# Got any weird but true trivia? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 30, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158 "2003-03-30T04:10:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MSU\_1978](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@MSU\_1978](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MSU_1978)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/81 "2003-04-01T20:54:36Z")
Robert Lincoln has been in the vicinity of every presidential assassin victim. In 1865, of course he was with his father when he died. In 1881, he was next to Garfield when he was shot. In 1901, his train was passing through Buffalo as McKinley was being shot in that city. In 1963, they buried John Kennedy at Arlington, where you can actually throw a stone from Kennedy’s grave to his. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/82 "2003-04-01T21:06:31Z")
If, relative to their sizes, a giraffe could jump as high as a grasshopper - he’d avoid a lot of trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/83 "2003-04-02T10:50:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by //\etalhea|) \* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > > The dense metallic element tungsten receives its name from the Swedish words tung sten or “heavy stone.” Miners pushing ore carts that contained high concentrations of tungsten observed that they weighed noticeably more. > > And Tungsten’s symbol on the periodic table is W, after Wolfrum, it’s latin name. Make that Wolfr **a** m which, incidentally, is the name for it in Swedish. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2003, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/84 "2003-04-02T11:31:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElvisL1ves \* > \*\*In Wayland Smithers’ first appearance on “The Simpsons”, he was black. \*\* And straight, and married, and a father. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/85 "2003-04-03T00:16:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skammer \* > \*\*If, relative to their sizes, a giraffe could jump as high as a grasshopper - he’d avoid a lot of trouble. \*\* And make a lot of baskets. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/86 "2003-04-03T00:18:41Z")
The bird known as the Dodo was named after the Dutch word for “Fat Arse”. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/87 "2003-04-03T01:06:15Z")
The key pads of a flute are traditionally lined with tissue taken from a certain fish’s air bladder. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/88 "2003-04-03T01:42:34Z")
Unfolded from its convolutions, the gray matter of a human brain would cover one square yard. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/89 "2003-04-03T04:17:58Z")
The mountain goat is not a goat, but a member of the antelope family. ---
**Author:** ![\_etalhea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/779978/32.png) [@\_etalhea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_etalhea)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/90 "2003-04-03T05:52:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Floater \* > \*\*And Tungsten’s symbol on the periodic table is W, after Wolfrum, it’s latin name. Make that Wolfr **a** m which, incidentally, is the name for it in Swedish. \*\* [/QUOTE] ACTUALLY, it looks like we were [both wrong](http://www.tungsten.com/mtstung.html), as well as my high school physics teacher. But you were right on the spelling. ---
**Author:** ![\_etalhea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/779978/32.png) [@\_etalhea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_etalhea)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/91 "2003-04-03T05:58:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flamsterette\_X \* > \*\*Beeswax and fish scales are commonly-used lipstick ingredients. > > F\_X \*\* I work for one of the major cosmetics companies. I was formerly manufacturing supervisor over the color cosmetics department, which included lipstick manufacturing. I’m somewhat of an expert on lipstick. I’ve never put either of these two things into lipstick. There is a lot of wax, but it’s not beeswax, it’s just regular wax. It’s a lot like crayons to be honest. As far as fish scales, lots of people seem to think this, but we’ve never actually seen it done. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/92 "2003-04-03T06:59:14Z")
The naked mole rat isn’t hairless, isnt a mole, and isnt a rat. ---
**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/93 "2003-04-03T08:44:34Z")
John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in Washington. His brother, Edwin, was America’s most respected actor at the time of his death some years later. Thousands of people lined Washington’s streets to see his funeral procession. While they were waiting, a cornice broke off of Ford’s Theater and fell into the crowd, killing twenty people. ---
**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:** [April 3, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/94 "2003-04-03T11:45:31Z")
The root hairs of the rye plant in one cubic inch of soil total over 6,000 miles in length. That’s six thousand. 6 x 10[sup]3[/sup] miles in one cubic inch. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/95 "2003-04-03T20:43:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Elvis Presley never performed an encore, and never performed outside the United States of America. \*\* Supposedly, as substantiated [here](http://www.popmatters.com/books/reviews/c/colonel-tom-parker.html), Tom Parker was actually an illegal immigrant from The Netherlands, originally named Andreas van Kuijk. Accordingly Parker would not leave the U.S. for fear he wouldn’t be let back in. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/96 "2003-04-03T23:14:15Z")
The North American Grasshopper Mouse is carnivorus & predatory. It eats grasshoppers, locusts, many other insects, & even other mice. To stake out its territory or find a mate, it lets out a falsetto howl, like a miniature wolf. It is also **Bosda** ’s favorite beastie. ---
**Author:** ![shep\_proudfoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@shep\_proudfoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shep_proudfoot)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/97 "2003-04-03T23:55:41Z")
Every person farts 14 times per day. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/98 "2003-04-04T00:53:47Z")
If all the college students who attended UCLA were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. (Thanks [Dorothy Parker](http://www.levity.com/corduroy/parker.htm)!) ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/99 "2003-04-04T03:08:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by shep proudfoot \* > \*\*Every person farts 14 times per day. \*\* Not me! Hell, I hit 14 before I get up in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![hermann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b487fb/32.png) [@hermann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermann)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158/100 "2003-04-06T20:23:15Z")
The left lane on on highways is usually referred to as the passing lane. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-weird-but-true-trivia/165158.md?page=6)