# 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:** 183
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3649 "2022-02-09T01:39:40Z")
Whoa, mind blown! (I am definitely going to be thinking about that for a while.) ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3650 "2022-02-09T02:45:01Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > American Gothic and Whistler’s Mother are just plain depressing. Why shouldn’t some art be depressing? Why should an artist rule out certain emotions? And what’s depressing about American Gothic? ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3651 "2022-02-09T02:48:31Z")
Who wants to look at a couple of rustic sad sacks? ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3652 "2022-02-09T18:57:23Z")
One 1959 episode of the TV show _The Rifleman_ featured three actors who played werewolves and one who played Dracula Michael Landon, Chuck Connors, and Steven Ritch, with John Carradine as an extra added bonus > **["The Rifleman" The Mind Reader (TV Episode 1959) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0686709/)** > > The Mind Reader: Directed by Don Medford. With Chuck Connors, Johnny Crawford, John Carradine, Paul Fix. While walking down the main street in North Fork, John Hallager is shot from someone hiding in the shadows. Marshal Micah Torrance arrests Billy... > **[One Rifleman episode brought together three different werewolf actors](https://www.metv.com/stories/one-rifleman-episode-brought-together-three-different-werewolf-actors)** > > Cinematic vampire John Carradine also guest starred as the titular "Mind Reader." ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3653 "2022-02-09T19:05:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > One 1959 episode of the TV show _The Rifleman_ featured three actors who played werewolves and one who played Dracula Sounds like a fun plot. The rifleman killed three werewolves with silver bullets, but his downfall was not realizing that you need to use a wooden stake for a vampire? ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3654 "2022-02-09T20:22:35Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Sounds like a fun plot. The rifleman killed three werewolves with silver bullets, but his downfall was not realizing that you need to use a wooden stake for a vampire? Not so interesting. The actors had all played werewolves in different movies or TV shows, and Carradine has played Count Dracula practically infinite times on stage, and at least three times in the movies (not to mention characters with names like “Alucard”, which is Dracula spelled backwards, and other vampires). But there were apparently no werewolves or vampires in the TV episode. Woulda been interesting. Your statement reminds me of a short story that appeared inn an old issue of _Famous Monster of Filmland_ where a werewolf in the Old West figures he’s safe from anyone killing him. Until he hears someone say “Hi-yo Silver, away!” ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3655 "2022-02-09T20:23:24Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > but his downfall was not realizing that you need to use a wooden stake for a vampire? Does the stake actually have to be made of wood, or was that just what came to hand in the original _Dracula_ novel? I’d have thought that destroying the heart was the pivotal thing. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3656 "2022-02-09T20:35:31Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Does the stake actually have to be made of wood, or was that just what came to hand in the original _Dracula_ novel? I’d have thought that destroying the heart was the pivotal thing. Interesting question, with multiple answers, mainly because everyone is making up the rules as they go along. 1.) Unlike a lot of vampire “fakelore” that Bram Stoker made up from whole cloth, this one is pretty traditional, goin g back to real folklore. People drove wooden stakes into vampires in the penny dreadful _Varney the Vampire_ (1845-1847), the earliest fictional use of it I know. Sheridan le Fanu’s _Carmilla_ (1872) was done in by a stake, too. 2.) You can find collections of folklore that mention the stake, as in Gerard’s The _Land Beyond the Forest_, which Stoker used. But such accounts also mention other methods, including driving a metal stake through the heart (or head). The Master himself had an old column about these old ways to kill vampires of different ethnicities. So the wooden stake wasn’t unique. 1. ) In Carl Dreyer’s film _Vampyr_ (1932), they kill the titular vampire with a metal rod driven through her heart. 4.) But the wooden stake got more air time in pop culture, so it’s what everyone knows 5.) Larry niven asked if you could kill a vampire with a stake made of plastic wood in one of his stories. IIRC, they never did settle it. 6.) In the novel _I Am Legend_ Richard Matheson’s protagonist at first kills the vampires by using wooden stakes, but eventually learns that they aren’t necessary, and he can simply cut big enough slits in their arms and make sure the cuts stay open. 7.) The Marvel character Blade used wooden knives to kill vampires, so clearly he thought you had to use wood. I don’t know if that carried through to the movies – I never watched those. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3657 "2022-02-09T20:38:19Z")
In Stoker’s novel, Dracula himself is killed with a Bowie knife. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3658 "2022-02-09T20:38:21Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Does the stake actually have to be made of wood Look, if you want to take your chances with some hoity-toity carbon-fiber stake, be my guest. Oh, and feel free to try Roundy’s garlic salt and a yin-yang symbol instead of a cross. It was good knowin’ ya… ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3659 "2022-02-09T20:42:30Z")
Willow Rosenberg killed a vampire with a telekinetic pencil (“Choices”). ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3660 "2022-02-09T21:28:02Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > In Stoker’s novel, Dracula himself is killed with a Bowie knife. Yeah, but in the stage play and the 1931 movie he gets the wooden stake through the heart. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3661 "2022-02-09T21:45:37Z")
Imagine what it would be like to be a monster that could be killed in every fashion ever depicted in fiction? The bubble boy would have nothing on you. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3662 "2022-02-09T21:58:44Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Imagine what it would be like to be a monster that could be killed in every fashion ever depicted in fiction? So, a human being? ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3663 "2022-02-09T22:28:59Z")
Human beings don’t have a problem with sunlight or garlic or crosses or… ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3664 "2022-02-09T22:41:52Z")
Tell that to people who get sunstroke, or are allergic to alliums, or who were involved with the Crusades, or… 😉 ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3665 "2022-02-09T23:12:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@Miller](#): > > > > In Stoker’s novel, Dracula himself is killed with a Bowie knife. > > in the stage play and the 1931 movie he gets the wooden stake through the heart. And iirc, poor Lucy was staked as well. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3666 "2022-02-09T23:22:25Z")
On May 15, 1932, Charlie Chaplin attended a sumo match in Japan and thereby escaped an assassination attempt by rouge navy cadets who did succeed in killing his host, the prime minister. The plotters had hoped to pull off a two-for, drawing the US to declare war to avenge Chaplin (!) One of the plot’s masterminds is remembered from [this clip](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oUttc9Xy3EA) during the Tokyo Trials. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3667 "2022-02-09T23:46:14Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > an assassination attempt by **rouge** navy cadets Were they caught red-handed? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3668 "2022-02-09T23:49:08Z")
It was a makeup attempt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=182) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=184)