# 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:** 30
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/581 "2020-07-27T21:13:02Z")
That there’s no actual species of fish called a ‘Sardine’, that they’re basically Herrings. That raisins are dried grapes. I used to think raisins were raisins and grapes were grapes. ---
**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:** [July 27, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/582 "2020-07-27T21:33:44Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > God works in mysterious ways: So they were all interred (in turd) together…holy crap! Match the person to his last words. Humphrey Bogart; John Wilkes Booth; Gary Coleman; Bing Crosby; Bobby Fischer; Ben Franklin; Bill Hicks; Michael Landon; Pablo Picasso; Vince Lombardi A dying man can do nothing easily Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink any more. Happy anniversary. I love you. I should never have switched from scotch to martinis. I love you and my head hurts. I’ve said all that I’ve had to say. Nothing soothes pain like human touch That was a great game of golf, fellers. Useless…useless. You’re right. It’s time. I love you all. A dying man can do nothing easily. Ben Franklin Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink any more. Pablo Picasso Happy anniversary. I love you. Vince Lombardi I should never have switched from scotch to martinis. Humphrey Bogart I love you and my head hurts. Gary Coleman I’ve said all that I’ve had to say. Bill Hicks Nothing soothes pain like human touch. Bobby Fischer That was a great game of golf, fellers. Bing Crosby Useless…useless. John Wilkes Booth You’re right. It’s time. I love you all. Michael Landon. [https://www.boredpanda.com/famous-last-words/?utm\_source=google&utm\_medium=organic&utm\_campaign=organic](https://www.boredpanda.com/famous-last-words/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/583 "2020-07-28T01:52:06Z")
**Persifor Frazer Smith** of California history fame was often confused with his cousin, a Philadelphia lawyer also named **Persifor Frazer Smith.** ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/584 "2020-07-28T03:10:03Z")
It’s occasionally said the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t actually free any slaves. This is incorrect. It didn’t free any slaves in Northern states because Lincoln didn’t have the authority. It had to be done as a law or constitutional amendment. It didn’t free any slaves in Confederacy for obvious reasons. But Lincoln was Commander-in-Chief and thus could set policy for the army. The Proclamation meant that any slave captured by the army was now free and all commanders had to treat them as such (this wasn’t always the case). This led to many slaves crossing Union lines knowing they would be freed. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/585 "2020-07-28T03:14:54Z")
One of Thomas Pynchon’s ancestors was a righteous man here in New England, and the first to have a book banned in Boston! > **[William Pynchon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pynchon)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > William Pynchon (October 11, 1590 – October 29, 1662) was an English colonist and fur trader in North America best known as the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. He was also a colonial treasurer, original patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the iconoclastic author of the New World's first banned book. An original settler of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Pynchon became dissatisfied with that town's notoriously rocky soil and in 1635, ... ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/586 "2020-07-28T16:49:27Z")
I thought Bogart’s last words to Lauren Bacall were, “See you later, Honey”. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/587 "2020-07-28T16:59:56Z")
I learned today that the [MOSFET is, by far, the most-produced human-manufactured device in history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSFET). Over 13 sextillion have been made over the past few decades. (That is 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 MOSFETs) ---
**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:** [July 28, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/588 "2020-07-28T17:14:53Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > Bob Rivers recorded “O Little Town of Bethlehem” to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun”. The metres (8 6 8 6) match perfectly. (syllables per line) You can do that with a gazillion songs, and a lot of Emily Dickson poems, too! (Try “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.”) That 8 6 8 6 meter is a type of “hymn meter,” specifically “C.M.” or “common meter.” 