# 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:** 378
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7551 "2023-09-11T12:17:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s probably referring to what’s called “functional literacy”. Complete illiteracy, i.e., can’t read at all, is usually reckoned at 1% or so. I have copied the precise language below. To be clear, the illiteracy numbers do include people at entry level 1\*. If I calculate correctly, the absolute illiteracy percentage falls at 2.4%, and there were another 2.3% completely unable to participate in the survey. “Four in five U.S. adults (79 percent) have English literacy skills sufficient to complete tasks that require comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing, or making low-level inferences—literacy skills at level 2 or above in PIAAC (OECD 2013). In contrast, one in five U.S. adults (21 percent) has difficulty completing these tasks ( **figure 1** ). This translates into 43.0 million U.S. adults who possess low literacy skills: 26.5 million at level 1 and 8.4 million below level 1, while 8.2 million could not participate in PIAAC’s background survey either because of a language barrier or a cognitive or physical inability to be interviewed. These adults who were unable to participate are categorized as having low English literacy skills, as is done in international reports (OECD 2013), although no direct assessment of their skills is available.” Particularly damning of our educational system: “By race/ethnicity and nativity status, the largest percentage of those with low literacy skills are White U.S.-born adults, who represent one third of such low-skilled population. Hispanic adults born outside the United States make up about a quarter of such low-skilled adults in the United States ( **figure 3** ).” Source of the above: [https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp](https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp) \*More information about the levels and what they mean: [What do adult literacy levels mean? | National Literacy Trust](https://literacytrust.org.uk/parents-and-families/adult-literacy/what-do-adult-literacy-levels-mean/#:~:text=Entry%20Level%201%20is%20equivalent,levels%20at%20age%207%2D9). ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7552 "2023-09-11T12:53:04Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Yetis? Walruses? Thanks for posting. That is so much weirder than I imagined. And oddly compelling, I can see how it might get people interested. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7553 "2023-09-11T23:08:20Z")
Itsy bitsy spider A spider with the scientific name of Anapisona simoni which lives in the rain forests of Central America weighs less than 1 milligram when fully grown. That’s less than a staple or a few centimeters of sewing thread. Nevertheless, it is able to weave webs and capture prey. To be smart enough to do this, its extra large brain spills out of its head and into its legs. [Zoologger: My brain’s so big it spills into my legs | New Scientist](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21285-zoologger-my-brains-so-big-it-spills-into-my-legs/) ---
**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:** [September 12, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7554 "2023-09-12T15:26:59Z")
France has so much wine that the government wants overstocks destroyed. > **[France to spend €200m destroying wine as demand falls](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66623636)** > > A cocktail of problems has hit the wine industry, including demand falling as more people drink craft beer. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2023, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7555 "2023-09-12T15:32:09Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > France has so much wine that the government wants overstocks destroyed. The proverbial EU “butter mountains” and “wine lakes” have been around for a long time. > **[Butter mountain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_mountain)** > > The butter mountain is a supply surplus of butter produced in the European Union because of government interventionism that began in the 1970s. The size of the surplus changed significantly over time and mostly disappeared by 2017, which led to shortages. Other surpluses were described as beef mountains, milk lakes, wine lakes and grain mountains. > Excesses existed because the agricultural policies were designed to stabilize prices for farmers and consumers and to ensure that there was enough pr... ---
**Author:** ![TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thegunismightierthanthepen/32/2981_2.png) [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGunIsMightierThanThePen)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7556 "2023-09-12T16:32:24Z")
€200 million?! Hell, I’ll do it for them for free! ---
**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:** [September 12, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7557 "2023-09-12T18:33:59Z")
I see that the USA isn’t the only nation whose agricultural policies are still dictated by the shortages of World War Two. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7558 "2023-09-12T22:29:14Z")
