# 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:** 340
**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:** [June 24, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6791 "2023-06-24T01:38:20Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > Baseball - in 1932, Jimmie Foxx hit 60 home runs for the Philadelphia A’s. Unfortunately - two were cancelled doe to rain-shortened games which didn’t go five innings. Well, the baseball gods giveth and take it away. In 1938, Foxx won the AL batting championship despite the fact he did not have the highest batting average. Foxx hit .349, but Taffy Wright of the Senators hit .350. Wright did qualify for the championship, but wasn’t given it. Back then, you qualified for the batting championship if you appeared in 100 games. Wright appeared in exactly 100, but around 40 of those were a single plate appearance. He had a total of only 282 PAs as compared to Foxx’s 685. The league said, “to hell with the rules” and awarded official recognition to Foxx. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6792 "2023-06-24T19:04:33Z")
The etymology of “news” is that it’s the adjective “new” used as a noun in the plural: “new things.” Same story in several different languages. In Spanish, it’s usually _noticias_, but once in a while you’ll come across the word _nuevas_, which is what led me to lookitup. Here’s the Wikipedia entry: > **[News | Meaning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News#Meaning)** > > The English word "news" developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of "new". In Middle English, the equivalent word was newes, like the French nouvelles and the German Neues. Similar developments are found in the Slavic languages – namely cognates from Serbo-Croatian novost (from nov, "new"), Czech and Slovak noviny (from nový, "new"), the Polish nowiny, the Bulgarian novini and Russian novosti – and likewise in the Celtic languages: the Welsh newyddion (from newydd) and th... ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6793 "2023-06-24T19:45:11Z")
TIL that the Viet Cong sank a US aircraft carrier. I never knew this and I was pretty aware of Vietnam and the war - being of that age. > **[USNS Card: the Last U.S. Aircraft Carrier Sunk by an Enemy](https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/usns-card-last-us-aircraft-carrier-sunk-enemy-197763)** > > It was shortly after midnight when two Viet Cong commandos emerged from a sewer tunnel that emptied into Saigon Port, each man carrying nearly 90 pounds of high explosives and the components needed to make two time bombs. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2023, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6794 "2023-06-24T21:20:27Z")
FTR, while the story is accurate — I recall it being part of a “Victory in Vietnam” roadshow in the mid-60s — the picture isn’t even remotely accurate. It appears to be an updated _Essex_ class fleet carrier (around 875’ overall length), while the _Card_ was a _Bogue_ class escort carrier (495’ overall) which had been repurposed as an aircraft transport. Discourse is still being balky about inline media, so here’s a [picture](https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/0301142.jpg) of the _Card_. It’s from WWII, but the overall structure wouldn’t have changed much. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6795 "2023-06-25T02:32:29Z")
Today I learned that the word “Apu” is considered a slur against East Indian Americans, ranking up there with the “N” word for blacks or the “K” word for Jews. I had not previously known that. (Can I use that word here, since it’s considered a slur on top of being a Simpsons character? ---
**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 25, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6796 "2023-06-25T02:47:48Z")
I’d probably be more offended by “East Indian”! Though I always found the character in the Simpsons to be offensive. ---
**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 25, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6797 "2023-06-25T02:47:54Z")
More Americans watched the Beatles on that first _Ed Sullivan Show_ than the entire population of the U.K. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6798 "2023-06-25T11:44:47Z")
Apu is a real name, so no, not a slur like the ‘n’ word. Curious where you learned that. But of course, I can see it used as one depending on the context. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6799 "2023-06-25T15:10:18Z")
Another “K” word was used to describe South African Blacks in the Apartheid era. I remember seeing it in local newspaper financial pages when referring to South African gold companies - referring to them as “K” Gold companies. ---
**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 25, 2023, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6800 "2023-06-25T15:39:27Z")
And yet we use the “K” word for kaffir limes with no problem. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6801 "2023-06-25T16:43:39Z")
Not all slurs were created equal. ---
**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 25, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6802 "2023-06-25T16:45:59Z")
My friend Karen agrees. ---
**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 25, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6803 "2023-06-25T17:12:08Z")
> **[Newspaper Apologizes for Editorial Cartoon, Bans Cartoonist from Their Pages...](https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/06/24/newspaper-apologizes-for-editorial-cartoon-bans-cartoonist-from-their-pages/)** > > On Wednesday The Quad City Times published a cartoon by Leo Kelly taking a swipe at MAGA racism, but the cartoon invoked a Simpsons character whose name has become offensive to many and so the tables were turned with the newspaper and the cartoonist... ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6804 "2023-06-26T23:45:38Z")
I can’t find the cartoon online at all, and I personally thought it was hilarious. It was Vivek R-what’shisname at a rally with 3 people in attendance, all of them men in MAGA hats; one is yelling “MUSLIM!”, another is hollering “Show us your birth certificate!” and the third one says, “Get me a slushee, Apu!” This area has a large Indian-from-India community (and no, they’re not all physicians who buy McMansions, although quite a few are) so they must have pointed this out to the editorial staff. ---
**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 26, 2023, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6805 "2023-06-26T23:48:52Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I can’t find the cartoon online at all, and I personally thought it was hilarious. It’s just below the fold of Exapno\_Mapcase’s linked article. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6806 "2023-06-26T23:50:11Z")
Thanks. I didn’t click on the link, because yesterday’s dead-tree paper didn’t print it. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6807 "2023-06-27T08:15:36Z")
90’s pop star Debbie Gibson made her screen debut in the movie [Ghostbusters](https://ghostbustersnews.com/2023/06/24/debbie-gibson-recalls-her-uncredited-role-in-the-original-ghostbusters/). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6808 "2023-06-27T12:59:56Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > men in MAGA hats; one is yelling “MUSLIM!” Originally published 19 years ago, Duhbya supporter yelling “Islamist” at Kerry supporter: > **[The City by John Backderf for June 09, 2023 | GoComics.com](https://www.gocomics.com/thecity/2023/06/09)** > > June 09, 2023 ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6809 "2023-06-27T19:07:39Z")
**9** 0s? I guess anything is possible. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6810 "2023-06-27T19:38:05Z")
Though the expression “eke out” has degenerated evolved to mean (more often than not) “scratch out”, its correct original meaning was “stretch out”, or supplement, so you might for instance have a job as a schoolteacher but eke out your living doing private tutoring. It was this sense of “eke” that gave us “ekename” for an alternative though unofficial appellation. It became “nickname” by the same metanalytical process that made a norange an orange, a nadder an adder, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=339) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=341)