# 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:** 101
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2004 "2021-05-18T22:54:30Z")
**Barney Frank** is the first cousin of **Shemp Howard.** [-=Linky=-](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemp_Howard) ---
**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 18, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2005 "2021-05-18T22:58:38Z")
They aren’t first cousins. They are only related by marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2006 "2021-05-18T23:36:41Z")
I am sorry. I provided a cite. Still, I am sure you are right. ---
**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 18, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2007 "2021-05-18T23:45:47Z")
Just setting the record straight. This relationship is one of my favorite factoids. You were close, it was Shemp’s wife who was directly related to Frank according to the wiki. One time I pointed out to someone that Barney Frank was related to Shemp and they said “Well, that explains the voice”. My wife once texted me to brag that she was attending a congressional meeting with Barney Frank". I texted back “Ask him about Shemp” which she says made her laugh loudly at an inappropriate time. So you’ve got a far more interesting fact than some of the other ones here. “In September 1925, Shemp married Gertrude Frank (March 12, 1905 - May 17, 1982), a fellow New Yorker. They had one child, Morton (February 26, 1927 – January 13, 1972). Gertrude Frank Howard outlived her husband and son, and was living when _her first cousin Barney Frank_ (born 1940, the son of her father’s brother) became a US Congressman.” (bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2008 "2021-05-19T00:00:22Z")
I am very sorry. If I could I would remove my post. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2009 "2021-05-19T03:03:49Z")
Today I learned about [Jack Parsons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_(rocket_engineer)), born Marvel Whiteside Parsons, who was a rocket propulsion expert who helped found JPL and a rocket and missile propulsion company called Aerojet (now known as Aerojet Rocketdyne). He was also an occultist and buddy of both L. Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley. He was accused of espionage and wound up blowing himself up in his basement. All this before he turned 38. From the sound of things, he lived the sort of life no one would believe if encountered in a work of fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2010 "2021-05-19T12:18:33Z")
The Beatles’ “Second Album” was their third album released in the US. It was the second released on Capitol Records. Their early albums had different names and different song selections, depending on which country they came from. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2011 "2021-05-19T13:01:32Z")
The many differences between the Beatles US and UK albums in the early days was due to how records were released at the time. The UK had three formats: albums, singles, and EPs (extended play, with two songs on a side). The latter was rare in the US. UK albums generally had 14 songs on a record, while US albums had 12. And UK record buyers got upset if a song was in more than one format; they didn’t like buying albums if they already had the single or EP versions. It was considered a ripoff So Capitol was able to play fast and loose with the US albums, taking the singles and EPs and including them on albums. US record buyers would buy an album even if they already had a single from it. After “Yesterday . . . and Today,” the Beatles insisted Capitol release albums with the same track listings as in the UK. ---
**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 20, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2012 "2021-05-20T22:00:27Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Today I learned about [Jack Parsons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_(rocket_engineer)), born Marvel Whiteside Parsons, who was a rocket propulsion expert who helped found JPL and a rocket and missile propulsion company called Aerojet (now known as Aerojet Rocketdyne). He was also an occultist and buddy of both L. Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley. [Perhaps NSFW Drunk History episode about Jack Parsons](https://www.cc.com/video/h71t46/drunk-history-jack-parsons-loved-his-sex-magick) Drunk History didn’t always get 100% of the facts right but… My contribution…in another thread, some were pondering whether Reggie Jackson’s strikeouts outweighed his home runs etc. Reading up on Reggie in Wikipedia, it turns out that he was quite an all-around athlete before focusing solely on baseball. > Jackson graduated from [Cheltenham High School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheltenham_High_School) in 1964, where he excelled in [football](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_school_football), [basketball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_school_basketball), baseball, and track and field.[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Jackson#cite_note-Perry_12-7) A [tailback](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfback_(American_football)) in football, he injured his knee in an early season game in his junior year in the fall of 1962. He was told by the doctors he was never to play football again, but Jackson returned for the final game of the season.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Jackson#cite_note-Perry_13-8) In that game, Jackson fractured five [cervical vertebrae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervical_vertebrae), which caused him to spend six weeks in the hospital and another month in a neck cast. Doctors told Jackson that he might never walk again, let alone play football, but Jackson defied the odds again.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Jackson#cite_note-Perry_13-8) On the baseball team, he [batted](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batting_average_(baseball)) .550 and threw several [no-hitters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-hitter).[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Jackson#cite_note-Perry_14-9) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2013 "2021-05-21T15:28:11Z")
I just heard the story of Domino’s Pizza anti-mascot, The Noid, it’s decline and reemergence. It seems in 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid (his real last name), a mentally ill guy, thought the advertising campaign was a personal attack, so he entered a Domino’s in Chamblee, Georgia and pulled a gun, taking two employees hostage for five hours. Mr Noid made the kidnapped employees call headquarters, explaining he wanted $100,000 cash and a white getaway limo. He then offered to exchange a hostage for a copy of _The Widow’s Son_. Police brought him a copy of the book, but he reneged. Noid eventually got hungry and ordered his hostages to make him two pizzas. While he was eating, the hostages saw their chance and escaped. Police arrested him. He was tried and found not guilty by reason of mental disease. A few years later he killed himself. [Cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Noid#Decline) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2014 "2021-05-21T19:37:39Z")
