# 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:** 204
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4069 "2022-03-25T18:23:02Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > just as all Polish names don’t end in “-ski” or “-witz “-witz” would not be a native Polish spelling, anyway. It’d be “-wicz,” corresponding to -vič or - vić in other Slavic languages. ---
**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 25, 2022, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4070 "2022-03-25T18:40:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > “-witz” would not be a native Polish spelling, anyway. It’d be “-wicz,” corresponding to -vič or - vić in other Slavic languages. Yeah, I know, but some people use it. Including my cousins. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4071 "2022-03-25T18:44:34Z")
Yeah, to my understanding, that’s more a Germanic spelling. It’s interesting, as the pronunciation in Polish of “-wicz” would be more like “-vitch” or “-veetch” than “-vitz” or “-witz.” That said, my own last name, while spelling is preserved, ends up something else in English, with the “w” as a “w” instead of “v”. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4072 "2022-03-25T18:46:04Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > “-witz” would not be a native Polish spelling, anyway. It’d be “-wicz,” corresponding to -vič or - vić in other Slavic languages. That reminds me of National League pitcher [Joe Genewich.](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/genewjo01.shtml) From [The Big Show:](https://www.amazon.com/Big-Show-Baseball-Photographs-2011-09-01/dp/B01K3QE2WW) > I had a hard name to spell or pronounce. It is pure Polish and the American boys up around Elmira, New York, had a way of poking fun at the Poles. Even when they did say ‘Jen-e-wich’, the boys insisted on putting an ‘h’ on the end instead of a ‘z’ and I have had to use it that way ever since. The correct spelling is Genevicz. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4073 "2022-03-25T20:25:36Z")
My dad was doing business with a Scandinavian named Pedersen. He kept correcting my dads pronunciation in a way that my dad couldn’t figure out the difference. Finally the guy said that my dad was saying, “Pederson” with an “O.” Apparently, one way is Swedish and the other is Finnish. ---
**Author:** ![billy-jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@billy-jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billy-jack)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4074 "2022-03-25T23:28:09Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > The last name you’re given is your father’s first name with “son” at the end. Your children’s last name would be your first name with “son” at the end. Hmmm. So my father should have been a Clarenson and I should be a Williamson. When my great grandfather came from Norway, he had an unusual last name that ended with “son” but changed it to a common American name to try to assimilate into the culture better. On the other hand, I have some neighbors who have an unusual last name. If you encounter anyone with that last name in the US, it is almost certainly someone related to them. Speaking of names, on my mother’s side was one family with four daughters. None of the daughters like their first names and so all four went to court to officially change it to what they wanted. And an old friend of mine by the name of Leo had a last name starting with O. He named his daughter in such a way that her initials are LEO. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2022, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4075 "2022-03-26T00:10:02Z")
> [@billy-jack](#): > > When my great grandfather came from Norway, he had an unusual last name that ended with “son” but changed it to a common American name to try to assimilate into the culture better. Almost the exact same thing with my great grandfather; he was originally from Sweden and his name ended with “sen”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4076 "2022-03-26T16:40:00Z")
My Swedish ancestors used patronymics right up until immigration in the 1880s. My great-grandmother, born in the 1890s, was the first generation to have a proper surname (Olson) instead of a patronymic, which in her case would have been Alfredsdotter. The Olof after whom the entire family is named only died in the 1870s. ---
**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 26, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4077 "2022-03-26T17:29:19Z")
“Mac/Mc” functions the same as “son.” So when Northmen and Celts blended, instead of Olafson the result was McAuliffe, as in the officer who told the Germans “nuts,” or the teacher lost in the Challenger explosion. ---
**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 26, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4078 "2022-03-26T17:49:04Z")
In origin, no doubt, but in Scotland these have been clan names for many centuries, not personal patronymics. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2022, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4079 "2022-03-27T08:27:12Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > For people who know about it, it’s an amusing detail to listen for when watching new content. I’m sorry I know about it, because it takes me right out of the movie when I recognize it. ---
