# 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:** 328
**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:** [May 23, 2023, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6551 "2023-05-23T04:27:49Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > I hope that it went better than it did for Sweden. Think how much worse it would have been without the song I posted. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6552 "2023-05-23T05:23:52Z")
If you’re castling in chess, you’re supposed to move the king first. If you move (or touch) the rook first, your opponent can invoke the “touched piece” rule and require you to make a regular move with the rook rather than castling. ---
**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:** [May 23, 2023, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6553 "2023-05-23T11:23:46Z")
[There’s an aquarium shaped like a turtle in Vietnam](https://www.eap-magazin.de/Article/Vietnam%3A-%E2%80%9CThe-Sea-Shell%E2%80%9C-Aquarium-Now-Open.html). Looks pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6554 "2023-05-23T12:34:16Z")
Drum kits are “handed”. AIUI, Ringo got some of his distinctive sound from being a lefty playing a right handed kit. I always thought, to the extent I thought about it, that drummers just spread their equipment out around the bass drum however they liked, and they all had their preferences. I didn’t realize there was some sort of orthodoxy to the placements. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6555 "2023-05-23T14:02:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If you’re castling in chess, you’re supposed to move the king first. If you move (or touch) the rook first, your opponent can invoke the “touched piece” rule and require you to make a regular move with the rook rather than castling. Wow. My wife and I play a lot of chess. 8-10 games a week. Friendly games, often is heard “are you sure you want to do that?” Only said really when you know the person knew they where in trouble but looked at something else and totally blundered. While we are competitive, and each play to win, we give mulligans once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6556 "2023-05-23T14:18:37Z")
We have painted turtles in our area. I just learned that the females are laying eggs in nests now and babies will hatch in late summer or early fall. They usually stay in the nest until the next spring! ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6557 "2023-05-23T16:06:36Z")
…and depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6558 "2023-05-23T18:36:02Z")
TIL that the phrases “takes the cake” (meaning “to win”), “piece of cake”, and “cakewalk” (meaning something easy) originated with the cakewalk, a dance that had its origins with slaves and former slaves in the southern US in the mid 1800s: > **[Cakewalk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk)** > > The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on Black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern United States. Alternative names for the original form of the dance were "chalkline-walk", and the "walk-around". It was originally a processional partner dance danced with comical formality, and may have developed as a subtle mockery of the mannered dances of wh... ---
**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:** [May 23, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6559 "2023-05-23T20:47:05Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > [There’s an aquarium shaped like a turtle in Vietnam](https://www.eap-magazin.de/Article/Vietnam%3A-%E2%80%9CThe-Sea-Shell%E2%80%9C-Aquarium-Now-Open.html). It’s turtles all the way d… Nope, just the one. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6560 "2023-05-23T20:49:08Z")
But maybe turtles inside of the turtle. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6561 "2023-05-23T21:23:37Z")
[I like turtles.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2023, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6562 "2023-05-23T23:55:15Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Wow. My wife and I play a lot of chess. 8-10 games a week. Friendly games, often is heard “are you sure you want to do that?” Only said really when you know the person knew they where in trouble but looked at something else and totally blundered. > > While we are competitive, and each play to win, we give mulligans once in a while. That’s the way I prefer to play games as well. I’m not a big fan of the touch rule in chess. But as long as we’re on the subject, here’s another aspect of that rule many people don’t know. I think most chess players are aware that if you touch one of your pieces, you are then obligated to move it (if you can legally do so). But I think most chess players aren’t aware that the rule also applies to touching an opponent’s piece; if you touch one, you are obligated to capture it if you are legally able to do so. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6563 "2023-05-24T06:12:29Z")
Yeah. Sure the one touch would be fine playing in a tournament or something. But I think is a bit much for a friendly game En Passant capture in chess is really strange. I don’t really understand it. A computer chess game caught me doing it once though. It’s a mouthful - “A pawn attacking a square crossed by an opponent’s pawn which has advanced two squares in one move from its original square may capture this opponent’s pawn as though the latter had been moved only one square. This capture is only legal on the move following this advance and is called an ‘en passant’ capture.” ---
**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 24, 2023, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6564 "2023-05-24T14:04:48Z")
Can you dangle your finger really close to the piece and say “I’m not touching it! I’m not touching it!” just to annoy the other player? That’s legal in chess right? ---
**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 24, 2023, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6565 "2023-05-24T14:14:06Z")
There was an episode of Lucy’s “The Lucy Show” in which dancer John Bubbles and an elderly-dressed Paul Winchell getting into an argument over whether one had touched or ‘jiggled’ the piece. I don’t have time to do the details, but it’s on youtube (one of the “Main Street” episodes). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6566 "2023-05-24T14:20:52Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Can you dangle your finger really close to the piece and say “I’m not touching it! I’m not touching it!” just to annoy the other player? That’s legal in chess right? Watch out, this move should not be used if you’re playing against a computer. Short-circuits and the resulting showers of sparks are often fire hazards. ---
**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 24, 2023, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6567 "2023-05-24T15:01:44Z")
The platypus does not have a stomach. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6568 "2023-05-24T15:13:57Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Watch out, this move should not be used if you’re playing against a computer. Short-circuits and the resulting showers of sparks are often fire hazards. It’s worse than that: > **[Chess robot grabs and breaks finger of seven-year-old opponent](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/24/chess-robot-grabs-and-breaks-finger-of-seven-year-old-opponent-moscow)** > > Moscow incident occurred because child ‘violated’ safety rules by taking turn too quickly, says official ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6569 "2023-05-24T16:01:58Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Can you dangle your finger really close to the piece and say “I’m not touching it! I’m not touching it!” just to annoy the other player? That’s legal in chess right? Actually, when it is your move, you’re allowed to touch any piece you want, as long as you precede the touch with some form of “I adjust” (J’adoube), which can be just as annoying as dangling your hand over a piece. > [@enipla](#): > > En Passant capture in chess is really strange. I don’t really understand it. A computer chess game caught me doing it once though. > > It’s a mouthful - It’s pretty simple, you don’t need to memorize the rule. Just remember that your pawn captures diagonally (forward). So if another pawn scoots through a square you could capture on, then when it is your move, you’ve allowed to say (internally) “not so fast, buddy” and make that diagonal capture as if the opposing pawn had to make a courtesy stop on the square, but didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6570 "2023-05-24T19:13:36Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > It’s pretty simple, you don’t need to memorize the rule. Here’s a video explaining it pretty well: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c\_KRIH0wnhE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_KRIH0wnhE) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=327) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=329)