# 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:** 441
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8811 "2024-01-28T21:24:16Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I guess the reason is that there’s no such thing as a [Butterbrot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterbrot) in America. Sure, there are sandwiches, but butter doesn’t seem to be a necessary item when eating bread like in Germany. I wonder whether there is another country where butter plays such an emotional (for lack of a better term) role in the collective imagination. Germans do have a thing about butter: it is _the_ item that is sold cheaper and advertised prominently to lure people into shops, it is the staple that is mentioned when prices go up (like petrol in other countries. Well OK, petrol is mentioned in Germany too). And the phrase that goes naturally with Butter is “die gute Butter”: the _good_ butter. At least in my mind. When something is perfect the Germans say “alles in Butter!” (everything is in butter, literally. Makes no sense? That is what I am trying to point out). I will not even try to translate “Butter bei die Fische!” or “sich (nicht) die Butter vom Brot nehmen lassen”, expressions you hear again and again. The relation Germans have developed with butter sometimes seems mystical to me. For comparison: I know of not one single standing expression in Spanish that mentions butter off the top of my head. There are [webpages full](https://www.sprichwoerter.net/index.php?searchword=butter&option=com_search&Itemid=45&searchphrase=any&ordering=popular&limit=20&limitstart=0) in German. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8812 "2024-01-28T21:31:16Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > When something is perfect the Germans say “alles in Butter!” (everything is in butter, literally. Makes no sense? That is what I am trying to point out). No, I think the Germans are on to something, there: Everything is better when it’s in butter. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8813 "2024-01-28T21:35:23Z")
Everything? Most food, perhaps. But clothes, in particular underwear? Books? Beer and whisky? Hmm… now you made me curious: must try that. ETA: disgusting! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8814 "2024-01-28T22:06:11Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > We don’t use butter much but keep it on hand for baking and I prefer the “eastern” shape as it thaws faster There is another way to look at this, though. I was reading some effete hollandaise recipe, in which it said to whisk the yolk/wine mix in a double boiler while dropping in tablespoon slices of butter, waiting for each to melt fully before adding the next. A west coast tablespoon slice (cubes are always labeled thus) would be broader and thinner than an east coast slice, and so should melt faster. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8815 "2024-01-28T22:09:09Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > And the phrase that goes naturally with Butter is “die gute Butter”: the _good_ butter. I’ve always wanted to know what “good butter” is compared to “bad butter”, a term that never comes up. Was the term “good butter” coined in olden times to differentiate it from butter that’s gone rancid? Or was it only used after the invention of margarine? Or is it a WWII term, when real butter was hard to get? It’s a term my grandmothers would have used, but unfortunately I never asked them when they were still alive. ETA: the expression “gute Butter” in German is on the same level as “Bohnenkaffee” (bean coffee). @Pardel-Lux will know what I mean. This is definitely a term that was coined in times of shortage. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8816 "2024-01-28T22:13:13Z")
I have a friend in Wisconsin whose uncle used to smuggle margarine in. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8817 "2024-01-28T22:14:02Z")
Huh? Why does someone have to smuggle _margarine_? Was it spiked with anything? ---
**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:** [January 28, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8818 "2024-01-28T22:17:40Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > it’s [posh butter and comes in a roll](https://www.netherendfarmbutter.co.uk/) (250g), From “Netherend Farm” no less. ROFL!! ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8819 "2024-01-28T22:18:10Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Or is it a WWII term, when real butter was hard to get? I have the feeling this is it: it sounds _[völkisch](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lkisch)_\* to me (link in German), like _[Heimatfilme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimatfilm)_ (link in English), though the genre Heimatfilm was created after WWII according to the link. But I may be completely off here. \* _Völkisch_ has rasist undertones for sure. Bohnenkaffee does not, it was used to distinguish proper coffee from ersatz, often chicoree. _Café de achicoria_ is a term in Spanish too: same meaning, same connotations. Die gute Butter… not so sure. No idea what to search to elucidate it. ETA: Ersatz, btw, is a German word that simply means substitute. ETA (2): Heimatfilme were called Volksfilme before WWII and were made and called Heimatfilme during the Nazi regime, Luis Trenker and Leni Riefenstahl being prominent examples. The [German wikipage](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimatfilm) has much more information than the English one. Hmm… nice rabbit hole here. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8820 "2024-01-28T22:25:22Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Bohnenkaffee does not, it was used to distinguish proper coffee from ersatz, often chicoree. Yeah, I know this, that’s why I suggested that “gute Butter” was used in WWII in contrast to margarine, which of course also is ersatz. My parents were born in 1935 or 1939, respectively, they remember the war well and I asked them a lot about it, but they couldn’t elucidate the meaning of “gute Butter”, they only remembered that it was a common term in their childhood. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8821 "2024-01-28T22:26:49Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Why does someone have to smuggle _margarine_? Was it spiked with anything? Yes. The color yellow. > [@](#): > > In 1895, the state, to protect its dairy farmers, banned the manufacture and sale in the state of yellow oleomargarine. If you wanted to buy margarine in Wisconsin, you could only get it in unappetizing white. And, on top of that, you had to pay an extra tax on it for the privilege. > **[Wisconsin banned selling yellow margarine for 72 years, so residents smuggled...](https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/special-reports/dairy-crisis/2019/08/28/protect-dairy-industry-wisconsin-tried-keep-yellow-margarine-out-oleo-run/1950671001/)** > > There are still anti-margarine laws on the books in Wisconsin. