# 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:** 493
**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:** [July 4, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9853 "2024-07-04T20:48:23Z")
> [@motu](#): > > I just don’t understand how any of my posts could have been interpreted as denying the chains and shackles were there. > [@motu](#): > > [Technically, she’s wearing a **broken** shackle and chains to symbolize American freedom from the European monarchies and oppression that migrants were leaving.] > > Not according to the [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/abolition.htm) I didn’t happen to look back to Exapno’s original, and thought you had emphasized “broken,” which is why I thought you were saying it wasn’t broken. But if you had posted a quote instead of a bald link, that would have made your point clearer. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9854 "2024-07-05T14:32:51Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Presumably we are intended to infer that it was formerly attached to the bolts sunk into the base. More damage left behind by the Ghostbusters. The Mayor was right to lock them up. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9855 "2024-07-05T15:14:26Z")
TIL that John Ratzenberger, who played Cliff Clavin on _Cheers_, was a member of the stage-building crew at Woodstock. ---
**Author:** ![WalterBishop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@WalterBishop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WalterBishop)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9856 "2024-07-05T16:00:54Z")
The phrase _“Revenge is a dish best served cold”_ was coined in Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn. Earlier versions of the phrase exist, but the specific wording we’re all familiar with comes from Star Trek. ---
**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:** [July 5, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9857 "2024-07-05T16:16:14Z")
The [Klingon Wiki](https://klingon.wiki/En/Revenge) says that the phrase appeared before TWOK in the 1967 movie _Death Rides a Horse_ and in the 1969 novel _The Godfather_. I don’t know if that’s true. It was first translated into actual Klingon in 1996 by Marc Okrand, the creator of the Klingon language. He rendered it as _bortaS bIr jablu’DI’ reH QaQqu’ nay’_, literally “When one serves cold revenge, the dish is very good.” ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9858 "2024-07-05T16:43:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Man, I got up to 45 km per hour once on my bike (on a steep hill), and it was terrifying. In college, I once participated in an [MS 150 bike tour](https://events.nationalmssociety.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1232&language=en) from Houston to Austin. At one point in the ride, there was a very long, perfectly straight downhill section of two-lane highway in the hill country of Texas, with what appeared to be an equally long uphill climb on the other side. I therefore endeavored to pick up as much speed as possible by pedaling as hard as I could in top gear a good portion of the way downhill. At some point I realized I was going much, much faster than I had counted on and was going downhill at a terrifyingly high speed, but at that point I was concentrating too hard on maintaining control and not hitting a bump to look down at my speedometer. I then made it more than halfway up the other hill before I slowed down. My digital speedometer did record my maximum speed though. I hit **63 mph**! 😱 I shudder to this day what the consequences would have been if I’d fallen. 😬 ---
**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:** [July 5, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9859 "2024-07-05T17:01:23Z")
After peddling up to the top of Emigration Canyon outside Salt Lake City (to prove to myself that I could do it), I turned around and let gravity take over. I don’t know how fast I was going, because I had no speedometer, but it was scary fast. I slowed down and took the rest of the trip in stages. > [@](#): > > ## Cycling[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emigration_Canyon,_Utah&action=edit§ion=4)] > > Emigration Canyon is one of the most accessible canyon rides from Salt Lake City. With a length of 7.7 miles and an average grade of 5 percent, there are approximately 1,300 feet of elevation gain from the mouth to the top, which cyclists often refer to as “Little Mountain”. There is a good shoulder to ride in, and locals are used to bicycling traffic. There are restrooms located at the bottom of the canyon and the top, but these may be closed during the winter months. > **[Emigration Canyon, Utah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_Canyon,_Utah)** > > Emigration Canyon is a city and canyon in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, located east of Salt Lake City in the Wasatch Range. Beginning at the southern end of the University of Utah, the canyon itself heads east and northeast between Salt Lake City and Morgan County. The boundaries of the metro township do not extend to the county line, nor do they encompass all of Emigration Canyon, as parts of it are within Salt Lake City. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,466. > A portion of... ---
**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:** [July 5, 2024, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9860 "2024-07-05T17:40:14Z")
> [@motu](#): > > I just don’t understand how any of my posts could have been interpreted as denying the chains and shackles were there. It seems to me the problem some people had with your posts is that you said that she was **wearing** a shackle and chains. There is a broken chain on the base, but there is no indication that Lady Liberty was herself shackled by them or “wearing” them. ---
**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:** [July 5, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9861 "2024-07-05T20:30:50Z")
I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole (thanks to something up thread) and ended up reading about [Iris Love](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Love). A member of the Gugenheim clan and came across not one but two interesting facts: -1. She was the partner of gossip columnist Liz Smith for 15 yeas. (I didn’t even know that Liz Smith was on that team.) -2. She was a trained archealogist who lead diggings in several places for temples of Aphrodite. I’m sure her last name had nothing to do with that. 😉 She died in 2020 from the Covid. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2024, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9862 "2024-07-06T04:24:32Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > (I didn’t even know that Liz Smith was on that team.) I believe that a fair number of people are not on a “team” but have some degree of flexibility and may experience changes in preference over the course of a lifetime. If Kinsey is to be believed, the strict “team” members may well be in the minority and the overwhelming prevalence of a particular type is largely a cultural affect.        This does make the most avid advocates of “I was born this way” sowewhat uncomfortable, but the reality is that the person one forms their strongest intimate attachment to is the part that is not a matter of choice, and that is what we should be ok with. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9863 "2024-07-06T13:17:05Z")
