# 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:** 16
**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 14, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/301 "2020-05-14T14:04:59Z")
Major League Baseball - there have been 23 “perfect games” (the pitcher retired 27 consecutive batters), plus two others in which went longer than 9 innings, but with a hit during extra innings. In addition - there have been 13 games in which 26 batters in a row were retired, but the 27th (two out in the ninth) got a hit or walked. And one game in which the pitcher was ejected after walking the first batter - the subsequent pitcher caught the runner stealing, and retired the next 26 batters. > **[List of Major League Baseball perfect games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_perfect_games)** > > Over the 140 years of Major League Baseball history, and over 235,500 games played, there have been 23 official perfect games by the current definition. No pitcher has ever thrown more than one. The perfect game thrown by Don Larsen in game 5 of the 1956 World Series is the only postseason perfect game in major league history and one of only three postseason no-hitters. The first two major league perfect games, and the only two of the premodern era, were thrown in 1880, five days apart. The Th... ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/302 "2020-05-14T14:46:26Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Because they are preparing for an eventual invasion. We should be so lucky. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/303 "2020-05-14T15:36:11Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > Major League Baseball - there have been 23 “perfect games” (the pitcher retired 27 consecutive batters), plus two others in which went longer than 9 innings, but with a hit during extra innings. > > In addition - there have been 13 games in which 26 batters in a row were retired, but the 27th (two out in the ninth) got a hit or walked. And one game in which the pitcher was ejected after walking the first batter - the subsequent pitcher caught the runner stealing, and retired the next 26 batters. > > [List of Major League Baseball perfect games - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_perfect_games) > [@Wiki](#): > > On June 27, 1958, Billy Pierce of the Chicago White Sox gave up a double, which landed just inches in fair territory, on his first pitch to Senators pinch hitter Ed Fitz Gerald. I read a reminiscence by a guy who was driving in Chicago a few miles from Comiskey Park listening to the game on his car radio. About the 7th or 8th inning he realized it was a potential perfect game, not just a no-hitter, and headed toward the park. He drove faster and faster as the Senators’ batters were mowed down and screeched to a stop at the curb by the entrance. He dashed inside as there was no one to stop him; literally _everyone_ including the concessionaires was watching the game. He got to the top of the steps just as he heard the crack of Gerald’s bat and when it landed fair, he said you could feel the air let out of the stadium. As he turned around to get back to his car before it got a ticket, somebody said, “Well, that’s baseball.” ---
**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:** [May 14, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/304 "2020-05-14T16:14:07Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > …And one game in which the pitcher was ejected after walking the first batter - the subsequent pitcher caught the runner stealing, and retired the next 26 batters. You buried the lead…the pitcher who walked the first batter and then got tossed for punching (!) the umpire was one Babe Ruth. > **[The quasi-perfect game that started ... after the Babe punched an umpire](https://www.mlb.com/news/ernie-shore-throws-strange-perfect-game)** > > While there are 19 combined no-hitters in Major League history, we can safely say that the one tossed by Babe Ruth and Ernie Shore on June 23, 1917, is unlike any of the others. It doesn't count as one of the 24 perfect games in AL/NL history -- a... ---
**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 14, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/305 "2020-05-14T18:28:27Z")
“Dr. Kellogg introduced Kellogg’s Corn Flakes in hopes that it would reduce dyspepsia and, in accordance with the practices of the Seventh-day Adventists, masturbation and excessive sexual intercourse.” > **[Corn flakes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_flakes)** > > Corn flakes, or cornflakes, are a breakfast cereal made from toasting flakes of corn (maize). The cereal, originally made with wheat, was created by Will Kellogg in 1894 for patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium where he worked with his brother John Kellogg who was the superintendent. The breakfast cereal proved popular among the patients and Kellogg subsequently started what became the Kellogg Company to produce corn flakes for the wider public. A patent for the process was granted in 1896, ... Original source: [The Secret Ingredient in Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Is Seventh-Day Adventism | History| Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/secret-ingredient-kelloggs-corn-flakes-seventh-day-adventism-180964247/) More about cereals. At 3:32 you can see an explosion of rice krispies type cereal from the “cannon.