# Examples of actual knowledge disseminated by pop culture? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384 "2006-08-12T01:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/41 "2006-08-13T05:32:11Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] This isn’t really “popular” culture but knowing that Oliver Cromwell was born in 1599 and died in 1658 really helped me with my English History dates, both in social studies and literature classes. This is from a Monty Python song about Oliver Cromwell called…“Oliver Cromwell” 🙂 I think “Holy Grail” also helped me get through Authurian legends in English Lit in 10th grade. [/QUOTE] I got my English civil war History thanks to Benny Hill!: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mXBIfya-prs/hqdefault.jpg "The Messenger - El Mensajero (Benny Hill)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXBIfya-prs) The Roundheads was the nickname given to supporters of Parliament in the English Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/42 "2006-08-13T06:23:33Z")
“Follow the Drinking Gourd” ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/43 "2006-08-13T07:24:22Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] I would have gone through life content to remember only the first two decimal places if it weren’t for a mock football cheer for the math department: _Secant, tangent, cosine, sine 3.14159 Yay, team!_ [/QUOTE] And it keeps on giving…I just learned how to pronouce sine because of that. It’s not seen or sin-ay or sin-nee. A math moron, I have no idea what any of those terms mean ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/44 "2006-08-13T08:41:56Z")
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou] I always say, “Yes, I love \*Beverly Hills Cop \* too!” [/QUOTE] But not _Beverly Hills Cop II_, one hopes. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/45 "2006-08-13T12:02:05Z")
I’ll bet the only thing a lot of people know about Albania is from Coach’s song on “Cheers”. “Albania, Albania, you border on the Adriatic. Your land is mostly mountainous, and your chief export is chrome.” And the part about the chrome is false. According to the [CIA factbook](https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/al.html#Econ) the chief exports of Albania are textiles and footwear. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/46 "2006-08-13T14:41:11Z")
_Trompe le Monde_ by the Pixies taught me about Alexandre Eiffel, the Olympus Mons, and, of course, UMass. It also helped me remember that Distance = Rate X Time. Thank you, Pixies. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/47 "2006-08-13T14:47:11Z")
I was a big hit in my Algebra class this last spring, when we talked about Pi, and I came back with 3.14159265. It’s because of a Type O Negative song. Who Will Save the Sane? Great song. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/48 "2006-08-13T15:34:25Z")
[QUOTE=Misnomer] Which is neither the spelling in the name of the poem nor in the name of the song. Regardless of what the word means, “rime” is correct. [/QUOTE] Yes, I know. The person I was replying to only mentioned the one definition instead of mentioning that it was likely just using the variant spelling of rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/49 "2006-08-13T17:10:41Z")
“The Elements” by Tom Lehrer. “There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium, And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium, Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium (inhale) And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.” It goes on like that, set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune, and names all the elements that were known to exist in 1959 when he recorded the song. He made 'em all rhyme and scan, but that means they’re not in periodical table order. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/50 "2006-08-14T00:50:31Z")
[QUOTE=Bill Door] And the part about the chrome is false. According to the [CIA factbook](https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/al.html#Econ) the chief exports of Albania are textiles and footwear. [/QUOTE] “Your chief exports are textiles and footwear” doesn’t really fit the rhythm of _When the Saints Go Marching In_. Then again, neither does “You were annexed by Italy in 1939,” “You have a two-headed eagle on your flag,” and other things about Albania that actually _are_ true. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/51 "2006-08-14T02:33:49Z")
I wouldn’t have known James Belushi was of Albanian extraction if it weren’t for _Wag The Dog._ ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/52 "2006-08-14T17:27:18Z")
The CIA also says Albania exports metals and metallic ores. Isn’t chrome a metal? ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/53 "2006-08-14T17:41:47Z")
A lot of people wouldn’t have known about the sinking of the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ in a storm if it weren’t for Gordon Lightfoot. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/54 "2006-08-14T17:52:26Z")
