# 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:** 310
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6191 "2023-03-08T16:43:12Z")
TIL about the contributions [of Spain to the Revolutionary Army against Britain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Coast_campaign). If this is common knowledge, then blame my American schooling! The random fact is that the guy who ran it, Bernardo de Gálvez, was the successor and brother-in-law of Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga, the Spanish imperial governor who actually came up with the name “United States of America” and suggested it to George Washington. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6192 "2023-03-08T16:45:09Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > In Hopper’s famous note, she says “First actual case of a bug being found.” which makes no sense if that term and usage didn’t already exist.   Sure it does, if she was emphasizing the fact that it was a “literal” bug rather than a figurative bug. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2023, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6193 "2023-03-08T16:48:22Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > TIL about the contributions [of Spain to the Revolutionary Army against Britain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Coast_campaign). If this is common knowledge, then blame my American schooling! Did you never watch Schoolhouse Rock? Lyrics from “Shot Heard Round the World”: > Well, they showed such determination > That they won the admiration > Of countries across the sea like France and Spain, > Who loaned the colonies ships and guns > And put the British on the run > And the Continental Army on its feet again. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2023, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6194 "2023-03-08T16:49:06Z")
I didn’t know until now that the “coco” part of “coconut” comes from a Portuguese word meaning “bogeyman” or “grinning face” (because of the 3 dots on a coconut kind of resembling a face). ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6195 "2023-03-08T17:08:00Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > TIL about the contributions [of Spain to the Revolutionary Army against Britain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Coast_campaign). If this is common knowledge, then blame my American schooling! The random fact is that the guy who ran it, Bernardo de Gálvez, was the successor and brother-in-law of Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga, the Spanish imperial governor who actually came up with the name “United States of America” and suggested it to George Washington . I doubt Bernardo de Galvez is common knowledge in most of the U.S., but the Spanish-British battles along the Gulf Coast are taught in Louisiana History classes to 8th graders in my state. North Galvez Street and South Galvez Street in New Orleans are both named after Galvez. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6196 "2023-03-08T17:08:11Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Sure it does, if she was emphasizing the fact that it was a “literal” bug rather than a figurative bug. What I meant was if there was not already usage of “bug” as a programming/hardware problem then saying she found an **actual** bug makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6197 "2023-03-08T17:22:51Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > but the Spanish-British battles along the Gulf Coast are taught in Louisiana History classes to 8th graders in my state. I’m in PA so we just learned about Quakers and Gettysburg. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6198 "2023-03-08T17:34:07Z")
I was aware that a goodly bit of US military terminology follows Spanish conventions rather than British. We don’t say “leftenant” for example, and we put an “r” in “colonel” because the Spanish is “coronel”. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6199 "2023-03-08T17:47:03Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > [@Pleonast](#): > > > > Sure it does, if she was emphasizing the fact that it was a “literal” bug rather than a figurative bug. > > What I meant was if there was not already usage of “bug” as a programming/hardware problem then saying she found an **actual** bug makes no sense. Sorry, I parsed your statement differently than what you intended. ---
**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 8, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6200 "2023-03-08T18:08:23Z")
Pearls don’t come from a grain of sand irritating them. The secret the gem industry doesn’t want you to know about is that pearls are produced when parasitic worms squirm inside defective shells with openings. “The mussel realizes it’s there and tries to get rid of it. The parasite panics and starts working away and rolling back and forth…” and “then begins to cover it with nacre to smooth its edges and soothe the irritation.” Worse, cultured pearls are made by slicing open an oyster’s gonads and inserting an irritant into them and hoping that the oyster survives the trauma. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6201 "2023-03-08T18:33:16Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > North Galvez Street and South Galvez Street in New Orleans are both named after Galvez. Also Galveston, TX (Galvez-town). ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6202 "2023-03-08T19:26:09Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > We don’t say “leftenant” for example, That one actually comes from French. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6203 "2023-03-08T21:14:35Z")
And the Tango is big in Finland, or at least was for a good part of the Twentieth Century. > **[Finnish tango](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_tango)** > > Finnish tango (Finnish: suomalainen tango), or FINtango, music is an established variation of the Argentine tango but whose rhythm follows the Ballroom tango. It was one of the most popular music forms for decades in Finland. Brought to Europe in the 1910s, and to Finland itself in 1913, by travelling musicians, Finns began to take up the form and write their own tangos in the 1930s. The first Finnish tango was written by Emil Kauppi in 1914 for a film called Salainen perintömääräys (mea The Finn... ---
**Author:** ![the\_art\_of\_rolling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@the\_art\_of\_rolling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_art_of_rolling)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6204 "2023-03-09T11:33:02Z")
But the British say “kernel” too. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2023, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6205 "2023-03-09T11:40:41Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I was aware that a goodly bit of US military terminology follows Spanish conventions rather than British. We don’t say “leftenant” for example, and we put an “r” in “colonel” because the Spanish is “coronel”. That’s from well before the Revolutionary War. Spain basically invented the modern military structure during its golden age in the 16th Century. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2023, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6206 "2023-03-12T15:32:23Z")
Here’s something I just learned: The rock song **Hound Dog** was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952, and first recorded by Big Mama Thornton a year later. Elvis recorded it in 1956, and changed some of the lyrics. “You ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine” was one of the changes. Leiber and Stoller didn’t like this change, since it implied the song is about a literal dog. They said, “The change in the lyrics was nonsense. Thornton was singing to a man. Elvis was singing to a dog.” Sadly, Thornton only made $500 from the song. [Her version of it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoHDrzw-RPg) is fantastic IMO. And great guitar work. That’s real Rock and roll. ---
**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:** [March 12, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6207 "2023-03-12T17:33:50Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Thornton only made $500 from the song That’s a crime(figurative). ---
**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:** [March 13, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6208 "2023-03-13T17:16:26Z")
There seem to be more blacksmiths in the world than ever before. Blacksmithing has become a popular hobby and backyard smiths and small shops abound here in the US and worldwide also. There have always been some smiths making knives and other tools and weapons, and plenty of farriers (horse shoeing, etc.), but the local smith in every community was replaced by hardware stores long ago. The hobby has been greatly popularized by TV shows like Forged in Fire so that there are likely a number of smiths near where you live. I do a little bit of it myself, but ended my plans to set up a real forge because of physical problems. Based on sales on anvils, forges, and other smith’s tools the number of smiths today seems to exceed those even from the times when many farmers were smithing themselves. One result of this has been tremendous inflation in the price of used anvils. Not long ago old anvils were selling for $2-$3 a pound, now $6-$7 a pound is common and more in some cases. Many of these are found in old barns, the remnants of that time when so many farmers did their own smithing. The skyrocketing costs have popularized the term ASO, a TLA for Anvil Shaped Object. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6209 "2023-03-13T17:25:19Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Not long ago old anvils were selling for $2-$3 a pound, now $6-$7 a pound is common and more in some cases. Many of these are found in old barns,… Interesting. I was led to believe the American southwest was practically littered with them. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6210 "2023-03-13T17:43:09Z")
Those Acme anvils don’t last very long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=309) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=311)