# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674>\
**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:** 479

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**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:** [May 29, 2024, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9573 "2024-05-29T05:54:12Z")

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The fact that the Vice Presidency could be, and frequently was, vacant was surprising news to me when I first learned it.

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9574 "2024-05-29T16:20:57Z")

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That Seymour Hersh is considered one of the sources for this made me switch from “maybe” to “probably not”. Also that the supposed date of the marriage is weirdly divergent is another point against.

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**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:** [May 29, 2024, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9575 "2024-05-29T18:27:57Z")

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You’ll see around the internet that the first bike lane in America was in Davis, CA, in 1967.

That’s true if you limit the category to modern, painted-off bike lanes.

The real first bike lane was the 5.5 mile lane that was a part of Brooklyn’s Ocean Parkway in 1896. A 9 mile wooden tollway from Pasadena to Los Angeles appeared the next year.

The Good Road Movement was started by bicyclists. Bike lanes were supposed to be built in every major city. The funding never arrived and cars took over. Took seven decades for the bikers to fight back.

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**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9576 "2024-05-29T19:10:15Z")

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Yep, cycling was big in the 1890s. Someone successfully ran for [mayor of Chicago in 1897](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/136.html) on the slogan “Not a champion cyclist, but the cyclist’s champion.”

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**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9577 "2024-05-30T13:29:22Z")

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Buchanan was the only U.S. President to never marry. As a young man he did get engaged, but his fiancee passed away before the wedding. There were rumors during his life that he gay, based in part on his intense friendship with William Rufus King.

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**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9578 "2024-05-30T13:31:04Z")

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Bicycle racing was also one of the most popular spectator sports of the time. The most successful bicycle athlete of the era was an African American, Major Taylor:

[Major Taylor - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Taylor)

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9579 "2024-05-30T13:32:18Z")

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As stated above, King County, WA was named for William Rufus King. On February 24, 1986, it was [officially renamed](https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/elected/executive/equity-social-justice/mlk/other-resources/motion-6461.aspx) King County after Martin Luther King Jr.

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9580 "2024-05-30T17:59:52Z")

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I’ll bet it cost them a lot to redo all the office stationery

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9581 "2024-05-30T18:15:01Z")

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I remember when they pulled down the Kingdome sign and replaced it with a Kingdome sign.

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9582 "2024-05-30T18:40:28Z")

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The English word “robe” has the same etymological root as the word “rob” (because garments were often taken as spoils of war).

> **[robe - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/robe#Etymology)**

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9583 "2024-05-30T18:54:13Z")

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I was skeptical of this, since anyone can edit Wiktionary, but the OED agrees with this etymology:

> [robe] \< Old French roube, Old French, Middle French reube, Anglo-Norman and Old French robbe, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French, French robe (feminine) monk’s habit (_c_ 1160), set of clothes made from the same fabric, outfit comprising a number of pieces (both _c_ 1165), woman’s outer garment with sleeves, covering the body down to the feet (1165–70), clothing (1212 in Anglo-Norman), livery (1283–1307), pelt or plumage of certain (especially colourful) animals (_c_ 1640), the legal profession (1642), apparently a narrowed sense of Old French reube, roube, Anglo-Norman and Old French robbe, robe booty, spoils of war (in Anglo-Norman apparently especially clothing), movable goods belonging to an individual (both mid 12th cent.), probably ultimately a borrowing of the Germanic base of Old High German rauba (feminine) booty, spoils, looted clothing \< the same base as [reave _v.1_](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/reave_v1?tab=meaning_and_use#26500071)(compare [reif _n._](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/reif_n?tab=meaning_and_use#26248911) and masculine Germanic forms cited at that entry).

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9584 "2024-05-30T19:32:20Z")

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> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> I was skeptical of this, since anyone can edit Wiktionary, but the OED agrees with this etymology

I was skeptical of this too when I heard it on the “Something Rhymes With Purple” podcast!

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9585 "2024-05-30T23:36:19Z")

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Menstruation engenders (I see what I did there) jokes because it starts with “men”. But Etymonline says, "past-participle stem of Late Latin _menstruare_, from _menstruus_ “monthly” (from _mensis_ “month;” see moon plus ation. Old English equivalent was monaðblot “month-blood.” And month is related to moon as far back as Proto-Indo-European.

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**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:** [May 30, 2024, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9586 "2024-05-30T23:40:38Z")

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> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Menstruation engenders (I see what I did there) jokes because it starts with “men”.

I honestly never had a second thought about that, and this is the first time it came to my attention.

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**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:** [May 31, 2024, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9587 "2024-05-31T00:25:42Z")

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“Snot” and “snack” are cognates.

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**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:** [May 31, 2024, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9588 "2024-05-31T00:40:02Z")

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I think that the association between menstruation and the Moon is universal to all human cultures. I learned recently that the Ojibwe refer to it as a woman’s “moon time”.

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**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2024, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9589 "2024-05-31T00:41:34Z")

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> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> I honestly never had a second thought about that, and this is the first time it came to my attention

Ditto, in 6+ decades. Never once heard a joke about that.

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**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:** [May 31, 2024, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9590 "2024-05-31T01:06:08Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> “Snot” and “snack” are cognates.

Well, the OED doesn’t seem to support that one. Where did you hear it?

Snot:

> Middle English snotte or snot (compare Old English gesnot), = Frisian snotte, snot, Middle Dutchsnotte (Dutch snot), Middle Low German (and Low German) snotte, snot (hence Danish snot, †snaat, snøt), in sense [2](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/snot_n?tab=meaning_and_use#21855377); compare also Low German snut, Middle High German snuz (German dialect schnutz). The stem is related by ablaut to that of [snite _v._](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/snite_v?tab=meaning_and_use#22175078)

Snack:

> Of doubtful origin: compare Middle Dutch or Flemish snacken to snap (of a dog), Norwegian dialect snaka to snatch (of animals). The Low German and Dutch snakken (German dialect schnakken) to gasp, desire, etc., to talk or chatter, which agree in form, do not correspond in sense.

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**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:** [May 31, 2024, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9591 "2024-05-31T01:11:59Z")

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I wonder if female astronomers so inclined could mark which crater the terminator is crossing when it’s that time.

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**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2024, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9592 "2024-05-31T01:28:46Z")

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> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> > [@EinsteinsHund](#):
> >
> > I honestly never had a second thought about that, and this is the first time it came to my attention
> 
> Ditto, in 6+ decades. Never once heard a joke about that.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ly4vt/all\_of\_womens\_problems\_begin\_with\_men/?rdt=35198](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ly4vt/all_of_womens_problems_begin_with_men/?rdt=35198)  
It’s from 12 years ago and says “Menstruation, menopause, mental breakdowns…notice how all of women’s problems begin with men”  
I know I saw the line 20+ years ago on postcards and here are ecards with it too: [Menstruation MENopause MENtal Breakdown Notice how all of women's problems begin with men... | Confession Ecard](https://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/menstruation-menopause-mental-breakdown-notice-how-all-of-womens-problems-begin-with-men--58fc4/)  
Am I being whooshed here?

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