Things that are common in fiction but not in your real life

[Apache]

Originally Posted by meeera

Tomato soup and grilled cheese is a common quick comfort food in my house - tomato soup is quick and easy to make with cupboard ingredients (tinned tomatoes, spices, an onion etc), and the meal as a whole is tasty and filling and includes several food groups.

My mother used to serve it for lunch when I was a child. It is probably why I hate tomato soup.
Apache

[Apache]

Originally Posted by meeera

As someone with judo training, I'm good with non-lethal strangulation if the strangler knows what they're doing. It's not that complicated. And it doesn't work by cutting off air.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Though usually in books and real life the stranglers don't have Judo training.

It is not just Judo that teaches how to incapacitate. Most school's of self defense, Eastern and Western, Teach this. It works by cutting the blood supply off to the brain. It can produce unconsciousness in 7 seconds. A few seconds to long and it can kill. Done properly there is no defense against it, once it has been applied.
Apache

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Apache

It is not just Judo that teaches how to incapacitate. Most school's of self defense, Eastern and Western,

Yes, that's why I specified "if the strangler knows what they're doing". Many many types of training include quick quiet strangulation. It's all sorts of useful. It takes more than "a few seconds" too long to be lethal, though, unless "few" is much bigger for you than it is for me.

My usual problem with visual fiction is that the strangler leaves off far too early to be sure the stranglee won't just pop back up perfectly fine.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by meeera

Weird hill to die on. All existing shades of human skin are natural (except perhaps a certain orange). Paler skins evolved naturally in higher latitudes because the paler people made more Vitamin D.

Agreed. But the Western Media suggests differently.

It depends exactly what you mean by natural, too. Albinos occur naturally, but it's not a naturally ideal situation.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Thought this might be a fun topic. I'm not talking about things that are actually incorrect, impossible or sci-fi/fantasy, but things that could be real and seem common in general fiction but you never or hardly ever see them in your own day-to-day life.

Some random examples from my own reading:

Why do women in books wear yellow so often, regardless of their own coloring? It's not a color that looks good on just anybody. I don't notice a lot of women wearing yellow IRL.


What's up with all the people in books pinching the bridge of their nose when under stress? I've never noticed anyone in real life doing this.

Originally Posted by meeera

Yellow looks terrific on a lot of people who don't have pale skin, which is the vast majority of the world's population, so I don't see why that's odd.

Pinching your nose - sure, I would have thought most spectacle wearers would recognise this? It's not pinching your nostrils shut or anything, it's a sort of pinched-hand lifting-your-glasses action. Less of a stress action and more of a frustration thing.

Sure, there are people who look good in yellow. That's why I said "regardless of their coloring". Women in books seem to wear yellow a lot no matter what the woman looks like, even if the color would probably look bad on them.

I wonder if writers just figure that naming a bright color is more likely to put an image in the reader's mind?

I agree about the glasses thing (I wear glasses myself). But people in books seem to pinch the bridge of their nose all the time as a sign of stress. Most of these characters don't even wear glasses. That's why I find it strange.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Agreed. But the Western Media suggests differently.

It depends exactly what you mean by natural, too. Albinos occur naturally, but it's not a naturally ideal situation.

Your claim was that "darker skin [is] the normal, natural human colour". That's just tosh, and that's the politest word I could think of for the claim. Human skin occurs both normally and naturally in a range of shades from an almost-black brown to a very pale pinky-peach. None of this was the result of purposeful genetic manipulation or intervention, so yeah, it's natural by any definition of the word that I can imagine being reasonable.

Albinism occurs naturally also, but it's obviously not a typical feature of any given population. (I'm not going to get into the issues with constructions of "normality" here.)

[Catlady]

I'm wondering where you folks are finding all these books with yellow-garbed women eating tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I've never noticed one in my fiction reading, but as such a person would not seem at all remarkable to me (though I might worry about sloppy eating resulting in tomato stains on that yellow outfit), perhaps they've been there all along.

For the record, I like yellow just as well as any other color, and despite my tendency to be highly judgmental, I can't say I've ever looked at anyone wearing it and thought: Yellow! Ugh! Also for the record, my favorite school lunch on rainy days was a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich made with American cheese and white bread.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I'm wondering where you folks are finding all these books with yellow-garbed women eating tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I've never noticed one in my fiction reading, but as such a person would not seem at all remarkable to me (though I might worry about sloppy eating resulting in tomato stains on that yellow outfit), perhaps they've been there all along.

For the record, I like yellow just as well as any other color, and despite my tendency to be highly judgmental, I can't say I've ever looked at anyone wearing it and thought: Yellow! Ugh! Also for the record, my favorite school lunch on rainy days was a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich made with American cheese and white bread.

I must be from the wrong generation and/or region as to the tomato soup + cheese sandwich thing, given the number of people in this thread who do report seeing this either now or in the past. Or maybe it was a thing but my mom just didn't like it so she never made it

I've been in restaurants that offer a soup & sandwich combo but I've never noticed it being tomato soup & grilled cheese specifically.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I must be from the wrong generation and/or region as to the tomato soup + cheese sandwich thing, given the number of people in this thread who do report seeing this either now or in the past. Or maybe it was a thing but my mom just didn't like it so she never made it

I think they had deprived childhoods; my to-die-for lunch was Kraft macaroni and cheese and fish sticks. Although I do remember floating a square cracker in tomato soup and pushing it around and under until it got soggy.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Quoth

3) People just asking for a beer, whiskey. They use brands. They MIGHT simply ask for a Martini, sherry, port, glass of red house wine etc as an ordinary bar or ordinary restaurant might not have varieties.

Around here in the Netherlands it's quite normal to ask for 'a beer' in a random bar, which would get you the house lager. Beer specialty bars would frown on it, though I agree with you on the whisky, that doesn't happen.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by guanaco

A man wakes up, brushes their teeth first, and then has breakfast.

That's how I have been doing it all my life...

[ownedbycats]

Something i've seen in a few books (and fanfiction but also books) is when CPR is done on somebody who is not breathing and there are no broken ribs or other problems.

Even better is when the CPR giver only does it for a minute and then if the person doesn't immediately get up they give up and go "it's too late, they're dead"! At least wait until the ambulance shows up!

[Apache]

I brush my teeth as soon as I get up, but since I do not eat breakfast it doesn't matter.
I read something not to long ago that said you should not brush your teeth immediately after eating. It had something to do with acidic food weakening the enamel.
Apache

[Pulpmeister]

Finding a parking space in a city, exactly where you want to go.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Apache

I brush my teeth as soon as I get up, but since I do not eat breakfast it doesn't matter.
I read something not to long ago that said you should not brush your teeth immediately after eating. It had something to do with acidic food weakening the enamel.
Apache

Well, not eating breakfast is also considered harmful.

I brush my teeth some time after breakfast, not immediately. That is, if I eat breakfast at all; often I eat my main daily meal instead of breakfast (yes, my daily routine fluctuates pretty wildly - sometimes I sleep at night, sometimes during the day and so on. Which is apparently very harmful also, but I have lived this way for 30 years. Still alive and kicking.).