# 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:** 144
**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 20, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2868 "2021-10-20T19:49:26Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Copyright law is complicated, so it’s possible ERB, Inc., was able to do something to extend the copyrights in the stories beyond the normal 56 years. I’m sure one of our resident lawyers or copyright mavens will be along to explain other ways the Tarzan stories were, or might have been, protected. I usually just go by whether it’s available on Project Gutenberg: > **[Books by Burroughs, Edgar Rice (sorted by popularity)](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/48)** > > Project Gutenberg offers 72,640 free eBooks for Kindle, iPad, Nook, Android, and iPhone. There are a bunch of Tarzan stories there, so it’s very likely they are out of copyright. Remember though, that copyright and trademark are different things. Just because certain Tarzan stories are in Public Domain does not mean the _character_ is. You can’t necessarily go out and create any Tarzan-branded content or item you want. But you can re-publish the original work (I am not a lawyer). ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2869 "2021-10-20T20:26:43Z")
> [@tofor](#): > > I usually just go by whether it’s available on Project Gutenberg: RIght, they definitely are PD _now,_ but we were talking about their status in the 1960s. > [@tofor](#): > > Remember though, that copyright and trademark are different things. Just because certain Tarzan stories are in Public Domain does not mean the _character_ is. You can’t necessarily go out and create any Tarzan-branded content or item you want. But you can re-publish the original work (I am not a lawyer). I am aware of the difference, and although I didn’t look into the trademark question before my first post here, I did look into whether ERB had asserted a copyright on the character of Tarzan in the 1960s, and only found [this 1981 case](https://casetext.com/case/burroughs-v-metro-goldwyn-mayer-inc-3), which discussed the copyright status of the Tarzan character, but decided the case against ERB, Inc., on other grounds. As the judge in that case suggested, Tarzan almost certainly meets the standards for asserting [copyright of a fictional character](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_protection_for_fictional_characters), so it’s possible, even likely, that ERB, Inc., used that claim in the legal actions @CalMeacham says it took against Charlton and the other companies. I just haven’t looked them up. Since you mentioned trademarks, I just looked them up, and all of the [live trademarks ERB, Inc., holds](https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4802%3Avn68y5.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=Tarzan&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query) were filed after 1991, the majority in the last decade. They have even [trademarked](https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4802:vn68y5.2.20) this: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MwHWbsvgQUE/hqdefault.jpg "Johnny Weismuller Tarzan Call") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHWbsvgQUE) The earliest Tarzan trademarks ERB, Inc., filed, now dead, seem to be from 1980, so trademark issues probably weren’t a factor in the 1960s cases. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2870 "2021-10-20T20:44:54Z")
Oops! I didn’t look at the second page of results at USPTO! The trademark [“Tarzan”](https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4802:vn68y5.9.56) for “PAPERBACK BOOKS, HARDBOUND BOOKS, COMIC BOOKS, AND NEWSPAPER CARTOONS” was registered as of Dec. 7, 1965, and is still live. ---
**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:** [October 20, 2021, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2871 "2021-10-20T21:04:01Z")
This will only be of interest to people who like Blackadder (WHICH SHOULD BE ALL OF YOU) The actor who played him: [![](https://blackadderquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/bishop.jpg) ](https://blackadderquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/bishop.jpg) also played this guy: [![](https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/what-the-cast-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-looks-like-today/ronald-lacey-arnold-toht.jpg) ](https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/what-the-cast-of-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-looks-like-today/ronald-lacey-arnold-toht.jpg) ---
**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 20, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2872 "2021-10-20T21:17:11Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > The actor who played him: You should be a little clearer in your designation. I thought you were saying that the actor who played Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson, of course) played Toht in Raiders. That was Ron Lacey, of course. Looking through his credits, I find that he played the Bishop of Bath and Wells in the episode “Money” of **Blackadder II**. I’ve seen it, but it’s been a very long time. Outside of Lost Ark, I think of Lacey as Thaddeus and Bartholomew Sholto in the PBS Jeremy Brett version of **The Sign of Four**. He apparently played Inspector Lestrade in the 1983 (Ian Richardson) version of **The Hound of the Baskervilles** , too. He was only 55 when he died of liver cancer in 1991. ---
**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 20, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2873 "2021-10-20T21:31:06Z")
On a late model Golf with a manual transmission, the knob on the shifter is sized, and dimpled, like a golf ball. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2874 "2021-10-20T21:35:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Looking through his credits, I find that he played the Bishop of Bath and Wells in the episode “Money” of **Blackadder II**. I’ve seen it, but it’s been a very long time. Please. It’s “the **baby-eating** Bishop of Bath and Wells.” ---
