# 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:** 142
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2828 "2021-10-14T18:16:44Z")
When Henry Aaron retired, he was first among all major leaguers in career home runs, and in alphabetical order. He is currently second in both categories; to Barry Bonds and David Aardsma, respectively. Bonds and Aardsma played together for the Giants in 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2829 "2021-10-14T20:44:06Z")
Wikipedia says it was the same crash, which is how I remember it. “July 23, 1982, a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter crashed at Indian Dunes in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, during the making of Twilight Zone: The Movie. The crash killed three people on the ground and injured the six helicopter passengers. Those killed were actor Vic Morrow, child actor Myca Dinh Le and child actress Renee Shin-Yi Chen.” ---
**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:** [October 14, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2830 "2021-10-14T21:15:38Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Police stopped a random pedestrian while investigating a report of shots fired and found a man wanted for murder across the state line. My bad, he was wanted in a similarly-named county in the same state. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > That seems a ridiculously high bond for someone who doesn’t sound particularly wealthy. [He and a partner shot four while robbing a liquor store; two of the victims died. Both guys have the same bond.](https://www.wandtv.com/news/second-suspect-in-danville-double-homicide-is-arrested/article_2bb19bd6-2c69-11ec-bcca-d379bb5c1242.html) ---
**Author:** ![leswax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@leswax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leswax)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2831 "2021-10-14T22:11:18Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > If the poster wasn’t referring to _Twilight Zone: the Movie_ , then I’ll withdraw my comment. Nope, this was my mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2832 "2021-10-15T19:27:59Z")
> **[New Zealand Lays Off Its Official City Wizard After 23 Years of Loyal Service](https://gizmodo.com/new-zealand-lays-off-its-official-city-wizard-after-20-1847871468)** > > A council spokesperson said it wasn’t personal—it was just that wizards aren’t that cool anymore. ---
**Author:** ![PozhanPop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pozhanpop/32/8022_2.png) [@PozhanPop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PozhanPop)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2833 "2021-10-15T22:01:07Z")
I still have the cassette 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2834 "2021-10-16T16:37:07Z")
“Hooters” is actually two different companies, [Hooters of America, LLC](https://www.hooters.com/), and [The Original Hooters Group](https://www.originalhooters.com/), both operating “Hooters” branded restaurants. As a customer you would never know the difference, but the former is what you will find if you just search “Hooters” even though they only operate 37% of all Hooters branded restaurants worldwide (they run 160 locations out of 307 in the US and roughly 430 globally). The two companies are related but independent and operate restaurants in specified territories to avoid competing with each other. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2835 "2021-10-17T15:57:31Z")
The original Texas Roadhouse restaurant is located in [Clarksville, Indiana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Roadhouse?wprov=sfti1). ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2836 "2021-10-17T17:21:37Z")
Agatha Christie used the name James Bond for a character in a short story published 27 years before Ian Fleming wrote the first James Bond 007 book. [https://www.thebondbulletin.com/trivia-agatha-christie-and-james-bond/](https://www.thebondbulletin.com/trivia-agatha-christie-and-james-bond/) ---
**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:** [October 18, 2021, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2837 "2021-10-18T14:17:11Z")
I’ve been hearing the phrase “Magic Bullet” - used more-or-less to mean Wonder Cure - all my life. Hell, I remember my parents using it. I just mentally filed the phrase away as yet another one of those annoying buzz-words coined by a low-end newspaper, that somehow lodged itself in the public consciousness and got stuck there. Uhh - _Wrong!_ Let’s hear it from the Nobel Prize winning scientist: > **[Magic bullet (medicine)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_bullet_(medicine))** > > The magic bullet is a scientific concept developed by a German Nobel laureate Paul Ehrlich in 1907. While working at the Institute of Experimental Therapy (Institut für experimentelle Therapie), Ehrlich formed an idea that it could be possible to kill specific microbes (such as bacteria), which cause diseases in the body, without harming the body itself. He named the hypothetical agent as Zauberkugel, and used the English translation "magic bullet" in The Harben Lectures at London. The n Ehrlich ... > Ehrlich’s research on the magic bullet was the foundation of pharmaceutical research. As an aside, Ehrlich’s concept anticipated by many decades the development of Monoclonal Antibodies. > **[Monoclonal antibody | History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibody#History)** > > In the early 1900s, immunologist Paul Ehrlich proposed the idea of a Zauberkugel – "magic bullet", conceived of as a compound which selectively targeted a disease-causing organism, and could deliver a toxin for that organism. This underpinned the concept of monoclonal antibodies and monoclonal drug conjugates. Ehrlich and Élie Metchnikoff received the 1908 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for providing the theoretical basis for immunology. > By the 1970s, lymphocytes producing a single antib... j ---