[QUOTE=mrklutz] A lot of people wouldn’t have known about the sinking of the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ in a storm if it weren’t for Gordon Lightfoot. [/QUOTE] I know about that sinking, in a round-about-way, because of Paul Gross and Due South. One episode, Mounty on the Bounty, involved pirates on the Great Lakes using a stolen freighter masquerading as the infamous Robert MacKenzie (which had been shipwrecked with all hands lost in a storm). At one point in the episode, Fraser tells the story of what happened to the Robert MacKenzie, and there was also a song about it (sung by Gross) that played during the final action sequence of the episode (that action sequence, like much of the 3rd and 4th seasons of Due South, was delightfully sureal, BTW). Anyhow, the Robert MacKenzie was basically the Edmund Fitzgerald, Paul Gross changed the name out of respect for the families of the crew. If you can, get a hold of Paul Gross’s song “32 Down On the Robert MacKenzie”, it’s a great song. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/55 "2006-08-14T17:57:18Z")
[QUOTE=mrklutz] A lot of people wouldn’t have known about the sinking of the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ in a storm if it weren’t for Gordon Lightfoot. [/QUOTE] Yes, but a lot of those people think Lightfoot is singing about an event that took place at least 100 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/56 "2006-08-14T18:17:38Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] I know about that sinking, in a round-about-way, because of Paul Gross and Due South. One episode, Mounty on the Bounty, involved pirates on the Great Lakes using a stolen freighter masquerading as the infamous Robert MacKenzie (which had been shipwrecked with all hands lost in a storm). At one point in the episode, Fraser tells the story of what happened to the Robert MacKenzie, and there was also a song about it (sung by Gross) that played during the final action sequence of the episode (that action sequence, like much of the 3rd and 4th seasons of Due South, was delightfully sureal, BTW). Anyhow, the Robert MacKenzie was basically the Edmund Fitzgerald, Paul Gross changed the name out of respect for the families of the crew. If you can, get a hold of Paul Gross’s song “32 Down On the Robert MacKenzie”, it’s a great song. [/QUOTE] Wow. I’ve never even heard of “Due South”, other than “I think that guy from ‘Slings & Arrows’ is on it, right?” but your post really, really, really makes me want to go find out more about it. Is it on DVD? US or Canadian? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/57 "2006-08-14T20:04:16Z")
“Inherit The Wind” is a good fictionalization of The Scopes Trial. The movie “A Cry in The Dark” starring Meryl Streep gave us Mericans an insite into the Lyndsey Chamberlain trial, and that immortal phase “The dingo ate your baby.” ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/58 "2006-08-14T20:48:31Z")
Many people who don’t follow sports nevertheless know from Steely Dan’s _Deacon Blues_ that “They call Alabama the Crimson Tide.” ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/59 "2006-08-14T21:00:27Z")
[QUOTE=Tracy Lord] Wow. I’ve never even heard of “Due South”, other than “I think that guy from ‘Slings & Arrows’ is on it, right?” but your post really, really, really makes me want to go find out more about it. Is it on DVD? US or Canadian? [/QUOTE] Dunno about Slings and Arrows, but yeah, Due South is a great show. One of the best Canadian cop shows they ever made. It’s on DVD both in the US and Canada, but both DVD releases are kidna sub-par as far as these things go (yay lowest bidder!). The Canadian sets are more expensive, and slighly higher in quality, but the American sets actually include the pilot movie with the first season (while the Canadian sets, for no discernable reason, include the pilot with the _third_ season DVD set). Very very good show, either way, and I doubt any slighly deficient video quality will detract from the excellent writing and awesome dialogue of the show. 😃 Depending on the episode, or even the part of the episode, the show shifts back and forth between comedy, serious drama, and surealism, while the pilot movie is mostly drama with comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/60 "2006-08-14T21:07:17Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] The CIA also says Albania exports metals and metallic ores. Isn’t chrome a metal? [/QUOTE] Chrome is indeed a metal, but it’s hardly the chief export of Albania. [This website](http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-226.html) cites the fact that “Despite its reported profitability, the chromium industry suffered from a lack of worker incentive because miners frequently went unpaid. In 1991 one of Albania’s top economists revealed that the country had never earned more than US$60 million a year from chrome exports.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384.md?page=4)