# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/181 "2020-04-29T22:30:35Z")
5 years ago today (4/29/15), a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox set a MLB record. What was it? It was the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/182 "2020-04-29T23:31:55Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Ted Cassidy, the original Lurch, was also in Star Trek. In the Original Series he played the Gorn, the puppet of Balok, and an android in “What are Little Girls Made of?” Cassidy also played the android Ruk in the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of,” one of several episodes where there was another Captain Kirk running around, this one being an android duplicate. As Ruk, Cassidy wore ghoulish face makeup and lifts to make him look even taller. A story Gene Roddenberry used to tell involved a salesman who kept bothering him to buy a suit, and who kept turning up at the studio wanting to see him. Finally, one day, during the filming of the abovementioned episode, Gene asked Ted if he could do him a little favor… The salesman showed up, and was admitted to Roddenberry’s office, where the high backed desk chair was turned away from the door. Someone was sitting in it, talking on the telephone, while several people (including Roddenberry himself) gathered around the desk, trying to get the unseen chair occupant’s attention. “Mr. Roddenberry, you need to sign these! Mr. Roddenberry, what about these cost overruns! Mr. Roddenberry, Mr. Roddenberry!” And the chair spun around, revealing Cassidy in full costume and makeup, holding a phone. He leaped to his feet, and in his very distinctive voice, he roared “ENOUGH! CLEAR THE ROOM!” And as the VERY surprised salesman attempted to join the fleeing group, Ted pointed at him and said, “Young man, I will be with YOU in a MOMENT!” And the paralyzed salesman stood there while Ted talked into the receiver for a while, and hung up. “Now… what can I do for you?” Roddenberry was apparently standing RIGHT outside the office door, and tells a tale of strangled voices and a rather weak sales pitch, but backed with utter determination NOT to walk away from a potential sale. Ted Cassidy (who apparently really did have a great sense of humor) drew himself up to his full height, and asked, “You think you have anything to fit ME?” “Um,” said the salesman. “Well… we do alterations…” And at this point, Roddenberry and Cassidy both lost it completely, confusing the poor salesman even further. And Roddenberry did in fact buy two pairs of pants from the poor fellow, and told this story for YEARS at conventions. Don’t know how TRUE it is, but Roddenberry said so. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/183 "2020-04-30T14:43:17Z")
on twitter Jim Carrey has 18 million followers. He only follows one person, his daughter Jane. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/184 "2020-04-30T15:53:48Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > on twitter Jim Carrey has 18 million followers. He only follows one person, his daughter Jane. The twitter account for KFC (formally Kentucky Fried Chicken) follows the 5 Spice Girls and 6 guys named Herb (“11 herbs and spices” - get it??) When a person noticed this and pointed it out, he was gifted with [this](https://www.adweek.com/creativity/kfc-painted-a-portrait-for-the-man-who-spotted-its-11-herbs-and-spices-stunt-on-twitter/) portrait. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/185 "2020-04-30T18:13:11Z")
Just read this: Dolly Parton wrote “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/186 "2020-04-30T18:38:19Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Just read this: Dolly Parton wrote “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day. That was a multi-millions dollar day! ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/187 "2020-04-30T20:45:34Z")
When “Return Of The Jedi” was filmed, George Lucas had in mind the ugly experience of filming “The Empire Strikes Back.” Y’see, after Star Wars became an international hit, when he was filming the sequel, he found that cost overruns erupted all OVER the place because when he tried to film on location, allovasudden the hotel rates would triple, labor costs would jump, and everyone and their dog was basically thinking, “This Star Wars guy has a bazillion dollars, so we might as well charge all the market will bear.” So instead of filming the third movie, he went off on a completely different project, a horror movie called “BLUE HARVEST.” If you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry – it was the code name for what, at the time, was “Revenge Of The Jedi.” All script copies were titled BLUE HARVEST, and the crew wore shirts and caps with the BLUE HARVEST logo on them, some with the subtitle, “A New Experience In Horror,” so’s you wouldn’t think it was a Star Wars movie. The scripts were, of course, for ROTJ, which was later retitled “Return Of The Jedi,” since after some thought, Lucas decided it wasn’t Jedi-like to seek revenge. And while they were filming part of BLUE HARVEST out on the West Coast, in the redwood forests, it was decided that Peter Mayhew, the guy in the Chewbacca suit, was going to have four assistants in bright orange safety vests following him around every minute he wasn’t actually filming. George had got the idea that some hunter might mistake him for a Sasquatch, and take a shot at him. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/188 "2020-04-30T20:58:11Z")