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8822 "2024-01-28T22:32:34Z")
Well, I heard a lot of bizarre stories about things going differently in America, but this takes the cake. Free trade and free market anyone? 😆 It’s a story like the champagne tax in Germany that was introduced by Willhelm II to finance his pet war fleet and is still in use today. Sorry, only German link: > **[Schaumweinsteuer](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaumweinsteuer)** > > Die Schaumweinsteuer (auch Sektsteuer genannt) ist eine Bundessteuer in Deutschland und Österreich. > In Deutschland zählt sie nach § 1 Abs. 1 SchaumwZwStG zu den Verbrauchsteuern. Sie gilt allgemein für Schaumwein, aber auch für andere Spirituosen mit einem bestimmten Alkoholgehalt und ist abhängig von der Füllmenge. > Die aktuelle Rechtsgrundlage der Schaumweinsteuer bildet das Schaumwein- und Zwischenerzeugnissteuergesetz (SchaumwZwStG). > Die Schaumweinsteuer wurde 1902 vom Reichstag zur Finanzi... ETA: found an English link with info about the “Schaumweinsteuer”: > **[The Taxes We Don’t Pay Attention To - Evaero](https://evaero.com/taxes/)** > > While sipping champagne to celebrate National Scavenger Hunt Day, I remembered why we should pay attention to all taxes regardless of how trivial they are. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2024, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8823 "2024-01-28T22:41:07Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I wonder whether there is another country where butter plays such an emotional (for lack of a better term) role in the collective imagination. Germans do have a thing about butter: it is _the_ item that is sold cheaper and advertised prominently to lure people into shops, it is the staple that is mentioned when prices go up (like petrol in other countries. Well OK, petrol is mentioned in Germany too). And the phrase that goes naturally with Butter is “die gute Butter”: the _good_ butter. At least in my mind. When something is perfect the Germans say “alles in Butter!” (everything is in butter, literally. Makes no sense? That is what I am trying to point out). I will not even try to translate “Butter bei die Fische!” or “sich (nicht) die Butter vom Brot nehmen lassen”, expressions you hear again and again. The relation Germans have developed with butter sometimes seems mystical to me. There is of course the saying “guns and butter” or “guns or butter”. [Guns versus butter model - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_versus_butter_model#Origin_of_the_term) says that the term supposedly arose during World War One when there was a perceived conflict between allocating nitrates for fertilizer or munitions. In southern Europe it’s more likely to be olive oil than butter, and of course in India they refine butter completely into “ghee”- butterfat- because it keeps better in a hot climate. ---
**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:** [January 28, 2024, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8824 "2024-01-28T22:42:38Z")
This is why Hellman’s brand slogan is "Bring out the Hellman’s and bring out the best " ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8825 "2024-01-28T22:59:07Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Yes. The color yellow. Indeed. That was a plot point in one of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. tie-in novels back in the mid-60s. THRUSH was doing something nasty in Wisconsin and ours boys had to stop it. One car chase was ended by throwing softened handfuls of margarine that the Sheriff was smuggling. That’s when I first became aware of the fact that Badger Staters be whack. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2024, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8826 "2024-01-28T23:04:39Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > There is of course the saying “guns and butter” or “guns or butter”. Goebbels also used this “alternative” in his perhaps most famous speech, the [Sportpalast Speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportpalast_speech) 1943, where he shouted [“Do you want total war!?!?”](https://youtu.be/md6lbxsF6J0?t=75), though the English wikipedia does not mention the butter. The [Morgenthau Plan](https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100209776) also mentioned this dichotomy: Morgenthau advocated for completely dismantling Germany’s industry (guns) after its defeat to make it an agricultural (butter) harmless state. ---
**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:** [January 29, 2024, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8827 "2024-01-29T01:11:27Z")
I grew up hearing that jingle in Chicago. When I moved to California and started hearing “Bring out the Best Foods and bring out the best” it sounded really weird, like a parody or something. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8828 "2024-01-29T02:30:57Z")
They could put George Takei’s picture on the Hellman’s label and bring in the dyslexic customers (because he played the helmsman on Star Trek. Maybe I’m over-explaining this?) ---
**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:** [January 29, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8829 "2024-01-29T20:58:52Z")
Today I learned there are Kosher Truck Washes [Kosher Maintenance Wash](https://oukosher.org/blog/industrial-kosher/kosher-maintenance-wash/) [Kosher Truck Wash Directory](https://crckosher.org/truck-washes/) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8830 "2024-01-29T22:49:43Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I’m in Santa Barbara and I see both types equally here. If anything, “East Coast” butter is more likely Same thing in Los Angeles. Also, that skinnier butter is “European Style,” and I’ve found it often has a different shape. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I noticed the same thing. I guess the reason is that there’s no such thing as a [Butterbrot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterbrot) in America. Sure, there are sandwiches, but butter doesn’t seem to be a necessary item when eating bread like in Germany. I eat bread and butter a lot, but I never put butter on bread that I’m using for a sandwich. The Brits also butter the bread in their sandwiches from what I’ve seen in movies and TV. > [@markn\_1](#): > > I grew up hearing that jingle in Chicago. When I moved to California and started hearing “Bring out the Best Foods and bring out the best” it sounded really weird, like a parody or something. I grew up in L.A., so the Best Foods version sounds better to me. It “rhymes” with the “bring out the best.” Hellman’s doesn’t make sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=440) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=442)