# 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:** 103
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2044 "2021-05-28T17:41:07Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I’d definitely side with Don Henley on that. An obvious pun on his name and reference to his song _for commercial gain_ without getting permission is not right. Aww geez, they take all the fun out of being a copywriter. Glad I switched careers. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2045 "2021-05-28T22:12:41Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > How to sex a trout. Not something that was even remotely on my radar this evening. In my twenties I was quite fond of roe on toast, as served in my local greasy spoon. Sometimes the roe was clearly eggs and I was less keen on that than the smooth kind. I guess I was a bit dim as it was years before I realised that ‘smooth’ roe is actually fish sperm… ---
**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 28, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2046 "2021-05-28T22:37:18Z")
IMO sperm is the better of two possibilities for smooth stuff that can be expressed from the stern departments of a fish. 😉 ---
**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 29, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2047 "2021-05-29T13:49:19Z")
The likeness of Shirley Temple appears on the cover of “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Three times. > - (58) [Shirley Temple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple) (child actress) – barely visible behind the wax models of John and Ringo, first of three appearances on the cover > > - (71) [Shirley Temple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple) (child actress) – second appearance on the cover > > - Cloth doll by Haworth of [Shirley Temple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple) wearing a sweater that reads “Welcome [The Rolling Stones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Stones) Good Guys” – third and last appearance on the cover > **[List of images on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_images_on_the_cover_of_Sgt._Pepper%27s_Lonely_Hearts_Club_Band)** > > The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has a widely recognized album cover that depicts several dozen celebrities and other images. The image was made by posing the Beatles in front of life-sized, black-and-white photographs pasted onto hardboard and hand-tinted. > The cover image was created by Jann Haworth and Peter Blake, who in 1967 won the Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts, for their work on it. Blake has said that the intention was to show a new band ... Lennon also wanted Jesus Christ and Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2048 "2021-05-29T17:32:52Z")
This post, like glowing tires, never came to fruition. Sorry. ---
**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 30, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2049 "2021-05-30T19:58:56Z")
There is a project underway to reintroduce the White Stork to the UK. It’s called … uh… [The White Stork Project](https://www.whitestorkproject.org/). > The White Stork Project is led by a pioneering partnership of private landowners and nature conservation organisations, who are working together to restore a population of at least 50 breeding pairs in southern England by 2030 through a phased release programme over the next five years. > > At least 250 white storks will be released at several sites in Sussex and surrounding counties. Initial releases aimed at establishing local breeding populations, as seen for the first time at Knepp this year, have already been undertaken and will be supplemented in late summer each year by the release of captive-bred juvenile storks reared at Cotswold Wildlife Park. I know of their work because, today, I saw one of the storks. From a distance, using field glasses, but I did see it - sitting in it’s nest built (as of course it should be) on a chimney of the Knepp Castle Estate buildings in Sussex. Last year at Knepp saw a stork chick hatched in the wild in the UK for the first time in (they say) six hundred years. > **[After 606 years, white storks are nesting in Britain again](https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/2020/07/after-606-years-white-storks-are-nesting-in-britain-again)** > > As part of ongoing efforts to restore nature in the U.K., a project is bringing beloved white storks back to the British countryside. j ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2050 "2021-05-30T22:52:30Z")
There are quite a few species being reintroduced to the UK: > **[Welcome home: the lost English species making a comeback](https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/2020/03/welcome-home-lost-english-species-making-comeback)** > > From heavyweight birds to nimble predators – and ecologically controversial landscapers – efforts are underway to restore some of England's former denizens. > **[Keystone species and trophic cascades](https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/explore-rewilding/reintroductions-key-species/keystone-species-and-trophic-cascades)** > > Keystone species and trophic cascades are key elements of healthy ecosystems. We explore what that means. ---
