# 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:** 234
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4669 "2022-06-15T22:53:46Z")
Buzz Aldrin’s mother’s maiden name was Marion Moon. (Which means that Moon is likely be his security answer for his forgotten passwords, but not for the reason you think!) > ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4670 "2022-06-15T23:02:05Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > the queen of England being a good example Does Elizabeth the First even have a social secretary anymore? AND I would not expect a reply. ---
**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:** [June 16, 2022, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4671 "2022-06-16T01:33:01Z")
never mind: comment deleted! ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4672 "2022-06-16T12:39:44Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Does Elizabeth the First even have a social secretary anymore? > AND I would not expect a reply. Are you by any chance Scottish? (Supposedly the Scots don’t acknowledge the existence of the 16th century Queen Elizabeth, because she ordered the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots) ---
**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:** [June 16, 2022, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4673 "2022-06-16T12:47:23Z")
The Scots also [drank to the health of the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat](https://conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2020/03/08/todays-the-day-when-some-people-still-toast-the-little-gentleman-in-the-black-velvet-waistcoat/amp/) TIL: the horse involved was named Sorrel. Stonewall Jackson’s horse was named Little Sorrel. Avoid a horse named Sorrel, a car painted green, diners named Mom’s and card players named Pops. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4674 "2022-06-16T12:56:03Z")
Elizabeth I was Queen of England Both Anne and Elizabeth II are Queens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (adding on ‘and Northern Ireland’ for Lilibet Deuce). The title “Queen of England” has not existed since 1707. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4675 "2022-06-17T11:33:51Z")
The otherwise apparently mainstream advocate for the blind, and sight and hearing challenged person herself, Helen Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was a socialist. I think most people would find that surprising and interesting. Here: _“…Keller was also a prolific author, writing 14 books and hundreds of speeches and essays on topics ranging from animals to Mahatma Gandhi.[1] Keller campaigned for those with disabilities, for women’s suffrage, labor rights, and world peace. In 1909 she joined the Socialist Party of America…”_ (Note last sentence.) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller). As proof of her mainstream appeal, I offer the following state quarter: [here](https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/50-state-quarters/alabama). You know, she was on the Alabama state quarter. Yikes! Also, I noticed an interesting fact as I researched this topic. I was born June 26, 1968. She died June 1st of that year. Our lives almost coïncided. Well, I was almost fully formed in the uterus, I guess. So I’d modify that statement to say our lives actually did coïncide. I find that interesting. Also as I said, my birthday is June 26th. Her birthday is June 27th 1880. That’s an interesting coïcidence too, don’t you think 🙂 ? EDIT: BTW, I have nothing against socialists at all. Quite the contrary, in fact, if anyone was wondering 🙂 .EDIT 2: But I am not a socialist though, of course. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4676 "2022-06-17T11:59:12Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > The otherwise apparently mainstream advocate for the blind, and sight and hearing challenged person herself, Helen Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was a socialist. I think most people would find that surprising and interesting. James Loewen writes about this at length in his book **Lies my Teacher Told Me** , which is how I first learned about it. As he explains, virtually all coverage of Keller’s life focus on her own achievement (and her teacher’s) in overcoming her personal handicaps, but completely ignore the decades of social activism that followed. Keller advocated for workplace safety (most blindness was caused by industrial accidents or by living conditions that could be ameliorated) and for programs to increase employment and reduce poverty. She was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of the IWW. Her firs autobiography, about her re-learning to communicate, is still in print, but two later autobiographies she wrote that cover the period of her activism are virtually ignored. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4677 "2022-06-17T12:01:51Z")
The song “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer” uses the tune from a German song called “Du spielst 'ne tolle Rolle”. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4678 "2022-06-17T12:23:19Z")
**How to Piss Off People After You’re Dead** > **[Headstone With Hidden Profanity Annoys The F Out Of Cemetery](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/headstone-profanity-upsets-community-polk-county-iowa_n_62ab7038e4b04a617359daa2)** > > The family of Steven Paul Owens of Polk County, Iowa, says the expletive found on his monument is a final nod to a man who loved using the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4679 "2022-06-17T13:12:03Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > The otherwise apparently mainstream advocate for the blind, Advocating for the blind (to be able to live a full life) was a profoundly radical act in those days. I am the grandson of a blind person and the son of a deaf person. We didn’t get where we are by people just realizing that just parking the disabled in a place where they aren’t seen and maybe providing them food and clothing, was wrong. People had to fight for their rights for generations, raise awareness and endure scorn. Heck, my mother in law still rants about the amount of resources western countries “waste” on the disabled. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4680 "2022-06-17T14:23:33Z")
I didn’t know that about Helen Keller but neither does it surprise me. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4681 "2022-06-17T14:24:31Z")
Nor is it surprising that it’s not widely known. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4682 "2022-06-17T14:57:55Z")