A place I worked at had a day of filming for “Caged Heat” but everyone knew it was Iron man 3. When I drove to work that day they were checking cars very close to make sure nobody snuck in. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/189 "2020-05-01T12:33:31Z")
On 5/1/66 for the only time the Who, the Stones, and the Beatles all played at the same show in London. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/190 "2020-05-01T15:55:28Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > On 5/1/66 for the only time the Who, the Stones, and the Beatles all played at the same show in London. Oh, to have a time machine… 🆒 Today’s musing: you’ve heard of enclaves, but how about exclaves? There are a couple I’d like to visit in the US. These basically happened because the Mississippi’s flow changed, physically cutting them off from the rest of their original state. > **[Kaskaskia, Illinois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaskaskia,_Illinois)** > > Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois. Having been inhabited by indigenous peoples, it was settled by France as part of the Illinois Country. It was named for the Kaskaskia people. Its population peaked at about 7,000 in the 18th century, when it was a regional center. During the American Revolutionary War, the town, which by then had become an administrative center for the British Province of Quebec, was taken by the Virginia militia during the Illinois campaign. It was designat... The river now passes east rather than west of the town. The state boundary line, however, remained in its original location. Accordingly, if the Mississippi River is considered to be a break in physical continuity, Kaskaskia is an exclave of Illinois, lying west of the Mississippi and accessible only from Missouri. > **[Kentucky Bend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Bend)** > > The Kentucky Bend, variously called the New Madrid Bend, Madrid Bend, Bessie Bend, or Bubbleland, is an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, encircled by the states of Tennessee and Missouri. It is a portion of a peninsula defined by an oxbow loop meander of the Mississippi River, and its inclusion in the state of Kentucky stems from uncertainties of the course of the Mississippi River when the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky was established. > As of the 2020 census, the population was ... In 1812, this area of the river was highly disrupted and was reported to even flow backward because of the 1811–1812 New Madrid series of earthquakes, some of the most powerful ever felt in the United States.[6] And looking at Wikipedia it turns out there are even more. > **[Category:Exclaves in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Exclaves_in_the_United_States)** > > This category is for territories that are exclaves of a U.S. state or territory. > This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total. > The following 22 pages are in this category, out of 22 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/191 "2020-05-01T16:20:13Z")
A couple years ago they moved the state line between NC and SC in a couple places near Charlotte. A few households ended up in a different state. They said they were correcting past mapping errors. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/192 "2020-05-01T16:28:50Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > A couple years ago they moved the state line between NC and SC in a couple places near Charlotte. A few households ended up in a different state. They said they were correcting past mapping errors. The border between RI and MA has changed a bunch of times. Sometimes ending up running right through houses. And we’re still negotiating with CT over some swamp land. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/193 "2020-05-01T17:09:35Z")
Love this show, wish they’d make another set. TN/GA border: [How The States Got Their Shapes TN GA - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW3OdksQG0k) ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/194 "2020-05-02T15:26:22Z")
Judy Garland’s birth name was Frances Gumm. A thing that I found I could not unsee was during _The Wizard Of Oz_, it becomes increasingly obvious as the movie progresses that the scenes were shot out of sequence. This is not unusual; MOST movies, the scenes are shot out of sequence. But in _The Wizard Of Oz_, Frances Gumm’s HAIR gets longer and shorter throughout the movie, sometimes even yo-yoing up and down in the course of a single scene. A similar phenomenon can be observed in _Casablanca_. Humphrey Bogart was a chainsmoker, and if you pay attention to his cigarette, it gets longer and shorter and longer, back and forth, in several scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/195 "2020-05-02T21:06:38Z")