Today is the 94th Anniversary of Charles Lindbergh landing in France and the 89th Anniversary of Amelia Earhart landing in Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2015 "2021-05-21T19:38:31Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Kenneth Lamar Noid I’m familiar with his family, including Ade, Huma and Para. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2016 "2021-05-21T20:29:36Z")
Even though pyrite crystallizes with cubic symmetry, the faces of the cubes can distort in such a way that the resulting crystals look like dodecahedrons (think of each square face replaced with a pair of pentagons): [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Pyrite_elbe.jpg/330px-Pyrite_elbe.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Pyrite_elbe.jpg/330px-Pyrite_elbe.jpg) > **[Dodecahedron | Pyritohedron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodecahedron#Pyritohedron)** > > A pyritohedron is a dodecahedron with pyritohedral (Th) symmetry. Like the regular dodecahedron, it has twelve identical pentagonal faces, with three meeting in each of the 20 vertices (see figure). However, the pentagons are not constrained to be regular, and the underlying atomic arrangement has no true fivefold symmetry axis. Its 30 edges are divided into two sets – containing 24 and 6 edges of the same length. The only axes of rotational symmetry are three mutually perpendicular twofold ax Al... ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2017 "2021-05-21T20:56:36Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I just heard the story of Domino’s Pizza anti-mascot, The Noid, it’s decline and reemergence. > > It seems in 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid (his real last name), a mentally ill guy, thought the advertising campaign was a personal attack, so he entered a Domino’s in Chamblee, Georgia and pulled a gun, taking two employees hostage for five hours. They clearly forgot to _[avoid the noid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoid_the_Noid_(video_game))_ ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2018 "2021-05-21T21:40:49Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > After “Yesterday . . . and Today,” the Beatles insisted Capitol release albums with the same track listings as in the UK. Are you sure? I have an import copy of Revolver which has a couple more songs than the U.S. version. (It might be German though). ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2019 "2021-05-21T21:45:42Z")
The extra songs on Revolver came from Yesterday…And Today. Had to be after Revolver. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2020 "2021-05-26T13:21:01Z")
Hanna-Barbera was threatened to be sued by baseball player Yogi Berra for the similarities between his name, and the newly-introduced H-B cartoon character Yogi Bear in 1958. The suit was withdrawn when it was claimed that the similarity of the names was “just a coincidence.” However - there was another lesser-known H-B character near the same time “Augie Doggie” from the “Quick Draw McGraw” show, whose name was possibly based on the name of the baseball umpire, Augie Donatelli. No lawsuits there. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2021 "2021-05-26T14:28:10Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > Hanna-Barbera was threatened to be sued by baseball player Yogi Berra for the similarities between his name, and the newly-introduced H-B cartoon character Yogi Bear in 1958. The suit was withdrawn when it was claimed that the similarity of the names was “just a coincidence.” This is one of a series of name “coincidences” that are not at all convincing, but the plagiarist always claims that to avoid financial obligations. It’s almost completely impossible to believe that “Yogi Bear” doesn’t derive from “Yogi Berra”. There’s nothing even remotely similar i sound to "Yogi Bear’, and no real justification for calling the character that. Similarly, I can’t believe that “Baby Ruth” candies aren’t named after baseball player “Babe Ruth”, whose career was on the rise when the candy was introduced. The “official” explanation, that it was named after Grover Cleveland’s daughter (after he’d been out of office for almost a quarter of a century, 17 years after she’d died, and she wasn’t all that popular, anyway) is absurd. > **[Baby Ruth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Ruth)** > > Baby Ruth is an American candy bar made of peanuts, caramel, and milk chocolate-flavored nougat, covered in compound chocolate. Created in 1920, and named after the deceased U.S. presidential daughter, Ruth Cleveland, it is distributed by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero. > In 1920, the Curtiss Candy Company refashioned its Kandy Kake into the Baby Ruth, and it became the best-selling confection in the five-cent confectionery category by the late 1920s. The bar was a staple of ... Similarly, claims that Skippy peanut butter wasn’t named after the (at one time very popular) comic strip character “Skippy” are equally absurd (especially after you look at the period advertising, which blatantly copies elements of the strip. And, besides, Percy Crosby, creator of the strip, had already trademarked the name) > **[Skippy (peanut butter)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skippy_(peanut_butter))** > > Skippy is an American brand of peanut butter spread manufactured in the United States and China. First sold in 1932, Skippy is currently manufactured by Hormel Foods, which bought the brand from Unilever in 2013. It is the best-selling brand of peanut butter in China and second only to the J.M. Smucker Company's Jif brand worldwide. > Percy Crosby, creator of the popular "Skippy" comic strip (1923–1945), which had been adapted into the 1929 novel Skippy, the daytime children's radio serial Skippy ... Hadn’t heard about Augie Donatelli, but I don’t follow baseball. Not surprised that Hanna Barbera ripped off names, though. They were blatantly ripping off actors’ vocal styles for their characters for years (Phil Silvers, Jimmy Durante). ---
**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 26, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2022 "2021-05-26T14:33:00Z")
It is probably a lot harder to rip off someone’s name like that these days. Hanna-Barbera would not have seemed like a gold mine to lawyers at the time so Yogi may have been advised that it wasn’t worth the effort to sue them. And maybe told nobody would remember the bear with a name like his for very long anyway. Pretty soon people will start to think his nickname ‘Yogi’ was copied from the bear. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2023 "2021-05-26T15:21:22Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > … Pretty soon people will start to think his nickname ‘Yogi’ was copied from the bear. Up until about 30 seconds ago I always thought that. Is it not so? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=100) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=102)