Being an American Socialist before WWI (or even WWII) wasn’t considered nearly as radical as it has become since the start of the Cold War. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4683 "2022-06-17T15:22:27Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Helen Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was a socialist. That’s underselling it a bit. Keller was a vociferous advocate for the Soviet Union. > [@](#): > > I love Russia and all who stand loyally by her in her mighty wrestlings with the giant powers of ignorance and imperialist greed. When I first heard of the glorious words, “Soviet Republic of Russia,” it was as if a new light shone through my darkness. I felt that the sun of a better day had risen upon the world. Those glowing, hope-inspiring words, “Soviet Republic of Russia,” meant that at last the principles of truth, justice and brotherhood had gained a foothold upon earth, and this thought has run like a shinging furrow through the dark years that have intervened. We have witnessed Russia’s superhuman struggle in a world blinded by avarice and calumny. But despite intriques and blockades and the wicked misinterpretations of a stupid, dishonest press, she stands today firmly entrenced in her just cause, while the old social order is collapsing at her feet. [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1920s/21\_11\_19.htm](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1920s/21_11_19.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4684 "2022-06-17T15:30:59Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Also, I have to tell you, that’s our approach to Communism now too. I don’t know if some of you people in other countries think we still persecute Communists. We really don’t. What we do is far worse than that. We just ignore them. Maybe so! I’ve never seen a Communist party politician run for office in the US lately…has anyone here seen this? I have, however, seen Socialist party candidates run and occasionally win, in cities like Seattle. And it’s funny that conservative politicians will often refer to “the far left” as if it’s a viable, strong presence. Well…not that I’ve seen. If there were a lot of Socialist or even Communist candidates running and winning elections, wouldn’t that be an indication of a large “far left” voting bloc? Or are people just afraid to run under those banners, thanks to the historical stigma? ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4685 "2022-06-17T16:06:56Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > The otherwise apparently mainstream advocate for the blind, and sight and hearing challenged person herself, Helen Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was a socialist. Socialism was somewhat more mainstream in the 19th century. There’s stuff that Lincoln said that would qualify as socialist today. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4686 "2022-06-17T16:11:01Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > ing an American Socialist before WWI (or even WWII) wasn’t considered nearly as radical as it has become since the start of the Cold War. Try telling that to Attorney General [[A. Mitchell Palmer]. > The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States. The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, with particular focus on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists. The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 3,000 arrested. The page [History of the socialist movement in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_socialist_movement_in_the_United_States#1930s%E2%80%931940s:_popular_front_and_New_Deal) gives a long pre-Cold War history of socialism and the opposition to it. Socialism was a separate thing from liberalism for most of that period. Only after WWII did it become a lazy synonym, with communist taking the forefront of true approbation. In recent years it’s become nothing but an ignorant slur, tossed in the mix with leftist, communist, radical, democrat, progressive, and even fascist. The word has lost all meaning. It’s true and only heyday was exactly in the period you’re saying it was most minimal. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4687 "2022-06-17T19:52:51Z")
Here’s a B-side by Merseybeat band The Fourmost. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VA03-1AGcLw/maxresdefault.jpg "The Fourmost - Rosetta (Remember Liverpool Beat 125)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA03-1AGcLw) It’s unremarkable save for the fact that it was produced by Paul McCartney, who also seems to have played piano on it. But my interesting random fact is that a member of the band, who therefore presumably also appears on the record, was **George Peckham**. I never knew he was a musician. Peckham, AKA Pecko, AKA Porky, plus numerous other aliases, was an English recording engineer, one of the great ones, and someone who was given to providing handwritten annotations in the run-off grooves of (vinyl) records. > **[George Peckham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Peckham)** > > George "Porky" Peckham (born 1942, Blackburn, Lancashire) is an English record engineer, widely recognised as among the most accomplished in the business. He has been responsible for producing the master discs from which many vinyl records have been pressed over the last 40 years. > His master discs, and the records that were produced from them, often bear either the motto "A Porky Prime Cut" or a cryptic or a humorous comment, etched onto the run-out grooves in his handwriting. Other inscriptio... If you are of a certain age and collected records (like me) it is overwhelmingly likely that you’ll own a record bearing his mark. Here’s the sort of thing to look out for: > **[Porky's Prime Cuts](https://www.soundandvision.com/content/porkys-prime-cuts)** > > When it was first introduced, digital audio was criticized as sounding “cold” or “sterile.” I vehemently disagreed. What some listeners heard as cold, I heard as a lack of distortion. Even after all these years, I suppose that's something we can... j ---
**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:** [June 17, 2022, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/4688 "2022-06-17T20:20:05Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > It’s unremarkable save for the fact that it was produced by Paul McCartney, who also seems to have played piano on it. > > But my interesting random fact is that a member of the band, who therefore presumably also appears on the record, was **George Peckham**. I never knew he was a musician. That is definitely a Baader-Meinhoff moment for me, as I had never heard of the band “The Fourmost” before just yesterday, when I saw the excellent and very moving documentary “Good Ol’ Freda” about Freda Kelly, the personal secretary of Brian Epstein and the Beatles AND their fanclub during their whole stint, starting as a prominent early fan at the Cavern and picked up by the band as secretary at age seventeen. The Fourmost are mentioned a few times and two of their members are interviewed, maybe including George Peckham, which I’ve also never heard about before. Here’s the imdb link: > **[Good Ol' Freda (2013) ⭐ 7.4 | Documentary, Biography, History](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2505938/)** > > 1h 26m | PG And here’s the [Arte.tv](http://Arte.tv) link to the documentary (I don’t know if it’s available everywhere): [https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/051596-000-A/im-vorzimmer-der-beatles/](https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/051596-000-A/im-vorzimmer-der-beatles/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=233) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=235)