**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:** [October 18, 2021, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2838 "2021-10-18T14:59:49Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I’ve been hearing the phrase “Magic Bullet” - used more-or-less to mean Wonder Cure - all my life. Hell, I remember my parents using it. I just mentally filed the phrase away as yet another one of those annoying buzz-words coined by a low-end newspaper, that somehow lodged itself in the public consciousness and got stuck there. > > Uhh - _Wrong!_ Let’s hear it from the Nobel Prize winning scientist: You’ve obviously never seen the Edward G. Robinson movie **Doctor Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet** > **[Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Ehrlich%27s_Magic_Bullet)** > > Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet is a 1940 American biographical film starring Edward G. Robinson and directed by William Dieterle, based on the true story of the German doctor and scientist Dr. Paul Ehrlich. The film was released by Warner Bros., with some controversy over raising the subject of syphilis in a major studio release. It was nominated for an Oscar for its original screenplay (by Norman Burnstine, Heinz Herald and John Huston), but lost to The Great McGinty. > Paul Ehrlich is a physician wo... ---
**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:** [October 18, 2021, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2839 "2021-10-18T15:03:59Z")
I have, as you surmise, never seen the Edward G Robinson movie in question - and I’m not the least bit embarrassed about that. On the other hand, I did spend an entire career working in the pharmaceutical industry… ::winces:: j ---
**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:** [October 18, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2840 "2021-10-18T15:19:18Z")
I’d heard of gall stones, kidney stones…but tonsil stones? > **[Tonsil stones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsil_stones)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > Tonsil stones, also known as tonsilloliths, are mineralizations of debris within the crevices of the tonsils. When not mineralized, the presence of debris is known as chronic caseous tonsillitis (CCT). Symptoms may include bad breath. Generally there is no pain, though there may be the feeling of something present. > Risk factors may include recurrent throat infections. Tonsil stones contain a biofilm composed of a number of different bacteria. ... ---
**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:** [October 18, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2841 "2021-10-18T16:54:01Z")
Yep, I’ve heard of them. I’ve heard you can even find videos on youtube of people expressing them. No, I am _not_ going to look for a link. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2842 "2021-10-18T17:17:34Z")
I’m surprised that the official wizard _predated_ the first Lord of the Rings movie by several years. Given that they filmed there, and that the filming became a major tourist attraction for the country, I at first assumed the “Official Wizard” was a response to that. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2843 "2021-10-18T22:10:13Z")
Firing your official wizard as a cost-savings measure sounds all well and good, but the first time a balrog shows up, they’ll be regretting that decision. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2844 "2021-10-18T23:55:20Z")
They’ve come up many times in discussions of disgusting things right here on this board! 🙂 Fun fact: tonsilloliths can look massive, but are mostly liquid (saliva, etc.). Once out of the tonsils, they dry out quickly; even the largest ones resemble grains of sand after a few hours. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2845 "2021-10-19T00:23:16Z")
Yup. Also, the annual fireworks show will never be the same. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2846 "2021-10-19T02:33:43Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Fun fact: tonsilloliths can look massive, but are mostly liquid (saliva, etc.). Once out of the tonsils, they dry out quickly; even the largest ones resemble grains of sand after a few hours. I’ve had them. It never occurred to me to keep one and examine it over time. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2847 "2021-10-19T07:35:00Z")
Not a new fact to me, but since last night’s _Jeopardy!_ was unclear on it, I thought I’d mention it: The Volkswagen model _Golf_ is named for the _gulf_ (type of wind), not the game of Golf. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=141) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=143)