# Interesting facts within. Are they all true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 26, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-facts-within-are-they-all-true/73906 "2001-07-26T23:47:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2001, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-facts-within-are-they-all-true/73906/21 "2001-07-29T00:10:09Z")
> [@](#): > > ## quote: > > ## Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet. > > False. Some violets are, but there are dozens of sepecies, hybrids and cultivars. Violets can be blue, white or purple, so they’re no more violot than roses are red. > The Australian antive violets can be almost completely white with only a tinge of purple, completely sky blue or violet even in its wild form. Now this is just being picky. Most of the violets that I see around here are indeed violet, not blue. ---
**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-facts-within-are-they-all-true/73906/22 "2001-07-29T00:22:07Z")
But you can go to almost any nursery anywhere in the world and buy white violets. Saying violets are blue is like saying people are female. Most of the people in the world are, if only by a narrow margin. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2001, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-facts-within-are-they-all-true/73906/23 "2001-07-29T00:23:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Epimetheus \* > **Not to nitpick, but High risk doesn’t mean immenient death. The quote you got from the link only says they have a High risk of dying.** You’re right, it does say that, and [FerretCentral](http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/part4.html#altering), a much more reliable site, backs that up. Even so, it’s akin to saying you’ll almost certainly die if you jump out of a plane at cruising altitude without a parachute. True, it is possible to survive the fall, but are you really going to bet on that outcome? 😉 Even the medical procedures developed for saving a ferret once she’s gone into heat are risky. Anyway, that question’s been answered, I’ll shut up now. Nobody’s touched 12, I see. Probably because it’s too vague to be answered. Just how closely should the words rhyme? If it’s all but the first letter (red, led, blue, flue, rocky, hockey, etc.), then there are no words that rhyme with orange, purple, or silver (unless you count quicksilver :D), but if something more vague satisfies it, then things like purple/nipple, orange/lozenge, and silver/shaver work well enough. …Didn’t I say I was gonna shut up? Right, right. _ahem_ ---
**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2001, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-facts-within-are-they-all-true/73906/24 "2001-07-29T08:06:09Z")
Don’t know why I missed 12. It’s actually been answered before on these boards somewhere. It’s false because the word [hirple](http://www.english.upenn.edu/~traister/oedanswers.html) rhymes with purple. Of course it is technically considered obsolete, though a quick search of the ‘hirple’ and ‘scotland’ or ‘scottish’ will show it’s still in current colloquial use. Even without that it’s in the OED so it’s an English word. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-facts-within-are-they-all-true/73906.md?page=1)