the past twenty years’ technological advances are wiped from history.

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Disney castles

July 18, 2012

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Apropos of the prime real estate that is the Disney castles, as discussed in AMT223, Peter from Oxford writes:

The different Disneylands have different castles. Whilst Olly is very correct in saying that Disneyland (as in the California one) is Sleeping Beauty’s castle, as does EuroDisney (her European holiday home perhaps), Disney World Florida has Cinderella’s castle.

But – but – Cinderella doesn’t have a castle! She’s a kitchen slave! Therefore, in the interests of accuracy, Disney World Florida ought to bulldoze the castle and replace it with ‘Cinderella’s dank basement kitchen and scullery’. The kids are gonna love it.

The kids are definitely gonna love Chris from Belfast, who has been in touch to tell us how one can become a real Disney princess for the night! He writes:

I just thought I would let Olly know, as he loves all things Disney, that the castle in Walt Disney World houses an apartment that you can stay in for a night, as is usually offered in Disney competitions.

Wow. Check out the photos. Olly has pinned them on his inspiration board for when he redecorates his bedroom.

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT223 •••

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“Hard day at the office, dear?”

July 4, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT221 •••

Our pornography expert listeners have written in to elaborate upon the origins of the money shot. Dennis says:

In a porn film, it’s called the money shot not because it cost the most but because unless the male star ejaculates he doesn’t get paid; they will then call on a ‘stunt cock’ who will knock one out and claim the money. Hardly seems fair, but all male porn stars know this when they sign on.

Kristian adds:

‘Money shot’ has come to mean a scene that is disproportionately expensive to the rest of the production. When studios make use of a ‘stunt cock’ where an actor finds he cannot deliver, it raises the cost of that final scene due to the extra expense of the ‘stunt cock’. You actually get more money for the moment of ejaculation than the rest of your contract, as it is after all what the audience is paying for.

Stunt cock sounds like a wonderfully edifying career with great security and plenty opportunity for personal growth.

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man on pole

July 4, 2012

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Following Eleanor from Norwich‘s request in AMT221 that we desexify pole dancing, Jay in Manchester has been in touch to say that not only is pole dancing NOT SEXY, it’s also NOT GIRLY:

I thought I’d let you know that a lot more guys do pole dancing than you might think! Though I agree with Eleanor that pole dancing is very sporty and requires exceptional core muscle strength, it does need more recognition as a great non-slutty sport which has the side benefits of transferable skills in the bedroom.

I’m sure many people wouldn’t find this sexy, but I include a video of my boyfriend from some years ago and I find it delightful to watch. I’d recommend that you put this up on your website too to try and break the perception that pole dancing is a supremely girly thing to do.

As footsoldiers in the war for gender equality, we oblige:

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double-ended ice cream

July 4, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT221 •••

Sam in Sheffield‘s question about icecreamlollies has dredged up your childhood memories of this icy compound; but none can agree on the correct terminology. Says Chris in Worcester:

An ice cream with an ice lolly plonked in the top is known as a Popeye and they’re not a new thing. I used to have them all the time from the ice cream van growing up in the 80’s in sunny East Grinstead.

However Dave refutes:

I can confirm that ice creams with rocket lollies in them were available from any reputable ice cream man in Portsmouth in the 70s. They were either referred to as Witch’s Hats (because upside down the the rocket lolly looked a little like a persons silhouette and the cone like a pointy hat) or Pokey Hats (presumably because it was a lolly poked in an ice cream cone).

I don’t want to cloud the pool of evidence, but I saw this last Sunday on an ice cream van in north London and now I don’t know who or what to believe:

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rusty sweat

June 27, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT220 •••

Demetrios has been in touch with a pH-interesting response to AMT220:

In reference to Rory Gallagher’s guitar and the question of rusting sweat, there is a phenomenon of people whose sweat is particularly rust-inducing. They are called, creatively, “Rusters”, and though I am not one, I know of some Rusters who can’t safely handle metal, because the surface of whatever they’re holding will actually begin to oxidize slightly if held long enough.

