# 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:** 220
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4389 "2022-05-12T03:55:38Z")
Hattie Jacques, who played matronly roles in a bunch of “Carry On” movies, got the nickname “Hattie” when someone thought she looked like Hattie McDaniel while she was in blackface for the 1946 minstrel show “Coal Black Mammies for Dixie”. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4390 "2022-05-12T12:14:40Z")
This reads like a morality tale out of a 1950s horror comic: > [@](#): > > # Man Dies Of Heart Attack While Burying Girlfriend He Strangled, Police Say > > Joseph Anthony McKinnon appeared to have been nearly done filling the grave in his backyard when he collapsed, said deputies in Trenton, North Carolina. > **[Man Dies Of Heart Attack While Burying Girlfriend He Strangled, Police Say](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/girlfriend-buried-backyard-death_n_627ca4fbe4b016d742f6f003)** > > Joseph Anthony McKinnon appeared to have been nearly done filling the grave in his backyard when he collapsed, said deputies in Trenton, North Carolina. It’s that “he was almost finished burying her” that adds that extra _frisson_ of irony to the story. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4391 "2022-05-12T15:48:05Z")
Two thirds of identical twins are fraternal. That’s really nothing extraordinary, but since identical twins seem to get more attention (at least to me), you might think thru confirmation bias that that’s more common, but it’s not. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4392 "2022-05-12T15:53:34Z")
Doesn’t confirm and bias for me, I know more fraternal twins than identical. Many twins are similar in appearance but not actually identical. And if one twin is born a boy and the other a girl they are definitely aren’t identical. People may be forgetting those mixed sex pairs are twins also. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4393 "2022-05-12T15:56:47Z")
I’d like to see a more detailed breakdown. Fractions for female fraternal, male fraternal, female identical, male identical, mixed fraternal. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4394 "2022-05-12T16:19:47Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > someone thought she looked like Hattie McDaniel while she was in blackface for the 1946 minstrel show “ **Coal Black Mammies for Dixie** ” I can’t get over how incredibly stupid that name is! Can anyone provide a summary of the show? All I’ve found online is that it was a British production from 1946. I had no idea that minstrely was still a thing at such a late date and so far from home. Oddly, about half of the Google hits appear to have something to do with cryptocurrencies. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4395 "2022-05-12T16:30:36Z")
There are some other types of twins to consider as well. To correct a statement above, if one twin is born with XY chromosomes and the other with XX chromosomes they definitely aren’t identical, but sometimes due to a mutation a twin will be born with X0 chromosomes and will be assigned female at birth. Semi-identical twins are very rare, where a single egg is fertilized by two different sperm cells and then splits, so they have the same chromosomes as their mother but two different sets from their fathers. In a related type of twinning an egg cell may divide before being fertilized and then is fertilized by two different sperm. There are more types and more will be defined as the more precise details of the mechanisms of twinning are found. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4396 "2022-05-12T16:33:09Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > I had no idea that minstrely was still a thing at such a late date and so far from home. The BBC had a show called “The Black and White Minstrel Show” that ran until 1978 (!) and the BBC responded to one complaint in 1967 by suggesting that “coloured people” should “for Heaven’s sake shut up”. > **[The Black and White Minstrel Show](https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/people-nation-empire/make-yourself-at-home/the-black-and-white-minstrel-show)** > > The Black and White Minstrel Show, which ran from 1958 to 1978 was arguably the BBC’s most glaring failure to understand the damage it could do when it traded in out-dated stereotypes. So, what do the BBC’s own archives tell us about how this... ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4397 "2022-05-12T16:44:35Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > I can’t get over how incredibly stupid that name is! Can anyone provide a summary of the show? All I’ve found online is that it was a British production from 1946. I had no idea that minstrely was still a thing at such a late date and so far from home. [_The Black and White Minstrel Show_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_and_White_Minstrel_Show) ran from 1958 to 1972 on the BBC. I don’t know what form the minstrelsy took over there. But 1946 would not be surprising here or there. In 1952 the movie Torch Song had a black face minstrel performance. In 1954 the movie White Christmas featured a minstrel show, though done without blackface. Philadelphia’s [Mummers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers_Parade#Controversy) were using blackface into the 1960s and continue to use other racist imagery to this day. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4398 "2022-05-12T16:51:03Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > The BBC had a show called “The Black and White Minstrel Show” Wow. ☹ Thanks for posting that. Whitley’s reply reminds me of the infuriating, double-talking attempts to turn the tables that are so common today among certain… Oh, _fuck it_. I don’t want to derail the thread, and I think I’ve made myself clear. Really, though, it’s appalling that such a well-worded complaint was given such a callous response. > [@TriPolar](#): > > But 1946 would not be surprising here or there. Yeah, I’ve just seen the examples you’ve cited in the Wiki entry for “minstrel show.” I dunno, I still think 1946 is a bit late to expect that kind of thing on network TV in the US. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4399 "2022-05-12T16:55:36Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > Yeah, I’ve just seen the examples you’ve cited in the Wiki entry for “minstrel show.” I dunno, I still think 1946 is a bit late to expect that kind of thing on network TV in the US. Don’t know what new TV productions may have done so, but they probably did into the 50s. They wouldn’t have hesitated to play those movies though. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4400 "2022-05-12T16:59:20Z")
Why does this thread not appear in the mainpage of the MPSIMS forum? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4401 "2022-05-12T17:05:17Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > I dunno, I still think 1946 is a bit late to expect that kind of thing on network TV in the US. In 1942, there was an episode of the (very popular) radio show “The Great Gildersleeve” that had the cast putting on a minstrel show. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/I8ScwCyDJsc/maxresdefault.jpg "The Great Gildersleeves Season 01 ep42 Summer Theater") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8ScwCyDJsc) ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4402 "2022-05-12T17:13:15Z")
Archie Bunker was in a minstrel show in the 1970s. Obviously, this was intended to make Archie look bad, but it did happen (he showed up to Gloria’s son’s birth in blackface). > **["All in the Family" Birth of the Baby: Part 2 (TV Episode 1975) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0509839/)** > > Birth of the Baby: Part 2: Directed by Paul Bogart. With Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers. Archie is forced to show up at the hospital for the birth of his grandchild in black face, When his lodge brothers refused to give... ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4403 "2022-05-12T17:20:29Z")
I remember that episode; but what really stuck with me was the desk nurse at the hospital was gossiping on the phone with someone, and Archie pointedly pushes on the receiver to disconnect her. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4404 "2022-05-12T17:51:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This reads like a morality tale out of a 1950s horror comic: Or a Coen Brothers film. ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2022, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4405 "2022-05-13T11:14:42Z")
The 1967 Porsche 911 S “atmos” (non-forced induction, i.e not supercharged or turbocharged) engine made 180 horsepower with only a 2,0 litrer displacement and only a single overhead cam (SOHC) IMHO this engine was way ahead of it’s time regardng specific out[put (hrosepower per liter) (Just my two cents) This car was very hard to get away from a stoplight with any form of grace, though. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2022, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4406 "2022-05-13T11:59:22Z")
I can remember watching a show called “The Black and White Minstrel Show” when we lived in the UK. We were there from 1968-72, so that sort of entertainment definitely hung around for a long time. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4407 "2022-05-13T12:54:31Z")
Ok. Did something get mixed up here? ---
**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:** [May 13, 2022, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4408 "2022-05-13T18:39:01Z")
When I think of Atmos, I think of the Ford FX-Atmos. > **[Guide: Ford FX-Atmos — Supercar Nostalgia](https://supercarnostalgia.com/blog/ford-fx-atmos)** > > Ford - 1950s Concept Cars - 1950s American Cars - One Offs - Fins [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=219) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=221)