Last week I learned that a Belisha beacon is a type of lamp pole that is sometimes found at pedestrian crossings in the U.K.
Before this revelation that it wasn’t exactly 137, the Leetspeakers were saddened when it was shown to be 137 not 1337.
Quinine’s the only antidote to malaria?
No it’s not, there’s a range of currently approved treatments to malaria out there, and a range that have been dropped; quinine’s not very commonly used at all any more, due to some nasty side effects, especially if it’s used long-term at an effective dose, it’s mostly a last resort treatment.
It has been an unusually long-lasting treatment though; malaria parasites (or at least some kinds, there are several) seem to fairly consistently develop resistance to other antimalarials in about 20 years of primary use, but quinine still works well against almost all strains despite hundreds of years of global use.
Jerome Horwitz, the man who played Curly in “The Three Stooges,” was a real dog lover.
“Curly’s contract with Columbia Pictures included a clause that allowed him to bring his dogs on set. The studio limited him to no more than two dogs at any given time. This was due to Curly’s pups making random unplanned walk-on appearances during production. Especially during some of the more raucous scenes. You can still catch those surprise canine cameos in some of the earliest Three Stooges shorts.
They estimate that in his fairly short lifetime of 48 years, he rescued (fostered, rehomed) approximately five thousand dogs.
I did not know this…
A couple baseball ones I ran across recently…
Ted Williams is famously the last player to bat over .400 with a batting average of .406 in 1941. By today’s rules his batting average would actually have been .413 moving him from the 8th best season all time to 5th. The difference is Sacrifice Flies weren’t recognized from 1930-1938 and from 1940-1953. If they had been he would have been credited with the same number of hits in 8 fewer at bats.
The rule that says the home team must bat in the bottom of each inning wasn’t adopted by the MLB until 1950. Before that the home team could choose to bat first and occasionally did, especially during the dead ball era when only one or two balls were used for the entire game and it might be advantageous to bat first before the game ball got soft.
The Union submarine USS Alligator is still lost somewhere outside the Outer Banks. Unlike the more famous CSS Hunley, it never saw combat, but like the Hunley. . . did not appear to be particularly seaworthy.
Heard this one on the History Channel.
You know, the US is unique in the English-speaking world for calling Cannabis “Marijuana”. And there’s an ironic and rather sad reason for this. In the 1920’s the federal government was trying to give Cannabis a bad rep. So they called it Marijuana, to associate it with Mexico and Mexican culture.
Their other approach was kind of interesting too. They just stopped talking about it. Out of sight, out of mind.
Also, I have to tell you, that’s our approach to Communism now too. I don’t know if some of you people in other countries think we still persecute Communists. We really don’t. What we do is far worse than that. We just ignore them.
As Snopes would say: MIXTURE.
Nobody knows the etymology of calling cannabis “marijuana,” but the word begins to appear under a variety of spellings in the 19th century. As a drug, it was well known even before this particular name appeared, but mostly had a bad reputation of the Reefer Madness nonsense a half century before that movie appeared. Some of it was that it got confused with other substances, like locoweed, and some of it was indeed from prejudices against Mexicans. As with most drugs, people who were against them could say almost anything bad and be believed.
The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 (note the spelling) was the culmination of governmental action, pushed by the nutcase head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger. He was not just anti-drug but anti-user, especially minorities like black jazzmen, a prime user group. Naturally he used racial enmity to help push another Prohibition, which he was very much for. Even so, today’s scholars tend to point at pulp paper magnates fighting the use of cheaper hemp as the real impetus for the bill. Maybe. No question that having two powerful groups against and no organized group for will get most any bill through Congress.
NPR has a good article, The Mysterious History Of ‘Marijuana’, trying to sort through the complications. It’s a good “everything you know is wrong” piece, which is the best kind of history.
The History Channel is sometimes fun, but I double- and triple-check anything said on it before I repeat it.
Well, not so much the History Channel this time. But I read something interesting in a dictionary in a bookstore (you do remember bookstores, don’t you 
). And I guess I could have bought the book. But I already got all the information out of it I wanted. So why would I have wanted to do that 
?
Anyways, there is some very important etiquette that comes into play when, say, just sending a letter to a monarch (the queen of England being a good example, of course). You NEVER address the envelope to the monarch themselves. Don’t ever do that. You properly address it to the monarch’s social secretary, and she handles it accordingly.
Also, when addressing the letter, the salutation should read ‘May it please your majesty:’. I don’t know what happens, if you don’t follow this strict protocol.
Also, don’t many European monarchs have email now? How on earth do handle that, then?
The social secretary re-inscribes it on parchment and passes it on if it passes muster.
Now that’s an interesting random fact… there are people who go to a bookstore and read dictionaries.
Store clerk to another: "That guy’s been here every day for a month, engrossed in the same huge book. On his way out, I told him to have a good day, and he laughed “I will, I’m halfway through the F’s!'”
Doubtless with an official quill from the Royal Goose Flock.
Doesn’t the British Crown own all swans in the UK? I bet they make their quills from swan feathers…
It’s about 50/50 in the UK, in my experience. Both names are commonly used.
Now he’s up to the N’s. Yesterday, he learned next to nothing.
No.
Where should I send my letter?
If you want to write a letter to The Queen, send it to this address:
Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
London
SW1A 1AA
@Exapno_Mapcase No (I say ). The part on etiquette clearly said that is the proper way to address royalty, in general at least.
Now, the UK I don’t know. Are they becoming more modern? Because I always had the impression (just impression ) that the British royal family was the royal family that was typically most resistant to change. But like the fable said, to survive, you sometimes have to blow in the wind, like the subtle reed (not like the mighty oak ).
At least the Windsors relaxed the restriction on addressing the Monarch while wearing spectacles. This was lèse-majesté because it was as if peering through a lens at the king like a specimen.
Ministers had to wear quick-release styles like pince nez when consulting with the sovereign to read maps and documents. Snobby bounder Joseph Chamberlain would always wear a monocle in his portraits to show off his need to do this.
Moderating
This is a thread for interesting random facts. Not for interesting random nonsense you’ve made up. You are on notice that if you add another fake fact you will be told to permanently leave this thread.