# 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:** 156
**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:** [November 16, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3108 "2021-11-16T19:26:30Z")
> [@cytop](#): > > Who, by the way are officially known as ‘Royal Dutch Shell’ (which you cannot spell out on a calculator) and were headquartered in The Nederlands. > > However, they are proposing to [move the HQ to the UK](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59288593) so losing the ‘Royal Dutch’ tag … > > The Dutch government, however, said it was “unpleasantly surprised” by Shell’s proposal… > > In 1907, the business they founded, Shell Transport & Trading, merged with a rival, Royal Dutch Petroleum… > > So, King Willem-Alexander doesn’t actually chair board meetings but it was a neat name in any case. Huh, given the whole Eighty Years War against the Hapsburgs thing, I was surprised to hear that the Dutch/Nederlander Republic had a monarchy. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3109 "2021-11-16T19:56:16Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I was surprised to hear that the Dutch/Nederlander Republic had a monarchy. Huh, had? They still have a monarchy. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3110 "2021-11-16T20:09:54Z")
> [@cytop](#): > > Who, by the way are officially known as ‘Royal Dutch Shell’ (which you cannot spell out on a calculator) and were headquartered in The Nederlands. Years ago, someone at work was looking at a long list of company names (including Koninklijke Philips and Koninklijke Ahold, for instance) and they concluded that there’s a company called Koninklijke that has a bunch of subsidiaries. (“Koninklijke” = “Royal” in Dutch.) ---
**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:** [November 16, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3111 "2021-11-16T20:23:09Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > “Koninklijke” = “Royal” in Dutch. Cognate to English “kingly”. Recently I watched on television some matches at the Kungliga Tennishallen. Same cognate in Swedish. Germanic words somehow sound more authoritative. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3112 "2021-11-16T20:26:32Z")
More of a matriarchy. The last three rulers were women and the next one will be as well. Oh and they tend to abdicate when they get old. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3113 "2021-11-16T20:29:34Z")
> [@](#): > > # Hitchhiking Roadrunner Somehow Ends Up In Maine > > FREEDOM, Maine (AP) — A wayward roadrunner is on the mend in Maine after traveling across the country in a moving van. > > The greater roadrunner, a species native to Southwestern states, hitched a ride in the storage area of a moving van from Las Vegas to Westbrook, Maine. Volunteers took the bird to Avian Haven, a bird rehabilitation facility in Maine. Clearly took a wrong toin at Albukoik-ee. > **[Hitchhiking Roadrunner Somehow Ends Up In Maine](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roadrunner-road-trip-las-vegas-maine_n_6193eb8fe4b0901318366fa0)** > > The bird spent four days in the storage area of a moving van from Las Vegas to Westbrook, Maine. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3114 "2021-11-16T22:58:55Z")
The species name of the greater roadrunner is _Geococcyx_ _californianus_. No, I’m not sure where I picked that up, and certainly can’t say why I picked it up. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3115 "2021-11-16T23:03:47Z")
I’m sure I heard somewhere it was _Velocitus incalcublii_ or _Tastyus supersonicus_ or something like that ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3116 "2021-11-16T23:05:37Z")
> [@Civil\_Guy](#): > > The species name of the greater roadrunner is _Geococcyx_ _californianus_ . Are you sure? I thought I saw in a documentary it was _Speedius Birdus_ ---
**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:** [November 16, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3117 "2021-11-16T23:41:13Z")
Pure nitroglycerin can be stored and transported safely by simply freezing it, in its solid state it’s much less sensitive. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3118 "2021-11-17T01:58:39Z")
The first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise wasn’t located in Kentucky. > KFC was founded by [Colonel Harland Sanders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Sanders), an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in [Corbin, Kentucky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbin,_Kentucky) during the [Great Depression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression). Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant [franchising](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franchising) concept and the first “Kentucky Fried Chicken” franchise opened in [Utah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah) in 1952. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3119 "2021-11-17T03:40:19Z")
> [@cytop](#): > > Who, by the way are officially known as ‘Royal Dutch Shell’ (which you cannot spell out on a calculator) and were headquartered in The Nederlands. > [@Lumpy](#): > > I was surprised to hear that the Dutch/Nederlander Republic had a monarchy. **Neal Stephenson** ’s new book **Termination Shock** features both RDS and the Netherlands’ Royal House of Orange extensively. Speaking of which, the House of Orange has a fascinating history: Sitting on the Rhône river near Avignon in southern France, the small Principality of Orange (1163–1713) has had a disproportionate part to play in world affairs. In 1544 by historical accident it became ruled by the same man as was the northern French county of Nassau, and that line went on to establish the Dutch royal House of Orange-Nassau when the Netherlands successfully revolted from the Spanish Hapsburg dynasty in the Eighty Years’ War 