**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 21, 2021, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2875 "2021-10-21T12:04:46Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > > [@tofor](#): > > > > I usually just go by whether it’s available on Project Gutenberg: > > RIght, they definitely are PD _now,_ but we were talking about their status in the 1960s. I’m sorry, of course. Doh. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2876 "2021-10-21T12:30:02Z")
And he’d be the first to tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2877 "2021-10-21T12:35:04Z")
Natto is a Japanese dish consisting of fermented soybeans. > **[Nattō](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natt%C5%8D)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Nattō (納豆), spelled as natto in standard English language use, is a traditional Japanese food made from whole soybeans that have been fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. It is often served as a breakfast food with rice. It is served with karashi mustard, soy or tare sauce, and sometimes Japanese bunching onion. Within Japan, nattō is most popular in the eastern regions, including Kantō, Tōhoku, and Hokkaido. > Nattō is often considered an ... Some people are actually allergic to it. A disproportionate number of these allergic folks are surfers. What’s the connection? These researchers think it’s jellyfish stings: > **[Surfing as a risk factor for sensitization to poly(γ-glutamic acid) in...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29175280/)** > > Surfing is a risk factor for PGA sensitization in those with allergy to natto. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2878 "2021-10-21T14:15:47Z")
The story of the [Kansas City Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_massacre) is interesting. In 1933, Feds were bringing a prisoner back to KC by rail, and the mob tried to free him at the station. It went pear- shaped and the prisoner and 4 others were dead. The latest detail I read was that one of the lawmen saw the gangsters approaching the car they were using, and grabbed a shotgun that was of a kind that fired as it was racked. The law guy killed the prisoner and racked it again and killed another before the gangsters ever let off a shot. This is an account I read recently. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2879 "2021-10-21T17:00:54Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And the VW Scirocco (1974-1992) was also named after a type of wind. > > I owned one; a great little car. VW Cars… Fahrvergnügen…types of wind…fahrt…breaking wind… There’s a joke in there I’m sure. Maybe several. But my head’s too stopped up today to think straight. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2880 "2021-10-21T22:01:35Z")
Here is my question: Why did Professor Longhair say: “If I’d have known you had company, I would have had weiners for my lunch?” ---
**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:** [October 21, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2881 "2021-10-21T23:03:39Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > VW Cars… Fahrvergnügen…types of wind…fahrt…breaking wind… Nice try. The word Fahrvergnügen was derived from Fahren (to drive) and vergnügen (enjoyment) Now, the word for driving might have some connection to the word for wind but that one is either Wind (just like ours) or Luft which also means air or breeze. No farts there. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2021, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2882 "2021-10-21T23:07:02Z")
But, but…The corresponding noun to the verb “fahren” (to drive) is “Fahrt” (drive), almost exactly pronounced as “fart”, so there you have it. ETA: and yes, “Fahrtwind” is a perfectly cromulent German word, meaning the air or wind that blows around your nose when driving. > **[dict.cc Wörterbuch :: Fahrtwind :: Deutsch-Englisch-Übersetzung](https://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Fahrtwind.html)** > > Deutsch-Englisch-Übersetzungen für Fahrtwind im Online-Wörterbuch dict.cc (Englischwörterbuch). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2883 "2021-10-21T23:50:29Z")
What’s that from? I’m not familiar with it, but I’m guessing the meaning is “I like weiners but they give me bad breath, so I avoided them today, in the hopes that when I visited you, you’d be alone (and thus available for smooching) - but you’re not, so I missed the chance to have a lunch I enjoyed, all for nothing” ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2884 "2021-10-21T23:55:36Z")
The famous early humanoid fossil Lucy, found in 1974, was named after the Beatles song **Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds** which was playing on the finders’ cassette player on the day she was found. There is a space mission called Lucy, named after that fossil, now on its way to the Jovian asteroids. It will fly by an asteroid called Donaldjohnson after the discoverer of that fossil. On that spacecraft is a disc made of artificial diamond. So there is literally **Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds** now. ---
**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:** [October 22, 2021, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2885 "2021-10-22T11:51:56Z")
Never thought of that. I think you might have something there. At about :30 … [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/qDRju_ffPnw/maxresdefault.jpg "It's My Fault, Darling (Remastered)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDRju_ffPnw) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2886 "2021-10-22T12:22:57Z")
Thanks. ---
**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 22, 2021, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/2887 "2021-10-22T15:25:46Z")
> **[Elephants and driving dogs: Norwich-based Aviva’s weirdest insurance claims |...](https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2021-10-11/elephants-and-driving-dogs-norwich-based-avivas-weirdest-insurance-claims)** > > To celebrate its upcoming 325th anniversary, Norwich based insurance company Aviva has revealed some of its weirdest insurance claims. | ITV News Anglia > In 1875 a vicar was awarded £120 after playing a game of… Leapfrog. > > Although many old claims are light on detail, the big payout said the religious figure had ‘fallen’. That’s about £14K today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=143) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=145)