> [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](#): > > €200 million?! Hell, I’ll do it for them for free! let me guess … you not only destroy it, you also convert it to perfectly fine water if there only were more peeps like you on this planet … ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7559 "2023-09-12T23:06:34Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Read [this](https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/question/historical-horse-racing/#:~:text=Also%20known%20as%20%22instant%20racing%2C%22%20historical%20racing%20machines,winners%20is%20based%20on%20previously%20run%20horse%20races.) and then decide if you still agree with your statement. My earlier quote was wrong, in that there is a library of **100,000** races that the machine chooses from. Players wouldn’t just be building the database from the games they play, though. All of that information is already out there, or the casinos wouldn’t have been able to create that library of races to begin with. I suppose that accessing that database would require a device of some sort, and using a device to aid in a betting game is actually illegal, so the casinos can have you arrested for it, not just thrown out. I still wouldn’t think they’d want to make it easy, though, because they can’t catch everyone. Actually, that’s a question: How do casinos police phone use, nowadays? Saying that nobody’s allowed to use their phones on the premises would mean a huge drop in business, because so many folks are so attached to their phones. But allowing phone use would make it easy to cheat on a variety of games. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2023, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7560 "2023-09-13T11:13:54Z")
This came up this morning as I was perusing the news – **Julia Chinn, Enslaved Wife of the Ninth US Vice President**. I have to admit, I never heard of Richard Mentor Johnson Before. Who the hell knew the name of Martin van Buren’s Veep? Fascinating story. There’s a forthcoming book about her, and evidently a fictionalized version of her life was published two years ago. > **[He Became the Nation's Ninth Vice President. She Was His Enslaved Wife.](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/12/2192944/-He-Became-the-Nation-s-Ninth-Vice-President-She-Was-His-Enslaved-Wife?utm_campaign=trending)** > > By complete serendipity, I came across a 2021 story from the Washington Post and knew I had to share it…. Julia Chinn was born into slavery in Kentucky around 1790, the year after George Washington was elected first president of the United States.... > **[Julia Chinn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Chinn)** > > Julia Chinn (c. 1790 – July 1833) was an American plantation manager and enslaved woman of "mixed-race" (an "octoroon" of seven-eighths European and one-eighth African ancestry), who was the common-law wife of the ninth vice president of the United States, Richard Mentor Johnson. > Chinn was born in Scott County, Kentucky to a woman enslaved by the Johnson family. Her exact date of birth is unknown, according to historian Amrita Myers, yet Johnson family lore places it in the year 1790. Howeve... ---
**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:** [September 14, 2023, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7561 "2023-09-14T12:00:56Z")
Does it count if it’s interesting, but we don’t quite know what it is yet? Earthquake lights! [https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/world/earthquake-lights-phenomenon-scn/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/world/earthquake-lights-phenomenon-scn/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7562 "2023-09-14T13:31:31Z")
By the 1970s, the farm commodity price support programs had the U.S.D.A. storing tons of butter, cheese, peanut butter and all kinds food. A lot of it was disgorged to local school district lunch programs. That’s how we got those spiffy combination knife-sharpener peanut butter squares. And rectangle pizza slices, oatmeal cookies, etc. The “Government Cheese” meme was born. Supplied in 5lb blocks, it was pretty dense, and even aged in a cave. Made good grilled cheese sammiches. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7563 "2023-09-14T14:07:17Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > The “Government Cheese” meme was born. Supplied in 5lb blocks, it was pretty dense, and even aged in a cave. Made good grilled cheese sammiches. That stuff is still around. One of our neighbors somehow got hold of a bunch of it a while back and gave us a brick. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2023, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7564 "2023-09-14T14:13:29Z")
