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424 points notamy | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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Duanemclemore ◴[] No.41845323[source]
I learned about conkers when I was very young and read the Hitchhikers Guide for the first time...

"We bust our way into a megafreighter I still don't know how, marched on to the bridge waving toy pistols and demanded conkers. A wilder thing I have not known. Lost me a year's pocket money. For what? Conkers.

The captain was this really amazing guy, Yooden Vranx," said Zaphod. "He gave us food, booze - stuff from really weird parts of the Galaxy - lots of conkers, of course, and we had just the most incredible time."

Of course in this well pre-internet age I had to wait literal YEARS to find out what conkers actually WERE. Luckily my aunt was an anglophile and went there six or seven years later. Before she left I asked her to find out what conkers were for me. When she returned she told me what they were and... to be honest I was kinda bummed out it wasn't something more elaborate.

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Symbiote ◴[] No.41845773[source]
Would the word not be in a dictionary?
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1. Sharlin ◴[] No.41846696[source]
I guess it just wasn't worth the effort to check, compared to how easy googling is. Lots of things were like that back then.