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0fuhVgR1DCU/maxresdefault.jpg "What is the Steam Powered Puff Gun? - Steam Culture") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fuhVgR1DCU) ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/306 "2020-05-15T09:39:55Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Do they still make/sell hard contacts? I don’t hear about them. Maybe for astigmatism? My brother had them way back in the 70s. I think he uses soft now. Yes, they do, at least in Europe they are still quite common. I have been using them since the 70s and still use them every day. They are recomended for astigmatism, as you say, or for high dioptries. They are also easier to clean and mantain and last longer. They are not really hard, they are a bit flexible but firm. Their diameter is a little bit smaller than the iris but bigger than the pupil, that is what makes it strange that you don’t cry when you handle onions while wearing them (the lenses, not the onions). I wonder what part of the eye is sensible to onion effluvia. I always thought there were no nerves or blood in the part of the eye the lenses cover but the lenses still have an effect. ---
**Author:** ![Casparlatete](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/casparlatete/32/3377_2.png) [@Casparlatete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casparlatete)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/307 "2020-05-15T09:58:28Z")
Emperor Akihito of Japan, drives a grey 1991 Honda Integra in the grounds of the Imperial Palace, he wears a seat belt, sticks to the speed limit & regularly renews his driving licence, though the roads are strictly private & free from all traffic. This I learnt this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Gryphea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@Gryphea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gryphea)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/308 "2020-05-15T14:23:08Z")
The Chupa-Chups logo was designed by Salvador Dali ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/309 "2020-05-15T15:18:19Z")
> [@Casparlatete](#): > > **M** y **V** ery **E** ducated\*\* M **other** J\*\*ust **S** erved **U** s **N** oodles . > > To remember the sequence of planets from the sun; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune. (Pluto is no longer considered a planet) The BBC show QI explored a series of possible mnemonics for the planets. The least PC one was: Mary’s Virgin Explanation Makes Joseph Suspect Upstairs Neighbor. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/310 "2020-05-15T15:23:15Z")
The nursery rhyme _Mary Had a Little Lamb_ is a true story. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/311 "2020-05-15T15:42:50Z")
> [@Casparlatete](#): > > Emperor Akihito of Japan, drives a grey 1991 Honda Integra in the grounds of the Imperial Palace, he wears a seat belt, sticks to the speed limit & regularly renews his driving licence, though the roads are strictly private & free from all traffic. > This I learnt this morning. Bill Clinton drove a pickup one time when he was president. It was an El Camino. Reagan drove a jeep on his ranch as president. Pretty much everywhere else the president rides in the big Caddy limo called the beast with secret service driving. It’s custom built with a lot of armor and other things added. I believe by tradition every new president gets a new model, Trump did. ---
**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 15, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/312 "2020-05-15T17:06:14Z")
> [@Casparlatete](#): > > Emperor Akihito of Japan, drives a grey 1991 Honda Integra in the grounds of the Imperial Palace, he wears a seat belt, sticks to the speed limit & regularly renews his driving licence, though the roads are strictly private & free from all traffic. > This I learnt this morning. Prince Philip. He gave up his driver’s license in early 2019, but is still allow to drive on his private estate. [The Leading Source for Entertainment and Celebrity News | Entertainment Tonight](https://etcanada.com/news/443984/prince-philip-seen-driving-for-first-time-since-terrifying-crash-and-giving-up-licence/) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/313 "2020-05-15T18:46:15Z")
Los Angeles City’s main wastewater treatment plant is named Hyperion. And, oddly for such a facility, it’s not named for its street address. It’s on Vista Del Mar at the intersection of Imperial Highway. I can’t imagine a modern facility being named for a Greek Titan. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/314 "2020-05-15T19:10:10Z")
Queen Liz at 92 still drives on her property. One day she was out for a walk and a guy said to her “does the queen live around here?” and she said “go ask that policeman over there” 🙂 Really funny how he did not recognize her. I assume the cop was part of her security but was not real close to her. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/315 "2020-05-15T19:19:11Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > Rob Reiner tells a story about filming The Princess Bride: at one point, Andre the Giant farted. > > This was apparently not the sort of little embarrassing “pwiiiit” you might hear in any group of people. No. This one was a clearly audible bass rumble, and is said to have gone ON for a while; one report has it as lasting fourteen seconds straight, but I am skeptical. At any rate, it was a ripper, and it went ON for a while. > > … and ended… amid dead silence. No one said anything. > > After a long pause, Reiner said, “Andre, are you okay?” > > Andre the Giant grinned and said, “I am now, boss.” Jake the Snake Roberts told a similar story. He said during a match, Andre sat on him and didn’t move. The ref asked “What are you doing?” Andre replied “I’m farting.” This went on for a minute or two before the match resumed. Jake said he had a wine-colored stain on his back after that. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/316 "2020-05-15T20:36:44Z")
