# 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:** 450
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8991 "2024-02-18T18:40:02Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Excuse me: Ángeles. ANG-khe-les. The local pronunciation I hear is usually Ángeles / AN-he-les. I do hear the kh /x/ sound in Central Americn / Mexican / California Spanish occasionally, but most speakers have the same H sound as in English. Not a native Spanish speaker, but I did live in L.A. for many years, so I heard it many times (though I don’t think I ever heard anyone say Porciúncula). ---
**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:** [February 18, 2024, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8992 "2024-02-18T18:56:32Z")
Speaking of parodies. [The Red Chinese Air Force exercise, diet, and sex book;: Popularly known as the Sinkiang man’s diet](https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Force-exercise-diet-book/dp/B0006BOKF4). (That last bit was a reference to [The Drinking Man’s Diet](https://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Mans-Diet-Cookbook/dp/B000GPZ4QO/ref=sr_1_3?crid=GIKCFYMI3OZ&keywords=the+Drinking+Man%27s+Diet.&qid=1708282392&s=books&sprefix=the+drinking+man%27s+diet.%2Cstripbooks%2C360&sr=1-3), which also came out in 1967.) _Monocle_ was _the_ adult humor magazine before _National Lampoon_. It was explicitly political, so really far more adult. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8993 "2024-02-18T19:01:55Z")
Just like Texas is Teh- **Kh** as and Mexico is [Méh- **Kh** ee-Coh](https://youtu.be/g9N1BUV8d40?t=61) according to the old spelling and original pronunciation: **Johanna** is right. Of course what people [living there say today](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Gyg5JnSfc) is their business entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8994 "2024-02-18T19:18:18Z")
Lots of Spanish dialects retain that pronunciation of J / X / G-before-E-or-I; it’s just uncommon in Los Ángeles in my experience. Spanish speakers in Europe and elsewhere (and a minority in California) would use Johanna’s pronunciation, and quite correctly. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8995 "2024-02-18T19:25:29Z")
Correct, but nitpicking that the “kh” sound is always used for all five vocals with the “J”, not only for E-or-I (which is correct for “G”) and the “X” is no longer used except in México. Here you see the original 1605 print of El Quijote where they used the “X” instead of the current “J” before an “O” in the third line: [![](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/images/portales/miguel_de_cervantes/graf/obra/portadas/02_cervantes_portada_quijote_s.jpg) ](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/images/portales/miguel_de_cervantes/graf/obra/portadas/02_cervantes_portada_quijote_s.jpg) You can spot a couple of interesting differences in spelling back then too. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8996 "2024-02-18T19:26:31Z")
Just don’t ask Arlo Guthrie and David Letterman for the correct pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8997 "2024-02-18T19:39:58Z")
I accept your nitpick, but that’s why I didn’t put s hyphen after the J. I could have been clearer, though! X is kind of a mess: explicar & friends, all the indigenous words where it’s pronounced sh, México… I won’t even begin to pretend I know what to do with it! ---
**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:** [February 18, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8998 "2024-02-18T20:48:53Z")
Perhaps you should consider the X letter as Kh sound just as an anachronism that México has decided to keep for idiosyncratic reasons, perhaps because it is part of their name. I would rather consider it a typographic feature, not an orthographic rule, something like the S that is shown a bit like the integral symbol, like the word “compuesto” in the fourth line in the original Quijote cover page I linked to. The same S was used in English in Shakespeare’s works, btw, and has simply been suplanted by the “modern” S. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8999 "2024-02-18T22:58:14Z")
I still have that book somewhere!!! And for chocolate lovers, here is one. The name of the tree that produces the cocoa bean is _theobroma cacao_, which is Greek for “food of the gods” ---
**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:** [February 19, 2024, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9000 "2024-02-19T02:08:53Z")
[Zoozve - a quasi-moon and how it got its name](https://www.space.com/venus-quasi-moon-zoozve-radiolab-nasa) ---
**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:** [February 19, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9001 "2024-02-19T03:00:35Z")
the same for Ximena vs. Jimena … phonetically the same ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9002 "2024-02-19T06:43:36Z")
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here, and I couldn’t find anywhere that I head, so apologies in advance if I’m repeating myself. In 1954, a 26-year-old actress named Donna Lee Custer got her first big film break, being cast to play May Wynn opposite Robert Francis’ Ensign Keith. Having decided to adopt her character’s name as her stage name, she thus appeared as a character with her own name, yet not appearing as herself. Neither she nor Francis would enjoy a long career. Donna Custer seems to have been busy enough through the rest of the decade that she could have continued working, but in 1959 she decided to leave acting. She died only about three years ago. Robert Francis died in 1954 when the small plane he was piloting crashed; he had acted in just four films, all with military settings. _The Caine Mutiny_ being a favorite, happened to look him up on Wikpedia. Seeing the photo in the article, I instantly thought: ST:TOS recurring guest star! For some reason, he just seemed like he would have fit into a ST role, as some sort of ship’s officer or Federation official, if he had lived long enough. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2024, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9003 "2024-02-19T12:45:55Z")
I recently discovered the actor William Boyett. He was a busy character actor on TV in the 50s through the 70s. The odd part was that he usually played a cop. When not that, he was a military officer or park ranger. He appeared as a cop on shows like _Perry Mason_ and _Star Trek: The Next Generation._ His best-known role was as Mac, Reed and Malloy’s boss on _Adam-12_, and he also played Broderick Crawford’s second in command on _Highway Patrol._ It seems like if a show needed a cop, Boyett was there first person that called. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9004 "2024-02-19T12:54:53Z")
Is it still a thing for bit part actors in New York and Hollywood to buy their own police uniform to gain an advantage at auditions? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9005 "2024-02-19T14:45:30Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > busy character actor The busiest character actor in American movies and television was Bess Flowers, who appeared in 1053 of them. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2024, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9006 "2024-02-19T15:14:43Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > So the first appearance the OED has for _Color me xxxx_ is pretty much the time that there was a vogue for adult coloring books that veered into strange coloring instructions like _Color him naïve_. > > I don’t know if I’ve got a fact here, but I think it’s interesting and random. I’m sure the “Color me\_\_\_” idiom got a big boost from Barbra Streisand’s 1966 TV special and record album **Color Me Barbra** (It was her first TV special in color, still a relatively new thing on American TV) > **[Color Me Barbra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Me_Barbra)** > > Color Me Barbra is the seventh studio album by American singer Barbra Streisand, released on Columbia Records in 1966. The album reached number 3 on the US charts and was certified Gold by the RIAA. > The initial release coincided with Streisand's first color TV special, color still being a novelty at the time: CBS aired Color Me Barbra on March 30, 1966. > Side one > Side Two ---
**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:** [February 19, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9007 "2024-02-19T15:37:34Z")
Yeah, no doubt. Actually, the significance of Streisand is discussed in the New Republic article I linked to. But I think (again) that’s very much an American thing - I (UK) had never heard of it. j ---
**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:** [February 19, 2024, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9008 "2024-02-19T17:07:50Z")
I remember Boyette from the traffic safety short, “Last Clear Chance” shown on MST3K. He was, of course, a state trooper. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9009 "2024-02-19T22:31:30Z")
In the 1800’s a man named Samuel German came up with a new type of chocolate. A lady (Daisy Pearce) came up with a cake using his chocolate, which is the origin of German chocolate cake. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2024, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9010 "2024-02-20T02:48:09Z")
According to [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake), German Chocolate cake, using Samuel German’s chocolate (invented in 1853) was first made by a Mrs. George Clay, of Dallas, TX, in 1957. Wiki cites a 2009 history of the Baker Chocolate company. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=449) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=451)