# 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:** 197
**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:** [March 11, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3929 "2022-03-11T15:56:47Z")
Andy Warhol began his life as an artist making Ukrainian Easter eggs with his mother. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3930 "2022-03-11T16:40:04Z")
[The late] Ukrainian-American singer Kvitka ‘Kasey’ Cisyk’ performed the singing for Didi Conn in the classic movie “You Light Up My Life.” Her version went nowhere, but Debbie Boone’s cover held #1 on Billboard for 10 weeks in 1977-1978. ---
**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:** [March 11, 2022, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3931 "2022-03-11T17:43:35Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > The popular **Easter egg tradition** originated in Ukraine. Originally, the eggs were patterned using wax and dye. The wax was eventually removed leaving an impressive pattern with dashing colors. > > WOW!!! Here’s a google [image search](https://www.google.com/search?q=easter+egg+ukraine&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS798US798&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiC4av_rr72AhU8lGoFHczTBj0Q_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1366&bih=657&dpr=1). I’ve never seen Easter eggs like those… I bought my wife a set of four of these type of eggs, although they were Xmas ornaments rather than for Easter. They were all different but were all a bird theme. Fantastic detail on them. They were spendy and I did actually get them from a lady in Ukraine. ---
**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:** [March 11, 2022, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3932 "2022-03-11T19:14:52Z")
There is, as of today (March 11 2022) an octopus named after Joe Biden. No, not an octopus named “Joe”. This is the scientific name of a fossil creature – _Syllipsimopodi bideni_ > [@](#): > > Paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History described a new octopus species today in the journal _Nature Communications_ . The species description is based on a 325 million year old fossil specimen, collected in Montana in the 1980s, that sat unnoticed in a museum cabinet for over 30 years until one of the scientists happened to take a closer look. > > The name is derived from the Greek “syllípsimos” for “prehensile” and “pódi” for “foot,” and “bideni” after President Biden. > > One of the authors, Christopher Whalen, [explained the rationale for the name](https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/03/08/octo-potus---scientists-discover-ancient-ten-armed-octopus-and-name-it-after-president-joe-biden/?sh=2e394e5c46ba). > > > Whalen said the paper was accepted for publication shortly after Biden’s inauguration and the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. “I wanted to somehow acknowledge the moment in a way that was more positive and forward-looking,” he said. “I was encouraged by the plans President Biden put forward to counter anthropogenic climate change, and his general sentiment that politicians should listen to scientists,” Whalen added. > **[Meet Syllipsimopodi bideni, a cool fossil octopus named in honor of Joe Biden](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/8/2084689/-Meet-Syllipsimopodi-bideni-a-cool-fossil-octopus-named-in-honor-of-Joe-Biden?utm_campaign=spotlight)** > > Paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History described a new octopus species today in the journal Nature Communications. The species description is based on a 325 million year old fossil specimen, collected in Montana in the 1980s,... ---
**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:** [March 11, 2022, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3933 "2022-03-11T20:01:01Z")
In grade school (1974-82) they taught us Thomas Jefferson would never have approved of his monument in DC. I guess he was against all hero worship. He even got angry when people discovered his birth date (grade school, again). And on the subject of our Founding Fathers, you know George Washington almost became our king. But then he famously (and reportedly with tears in his eyes), simply resigned his commission at the end of the American Revolution. Yeah, and American Revolution. That reminds me of a few things. It is odd, what other names, the losing or opposing side, gives to wars. In the UK to this day, the ‘American Revolution’ is simply the War of Independence. Even in the South, the American Civil War is simply the War Between the States. Interesting. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3934 "2022-03-12T02:50:00Z")
On July 11, 1897, three Swedes drifted away in a hydrogen-filled balloon. Their goal was to reach the North Pole. They never returned. For many years, no one knew what happened to them. Their camp was finally discovered 33 years later, along with their bodies, journal, and a camera. It was then determined that their balloon had crash, but they did not die from the crash: they survived for weeks by hunting and eating polar bears and seals. And then eventually died. > **[Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9e%27s_Arctic_balloon_expedition)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was a failed effort to reach the North Pole, resulting in the deaths of all three Swedish expedition members, S. A. Andrée, Knut Frænkel, and Nils Strindberg. Andrée, the first Swedish balloonist\[citation needed\], proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way. The scheme was received with patriotic en... ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3935 "2022-03-12T02:59:09Z")
> Like most pitchers, Perry was not renowned for his hitting ability, and in his sophomore season of 1963, his manager [Alvin Dark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Dark) is said to have joked, “There would be a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry would hit a home run.”[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaylord_Perry#cite_note-Dark-14) There are other variants on the story, but either way, on July 20, 1969, just an hour after the [Apollo 11](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11) spacecraft carrying [Neil Armstrong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong) and [Buzz Aldrin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Aldrin) landed on the Moon, Perry hit the first home run of his career.[[15]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaylord_Perry#cite_note-moon-15) [Wikipedia source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaylord_Perry) ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3936 "2022-03-12T03:59:10Z")
Ace Books published a paperback version of the first two books in the Foundation Trilogy in 1955 but not the third book. Avon Books published a paperback version of the third book in the Foundation Trilogy in 1958 but not the first two. The complete trilogy wasn’t available in paperback until 1964-1965, when Avon finally got its act together. But since they were released several months apart, it’s hard to know how many people were able to find all three. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3937 "2022-03-12T04:24:15Z")