I have not researched this before, but a brief Google search yields two articles from 1979 in the Acta Dermato-Venereologica which test and confirm a subtle degree of corrosion in low-copper metals from palmar sweat. Certainly, the effect is weak, and does not necessarily translate to corrosion of guitar-surface lacquer, the chemistry of which I don’t know.

Personally, I think that the power to very, very slowly degrade metal is a lame mutant power, and should be the basis for a super team called “The Corroders”.

Well the craze for superhero films is showing few signs of waning, so readers, go to the comments, write the plot summary for the first installment of the potential Corroders franchise, and we’ll send out a pitch to the Weinsteins.

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Power Plate proponent

June 19, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT219 •••

It’s not the proper peer-reviewed scientific study of the efficacy of Power Plate for which we asked at the end of AMT219, but it certainly is a ringing endorsement from Rebecca from Loughton:

I have been using Power Plate for a few months and it definately does work with toning! You don’t just stand on it but perform exercises and specifically ones which strengthen your core so it really does make a difference. I for one have lost a stone which I hadn’t done with similar exercise alone!

The evidence is persuasive, but where’s your control experiment, Rebecca? We cannot grant our approval to Power Plate until we have seen the alterna-universe Rebeccas from Loughton, one of whom who spent the same year not doing anything different to usual, and the other doing the same exercises on a non-vibrating plate. Ask them to write in.

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LMFAO-levels

June 12, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT218 •••

Following our discussion of LMFAO’s ‘Sexy and I know it’ in AMT215, Ashlyns School felt moved to share their sixth form leavers’ video with us. Enjoy their exuberance, but don’t have inappropriate feelings about a bunch of schoolchildren proclaiming their own sexiness and knowledge thereof, OK? OK.

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1upmanship

June 12, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT218 •••

Lucky for us, Finlay from Edinburgh but now in Tokyo speaks fluent Super Mario:

In the latest podcast you mentioned the phrase “1-up”. This is a classic example of Japanese English: basically, when the Japanese borrow words from English, sometimes the meanings change.

In this case, the Japanese word(s) for “up”, usually represented by the character 上 (down is 下, in case you were wondering), have a wider range of meanings than the English word “up”, including things like go up, increase, get up, over, on, and so on. When they borrowed the English word “up”, it was applied to a wider range of meanings, in this case particularly the one meaning “increase”. Another word that was changed is “get”; they use it when they achieve something.

Some of these phrases eventually filter back into English, so you often see 1UP and GET in videogames, and internet denizens sometimes use get in phrases like FIRST POST GET!!

And that is today’s lesson about linguistic borrowing. We’re all learning through play, we really are.

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Singin’ in the WHAT NOW????

June 7, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT217 •••

Apropos of last week’s question about the water in Singin’ in the Rain, John writes in to tell us something which, in its own way, explains why the hosepipe ban might not pertain:

As a painter in theatre, I meet a lot of crew with many and varied stories about theatre, T.V. and rock stars. My friend Steve was a member of the crew of the touring version of Singin’ In The Rain which led directly to the West End revival; he is usually a reliable source, and tells me that one of the stars was such a massive cock that a part of the set-up in any new venue was for the amassed crew to meet in the fly tower to piss in the water tank.

The tour consisted of 64 dates of being pissed-on in the rain.

Readers, if you’re thinking of attending a watery stage show, do NOT sit near the front.

Do not get a job in the orchestra pit either; those poor guys are effectively working in a latrine.

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No job for Garry’s knob

June 6, 2012

••• CLICK HERE FOR AMT217 •••

On the subject of unfortunate postal dispatches as contemplated in AMT216, Garry from Sussex has a tale from which we learn to exercise caution when recycling stationery:

As an art student I agreed to be a nudey photo model for a fellow student. Soon after she gave me a sheet of contact prints in a large brown envelope.

Some time after that I was applying for a job – back in the days when they asked you to send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to put your application form in.

I was at first a little nonplussed when I was sent an application form with a sheet of pictures of me with my knob out – how on earth did they get them? I thought.

Don’t seem to recall getting the job.

I’m surprised – I thought we were always being told to make our CVs and covering letters stand out! As it were.

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