Back around 1967, Hanna-Barbera Animation Studios were developing a new Saturday morning cartoon show for kids, and a number of ideas were going into the hat. The basic premise was that a group of teenagers would travel around solving mysteries. The mysteries invariably involved ghosts, spooks, goblins, or monsters, and at the end of each episode, it would turn out to be a guy we had met earlier in the episode who was in fact attempting to scare people as part of a scheme to make money somehow. In the development process, the teenagers were originally fifties-style teenagers; the original working model based them on the cast of _Dobie Gillis_, with a stand up handsome clean cut fellow (Dobie Gillis), a beatnik/hippie (Maynard), a stylin’ chick (Thalia), and a less attractive girl who was in fact smarter than all of them (Zelda). At one point in development they were ALL hippies, and then NONE of them were hippies, and then they swung back towards the Dobie Gillis model, with one hippie, and everyone else styled up to the late sixties. Along the way, they acquired a dog, whose name was Too Much, who did not talk; his job was comic relief and reaction shots. Towards the end of the development process, the dog was permitted to talk, albeit with a speech impediment, and his name was changed to _Scooby Doo._ The working title of the project was _Mysteries Four_, later _Mysteries Five,_ after they got the dog. The title was later changed when the scripts started being produced and the dog became more of a major character. The show was expected to last a year or two, as most Saturday morning cartoons did, before fading into obscurity and the pool of reruns for children’s TV. It premiered in the fall of 1969, and has survived the death of its studio, its creators, and of Saturday morning cartoons themselves. And if anyone asks what the cartoon’s NAME was, I’mma reach into this screen and slap somebody. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/317 "2020-05-15T20:46:45Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Jake the Snake Roberts told a similar story. He said during a match, Andre sat on him and didn’t move. The ref asked “What are you doing?” Andre replied “I’m farting.” This went on for a minute or two before the match resumed. Jake said he had a wine-colored stain on his back after that. Wait a minute. A wine colored stain on his BACK or a wine colored stain on his CLOTHES? Dang, did Andre haul off and TATTOO the poor bugger? ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/318 "2020-05-15T22:44:12Z")
J.K. Rowling reports that the inspiration for the Hagrid character in the Harry Potter books was a man she encountered when she was nineteen, in a pub. ENORMOUS hairy creature, had to duck to get in the front door, comes in. Looks like a biker. ENORMOUS. Rowling reports she was intimidated, clear across the room. And when he spoke to her, the only thing he really talked about was how his cabbages were coming along. Apparently, once he started talking, he was far less terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/319 "2020-05-16T17:58:33Z")
[quote=“lobotomyboy63, post:305, topic:851674”] “Dr. Kellogg introduced Kellogg’s Corn Flakes in hopes that it would reduce dyspepsia and, in accordance with the practices of the Seventh-day Adventists, masturbation and excessive sexual intercourse.” > **[Corn flakes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_flakes)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Corn flakes, or cornflakes, are a breakfast cereal made from toasting flakes of corn (maize). The cereal, originally made with wheat, was created by Will Kellogg in 1894 for patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium where he worked with his brother John Kellogg who was the superintendent. The breakfast cereal proved popular among the patients and Kellogg subsequently started what became the Kellogg Company to produce corn flakes for the wider public... Original source: [The Secret Ingredient in Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Is Seventh-Day Adventism | History| Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/secret-ingredient-kelloggs-corn-flakes-seventh-day-adventism-180964247/) More about cereals. At 3:32 you can see an explosion of rice krispies type cereal from the “cannon.” [/QUOTE] For many years, the official Canadian government Dictionary of Occupations included a listing for “Gunner”, the official term for someone who operated these steam gun machines used to make Puffed Wheat and similar cereals. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/320 "2020-05-18T00:27:44Z")
Everybody knows that the raised “57” logo on a glass bottle of Heinz ketchup represents the company’s slogan, “57 varieties.” Not as well known is that the 57 marks the sweet spot on the bottle where you can slap it with your hand to get the ketchup to flow out. > **[Heinz revealed the 1 trick you need to get ketchup out of its glass bottles](https://www.insider.com/trick-for-how-to-get-ketchup-out-of-glass-bottle-2016-8)** > > There's a reason for that raised 57. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=17)