A while back, blueberries replaced peaches as the most-produced fruit by weight in Georgia. That seemed really off to me with all the watermelons grown down here which outweigh the peaches and blueberries together by far. I found out watermelons are legally vegetables in Georgia. I emailed the state commissioner of agriculture about it- he replied “It’s complicated.” ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3938 "2022-03-12T12:40:05Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > In the UK to this day, the ‘American Revolution’ is simply the War of Independence. I have never like the term “Revolutionary War,” since (IMO) it wasn’t a revolution. We didn’t sail to England to overthrow the king. We simply wanting nothing to do with it; we wanted to be independent of it. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3939 "2022-03-12T14:17:03Z")
I don’t know if this is ‘stumbled across’ as I’ve been a fan for decades, but it occurred to me yesterday that, from the age of seven until seventeen, Mozart may have been the most traveled person in Europe _for that age_. As in, when he was seven in 1762, there were no seven year olds traving more than Wolfgang that year. When he was eight, he likely put more miles under his belt than any other 8yo that year. And so on for at least a half a decade, possibly more. Ok. This might be of interest only to me. 😋 I’ll try better next time. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3940 "2022-03-12T15:52:00Z")
Of interest for urban explorers: in 2013, Google sent an employee to [Hashima Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island) with a Street View backpack. It’s rather fascinating. (I would post a direct link to Google maps, but I’m not sure how to do it.) ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3941 "2022-03-12T16:11:14Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > (I would post a direct link to Google maps, but I’m not sure how to do it.) You can just paste the Google Maps link. https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.6276793,129.7371319&z=17&output=embed&dg=ntvb ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3942 "2022-03-12T16:34:06Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I have never like the term “Revolutionary War,” since (IMO) it wasn’t a revolution. I agree. It’s like France said, “Hold my beer; I’ll show you what a real revolution is!” ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3943 "2022-03-12T20:46:41Z")
One I’ll fairly readily believe, and another I’m not so sure of. Shoreham Airport (AKA Brighton City Airport), on the south coast of England, claims to be Britain’s oldest airport. I’ll buy that. It also claims to be “the first purpose-built commercial airport in the world”. That I’m not so sure about. > **[Shoreham Airport red plaque](https://openplaques.org/plaques/56138)** > > Shoreham Airport. Britain's oldest airport, opened 1910 and the first purpose-built commercial airport in the world, with a fine Art Deco terminal building by Stavers Tiltman, 1936. (They’re definitely right about the Art Deco terminal, though.) j ---
**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:** [March 12, 2022, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3944 "2022-03-12T23:14:45Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > > [@Jim\_B](#): > > > > In the UK to this day, the ‘American Revolution’ is simply the War of Independence. > > I have never like the term “Revolutionary War,” since (IMO) it wasn’t a revolution. We didn’t sail to England to overthrow the king. We simply wanting nothing to do with it; we wanted to be independent of it. It’s somewhat jingoistically called the Revolutionary War because the colonials threw off the authority of the British monarchy (although really it was Parliament that was responsible for most of the colonials’ grievances), and some years later established a national republic under the 1787 constitution, one of the earliest in modern times. It wasn’t an _internal_ revolution but it was something of a progressive movement established by armed force. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3945 "2022-03-13T21:53:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Ace Books published a paperback version of the first two books in the Foundation Trilogy in 1955 but not the third book. > > Avon Books published a paperback version of the third book in the Foundation Trilogy in 1958 but not the first two. > > The complete trilogy wasn’t available in paperback until 1964-1965, when Avon finally got its act together. But since they were released several months apart, it’s hard to know how many people were able to find all three. Not the only time paperback companies have done weird things like this. Roger Sherman Hoar, grandson of a US Attornet General and himself a Massachusetts State SEnator, wrote a seies of “planetary romances” in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and published mercifully under a pseudonym, Ralph Milne Farley. For years I only saw the second and third of these, **The Radio Beasts** and **The Radio Planet** , which Ace, always on the lookout for cheap old SF, published in paperback in 1964 and republished in 1976, But the story seemed to pick up _in media res_ , and it wasn’t until years later that I learned there had been a first volume, **The Radio Man** , which Avon had published in 1954 under the title **An Earthman on Venus** , but which Ace had never published. And Avon hadn’t published the second and third volume. I finally got a reprint of the book in 2005 when Pulpville Press published it, with the original Avon cover. So I’ve always wondered why Ace never reprinted the first book. All of these, of course, weren’t original publications – these stories were all originally published in the pulp magazine _Argosy_ back in the 1920s. In fact, there were seven more novels serialized up until 1932, but which weren’t republished in most cases until the current century. I haven’t been interested enough to read them, though. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3946 "2022-03-13T22:56:45Z")
I have a copy of The Radio Man, which I picked up because I’m trying for one of the weirdest possible collections: a full set of the Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. (FPIC) trade paperbacks. FPCI was a late 40s small press that published mostly early Golden Age sf, but also bound extra copies to release more cheaply without hardcovers. I have them all except for a couple by L. Ron Hubbard, which are unfindable at any price. But, hey, an uncompletable collection means you don’t have to find a new hobby. ---
**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:** [March 14, 2022, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3947 "2022-03-14T01:33:29Z")
Also I know a quick and easy magic trick that anyone can do (if you fancy yourself an amateur magician 🙂 ). It involves a Moebius loop. Simply take a long cloth ribbon. (You could just use paper and a short ribbon. But both these factors help you conceal the trick 😉 🙂 .) Give it a half turn, then connect the ends. Sewing them together or using fabric glue would work. When I make Moebius loops, I just use two staples. Works the exact same. Then cut the loop right down the middle, and amaze your audience by then creating just a longer loop. You might want to conceal the half twist in your hand. Plus as I said the longer loop and flexible material may help too. Plus you can use your own cheap scraps lying around the house. Why go thru the trouble of going to a magic store (especially if you’re not a professional 😉 🙂 )? ---
**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:** [March 14, 2022, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3948 "2022-03-14T02:20:34Z")
… and if you cut it _again_ you get _two_ interlocking loops. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=196) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=198)