**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 27, 2022, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4080 "2022-03-27T13:30:47Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > every little sound in a movie, from gun shots over car wheel noises up to opening a bottle or as you mention, putting down a glass on a table, is put in post-production. > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > And what’s incredible is just how _ **well** _ it’s done. It must take years to learn how to do it right. Here’s a glimpse into how it’s done by foley artists: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/U_tqB4IZvMk/maxresdefault.jpg "Foley Artists: How Movie Sound Effects Are Made") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_tqB4IZvMk) I’d like to see how they make some of the funny effects in cartoons. Like when a character gets hit in the head with a frying pan and the face keeps that shape, so he shakes it. Ee yiii ee yiii ee yii… ---
**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 27, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4081 "2022-03-27T14:42:40Z")
Tarzana, CA isn’t named after Tarzan. It’s the other way around. Edgar Rice Burroughs bought a ranch near the existing community of Tarzana in 1910; two years before he published his first Tarzan story. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4082 "2022-03-27T16:10:32Z")
Much of the [national anthem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfqxCJfW4t4) of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the same as the [opening theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfFZjxdBvqU&list=PLmzP977za2bJvtCF8V4XST68Ts-72u2BA) from the movie “Animal House”. Both are based on the Academic Festival overture, by Brahms from 1880. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4083 "2022-03-28T01:08:24Z")
Do you have a cite for that? This article > **[The Origin Story of Tarzana, a Neighborhood Named After an Ape Man - LA Weekly](https://www.laweekly.com/the-origin-story-of-tarzana-a-neighborhood-named-after-an-ape-man/)** > > Once, shortly after we had moved to the Ranch, Dad and I were out riding together. We paused at a high point from where we could look out on most of the Valley below, stretching across the Santa Susanna Mountains across the far end. Neither one of us... says Burroughs bought the ranch un 1919, about 7 years after the first Tarzan book (per the article he wasn’t rich enough to buy a place in 1910). ---
**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 28, 2022, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4084 "2022-03-28T01:38:55Z")
> **[Tarzan and Tarzana](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tarzan-and-tarzana/)** > > Was the community of Tarzana, California, named after Tarzan? ---
**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 28, 2022, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4085 "2022-03-28T02:14:53Z")
The LA Weekly account appears to be taken directly from page 150 of [John Taliaferro’s Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs the Creator of Tarzan](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tarzan_Forever/ZyfRAEJbubMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=tarzana), published in 2002, four years after the Snopes article. [ERBzine](https://www.erbzine.com/mag0/0008.html), the Burroughs fanzine that has for decades been obsessively posting every conceivable tidbit about Burrough’s life, agrees. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2022, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4086 "2022-03-28T02:22:43Z")
You realize that [the Lost Legends portion of Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/category/lost-legends/) isn’t serious, right? ---
**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 28, 2022, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4087 "2022-03-28T02:25:01Z")
That’s not clear at all. I’m really disappointed with Snopes. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4088 "2022-03-28T02:30:08Z")
Okay, now I’m really confused. The Snopes article on Tarzan/Tarzana has a link titled “More Information about this page” that goes to a page called “False Authority”. On that page, they seem to be saying that not even their own website should be trusted as the Infallible Word of Absolute Truth. Good for them. Really. To the immediate subject at hand, they say " As for Mississippi’s doing away with teaching [fractions](http://www.snopes.com/lost/fraction.asp) and decimals in its school systems because kids find them too hard to master, that’s no more true than Kentucky’s imposing a [licensing fee](http://www.snopes.com/lost/kfc.asp) on uses of its name, [Edgar Rice Burroughs’](http://www.snopes.com/lost/tarzan.asp) naming his celebrated apeman after the city he lived in (other way around, actually), George Bernard Shaw’s penning a poorly-attended play called [_Closed For Remodeling_](http://www.snopes.com/lost/closed.asp), passengers on the Titanic viewing a 1912 silent version of [_The Poseidon Adventure_](http://www.snopes.com/lost/poseidon.asp) while their doomed ship was sinking out from under them, the design of [California’s flag](http://www.snopes.com/lost/bearflag.asp) being the result of “pear” being taken for “bear,” or [mobile homes](http://www.snopes.com/lost/mobile.asp) having gained their name from the city in which they were first manufactured." [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=203) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=205)