# 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:** 104
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2061 "2025-04-01T21:33:53Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > So there are no days when Catholics are not allowed to eat beaver? They are allowed to eat beaver **tails** , which are scaly, or were considered to be scaly. I have not personally prodded a beaver tail. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2025, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2062 "2025-04-01T21:42:53Z")
Do they taste similar to molasses? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2063 "2025-04-02T11:45:44Z")
Marni Nixon was Hollywood’s great unsung singer. She dubbed the voices of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Deborah Kerr in The King and I, and Natalie Wood in West Side Story, but for most of her career, no one knew who she was. She dubbed the singing voice of child actor Margaret O’Brien in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s _The Secret Garden_ (1949) and sang the high notes Marilyn Monroe couldn’t quite reach in ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ in the 1953 movie _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_ . She sang for Natalie Wood as Maria in _West Side Story_. Before and after Hollywood, Marni was an acclaimed concert singer, a specialist in contemporary music, a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, a recitalist at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Town Hall in New York and a featured singer on one of [Leonard Bernstein’s televised young people’s concerts. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2025, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2064 "2025-04-02T11:53:46Z")
The un-named Time Traveler in H. G. Wells’ first novel, _The Time Machine_ was an optical scientist. We know this because, in the chapter about The Green Porcelain Palace 9the future museum) he ponders the moldering and decaying unread books, which makes him think of the futility of writing down scientific knowledge, and particularly of the _Philosophical Transactions_ and his “own seventeen papers on physical optics.” !!! I was stunned when I read this recently. I’d read the book many times before, but this is the first time I noticed this line. Wells’ time Traveler is the only well-known character in popular fiction who is an optical engineer, aside from Lawrence Talbot, the Wolfman.\* When you think about it, it makes sense – Wells was the first to give a complete scientific basis for the invisibility of _The Invisible Man_ (although Edward Page Mitchell had earlier explained the invibility in “The Crystal Man” (1888) as due to his having bleached his colored tissues, Wells further had his invisible man match the refractive index of his surroundings. I’m sure he knew this was technically impossible, but he inked at that difficulty.) He also not only gave his invading Martians a “heat-ray”, but gave a plausible explanation of it as a sort of infrared searchlight. And he properly observed that its rays would be invisible, and made obvious only by their effects. (every movie and comic book adaptation, though, invariably shows the rays, except for Alan Moore and Denny O’Neill’s _League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ Vol. 2, which uses the fact to great dramatic effect.) Wells was also interested in viewing-at-a-distance in “The Crystal Egg” and “The Remarkable Case of Davidson’s Eyes”. And, of course, was concerned about vision in “The Country of the Blind”. But Wells probably got into optics through the microscope, which shows up with surprising frequency in his novels (including non-fantastic novels) and essays. Because Wells got his bachelor’s degree in Zoology, and his very first book, preceding The Time Machine, was _A Text-book of Biology_ (2 vols, 1892), with illustrations by Wells himself. Charles Zona has written a very interesting web page about it: > **[More than a Few Words About the Microscope: The Microscopical Writings of...](https://www.mccrone.com/mm/the-microscopical-writings-of-h-g-wells/)** > > George Herbert Wells, better known as H.G. Wells is regarded by the general public as the “Father of Science Fiction.” He was also, in fact, an exceptionally well-trained microscopist, and \[…\] - Really. Watch the original 1941 movie if you don’t believe me. It’s even more telling that, in Curt Siodmak’s original script he wasn’t a member of the family, as they eventually made him. He was originally to have been an expert brought over from America to install and adjust the telescope you se him using on the Talbot estate. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2025, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2065 "2025-04-02T12:43:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Wells’ time Traveler is the only well-known character in popular fiction who is an optical engineer, aside from Lawrence Talbot, the Wolfman.\* Even though I’m quite familiar with both works, that never registered. If I was asked to name an optical engineer in popular fiction, the best I could have come up with would have been Billy Pilgrim. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2025, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2066 "2025-04-02T13:32:08Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > If I was asked to name an optical engineer in popular fiction, the best I could have come up with would have been Billy Pilgrim. I had to look this one up, because I honestly couldn’t remember his profession. It turns out that he’s an optometrist, not an optical engineer. (Aren’t those the same thing? you ask. Them’s fightin’ words to an opticker.) ---
**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:** [April 2, 2025, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2067 "2025-04-02T14:34:09Z")
Would Kent from Real Genius qualify as an “optical scientist”. He designed and built the mirror for the laser tracking system. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2068 "2025-04-02T14:58:43Z")
So I just skimmed the H G Wells wikipedia entry and was surprised to see that he had an affair with Gorky’s mistress. That’s up there with Arthur Ransome marrying Trotsky’s secretary. What was it with english novelists and high ranking soviet women? ---
