# Tell me something I don't know **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 6, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084 "2009-07-06T15:10:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/21 "2009-07-07T03:30:12Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Parts of Ontario are further south than parts of California. 🙂 ..and much of Michigan ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/22 "2009-07-07T03:34:33Z")
Gary Grant dropped acid when it was legal. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/23 "2009-07-07T03:37:10Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Gary Grant dropped acid when it was legal. Gary is wild that way. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/24 "2009-07-07T04:10:03Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Gary Grant dropped acid when it was legal. That’s a coincidence. So did Cary Grant and Archibald Leach. What are the odds? [Batman founded Melbourne, which was almost called Batmania.](http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/People/Batman.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/25 "2009-07-07T04:14:12Z")
E is the most commonly used letter in the English language and is frequently used to break [substitution ciphers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitution_cipher). ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/26 "2009-07-07T04:45:17Z")
When Nunavut split from the the Northwest Territories, the rump was nearly renamed [Bob](http://www.ualberta.ca/~mbeaudoi/Bob.html). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/27 "2009-07-07T04:48:09Z")
I just posted [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=523609) (with cite, photos, and video). In 1965 a U.S. Navy Skyraider dropped a toilet on North Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/28 "2009-07-07T05:04:55Z")
A fairly popular one, [George Washington grew marijuana](http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/gwtheman.htm). (with caveats) ---
**Author:** ![Myrrajh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/87869e/32.png) [@Myrrajh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrrajh)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/29 "2009-07-07T06:52:24Z")
The City of Calgary recycles 572,000 cubic metres of [sewage](http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Living/The+Environment/Water+and+Wastewater/Wastewater+and+Drainage/Wastewater+Treatment.htm) a day, returning purified water to the Bow River, and using the human waste as agricultural fertilizer. The first Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was [Edward Partridge](http://www.mormonwiki.com/Edward_Partridge). ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/30 "2009-07-07T09:50:45Z")
Harry Houdini had a favourite publicity stunt: escaping from a locked prison cell in whichever town or city he was appearing in. During one visit to the UK, he tried this stunt in Preston (a town in the north-west of England) and failed to escape from the cell. This is the only time Houdini failed to escape from a prison cell. The reason he failed is that the jailer had forgotten to lock the cell. So Houdini was trying to unlock a cell door that _wasn’t locked_. I’m sorry, I don’t have an online cite for this. However, I know two Houdini biographers, both of whom prefer facts to enjoyable stories, and both have assured me that the story is true and can be substantiated. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/31 "2009-07-07T10:08:35Z")
According to the Kinsey Institute, the biggest erect penis on record measures 13 inches. The smallest tops off at 1 3/4 inches. I would not be interested in either. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/32 "2009-07-07T13:31:54Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Even if the statistics are valid, why would you assume that the women are ‘controlling’ the outcome? > > Looking at those same stats, I would probably tend to say that ‘high status men’ are more likely to father boys with their partner, and ‘low status men’ (however you define that) more likely to father girls. > > Or - are you saying that by picking a mate, the woman exercised control? 😕 I don’t remember the exact reasons why, but a man’s sperm is pretty much the same no matter what his status. (More or less 50/50, or maybe slightly higher male than female.) The only logical conclusion is that something must be going on in the woman’s body. Either her egg “tests” for gender, or the “wrong” zygote fails to implant, or something like that. The scientists that discovered that didn’t know the mechanism, at least at the time of the study. (1996) The rather impressive rate among US presidents, an admittedly small sample, is larger than that of a much larger sample, in which the rate of difference falls to about 10% ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/33 "2009-07-07T13:54:35Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > A fairly popular one, [George Washington grew marijuana](http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/gwtheman.htm). (with caveats) I really wish people would give that one a rest. It plays into the hands of anti-hemp nincompoops who think that marijuana and hemp are the same stuff. Washington grew hemp, not marijuana, and it would have been absolute crap for smoking, just like industrial hemp today. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/34 "2009-07-07T14:04:55Z")
The famous bridge over the river Kwai wasn’t built over the Kwai river, it was built across the Mae Klong river. Oops… However Thai authorities, when faced with droves of lost and confused tourists, in a display of geopathic simplicity switched the names of the rivers. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/35 "2009-07-07T14:20:18Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#): > > Gary is wild that way. My computer is from Indiana, what can I say? More Grant trivia. He chose his name because of the success of the innitials. C G worked well for Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. I think he chose well. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/36 "2009-07-07T14:32:04Z")
Gen. and Mrs. Grant are entombed, not buried, in Grant’s Tomb. Capt. William Kidd was legally a privateer under an English letter of marque. He hit a ship that had powerful patrons in Parliament, who framed him for piracy. > [@MadTheSwine](#): > > Three POTUS’es have died on the 4th of July. Two of them, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, in 1826. I’m curious who the third was, and in which year. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/37 "2009-07-07T14:33:17Z")
> [@Scuba\_Ben](#): > > . > Two of them, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, in 1826. I’m curious who the third was, and in which year. James Monroe 1831. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/38 "2009-07-07T15:06:30Z")
Virtually all mammals have a lifespan approximately equal to the time it takes their heart has beat one billion times. The exceptions are primates: chimpanzees and gorillas live approximately 1,500,000,000 heart beats and humans live approximately 3,000,000,000 heart beats. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/39 "2009-07-07T15:10:16Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > [Batman founded Melbourne, which was almost called Batmania.](http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/People/Batman.asp) Batman is a [city in Turkey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman,_Turkey) (as well as a province and river). On the other side of the law, there’s a [Mafia Island](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_Island) that belongs to Tanzania. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084/40 "2009-07-07T15:21:39Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > My computer is from Indiana, what can I say? > > More Grant trivia. He chose his name because of the success of the innitials. C G worked well for Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. I think he chose well. Cooper, on the other hand, was named Frank Cooper, and changed his name because there was a notorious murderer named Frank Cooper around the Los Angeles area. A casting director suggested Gary, after her hometown in Indiana. He agreed that was better than naming after his own hometown – Helena, Montana. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-something-i-dont-know/502084.md?page=3)