Is [Ben Goldacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goldacre) well known in the US? I suppose you would describe him as a campaigning physician and author - he wrote **Bad Science** and **Bad Pharma**. This is his mum, [Noosha Fox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2_DOLXAwMc). j ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/196 "2020-05-02T21:23:46Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > Judy Garland’s birth name was Frances Gumm. > > A thing that I found I could not unsee was during _The Wizard Of Oz_, it becomes increasingly obvious as the movie progresses that the scenes were shot out of sequence. This is not unusual; MOST movies, the scenes are shot out of sequence. > > But in _The Wizard Of Oz_, Frances Gumm’s HAIR gets longer and shorter throughout the movie, sometimes even yo-yoing up and down in the course of a single scene. > > A similar phenomenon can be observed in _Casablanca_. Humphrey Bogart was a chainsmoker, and if you pay attention to his cigarette, it gets longer and shorter and longer, back and forth, in several scenes. Very few people are going to notice that kind of error or care about it. Now they have someone during the filming who is supposed to check for that , it’s called continuity but those things still happen. Way back then maybe they did not check for it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/197 "2020-05-03T00:15:33Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > Judy Garland’s birth name was Frances Gumm. > > A thing that I found I could not unsee was during _The Wizard Of Oz_, it becomes increasingly obvious as the movie progresses that the scenes were shot out of sequence. This is not unusual; MOST movies, the scenes are shot out of sequence. > > But in _The Wizard Of Oz_, Frances Gumm’s HAIR gets longer and shorter throughout the movie, sometimes even yo-yoing up and down in the course of a single scene. > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Very few people are going to notice that kind of error or care about it. Now they have someone during the filming who is supposed to check for that , it’s called continuity but those things still happen. Way back then maybe they did not check for it. Mark Hamill brought up a similar concern during the filming of _A New Hope._ According to Hamill, he was looking at the script. He turned to Harrison Ford and said, “Wait a second. This scene takes place right after we just got out of the trash compactor. Shouldn’t my hair be all wet and matted?” Ford replied, (and here Hamill does a perfect impression of Ford) “Hey, kid. It ain’t that kind of movie. If people are looking at your hair, we’re all in big trouble.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/onMm0DLg8CE/maxresdefault.jpg "Mark Hamill Does a Perfect Impression of Harrison Ford") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onMm0DLg8CE) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/198 "2020-05-03T00:28:43Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > FDR had an older half-brother from his father’s first marriage. Not just older, but 27 years older than FDR, and five months older than FDR’s mother. Most people know that Theodore Roosevelt and FDR were fifth cousins and that Franklin Roosevelt married Eleanor, his fifth cousin once removed. Fewer still know that Eleanor Roosevelt was Theodore Roosevelt’s niece, so when FDR married her, he became Theodore’s nephew by marriage. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/199 "2020-05-03T01:00:15Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > This was because the dog was highly trained, difficult or impossible to replace, and is in pretty much the entire movie along with Dorothy. It’s funny–I don’t doubt that the dog [Terry being her real name] was highly trained. But, at the end, when s(he) pulls back the Wizard’s curtain, you can see the curtain attached to her collar. Now, what dog, when you wave something made of cloth in its face, wouldn’t want to immediately play a game of tug of war? Seems like it would be a cinch to train her to just grab the curtain and pull, but I guess not. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/200 "2020-05-03T02:09:42Z")
NSFW for some F bombs One of the funnier moments in cinematic history (for me) was Brad Pitt’s “pikey” (gypsy) performance in the movie “Snatch.” On my copy of the DVD, it gets to this scene and the subtitles roll, but at the part starting around :37, the subtitles simply say ? Someone deciphered it and I just found it. [Snatch "Caravan Talk" of Brad Pitt with subtitles - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySyBMTo-1sc&t=54s) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=11)