# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785 "2024-07-25T15:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 100
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1981 "2025-03-26T18:42:31Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > “That’ll do, pig.” - James Cromwell Quote from Babe, or L.A. Confidential? 😉 ---
**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:** [March 26, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1982 "2025-03-26T18:44:06Z")
_The Queen_ ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1983 "2025-03-26T19:39:50Z")
It’s theorized that the reason that San Francisco became a Mecca for LGBTQ+ people and the politically rebellious is that sailors and soldiers who were dishonorably discharged during WWII and afterwards were disembarked at the port there. > **[How The U.S. Military Built San Francisco's LBGTQ+ Legacy](https://time.com/6990773/military-san-franciscos-lbgtq-community/)** > > Many LGBTQ+ veterans settled in the city as it was a common point of disembarkation and a place of gender nonconformity. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1984 "2025-03-27T11:49:12Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > A third one, if you meant Oliver Cromwell: > > [Thomas Cromwell - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cromwell) He’s the subject of the PBS series _Wolf Hall_, running now, and well worth the watch. Thomas Cromwell was certainly amoral in some ways, but the series makes him human and relatable. My mental picture of CRomwell was shaped by Leo McKern’s portrayal of him in the movie version of **A Man for All Seasons** , in which he’s amoral and not so relatable – a political apparatchik who “does what’s necessary”. He acts as lawyer at the end, and it’s disconcerting to see Rumpole almost lose his case, and only win it because his witness perjured himself at his insistence. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1985 "2025-03-27T19:01:51Z")
I haven’t seen any of theses series, but I judge Thomas Cromwell by the infos I learned from TV documentaries about Henry VIII and his times. They described his leading role in the sham trial for adultery against Anne Boleyn and her alleged lovers (among them her brother), and in the dissolution and outright plundering of the Catholic monasteries, which went hand in hand with persecution of Catholics and monks and nuns especially, and the destruction of invaluable pieces of literature and art. That was enough to convince me that he was an asshole. That he was an apparatchik and did his deeds at his desk doesn’t make it better. “Schreibtischtäter” (desk perpetrators) as we call them in Germany are the worst, see also Adolf Eichmann. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1986 "2025-03-27T19:15:58Z")
Wolf Hall is absolutely brilliant television… worth a watch as it’s considered a very accurate depiction of the time (the first season especially). ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1987 "2025-03-27T19:27:06Z")
Wolf Hall may be brilliant TV, but here’s a British historian’s summary: "the historian in me has revolted – I have had enough. Thomas Cromwell is portrayed as an angelic family man: calm, measured, patient, prudent, sage, self-effacing, softly-spoken; no matter he’s also a wily, calculating, sycophantic, bullying, side-kicking, yes-man operator. Most of the other characters look like figures from a sub-Scorsese Mafia movie. . . In sum historically-speaking it is a travesty of a highly complex and nuanced period " > **[A Historical Perspective on ‘Wolf Hall’: Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More...](https://unireadinghistory.com/2015/02/12/a-historical-perspective-on-wolf-hall-thomas-cromwell-and-thomas-more-revisited/)** > > Rebecca Rist, Professor in Medieval History, gives her thoughts on the BBC’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.  Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell. Credit: BBC No doubt many of us h… ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1988 "2025-03-27T20:10:51Z")
I chose my words carefully: an accurate depiction of the time. The interpretation of the characters, perhaps not so much. Though you could argue you can’t have one without the other. Since this is an interesting facts thread I will post a related fact: Thomas Cromwell’s daughters were believed to have died from Sweating Sickness, as was Henry VIII’s older brother Arthur who would have otherwise inherited the throne. Nobody knows what Sweating Sickness was. Some consider it to have been a virus passed to humans from a bat such as hantavirus, though other theories exist including the thought that it was mass anthrax poisoning from the use of raw wool or infected animal carcasses. It was noted for its mortality rate, estimated at 30%-50%, and for its ferocity. You could start feeling ill before dinner and be dead by morning. The only solace was that if you survived for 24 hours, you would usually live. Thomas Cromwell himself survived three bouts. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1989 "2025-03-27T20:38:11Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > his leading role in the sham trial for adultery against Anne Boleyn and her alleged lovers (among them her brother), and in the dissolution and outright plundering of the Catholic monasteries, which went hand in hand with persecution of Catholics and monks and nuns especially, and the destruction of invaluable pieces of literature and art. That was enough to convince me that he was an asshole. That he was an apparatchik and did his deeds at his desk doesn’t make it better. “Schreibtischtäter” (desk perpetrators) as we call them in Germany are the worst, see also Adolf Eichmann. Arranging show trials is a risky business if Great Leader decides he needs to blame “out of control”, “traitorous” underlings for them, as [Genrikh Yagoda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrikh_Yagoda) and [Nikolai Yezhov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov) found out. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1990 "2025-03-27T20:50:41Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Thomas Cromwell’s daughters were believed to have died from Sweating Sickness, as was Henry VIII’s older brother Arthur who would have otherwise inherited the throne. Nobody knows what Sweating Sickness was. Some consider it to have been a virus passed to humans from a bat such as hantavirus, though other theories exist including the thought that it was mass anthrax poisoning from the use of raw wool or infected animal carcasses. > > It was noted for its mortality rate, estimated at 30%-50%, and for its ferocity. You could start feeling ill before dinner and be dead by morning. The only solace was that if you survived for 24 hours, you would usually live. Thomas Cromwell himself survived three bouts. That sounds to me more like assassination via poison, especially if it predominately affected royals and those close to them. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1991 "2025-03-27T20:55:30Z")