YIL that Hollywood prop providers maintain contacts with the farming industry to provide them with recently deceased animals. They don’t want any animal that was deliberately killed in order to say no animals were harmed in the production of a movie or TV show so farmers will let them know when they have livestock that died of natural causes that can be used as props. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7565 "2023-09-14T15:52:52Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > > [@Common\_Tater](#): > > > > The “Government Cheese” meme was born. Supplied in 5lb blocks, it was pretty dense, and even aged in a cave. Made good grilled cheese sammiches > > That stuff is still around. One of our neighbors somehow got hold of a bunch of it a while back and gave us a brick A few years back it made the news that someone found a couple of +30 year old blocks that had been shoved to the back of a refrigerator. It reportedly had aged quite well. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7566 "2023-09-15T12:44:03Z")
Before going ahead with production on _Spaceballs_, Mel Brooks sent over a copy of the script to George Lucas to get his okay (and promise not to sue). Lucas had no problems with the script, with one exception: under no circumstances was Brooks allowed to merchandise the film. As a parody of sci-fi movies and of _Star Wars_ itself, Lucas could foresee the toys would very much resemble his own line of SW merchandise and he couldn’t have that. In response, Brooks turned it into a joke and liberally peppered in references to _Spaceballs_ merchandise throughout the film. ---
**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:** [September 16, 2023, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7567 "2023-09-16T00:56:45Z")
Lucas also told Brooks that he couldn’t copy Han Solo’s outfit. So Brooks based that character’s outfit on Indiana Jones ---
**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:** [September 16, 2023, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7568 "2023-09-16T01:20:58Z")
I’m astonished and ashamed that I didn’t know about her either. The Wiki article helps with the info that she was dead before Johnson became VP and that she almost certainly could pass for white. Therefore Johnson had some plausible deniability when the inevitable scandal rolled over him (as it had done previously as well, though). The other interesting fact I didn’t know is that Johnson was the only Vice President elected by the Senate. Virginia refused to give him its electoral votes, so he didn’t have a majority. The [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mentor_Johnson) makes Johnson a complicated mixture of good and bad, both from our standpoint and that of his time. Just when you think he was better than others of his era (like Henry Clay) he does things absolutely heinous. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7569 "2023-09-16T22:14:24Z")
Years ago (late 80s, early 90s?) I had a friend who qualified for free government cheese. He would pass some of it on to me; it was large cylindrical blocks of cheddar, medium sharp and slightly greasy as I recall. I seem to remember finding all kinds of uses for it, including grilled cheese sandwiches. ---
**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:** [September 17, 2023, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7570 "2023-09-17T13:31:51Z")
There are some new info boards at Wakehurst Place, Sussex (about 30 miles south of London), put up while the manor house is being renovated. One of them describes the building as “Iconic, but not unique.” Why so? Because James John Van Alen (1846-1923) had an exact copy built in Newport, RI. It’s harder than you would think to find two displayable images which offer a straightforward comparison of the two buildings. This is the best I could do. One happens to be a link to a YouTube video about the Newport building and it’s history, which was an interesting watch. JJ Van A was a strange guy. > Completed in 1888 for the widowed James John Van Alen (1846-1923). Wakehurst was one of the most ambitious projects of the many mansions built in Newport having been directly modelled on the English manor, Wakehurst Place, built in 1590. Predating many of the better known museum houses (eg. Winterthur etc.), it was Van Alen’s that led the way in America for the concept of “museum rooms”. Wakehurst was built to cheer up a grieving husband, though much as he had loved his wife there was no love lost between Van Alen and his father-in-law, William Backhouse Astor Jr., and a duel between the two (that’s right, pistols at dawn!) was only avoided at the last hour… [![](https://sussexexclusive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Wakehusrt-slider.jpg) ](https://sussexexclusive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Wakehusrt-slider.jpg) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0OQTMCQ6NwM/maxresdefault.jpg "What Happened to Wakehurst in Newport?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OQTMCQ6NwM) What I find strange is that I have been a pretty frequent visitor at Wakehurst (Sussex) for thirty-odd years, and knew nothing of this story until today (!) j Background The one in Sussex: [Wakehurst Place - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakehurst_Place) The one in Newport: [Wakehurst - HouseHistree](https://househistree.com/houses/wakehurst) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=377) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=379)