8 8 8 8 is “L.M.” or “long meter” and “6 6 8 6” is “S.M.” or “short meter.” You will see this type of beat count listed in a lot of hymnals. ---
**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:** [July 28, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/589 "2020-07-28T17:26:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I thought Bogart’s last words to Lauren Bacall were, “See you later, Honey”. Some sources vary, it appears. > [@](#): > > “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis” - Although according to his wife Lauren Bacall (also pictured) his last words were “Hurry back” after she left him alone in the house to pick up some groceries when he was bed-ridden with cancer. [https://www.britishpathe.com/gallery/famous-last-words/5#:~:text=venice-4-,Humphrey%20Bogart,was%20bed-ridden%20with%20cancer](https://www.britishpathe.com/gallery/famous-last-words/5#:~:text=venice%2D4-,Humphrey%20Bogart,was%20bed%2Dridden%20with%20cancer). ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/590 "2020-07-28T17:31:59Z")
There is a stage actor named [James Earl Jones II](https://www.broadwayworld.com/raleigh/article/BWW-Interview-James-Earl-Jones-II-of-COME-FROM-AWAY-National-Tour-20200113). I first became aware of him when I saw him in the San Francisco production of Come From Away. He is **not** the son of James Earl Jones, as I initially assumed. He is actually a distant cousin of James Earl Jones. As I understand it they were both named after the same ancestor. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/591 "2020-07-28T18:33:41Z")
Dry air is heavier than moist air. ---
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/592 "2020-07-29T12:10:46Z")
Harry Houdini did the first controlled powered flight in Australia, in a Voisin biplane he bought. Several flights, including one six mile flight. After his Australian tour, he announced he would use his plane to fly from city to city, but he never flew again. [Details here](https://www.thegreatharryhoudini.com/aviation.html). ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/593 "2020-07-29T12:30:17Z")
I’m always amazed when I discover something simple and common that I should have known but, somehow, have managed to get through 38 years without knowing it! Example: Despite the fact that my English skills are very strong,I always assumed the word “Gala” was pronounced “Gay-lah”. One evening, I was watching the movie, “Ocean’s Eight” with Sandra Bullock, and there was a scene in which one of the conspirators, who was pretending to be someone knowledgeable about the event, was talking to the chief organizer of the “Gay-lah” they were going to rob. The woman looked at her sharply and replied, "You mean our “Gah-lah”?! ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/594 "2020-07-29T15:11:27Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Example: Despite the fact that my English skills are very strong,I always assumed the word “Gala” was pronounced “Gay-lah”. Merriam-Webster says both are right - there’s even a 3rd pronunciation: > **[Definition of GALA](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gala)** > > a festive celebration; especially : a public entertainment marking a special occasion; a medium-sized apple with crisp yellowish-white sweet flesh and a red skin or a golden skin with red striping… See the full definition ---
**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:** [July 29, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/595 "2020-07-29T16:17:47Z")
Yeah, in American English, I generally only hear “GAY-luh” /ˈˈɡeɪlə/ and “GAL-uh.” /ˈɡælə/ “GAH-luh” /ˈɡɑːlə/ is more UK English, in my experience. ---
**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:** [July 29, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/596 "2020-07-29T16:57:13Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > Ciabatta bread was invented in 1982: > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta) You just blew my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/597 "2020-07-29T17:01:21Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > Merriam-Webster says both are right - there’s even a 3rd pronunciation: Then, as far as I’m concerned, I’m exonerated! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/598 "2020-07-29T18:06:46Z")
Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders was a student at Kent State University in Ohio, and witness on the commons, to the shootings that left 4 students dead on May 4th, 1970. > **[Kent State shootings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre, were the killings of four and wounding of nine other unarmed Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, 40 mi (64 km) south of Cleveland. The killings took place during a peace rally opposing the expanding involvement of the Vietnam War into Cambodia by United States military forces as well as protesting the Nationa... ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/599 "2020-07-29T20:35:59Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > You just blew my mind. One mindblow, that’ll be $37.50 plus tip. I actually swiped it from reddit ‘today I learned’ which is pretty much endless interesting random facts. [https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/](https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/600 "2020-07-30T01:00:04Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > One mindblow, that’ll be $37.50 plus tip. There is a sex worker joke in there somewhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=31)