Incidental things learned from books.

Cafe Society
1

All of us here are fairly widely, if not well, read. I was just going over my bookmarked music videos on YouTube and was struck by the number of them that I discovered by reading John Ringo books. For those who don’t know, Ringo has several series of “military” fiction/SF going. The lead characters in these books like to fight to music on occasion, and Ringo often has a “Recommended Playlist” in the back of the book. It was there is discovered such gems as DragonForce and Cruxshadows.

In the Sten series by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch, the characters often cook some very tasty dishes. Recipes are able to be culled from the descriptions, and have turned out to be mighty tasty treats.

The above are small examples of things that had no real relationship to the plot, but turned out to teach you something interesting or turn you on to something cool. What items like this have you found in your readings?

2

The most popular side arm of Canadian woodsmen is the blue steel woodchuck gun. Manufactured in Atlanta, GA, by the firm of Hughes and Son. [/D.M.]

3

Most yaks in Nepal are actually crossbreeds of yaks and cattle (Into Thin Air).

4

Nobody else? This is that boring a thread?
:smack:

5

From the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, I [REMAINDER OF POST WITHDRAWN ON LEGAL ADVICE]

6

Well, I once learned that a photocopiers (at least, older ones) actually make copies slightly smaller than the original document from a fanfic, once.

I daresay you don’t see the sentence “Internal Aerodynamics at Positive Angles of Attack and Subsonic Speed” used in your average Disney cartoon very often.

7

I got turned on to Rory Block’s music from Linda Barnes’ Carlotta Carlysle series.

8

When I was a kid I learned a bit about Welsh pronunciation from The Grey King.

9

Um, I learned how to head butt from Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. I’m hoping never to have to put that into practice, but if the need arises, I’ll be educated as to how to effectively use it.

10

According to a review in a compliation of the works of Mark Crispin Miller, one of Marilyn Monroe’s assistants was turned off by her “incessant belching and farting.”

11

Bees can make a toxic/poisonous (to humans) honey if they get too much nectar from certain plants. Mountain laurel, azalea.

12

From Stranger In A Strange Land, I learned about Holst’s planet symphony, and a cool Rodin sculpture.

13

I learned about carnival side show biz - esp. ‘the big blow off’

14

From a shipwreck book (don’t remember which one), I learned that there’s a difference between flotsam and jetsam.

15

It’s mentioned in a couple of Kurt Vonnegut Novels, but I remember it from Sirens of Titian. Indianapolis, Indiana is the the only city in the United States to have hanged a white man for killing a Native American.

I have often wondered it this were true, but I was always affraid to look it up in case it wasn’t.

16

It isn’t. It was actually Pendleton, Indiana.

17

I was at trade show and one of the exhibitors had set up a blackjack table. The dealer shuffled the decks and filled the shoe and handed me a white card.
Fortunately, because I’d read Casino Royale, I knew that this was to let me “cut” the decks, inserting the card into the shoe somewhere around the midpoint.

18

I also learned that from a book - can’t think of which, though.

19

From Gail Godwin’s novel The Good Husband, I learned there was such a thing as misericords, and quite a bit about them. And me, a good Catholic girl! :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Not the only, just the first. Which I checked because of what I learned from another book. Fall Creek Massacre, by Jessamyn West.