**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 31, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2051 "2021-05-31T15:27:10Z")
Some very cool stuff here (and it isn’t a slide show bogged down by ads). The baby hummingbird that’s smaller than a raspberry…very cool. And the self portraits degenerating due to Alzheimer’s is fascinating. > **[Fascinating Comparison Photos That Give an Entirely New Point Of View](https://www.247mirror.com/en/50-fascinating-comparison-photos-that-will-give-you-an-entir?fbclid=IwAR2gZ4b5NuPMcBW-nuEbpIgmdKXNZlvWmwlNqCsx4_5fj56F-cMwMCojT9Y&ly=native_one&mbid=23847513484280779&utm_campaign=create&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb4)** > > It’s all just a matter of perspective, and these photos display the world in a new light ---
**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 31, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2052 "2021-05-31T21:06:43Z")
As an artist, I find the Alzheimer’s sequence terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2053 "2021-06-01T03:29:29Z")
Anecdote: my Dad had Alzheimer’s for the last decade of his very long life. He looked great. A lot of people didn’t know he had dementia, he was pretty adept at hiding his condition. He could carry on a lucid-seeming conversation with you, and it sometimes took a few minutes til you realized he had no idea who you were, or where he was. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2054 "2021-06-01T15:20:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > True, and I have many books on erotic art. But this seems very surprising coming from prim, proper 1828 America. America was not so prudish in the early 1800s, before “Victorian” morality took hold. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2055 "2021-06-01T16:19:22Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > America was not so prudish in the early 1800s, before “Victorian” morality took hold. Back in the Roaring 1820s? ---
**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:** [June 1, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2056 "2021-06-01T17:41:34Z")
This woman, the fastest typist in the world at the time, was on Letterman. It’s a very funny clip. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/z3OlsQL1rYs/hqdefault.jpg "The Great Typing Controversy on Letterman, January 24 and 28, 1985") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3OlsQL1rYs) He asks her if it’s true that “your fingers move 15 miles per day” and she said yes, they’ve done studies. I wasn’t clear if you=fastest typist or you=average typist, but this page says > - On an average work day, a typist’s fingers travel 12.6 miles. [https://www.towerfcu.org/2017/04/24/fun-slightly-odd-techie-facts/](https://www.towerfcu.org/2017/04/24/fun-slightly-odd-techie-facts/) ---
**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:** [June 1, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2057 "2021-06-01T19:28:50Z")
A mix tape of speeches was created to make Margaret Thatcher look bad during the Falklands War. Authorities first suspected Argentina, then the Russians, but turns out it was all the work of an anarchist punk rock group. > **[CRASS (Thatchergate)](https://web.archive.org/web/20050830040234/http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/1238.html)** > > official southern records web site ---
**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:** [June 1, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2058 "2021-06-01T19:58:45Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > This woman, the fastest typist in the world at the time, was on Letterman. It’s a very funny clip. I remember watching those episodes. Absolutely hilarious. Oh, but that poor woman… ---
**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:** [June 1, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2059 "2021-06-01T20:26:21Z")
Thanks for those links. I was aware of most of the reintroductions - I didn’t know much about the pine martens out west, though. We’re in the south east, so the low hanging fruit (as it were) would be storks and white tailed eagles. The stork safari was planned as such and worked surprisingly easily - gotta go back and see if I can get a better look and some photos, though. Something like the white tailed eagle is going to be more of a matter of being in the right area and then just dumb luck, I think. j ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2060 "2021-06-01T20:39:32Z")
Some one song holds the distinction of being the cause of the most deaths of children running on the street when a driver was compelled to distraction by turning the radio to anything else. I don’t know what this song is, but I’m convinced that a onetime titleholder was _Brand New Key_ by Melanie. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2061 "2021-06-02T00:07:28Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > I don’t know what this song is, but I’m convinced that a onetime titleholder was _Brand New Key_ by Melanie. I heard a music industry person recounting that when “American Pie” came on the radio, he’d heard it before, so he tuned to another station. And as he moved up the dial, _every station_ was playing American Pie. It wasn’t just big, it wasn’t just a cross-over hit: at the time it was a Big Cross-over Hit. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2021, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2062 "2021-06-02T00:43:48Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > As an artist, I find the Alzheimer’s sequence terrifying. As a non-artist I too find it terrifying. That the last portrait was draw 7 years before the artist’s death doubly so. He lived another 7 years after his mind had made the full slide we see. What horrors did he go through later? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2063 "2021-06-02T01:01:07Z")
Google _Pride Month_ and see the Easter Egg. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=102) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=104)