I went down a youtube rabbit hole (hah). I started with watching terrier packs kill rats on farms in England, which brought up recommended videos of an animal damage management guy using a ferret and greyhounds to exterminate a colony of rabbits which were honeycombing a bank underneath a parking lot. It was astounding just how fast the greyhounds were. This brought up some videos whose accompanying text was foreign to me (Farsi? not sure). Apparently there’s a sport in the middle east where men bring their greyhounds, salukis, Afghans, etc., to a vast flat desert and release a very fast antelope with a five second lead and the whole pack of sight hounds then gives chase. The dog owners then run to their trucks, jeeps and Land Rovers and keep up with the pack of racing dogs. In the video I watched, the race went on for a few minutes and the antelope got clean away. But man, those dogs are freaking fast. The truck carrying the camera kept up with the lead dogs and the greyhounds just run full tilt with their spines flexing up and down until you think they couldn’t bear it. But at the end of the race all the dogs were panting and happy and caressed and they looked like they wanted to start all over again. So there’s a whole sport of desert greyhound racing with a live lure somewhere in the middle east (maybe it was Arabia?) that I had never heard of before. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9864 "2024-07-06T17:01:09Z")
The rat hunting videos I’ve watched feature a guy who rescued an American mink from a fur farm and raised it to work with his dogs to exterminate rats. The mink can get at any rats in their holes and the dogs chase down any rats that run. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9865 "2024-07-06T17:39:19Z")
There is a decaying dilapidated building not far from us on Route 1 i Saugus MA. The building has been condemned but not torn down. It seems to have been that way forever. Someone just but up a very neat, very new sign on it reading **Prada Saugus** [(20+) Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=872246801606811&set=pcb.872248884939936) ---
**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:** [July 7, 2024, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9866 "2024-07-07T13:16:38Z")
My wife and I are going to the Saugus Iron Works today! ---
**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:** [July 7, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9867 "2024-07-07T19:10:08Z")
I hope you enjoy it! They just finished rebuilding the furnace proper, and he museum and buildings ought to be open now. And think that when it was running, the dammed up Saugus River pretty much covered Route one north of Walnut Street. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9868 "2024-07-07T22:59:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Someone just but up a very neat, very new sign on it reading > > **Prada Saugus** An homage to Prada Marfa? ---
**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:** [July 8, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9869 "2024-07-08T02:16:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > They just finished rebuilding the furnace proper, and he museum and buildings ought to be open now. Everybody loves Saugus, but no one wants to watch it being made. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2024, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9870 "2024-07-08T13:05:58Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Everybody loves Saugus Not everybody. Jonathan Harr, in his book **a Civil Action** (the one about chemical contamination of drinking water in Woburn, MA that got turned into a movie starring John Travolta back in 1998) called Saugus “A grubby blue-collar town” Hollywood seems to like Saugus, through. They filmed scenes here for **Ted** and **Grown-ups II**. **The Holdovers** shot scenes in The Continental restaurant here. IMDB gives a list of other films that shot scenes locally (although it’s possible that some are in Saugus, CA): > **[Advanced search](https://m.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=saugus,%20massachusetts,%20usa)** See also here > **[Adam Sandler fever at Stackpole Field in Saugus](https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/saugus-advertiser/2012/05/30/adam-sandler-fever-at-stackpole/40693129007/)** > > Stackpole Field was abuzz with residents, fans, and rubberneckers just hoping to catch a glimpse of the Hollywood activity that descended upon town last Friday for the filming of “Grown Ups 2,” the s… and here > **[Saugus, Massachusetts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saugus,_Massachusetts)** > > Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron works in North America. > Native Americans inhabited the area around Saugus for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers in the 1620s. At the time of European arrival, the Naumkeag, also known as Pawtucket, under the leadership of Montowampate were based near present-day Saugus and con... ---
**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:** [July 8, 2024, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9871 "2024-07-08T20:08:32Z")
Ritalin is older than I am. It was first synthesised in 1944 by Leandro Panizzon, and named for his wife Rita. Approved for medical use in the US in 1955 and launched in 1957. I had no idea it was that old. Source: [Methylphenidate - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylphenidate) Even more surprising (to me): > The first clear description of ADHD is credited to [George Still](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Still) in 1902 during a series of lectures he gave to the Royal College of Physicians of London. Source: [Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder) j ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9872 "2024-07-09T10:41:27Z")
I just found out that the lonely composer seen in Hitchcock’s film _Rear Window_ was Ross Bagdasarian - a.k.a. David Seville, the guy who brought us the Chipmunks and the “Witch Doctor” song. And also that he and author William Saroyan were cousins. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=492) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=494)