Any candidates for what poisons match the symptoms? ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1992 "2025-03-27T21:12:05Z")
Aconite would be my guess: > **[Aconitine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconitine)** > > ethanol: 35 mg/mL > Aconitine is an alkaloid toxin produced by various plant species belonging to the genus Aconitum (family Ranunculaceae), commonly known by the names wolfsbane and monkshood. Aconitine is notorious for its toxic properties. > Biologically active isolates from Aconitum and Delphinium plants are classified as norditerpenoid alkaloids, which are further subdivided based on the presence or absence of the C18 carbon. Aconitine is a C19-norditerpenoid, based on its presence of this C18... From the article > According to a review of different reports of aconite poisoning in humans, the following clinical features were observed:[[21]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconitine#cite_note-pmid19514874-21) > > - Neurological: [paresthesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paresthesia) and numbness of face, [perioral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perioral) area and four limbs; muscle weakness in four limbs > - Cardiovascular: [hypotension](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotension), [palpitations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palpitations), chest pain, [bradycardia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradycardia), [sinus tachycardia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinus_tachycardia), ventricular ectopics and other arrhythmias, ventricular arrhythmias, and [junctional rhythm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junctional_rhythm) > - Gastrointestinal: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea > - Others: dizziness, [hyperventilation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperventilation), sweating, difficulty breathing, confusion, headache, and [lacrimation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrimation) Compare this with what **Fiendish\_Astronaut** wrote: > [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > It was noted for its mortality rate, estimated at 30%-50%, and for its ferocity. You could start feeling ill before dinner and be dead by morning. The only solace was that if you survived for 24 hours, you would usually live. IANAToxicologist, of course. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1993 "2025-03-27T21:12:21Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > A third one, if you meant Oliver Cromwell: Fourth one if you include his incompetent son Richard “Tumbledown Dick” Cromwell. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1994 "2025-03-27T21:41:52Z")
Symptoms of Sweating Sickness (according to a 16th century physician called John Caius) (copied from [Sweating sickness | Description, Symptoms, Treatment, & History | Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/science/sweating-sickness)) > The illness began with rigors, headache, giddiness, and severe prostration. After one to three hours, violent, drenching sweat came on, accompanied by severe headache, delirium, and rapid pulse. Death might occur from 3 to 18 hours after the first onset of symptoms; if the patient survived for 24 hours, recovery was usually complete. Occasionally there was a vesicular rash. Immunity was not conferred by an attack, and it was not unusual for patients to have several attacks. Each epidemic lasted for only a few weeks in any particular locality. Because it killed tens of thousands of people it is unlikely this was merely used as a poison to murder someone, but if a poison was responsible then it’s possible; however that would mean somebody had a good understanding of it which doesn’t seem to be the case. But a victim not gaining immunity after infection also seems unusual to me. I’ve no idea if that’s likely with a virus-like disease. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1995 "2025-03-27T21:49:13Z")
I am not claiming all cases of Sweating Sickness were aconite poisoning, but as **Chronos** has observed, in some politically interesting cases Sweating Sickness may have been used as a smokescreen for poisoning. And the symptoms look similar enough. Medicine back then was still in the age of blood-letting. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1996 "2025-03-27T21:52:08Z")
A fair point. Cromwell getting “infected” three times is certainly suspicious, especially with the mortality rate as it was. Just think how different history would be had Arthur not succumbed to whatever it was. Probably no (or a very different) Protestant Reformation for one. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1997 "2025-03-27T22:39:22Z")
Along those lines, one may wonder how different history might have been had the leech who treated Richard the Lionheart’s wound at [Châlus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England#Death) been a tad more careful. Richard had no legitimate offspring, and at one point was trying to groom his nephew [Arthur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_I,_Duke_of_Brittany) to succeed him. Or perhaps not: Arthur’s mother despised the English and was deeply suspicious of Richard, and conspired to keep Arthur on the move and out of his uncle’s hands. At some point, even if Richard had lived, he may very well have given up and named John his heir. (Random fact to avoid a complete hijack: Richard’s wife, [Berengaria of Navarre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berengaria_of_Navarre), is the only English queen who never set foot in England). ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1998 "2025-03-27T23:26:46Z")
And a pathogen that kills its host within hours would have a very difficult time spreading. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1999 "2025-03-27T23:56:09Z")
That may (or not) be the reason why sweating sickness is not around anymore. So it is not even wrong: it is undecidable. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2000 "2025-03-28T00:02:33Z")
Not if it didn’t spread person to person. Or if it spread asymptomatically. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=99) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=101)