Ohhh... NOW I get it!

Have any of you ever had weird misunderstandings from your childhood that you don't figure out until years later? Or maybe a joke you hear as a kid, and you laugh to be polite even though you don't understand it, and then one day, about a decade later, your mind is wandering and all of a sudden you're like "Oh, wait! NOW I get it!"

I think there are a few band names and song names that are puns, or have double meanings, or stuff like that, where I wasn't aware of the secondary meaning until long after I had first heard of them. For instance, I'm pretty sure the first time I heard of Adam Ant, I was about 8 years old. It probably wasn't until many years later that for whatever reason, I happened upon his name again, and I was like "Ohhh! Like the adjective 'adamant'!"

Similar things happened with the name of the band who did the song Funkytown. Their name is Lipps Inc. I think it wasn't until sometime in the current millennium that I said their name out loud and realized "Oh! Like 'lip sync'!"

In addition, I'm sure it took a long time before it dawned on me that the title of the reggae-influenced Led Zeppelin song D'Yer Maker, if said with the appropriate accent, sounds like "Jamaica", and that that was the whole point.

And I can also remember, as a small child, being vaguely confused and frustrated by the nursery rhyme about Solomon Grundy. The puzzle worked on me at that young age; I was honestly under the impression that Solomon Grundy must have been some strange otherworldly character who inexplicably led life at a magically sped-up pace. I guess it just so happened that it wasn't explained to me when I was very young, and then of course, nursery rhymes being what they are, I probably never encountered the story of Solomon Grundy again for years and years afterwards. I think I was about 14 or so when one day, for whatever random reason, I happened to encounter that nursery rhyme again, at which point it clicked. "Oh! I get it! Not necessarily the very next Wednesday!"

I'm sure everyone has examples in their own life. This is somewhat reminiscent of the very entertaining website I Used To Believe, which is about childhood misconceptions, but I'm talking about something slightly more specific: not just a weird idea you have as a kid, but something that escapes or eludes you as a child because it's just a little bit too subtle, and then literally years later, you happen to be thinking about the topic again, and then it clicks. Do you know what I mean?

Superlatives

Among all the human beings who have ever lived:

1. Who has been photographed the most?

2. Who has been caricatured the most by cartoonists?

3. Who has been on television for the greatest number of hours?

4. Who has been physically seen in person by the greatest number of people?

Obviously, it might be difficult or impossible to give precise definitive answers to these questions, but here's what some folks have claimed:

1. Princess Diana

2. Richard Nixon

3. Regis Philbin

4. Pope John Paul II

I have a hard time believing Regis beat out Johnny Carson, but apparently in August 2004 the Guinness Records people officially recognized Reege for "most hours on camera".

As for #2, probably George W. Bush is giving Tricky Dick a run for his money. For #4, I imagine Queen Elizabeth II puts up some respectable numbers -- and come to think of it, so would any entertainment personality with a long career performing in front of very large crowds -- e.g. Bono, Elton John, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, etc.