# 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:** 184
**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 10, 2022, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3669 "2022-02-10T00:12:24Z")
Yes… they were manipulated by puppet masters who changed the traditional bunkaru black outfits for dramatic red. But the Charlie Chaplin part is true. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2022, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3670 "2022-02-10T00:22:56Z")
Hitler was a big Walt Disney fan, especially of Mickey Mouse. Joseph Goebbels noted in his diaries that he had given him 12 Mickey Mouse films as a Christmas present in 1937 and that Hitler was very pleased. > **[Uncle Walt and Der Führer](https://www.dialoginternational.com/dialog_international/2008/03/unfortunately-i.html)** > > Unfortunately I didn't make it out to the Bay Area in time to see John J. Power's avant-garde play Disney & Deutschland which imagines a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Walt Disney in 1935 with supporting roles of Leni Riefenstahl... ETA: I don’t think he liked “Der Fuehrer’s Face”. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2022, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3671 "2022-02-10T00:39:21Z")
George Thorogood played 51 concerts in 50 days in 50 states + DC. And this was in **1981**. I am amazed he was able to pull this off before the existence of the Internet, cell phones, and GPS. According to Wiki, > Thorogood and the Destroyers became known for their rigorous touring schedule, including the “50/50” tour in 1981, on which the band toured all 50 US states in 50 days. After two shows in Boulder, Colorado, Thorogood and his band flew to Hawaii for one show and then performed a show in Alaska the following night. The next day, Thorogood and his band met his roadies in Washington and continued the one-show-per-state tour. In addition, he played Washington, D.C. on the same day that he performed a show in Maryland, thereby playing 51 shows in 50 days. ---
**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 10, 2022, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3672 "2022-02-10T00:59:30Z")
Ha! I was **at** the show in Anchorage. Didn’t know I would be an extremely small part of History that night. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2022, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3673 "2022-02-10T12:00:57Z")
Detroit, MI is the only place in the USA where you have to go due South to reach (Winsor, ON) Canada. You see, the ‘arm’ of Canada creeps south of Detroit, and the finger reaches up, that way, to Detroit. Or so they often say where I live. I still find it hard to believe though. Look at Alaska. It has a border that kind of creeps southward. Isn’t there any place in Alaska where you go due South to reach Canada? Of course, Detroit has one of the busiest borders with Canada. That might make it just a little more significant, I suppose. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3674 "2022-02-10T12:27:11Z")
Walt spent much of 1919 in France as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. [https://redcrosschat.org/2015/09/17/archives-walt-disney-world-war-driver/](https://redcrosschat.org/2015/09/17/archives-walt-disney-world-war-driver/) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3675 "2022-02-10T12:35:54Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Isn’t there any place in Alaska where you go due South to reach Canada? Sure, but you’d have to be somewhere like the Stikine Icecap. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2022, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3676 "2022-02-10T13:45:52Z")
Terry Pratchett did something like that in _Carpe Jugulum_ ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3677 "2022-02-10T14:55:39Z")
This was recently publicized because the team involved just received the Congressional Gold Medal; a unit, informally called the [Ghost Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Army), of the US Army in the Second World War used inflatable tanks, sound trucks, fake radio broadcasts and other tricks to fool the Germans into believing the US Army was in places it was not. Some of the team were professional artists like Ellsworth Kelly. The future fashion designer Bill Blass was another. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3678 "2022-02-10T15:15:50Z")
If one goes about 46 miles due south from Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, landfall will be Masset, British Columbia on Graham Island. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3679 "2022-02-11T14:17:57Z")
Bach’s The Well Tempered Clavier is a homage to and extrapolation of The Well Tempered Lute, a piece written by a 16th century Italian lute musician named Vincenzo. Vincenzo had questioned the way that contemporary musical theory had assumed that fractions dictated how strings should be tuned. By experimenting with different weights on strings Vincenzo showed that this was not musically natural and used his new theories on music to compose music which sounded more modern than the medieval sound that feels out of tune to our ears now. His ideas revolutionised musical theory and he might be considered one of the most influential musicians you’ve never heard of. You could almost argue that Vincenzo marks the end of medieval music. But his influence goes further than that. When he did his weights experiment he used very sound scientific methodologies - almost revolutionary in itself. With his young son at his side, Vincenzo is credited with producing the first non-linear mathematical description of a natural phenomenon known to history. His full name was Vincenzo Galilei. He son was called Galileo. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3680 "2022-02-11T14:49:55Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Ha! I was **at** the show in Anchorage. Didn’t know I would be an extremely small part of History that night. I saw him on this tour when he played at the University of Kansas. IIRC a number of their shows on the 50/50 tour were as the opening act for the Stones, who were touring at the time. ---
