# 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:** 175
**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 23, 2022, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3488 "2022-01-23T23:47:59Z")
And then there is Admiral Horthy, dictator of landlocked Hungary during World War II. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3489 "2022-01-24T01:04:05Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I think we had that one. Yes, but that was so long ago that at that time the two parts were “helic” and “opter”. In a few years, the break will have migrated further right to become “helicopt” and “er”. ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3490 "2022-01-24T01:06:32Z")
“Helicopter” comes from the two words “helicopter” meaning “helicopter” and “” meaning. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3491 "2022-01-24T01:48:51Z")
Sorry, you forgot the second half: “would be so cool to get picked up from school in!” By the bye, anyone else feel a bit shallow for looking into moving to Nebraska, just to increase the odds of becoming an Admiral? ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3492 "2022-01-24T03:37:03Z")
> [@digs](#): > > anyone else feel a bit shallow for looking into moving to Nebraska, just to increase the odds of becoming an Admiral? Let me know if you move here and do good deeds, I’d be proud to nominate a fellow Doper, errr, Admiral. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3493 "2022-01-24T04:46:30Z")
Thanks, that’s sweet, but we’d move to be closer to family. Which right now is on a coast. West (CA), East (NYC)… or North (MN). ---
**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 24, 2022, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3494 "2022-01-24T04:56:12Z")
The word “mailbag” comes from the Old French word “male” meaning “bag” and the Old Norse word “baggi” meaning “bag”. ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3495 "2022-01-24T15:00:54Z")
I for one, never knew about the origins of “helicopter,” so ixnay on the ockingmay. ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3496 "2022-01-24T15:34:08Z")
Yes, the OP doesn’t say you can’t stumble across it in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3497 "2022-01-24T15:54:44Z")
This could become more than an IRF at some point in the future: > **[Robot vacuum cleaner escapes from Cambridge Travelodge](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-60084347)** > > The automated vacuum device ignores a hotel door's threshold and makes a break for freedom. > While some readers joked about the robot’s adventures, one feared for its safety in the great outdoors, pointing out that “nature abhors a vacuum”. > > However, much to everyone’s relief, the device was found nestled under a hedge on Friday afternoon by a (human) hotel cleaner sprucing up the front drive. > > It was dusted off and “is now back sitting happily on a shelf with the rest of its robot vacuum family”, the hotel confirmed. “Sitting happily on a shelf,” my ass. You can’t fool me, this was a dress rehearsal for the Robot Apocalypse. ---
**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 24, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3498 "2022-01-24T18:56:51Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > ixnay on the ockingmay I thought it was interesting that both parts of “mailbag” mean “bag”. YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3499 "2022-01-24T19:13:52Z")
> [@digs](#): > > By the bye, anyone else feel a bit shallow for looking into moving to Nebraska, just to increase the odds of becoming an Admiral? It seems a lot like being a Kentucky Colonel. (which, for some reason, I really want) > **[Kentucky Colonels - Kentucky Colonels](https://www.kycolonels.org/)** > > The commission of Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky. It is recognition of an individual’s noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to our community, state, and nation. The Honorable Order of... ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3500 "2022-01-24T19:20:36Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I thought it was interesting that both parts of “mailbag” mean “bag”. Surely a mailbag is simply a bag for carrying mail (letters)? ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3501 "2022-01-24T19:24:51Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > > [@hogarth](#): > > > > I thought it was interesting that both parts of “mailbag” mean “bag”. > > Surely a mailbag is simply a bag for carrying mail (letters)? It’s correct. The usage of “mail” meaning delivered letters and parcels is secondary to the original meaning of the bag used to carry the items being delivered. ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3502 "2022-01-24T19:30:30Z")
The archaic meaning of ‘mayle’ or ‘male’ or ‘mail’ may have been a bag, but it later came to mean a packet of letters. It’s in that sense that it’s combined with ‘bag’, long after the original meaning of mail had fallen out of use. > [@Pleonast](#): > > The usage of “mail” meaning delivered letters and parcels is secondary to the original meaning of the bag It’s not secondary. It’s the primary meaning today and for the past few centuries. The old meaning doesn’t exist any more. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3503 "2022-01-24T23:51:30Z")
I always found it amusing that in the US you mail a letter with the post office (postal service) while in the UK, you post a letter with the Royal Mail. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3504 "2022-01-24T23:56:58Z")
Just saw this tweet, pretty blown away by the fact that Frank Lloyd Wright and Stalin both had the same son in law, William Wesley Peters, and both his wives were called Svetlana! > ---
**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:** [January 25, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3505 "2022-01-25T00:28:40Z")
Hm. I wonder what Ayn Rand thought about that (Wright was a hero of hers (and the basis for Howard Roark)). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3506 "2022-01-25T01:08:26Z")
Actually, she started writing _The Fountainhead_ before she even heard of FLW. ---
**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:** [January 25, 2022, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3507 "2022-01-25T01:19:39Z")
Thanks - I did not know that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=174) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=176)