# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![FastDan1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fastdan1/32/427_2.png) [@FastDan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FastDan1)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/21 "2020-04-13T19:01:25Z")
The only men’s basketball coach in the history of the University of Kansas to have a career losing record… James Naismith - the guy that invented basketball. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/22 "2020-04-13T19:07:57Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Good grief. :smack: > I’m a sucker for a good fact, and sports is full of 'em. Here’s two I like: > > The winning percentage of the 1927 Yankees (considered one of the best baseball teams of all time, and which included Babe Ruth hitting 60 home runs) is .714. This number happens to match the Babe’s lifetime homerun total. > > In 1961, the year that Roger Maris hit 61 homeruns to top Ruth’s record, he received exactly 0 intentional walks. Why? Well, Mickey Mantle (one of the best baseball players of all time) was batting behind him. Every MLB fan has seen the Kirk Gibson HR off of ace reliever Dennis Eckersley. However, a lot of people don’t know that Dodger scout Mel Didier had provided a report on Eckersley which claimed that with a 3–2 count against a left-handed hitter, one could be absolutely certain that Eckersley would throw a backdoor slider. Gibson said that when the count reached 3–2, he stepped out of the batter’s box and, in his mind, could hear Didier’s voice, with its distinctive Southern drawl, reiterating that same piece of advice. With that thought in mind, Gibson stepped back into the batter’s box; and thus when Eckersley did in fact throw a backdoor slider, it was exactly the pitch Gibson was expecting. And the rest is history. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/23 "2020-04-13T19:14:41Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > In 1961, the year that Roger Maris hit 61 homeruns to top Ruth’s record, he received exactly 0 intentional walks. Why? Well, Mickey Mantle (one of the best baseball players of all time) was batting behind him. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250934/ ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/24 "2020-04-13T19:19:02Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Oh I like this one…! > > I was going to say, what about the “original” London Bridge that didn’t fall down but was instead taken apart and rebuilt somewhere in Arizona when they rebuilt it back in the 1960s, … But it turns out that that “original” London Bridge was one from the 1830s and not the one from Elizabethan times that dated back to the 1200s. Which this church would still be older than anyway, it seems! > [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > This completely changes a joke they did on “The Office”. When Angela was trying to delay her marriage to Andy she gave him a list of impossible requirements for their wedding which included a 1000 year old church located in the continental United States. > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > one of the London bridges was built around 1830 and was taken apart and moved to Arizona in 1968 and put back together. I like this one because you can ask people “In what century was the oldest building in the US built”. No one ever answers “12th”. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/25 "2020-04-13T19:43:41Z")
Somewhat bizarrely, there is a [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue) for the Tears In Rain speech from the movie **Blade Runner**. To remind, these are Roy Batty’s last words\*: > [@](#): > > I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. I make that 42 words. Now, I just cut and pasted the wiki page into word to check the wordcount. Not including references, the wiki article is 1362 words - that’s more than 32 times as long as its subject material. I idly speculate this may be some sort of record, but if it is, it’s a record…_what?_ j - - Note to Mods - I trust this is within fair use guidelines. Its the whole speech but a very small part of the script. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/26 "2020-04-13T19:51:42Z")
Marine channel markers around the world fall into two IALA categories: Regions A and B. In the Americas and some Asian countries (Region B), the rule is “RRR” or Red Right on Return. That is, when heading from a main body of water to a minor one (ex. sea to river, river to harbor), keep the red channel maker to your right (starboard). In the rest of the world, its the opposite, so you must keep the red channel marker to port. But, they only change the color of the marker, not the shape. So “can” markers (to port) always have a flat top and “nun” markers (to starboard) always have a pointy top. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/27 "2020-04-13T19:58:20Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Somewhat bizarrely, there is a [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue) for the Tears In Rain speech from the movie **Blade Runner**. … > > Not including references, the wiki article is 1362 words - that’s more than 32 times as long as its subject material. I idly speculate this may be some sort of record, but if it is, it’s a record…_what?_ I dunno. A 1362:42 = 32.43 “words per word” ratio sounds impressive, but using a web URL-based tool, the word count for the Wikipedia entry for [For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn) is 947, where the “subject material” is a written work that is SIX words long. 947/6 = 157.83! ---
**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:** [April 13, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/28 "2020-04-13T19:58:22Z")
**Francium** is an element discovered by Marguerite Perey in 1939. She named it after her home country of France. Francium was the last element first discovered in nature, rather than by synthesis in the lab. There is very little francium in the Earth’s crust: about 1 ounce. It has a half-life of about 22 minutes, so the tiny amount of francium in the Earth’s crust is constantly being created and decaying. We have no idea what francium looks like. That’s because the largest amount produced in the laboratory was a cluster of about 300,000 atoms. That’s so small that it’s impossible to “see” it, even with our most powerful optical microscopes. Francium is extremely radioactive, and we do not know what its melting and boiling temperatures are. > **[Francium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francium)** > > Francium is a chemical element with the symbol Fr and atomic number 87. