Miscellaneous desk
< December 27	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 28[edit]

Fear of running out of entertainment[edit]

Is there a name for the fear of running out of good books/movies/TV shows/etc to peruse? Like realizing that at some point you'll have watched all the episodes of your favorite show and you'll never get the same enjoyment from them again. I've found abibliophobia but that's only about books and I didn't find anything serious written about it on the Internet.--Spazz — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.140.86.44 (talk) 05:43, 28 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

As with kids who have so much stuff they get bored easily? --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:13, 28 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the opposite of that. 93.140.86.44 (talk) 16:18, 28 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps the Reminiscence bump? With a side order of Declinism. Card Zero (talk) 19:57, 28 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A good thing about being almost paycheck-to-paycheck instead of inheriting $hectomillions on 18th birthday is that when you're middle-aged you can still do things for the first time that you would've done much younger if you had money or at least if Netflix was free. The bad thing about being almost paycheck-to-paycheck is that all those things would've been more fun if you were younger. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 23:25, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Fawlty Towers - "What's a screwdriver?" & "What's a waldorf salad, exactly?"[edit]

In the Fawlty Towers episode Waldorf Salad, Basil was unfamiliar with the drink a screwdriver and the dish a waldorf salad. However, he didn't even ask the American if he mend the tool or the drink or ask "I'm sorry, what's a screwdriver?" and didn't seem to express confusion. And when the Yank asked for a waldorf salad, he didn't ask if that's on the menu or ask "what's a waldorf, exactly?" Why didn't he ask those questions? Was he making fun of the Yank and his English wife or just being funny? And if the Yank asked "Why can't we drink screwdrivers?" after Basil said "Well, you can't drink your screwdrivers, can you?", what would he say? See Fawlty Towers: Screwdriver and "Fix Me A Waldorf Salad" | Fawlty Towers on Youtube. 86.129.82.10 (talk) 21:45, 28 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Basil is the sort of person who never admits he might be wrong or might not know something. That's all. --184.144.97.125 (talk) 22:16, 28 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. If he behaved like a normal person, the show would not have had any point, or been funny. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 00:04, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes and a little bit more than that. He certainly wouldn't have lowered himself to ask a question to someone he considered to be riffraff. --Dweller (talk) Old fashioned is the new thing! 13:32, 29 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Having watched the clips, I think the answer is simply that he's so ignorant that 1: he wouldn't even conceive that a screwdriver was a drink (and therefore jumped to the conclusion that for some reason they wanted the tool), and 2: assumed that a Waldorf Salad was a salad made from waldorfs. And then (as an earlier answer noted) Basil Fawlty is Basil Fawlty, and therefore will not act reasonably and especially won't apologise for or admit to mistakes or ignorance, and won't tell people if there is a problem. (The overarching plot of that episode is that the chef has left and Basil is having to cook for everyone, but he won't admit to that). Iapetus (talk) 11:31, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

To summarize, there is nothing funny per se in someone not knowing what a screwdriver or waldorf salad is. It is funny (peculiar), though, if a pretentious hotel owner with a restaurant is entirely ignorant in the matter. Basil Fawlty is not a likable character. To see his snobby shenanigans continually backfire – without him ever learning anything from it – brings a kind of slapstick nature to the (often rather absurd) course of events that makes them funny (haha). It is, of course, Cleese's delivery that really brings this out. --Lambiam 15:11, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This previous RefDesk thread establishes that a "screwdriver" cocktail is generally called a "vodka and orange" in the UK, but also that the American name for it must have been sufficiently well-known for the British audience to understand the joke. Alansplodge (talk) 17:39, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Brit here. I've never, ever heard the term "Screwdriver" to mean a drink ... except in Fawlty Towers. Unlike, say "Bloody Mary". --Dweller (talk) Old fashioned is the new thing! 09:32, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Dunno about that, I think we understand the joke because we vaguely know that Americans give strange names to mixed drinks, and the guy's wife explains that it means vodka and orange juice in the clip. – filelakeshoe (t / c) 🐱 09:38, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. --Dweller (talk) Old fashioned is the new thing! 10:27, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've added to our article on Screwdriver. [1] --Dweller (talk) Old fashioned is the new thing! 10:33, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Another Brit here - I was familiar with the cocktail called a screwdriver (in theory at least) in the 1970s. --ColinFine (talk) 17:38, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]