**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 11, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3681 "2022-02-11T15:25:57Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Bach’s The Well Tempered Clavier is a homage to and extrapolation of The Well Tempered Lute, a piece written by a 16th century Italian lute musician named Vincenzo. > > Vincenzo had questioned the way that contemporary musical theory had assumed that fractions dictated how strings should be tuned. By experimenting with different weights on strings Vincenzo showed that this was not musically natural and used his new theories on music to compose music which sounded more modern than the medieval sound that feels out of tune to our ears now. His ideas revolutionised musical theory and he might be considered one of the most influential musicians you’ve never heard of. You could almost argue that Vincenzo marks the end of medieval music. > > But his influence goes further than that. When he did his weights experiment he used very sound scientific methodologies - almost revolutionary in itself. With his young son at his side, Vincenzo is credited with producing the first non-linear mathematical description of a natural phenomenon known to history. > > His full name was Vincenzo Galilei. He son was called Galileo. I had never heard of this before. I knew that Bach wrote his Well-Tempered Clavier to popularize Even Temperament, which was not his invention, but I’d never heard of the Well Tempered Lute before, nor of Vincenzo Galilei. The connection to Galileo is icing on the cake. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3682 "2022-02-11T16:42:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I knew that Bach wrote his Well-Tempered Clavier to popularize Even Temperament No, not Even Temperament. That one divides the 12 semi-tones evenly (by a ratio of twelve root of 2). Bach didn’t use that. It is not clear exactly what variation of Well Temperament he used. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Well-Tempered\_Clavier#Well-Tempered\_tuning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well-Tempered_Clavier#Well-Tempered_tuning) ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3683 "2022-02-11T16:48:39Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > One of his relatives was Haile Selassi. Some were fairly Selassi, while others weren’t Selassi at all. Lowly Selassi? ---
**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 11, 2022, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3684 "2022-02-11T17:15:16Z")
Kinda Selassi? ---
**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 11, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3685 "2022-02-11T18:11:18Z")
> [@K364](#): > > No, not Even Temperament. That one divides the 12 semi-tones evenly (by a ratio of twelve root of 2). Bach didn’t use that. It is not clear exactly what variation of Well Temperament he used. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Well-Tempered\_Clavier#Well-Tempered\_tuning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well-Tempered_Clavier#Well-Tempered_tuning) Yes, I know about the different types of temperament (I wrote an article asking what sort of temperament Newton assumed when he was coming up with his Seven Basic Colors). I was just using that as a shorthand for one of the many options… But even the source you cite doesn’t insist that Bach didn’t use Even Temperament > [@](#): > > It is sometimes assumed that by “well-tempered” Bach intended [equal temperament](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament), the standard modern keyboard tuning which became popular after Bach’s death, but modern scholars suggest instead a form of well temperament.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well-Tempered_Clavier#cite_note-alfred-18) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3686 "2022-02-11T18:18:00Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Who wants to look at a couple of rustic sad sacks? So, what do you like in art? Thomas Kincade? ---
**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 11, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3687 "2022-02-11T18:42:49Z")
George Herriman, Chris Ware, and lately, Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian. ---
**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:** [February 11, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3688 "2022-02-11T19:03:10Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > George Herriman, Chris Ware, and lately, Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian.   Cartoonists all. Great, now we can have a debate about whether cartoons are fine art. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=183) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=185)