1568–1648. In 1685 the Catholic James II succeeded Charles II to the English throne and the mainly Protestant English feared he would attempt to mandate Catholicism in England again, and would also take Catholic France’s side against the League of Augsburg an anti-French, mainly Protestant coalition of the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, Spain and several German states). The then Dutch ruler William III of Orange had married Mary Stuart, who was his cousin and the daughter of James, Duke of York (who soon became the above- mentioned James II), and so was in the line of succession for the English throne if James was excluded for any reason, and as an added bonus was Protestant. To the English this made him an attractive alternative to his uncle and father-in-law James II, as they were sick of being ruled by Catholic monarchs and of the wars, external and civil, that this had caused. In 1688 prominent English Protestants invited William to invade England while France was busy elsewhere and he duly did so. There was no significant opposition and he was crowned King William III (and William II of Scotland) at Westminster Abbey on 11 April 1689. Like all other English monarchs of the period he had to deal with the Irish Question; as a Protestant of good standing his answer naturally involved siding with his co-religionists there against the Irish Catholics under James II, whom he resoundingly defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The grateful Irish Protestants proclaimed themselves to be Orangemen, as they still refer to themselves today. William III died childless so the House of Orange’s tenure on the English throne began and ended with him – it passed to his wife’s sister [Queen] Anne – but the Dutch branch continues unbroken to the present day. The finest quality tea brought to Europe by the Dutch East India company was bai hao “white tip”, referring to the white still-curled young leaves used to make it; on European tongues bai hao was corrupted to Pekoe. When presented to the Dutch royal family they granted it a royal warrant to be known as Orange after their royal house, and so it became Orange Pekoe tea. When Dutch settlers colonised South Africa they named the Orange River after their royal house, and in 1837 when they founded the Orange Free State. Some of the fiercest fighting in the second Boer War (1899–1902) occurred there, as two armies loyal to descendants of the same royal house fought it out in a region named after that very same royal house. None of these world-shaking events had anything more to do with the tiny Province of Orange, which was finally absorbed into France in 1713 and is part of the _département_ of Vaucluse today. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3120 "2021-11-17T05:25:12Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > The first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise wasn’t located in Kentucky. Yep. I’ve eaten at the World’s First KFC (the sign says that on the side of the building). It was a Pete Harmon’s restaurant. For a long time all the KFC’s in Utah were labeled “Harmon’s”. I’ve eaten at more than one. It’s weird, because they also served things like carrots, which you can’t get at a regular KFC. (Just like the Gino’s restaurants run by Gino Marchetti along the East Coast. They served hamburgers and fries alongside the KFC) By the time I got to Salt Lake City in the 1980s they had some non-Harmon’s KFC franchises. In fact, there was one half a block from my apartment. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3121 "2021-11-17T06:45:11Z")
Not to mention Orange Counties in several US states named after William of Orange – not the ones in CA , FL, and TX, which are named after the fruit, but the ones in NY, IN, NC, VT, and VA. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3122 "2021-11-17T13:41:22Z")
Savannah, Georgia is further south than Tijuana, Mexico. Also, there’s a portion of Oregon that is in the Mountain time zone, and part of Florida’s panhandle is in the Central time zone. As such, there is only a one hour time difference between them. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3123 "2021-11-17T13:50:31Z")
I’m watching a video of geographical oddities. San Francisco and Indianapolis are both the same distance from Delhi, India. About 7600 miles. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3124 "2021-11-17T14:30:53Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Savannah, Georgia is further south than Tijuana, Mexico. Atlanta, Georgia is further west than Columbus, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3125 "2021-11-17T14:39:18Z")
(There is a thread for this sort of thing folks - [Your geographical misconceptions](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294)) ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3126 "2021-11-17T14:57:00Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Not to mention Orange Counties in several US states named after William of Orange – not the ones in CA , FL, and TX, which are named after the fruit, but the ones in NY, IN, NC, VT, and VA. Golden, Colorado isn’t named after “gold in them thar hills”. It’s named after a man named Golden. First name Thomas. Who found gold in them thar hills > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > The first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise wasn’t located in Kentucky. Which makes sense if you think about it. It was “Kentucky style fried chicken”. You wouldn’t have to say the Kentucky part in Kentucky, for the same reason that in China, Chinese food is just called food. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3127 "2021-11-17T15:24:40Z")
Mine weren’t really misconceptions. Just facts I stumbled across. I’d say they could fit either thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=155) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=157)