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I have to give them credit, they actually consulted a real expert whilst they were drunk. Most people don't, not even sober
To be fair, "do hummingbirds have feet" seems eminently wikipediable. I'd like to think that if I ever felt the need to drunk-dial an expert, it'd be for something less trivial.
seems eminently wikipediable
Telephones existed for a century before wikkipedia...
In the before times: The guinness book of records started as a promo by the guinness brewery given to pub owners to settle bar argumnets like this one.
TIL: Guinness Book of World Records origin story is the same as a D&D campaign: started in a tavern.
All great things start in a bar. Or coffee shop. Or in the shower. Or in a dream. But never in a meeting.
isnt a a bar evening just an optional meeting with no agenda and alcohol?
I mean... You could try a tea shop! Usually have good pastries too
Not even 20 years ago smart phones and the internet weren't ubiquitous. I'm only 35 but even I remember personal stories about bar disagreements where we just simply couldn't use our phones to search the net. Because all they were capable of is dialing a number and Snake.
Way back in the 1950s some guy had the same observation you did. He came up with an idea for a book that would solve disputes over trivia by bar patrons. 70 years later the Guinness Book of World Records has over 22,000 entries in their database.
began as an idea conceived by British engineer and industrialist Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, to solve trivia questions among bar patrons. During the early 1950s Beaver was involved in a dispute during a shooting party about the fastest game bird in Europe; however, the answer could not be found in any bird reference book.
Wow. That guy sure was serious about bird trivia!
When we kids there would always be someone who would rush home to look stuff up on the encyclopedia and get back with the results
I read that as "capable of dialing Snake"...
Snake? Snake! SNAAAAAKE! DO HUMMINGBIRDS HAVE FEET?
I remember predicting that smart phones would kill the good old fashioned bar debate. I think I was right.
I'm around the same age and I'm pretty sure we had Google on our phones by the time we could drink. That was the in between time where they still had buttons, but they had browsers and colorful screens. First iPhone released in 07. We were pretty much the first ones to have 'smartish' phones, though, so some people definitely still had snake bricks.
I think most people also still weren't used to having the world's knowledge in their pockets and would forget that Google was even there, too. It's crazy how easily urban legends and false rumors spread around back then, before everybody knew how to fact check. I remember some particularly interesting ones about Marilyn Manson and Lil Bow Wow.
In many European countries the drinking age is 18 and in some the drinking age for beer and wine is 16. So we could be talking about as early as 2004.
I was legally allowed to drink beer in 1985 with 16. I had my first mobile phone in 1997 or so.
Yeah, fuck, I'm old.
But I definitely had bar trivia discussions before I was online.
Exactly. Our legal drinking age is 18, but we were binge drinking every Friday from the age of 15. Not one bartender gives a shit here. At least back in the day. That's 2003-2004.
But they don't just want the answer, they want to share an experience with the people they're with in a clever and fun way.
There's nothing trivial about bar room disagreements. People die over those. That professor just saved someone's life.
To be fair, there's no time period listed on when the event described allegedly occurred and Wikipedia hasn't always existed.
You're that guy who posts lmgtfy links anytime someone asks for an opinion on something, aren't you?
There is an episode of HIMYM where they are in a similar situation. Before the smart phones they would argue over some things for days, now they just check it in 10 seconds. No fun.