# 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:** 168
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3348 "2021-12-31T21:27:51Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Or enhances it. You are lucky, always seeing the bright side of things. Maybe I’m too pessimistic. > [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > ISWYDT It was a perfectly innocent comment. Getcher mind out of the gutter. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3349 "2021-12-31T23:09:04Z")
I don’t mean to interrupt your discussion on mistletoe 🤨 . But speaking of interesting words… _Sacred_ is an interesting word. In my dictionary, it says that it was originally from the word _sacre_—to set aside as holy. So therefore _Sacre-ed_ was ‘set aside as holy’. But we forgot its origin, though it still retains its past participial _-ed_ ending. I at least find that fascinating 🙁 . ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3350 "2021-12-31T23:42:32Z")
[Not that it matters. But I did hit the option for the smiley face. I don’t know why it dispensed the frown: 🙂 .] ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2022, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3351 "2022-01-01T06:09:45Z")
Oh, and BTW, I forgot to add in my original post on the subject, Stanley. It means _stoney meadow_. Actually, that brings up an interesting question, I’ve always wanted to ask. And this seems likely to be my last chance to bring it up (I doubt if it’d make a good thread unto itself 😉 🙂 .) About 35 years ago, I went to a predominately Polish high school. And Polish kids, where I live at least, used to say that “Stosh” (probably spelled _stosz_, _stoś_, whatever, in Polish) is Polish for “Stanley”. Is it really? As I said, Stanley means “stoney meadow” in English. Is that what “Stosh” 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:** [January 1, 2022, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3352 "2022-01-01T13:07:01Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Is it really? As I said, Stanley means “stoney meadow” in English. Is that what “Stosh” means? I don’t know Polish, but here’s a forum where you might ask: > **[Polski (Polish)](https://forum.wordreference.com/forums/polski-polish.95/)** ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2022, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3353 "2022-01-01T15:02:52Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Is it really? As I said, Stanley means “stoney meadow” in English. Is that what “Stosh” means? Maybe from Stanisław which is unrelated to Stanley except that both use the nickname Stan. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2022, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3354 "2022-01-01T15:09:44Z")
Yes, we had a coworker from Poland who went by Stan, but would be (half jokingly) peeved if people thought his name was Stanley. Because Stanislaus was an “auspicious” name and Stanley was NOT! ---
**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:** [January 1, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3355 "2022-01-01T15:10:17Z")
> **[40 Maps They Didn’t Teach You In School](https://www.boredpanda.com/fun-maps-they-didnt-teach-you-in-school/?utm_source=search.yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic)** > > By the time we graduate high school, we learn that they never taught us the most interesting things in there. Sure, you might be able to name the European countries or point New York on the map, but does that give a you real understanding of how the... Breast size by country is an interesting one; there’s one for penis sizes as well. Plus every Country England Has Ever Invaded (all but 22 countries in the world), 7 deadly sins mapped, Time zones in Antarctica and more. ---
**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:** [January 1, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3356 "2022-01-01T23:25:52Z")
Thanks @lobotomyboy63 , that was interesting. I daresay that they might not all be terribly scientific though. I don’t see Canada as fur traders, hockey players more likely, and fellow lovers of flannel shirts. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3357 "2022-01-02T01:17:32Z")
As many of us are probably aware, the crash of ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 in 1996 was the result of a fire in the cargo compartment caused by improperly stored oxygen canisters. The maintenance supervisor and two mechanics who worked on the plane were found culpable. One of the mechanics - Mauro Ociel Valenzuela - failed to appear in court. Valenzuela is still a fugitive as of today, and is currently wanted by the FBI. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3358 "2022-01-02T02:18:17Z")
There is a word for [this feeling](https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/23536922667/sonder). > The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk. It’s sonder. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3359 "2022-01-02T02:36:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It’s sonder. Does it originate from the German root “sonder”, like in “besonders” (“special”), or in compound words like “Sonderbehandlung” (“special treatment”)? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3360 "2022-01-02T02:57:42Z")
It comes from nowhere, it seems. The link goes to The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a blog or something by John Koenig. He’s one of a long line of people who make up words. Most of his neologisms are nonce terms that nobody will ever notice again, but sonder seems to have hit a true need and is being widely spread. Certainly it’s a feeling that has hit me multiple times. [Bustle](https://www.bustle.com/articles/80402-the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows-tumblr-gives-us-these-7-words-that-dont-exist-in-the) had an article on him that gives several more words, all of them interesting and none that will ever make it into the language. He’s known to pay attention to etymology to make his coinages sound plausible, so sonder could be inspired by German. Or anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3361 "2022-01-02T05:00:59Z")
I watched a couple of more videos, and it seems to me that the “words” are basically the hook to the main points, which appear to be highlighting specific paradoxes and complexities of our existence. Pretty cool, and really good videos for those with an existential mindset. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3362 "2022-01-02T05:26:14Z")
I had that feeling as a child, as the family was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike for our annual summer visit to my grandmother in New York. I realized that very single one of the hundreds of other cars around us was carrying people going about their lives, taking trips, doing things that we’d never know anything about. It was a rather mind-boggling epiphany for a kid of eight or so. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3363 "2022-01-02T06:03:58Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The previous Pope John XXIII was the antipope John XXIII from back during the Western Schism, and apparently there was never a Pope John XX. In James Branch Cabell’s book **Jurgen** , the protagonist sneaks into Heaven by claiming to be Pope John XX. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3364 "2022-01-02T06:53:07Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > And isn’t Cambridge named for a bridge over the river Cam? Both places have names = river crossing sites. The name of the English town called “Plymouth” is from its location at the mouth of the river Plym. ---
**Author:** ![merrick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@merrick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrick)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3365 "2022-01-02T12:19:08Z")
See also Weymouth, Bournemouth, Dartmouth, Falmouth … there are a lot of these in south-west England (and a few elsewhere, such as Tynemouth). Portsmouth is the odd one out as there is no River Port. The name is thought to come from the Latin _portus_ meaning, well, a port. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3366 "2022-01-02T17:52:41Z")
Smashmouth is from its location at a football pub. ---
**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:** [January 3, 2022, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3367 "2022-01-03T00:03:22Z")
Exmouth was named when the river dried up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=167) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=169)