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable isotope, francium-223 (originally called actinium K after the natural decay chain in which it appears), has a half-life of only 22 minutes. It is the second-most electropositive element, behind only caesium, and is the second rarest naturally occurring element (after astatine). The isotopes of francium decay quickly into astatine, radium, and radon. The electronic structure of a ... ---
**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:** [April 13, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/29 "2020-04-13T20:57:33Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > I dunno. A 1362:42 = 32.43 “words per word” ratio sounds impressive, but using a web URL-based tool, the word count for the Wikipedia entry for [For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn) is 947, where the “subject material” is a written work that is SIX words long. > > 947/6 = 157.83! Chapeau! j ---
**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:** [April 13, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/30 "2020-04-13T21:33:43Z")
Having been bested by **robardin** (;)), here’s another. Etymology of the expression Go-Go Dancer? Originally from the Compton McKenzie novel, Whisky Galore. It’s a little convoluted. Compton McKenzie wrote Whisky Galore, a novel set during the second world war, in which a ship carrying a wartime cargo of whisky to the US is sunk off small Hebridean islands, and locals try to illegally recover the cargo. The novel was made into a comedy movie, also called Whisky Galore. The film was a success in France, with the translated title Whisky à Gogo Neat title - neat enough to be picked up and used as the name of the Whisky à Gogo nightclub in Paris. Franchises of the nightclub were subsequently opened in the US. The house dancers were known as Go-Go dancers. This bit I couldn’t find a ref for: either the original establishment in Paris or one of the US franchises had a stage barely big enough for the DJ, so the dancers were sited on satellite stages above the audience. For safety (to stop them falling off) they were effectively caged in. [Here’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-go_bar#Etymology) a ref with most of the story. j ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/31 "2020-04-13T23:02:54Z")
The youngest person ever depicted on a United States coin is Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/32 "2020-04-14T00:12:14Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > The youngest person ever depicted on a United States coin is Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. On the Sacagawea dollar, the artist for that is Harry Connick Jr’s mother in law. > **[Glenna Goodacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenna_Goodacre)** > > Glenna Maxey Goodacre (August 28, 1939 – April 13, 2020) was an American sculptor, best known for having designed the obverse of the Sacagawea dollar that entered circulation in the US in 2000, and the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C. > Goodacre's father, Homer Glen Maxey, was a Lubbock, TX, builder, developer and civic leader.\[citation needed\] A graduate of Texas Tech University in 1931, he was the first president of the Red Raider Club. He served on the Lubbock City Council from 19... ---
**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:** [April 14, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/33 "2020-04-14T00:40:09Z")
Many of you probably know that Hoyt Axton wrote “Never Been To Spain,” which Three Dog Night made a hit. But did you know they changed the words? Wikipedia says: In the final verse, he observes that while he has “never been to heaven”, he has “been to Oklahoma”, where he was told he was born, thus implying a kinship between the two places. Hoyt Axton, who was born in Oklahoma, explained that he originally wrote, “…in Oklahoma, born in a coma…” However, it was considered inappropriate; thus, the lyrics were changed to “not Arizona”. I really don’t remember…born in a coma… PS-He played the father in “Gremlins.” [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rKP3S-r2ZVc/hqdefault.jpg "Hoyt Axton - Never Been to Spain") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKP3S-r2ZVc) ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/34 "2020-04-14T00:53:33Z")
apocolocyntosis: The act of turning into a pumpkin. “At midnight, Cinderella’s carriage will go through apocolocyntosis.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/35 "2020-04-14T01:08:05Z")
When Henry Aaron retired in 1976 he was the last remaining Major League player to have played in the Negro Leagues. (Minnie Minoso made a single game appearance in 1980.) ---
**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:** [April 14, 2020, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/36 "2020-04-14T05:31:35Z")
In 1838 [Charles Wheatstone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wheatstone) was the first to explain true depth perception as arising from the different views between our two eyes. He invented the stereoscope, the first device for simultaneously viewing two images drawn from different perspectives. Wheatstone also improved and popularized an existing device which became known by his name: the Wheatstone bridge. The words to the song “Where, oh where has my little dog gone” were written in 1864 by [Septimus Winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimus_Winner) (set to a folk tune). It was originally written in comic German pronunciation. The last verse was this: > [@](#): > > Un sausage ish goot, bolonie of course, > Oh where, Oh where can he be. > Dey makes um mit dog und dey makes em mit horse, > [dramatic pause] > I guess de makes em mit he. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/37 "2020-04-14T08:50:09Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > This was because the dog was highly trained, difficult or impossible to replace, and is in pretty much the entire movie along with Dorothy. It’s also because in preparation for the film, to help her get into character, she had to live with Judy Garland for 5 weeks. BTW, her name was “Terry the Terrier,” and that’s how she’s credited in _The Wizard of Oz_, but after Oz, she began using “Toto” as a stage name. Also, she was a tough professional, who played through an injury. After the Tim Man stepped on her paw and fractured two phalanges, she continued to arrive at the set on time, and work as professionally as ever, after just a couple of days off. Today’s pampered stars could take a lesson from her. My contribution is something I’m kinda surprised isn’t better known: Nikita Krushchev did not take office immediately after Stalin; there was a guy in between named Georgy Malenkov, who held the office for a little under two years. He left the office at the request of the party, but was still alive in 1988, so he outlived Brezhnev, and saw Gorbachev in office. In fact, he missed seeing the coup that caused the collapse of Communism by less than a year. I won a game a Trivial Pursuit knowing that, and it was also a question on the officer’s school test in the army-- the test contains a whole lot of random trivia, because they are trying to find out how wide your knowledge base is. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2020, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/38 "2020-04-14T11:29:07Z")
The mode age of death in England and Wales is currently around 87. In 1964 it was zero. ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/39 "2020-04-14T11:36:13Z")
All the artisans who worked on building India’s Taj Mahal had their hands chopped off by Shah Jahan, the Moslem emperor who ordered it built. He did this allegedly to prevent them from building another structure of comparable beauty. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/40 "2020-04-14T11:42:17Z")
M&M stands for Mars and Murrie. Forrest Mars (son of the Mars Company founder) first spotted the British confection Smarties during the Spanish Civil War and noticed the candy shell prevented the chocolate from melting. He teamed up with Bruce Murrie (son of Hershey Chocolate’s president) and the company later trademarked the “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand” slogan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=3)