**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:** [April 2, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2069 "2025-04-02T15:14:03Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Would Kent from Real Genius qualify as an “optical scientist”. He designed and built the mirror for the laser tracking system. Probably. About the only time that Optical Engineers in Pop Culture get remembered is if they’ve built a Death Ray or Maintained a Killer Laser or something. Think of Joseph Furst as Professor Dr. Metz in the movie **Diamonds are Forever** – the “expert in light refraction” who builds Blofeld’s space-based laser weapon.\* Or Garin in Aleksey Tolstoy’s 1927 novel _The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin_ (which was filmed twice in Russia), about an enguneer who builds a Death Ray (using a pair of hyperboloids instead of Wells’ Martians’ paraboloid. I haven’t read Tolstoy’s novel, but I think he got his math wriong – hyperboloids don’t work that way. Or a lot of other examples. Usully we don’t get the name of the inventor or technician, just the power-mad politician or billionaire who’s using it (Auric Goldfinger, Gustav Graves/Tan Sun Moon, Grand Moff Tarkin, Supreme Leader Snoke, Francisco Scaramonga). Mad Optical Engineers don’t get the credit they deserve. - The first laser was made using a diamond, muses Jimmy Dean as Willard Whyte (the Howard Hughes stand-in) in the film. He’s wrong, of course. It was a ruby. The first laser I know of that used a diamond was Rand and deShayzer’s diamond color center laser in 1982. It would’ve made a terrible beam weapon, because irs output was so low. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2025, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2070 "2025-04-02T15:50:41Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > What was it with english novelists and high ranking soviet women? I don’t think H. G. Wells was particularly picky about who he had affairs with. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2071 "2025-04-02T17:06:46Z")
For years, it was a tradition for the US President to make the first pitch of the Major League baseball season in Washington DC. First was Taft in 1910; last one to do it was Obama in 2010. Donald Trump threw the first pitch at Fenway Park (Boston) on August 18, 2006 to publicize the “Jimmy Fund”. LBJ holds the Presidential record for most hot dogs eaten at an Opening Day - four. 1953 - Eisenhower decided to play golf on Opening Day. The game was rained out, and he pitched at the re-scheduled game. 1950 - Truman threw twice - once right-handed, and once left-handed. ---
**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:** [April 5, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2072 "2025-04-05T18:07:31Z")
There is a scene in _Dr. No_ where James Bond is walking through the villain’s lair and does a double take at a painting on an easel. TIL that the painting is Goya’s _Portrait of the Duke of Wellington_ which was stolen from London’s National Gallery the year before the film was released. The replica from the film was also stolen from the set after the scene was shot and, unlike the original Goya, was never recovered. [![](https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/height/675/https://media2.salon.com/2015/11/dr_no_painting.jpg) ](https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/height/675/https://media2.salon.com/2015/11/dr_no_painting.jpg) ---
**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:** [April 5, 2025, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2073 "2025-04-05T18:26:23Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The replica from the film was also stolen from the set after the scene was shot and, unlike the original Goya, was never recovered. But do we really know that the original Goya was recovered? Perhaps the replica is now hanging in the National Gallery. ---
**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:** [April 5, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2074 "2025-04-05T18:40:10Z")
Talking of _Dr. No_, today I read it opened in cinemas on 5th of october 1962, the same day the Beatles released their first single, _Love Me Do_. Acording to today’s _The Economist_ John Higgs made this fact central to his 2022 book “Love and Let Die”. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2075 "2025-04-05T20:02:40Z")
There’s a pretty good film about the theft. [The Duke (2020 film) - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duke_(2020_film)#:~:text=The%20Duke%20is%20a%202020,of%20Wellington%20by%20Kempton%20Bunton). ---
**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:** [April 5, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2076 "2025-04-05T20:43:21Z")
Today we walked along the Sussex coast from Worthing to Littlehampton. In Rustington we stumbled across this plaque. The panel explains what is commemorated. > **[Neville Duke and E. M. Donaldson black plaque](https://openplaques.org/plaques/10763)** > > In commemoration of world air speed records set up off shore opposite this point on 7 Sep 1946 and 7 Sep 1953. > This commemorative stone honours two world air speed records. > The first record was set in 1946 by Group Captain E. M. Donaldson, DSO, AFC... > The first record was set in 1946 by Group Captain E. M. Donaldson, DSO, AFC flying a Gloster Meteor F4, type EE549 at an average speed of just over 616 miles per hour. The second record was set in 1953 by Squadron Leader Neville Duke, DSO, OBE, DFC and two bars, AFC, flying a Hawker Hunter MK3, type WB188 (RR Avon engine) at a speed of 727.63 miles per hour. It’s a fine coincidence that the air speed records were both set on September 7th, seven years apart. The date on the Memorial is September 7th 1996, but I suspect that isn’t coincidental. The Wiki for Teddy Donaldson is blessed with a a photo of him looking exactly like the sort of chap who would have broken the air speed record in the '40’s. > **[Edward Donaldson (RAF officer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Donaldson_(RAF_officer)#)** > > Air Commodore Edward "Teddy" Mortlock Donaldson, CB, CBE, DSO, AFC\* (12 February 1912 – 2 June 1992) was a Royal Air Force (RAF) flying ace of the Second World War, and a former holder of the airspeed world record. > Born in February 1912 in Negeri Sembilan, then part of British Malaya, his father C.E. Donaldson was a judge. One of four brothers, three of whom would serve as fighter pilots with the RAF and gain the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Educated in England at the King's School, Roch... [Neville Duke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Duke) had quite the war record. > Downing two Fw 190s of Schlachtgeschwader 4 in May, Duke scored his final kills on 7 September 1944, becoming the Mediterranean Theatre’s top Allied fighter ace at the age of 22. In 486 sorties and some 712 operational hours, he claimed 27 outright victories and two shared, one probable, six damaged and two shared destroyed on the ground. j ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2077 "2025-04-05T22:06:52Z")
The movie Casablanca had its first West German theatrical release in 1952. It was 25 minutes shorter than the original version because all scenes with Nazis were removed along with most references to World War II. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2078 "2025-04-06T11:02:40Z")
> [@Santos\_L\_Halper](#): > > all scenes with Nazis were removed along with most references to World War II. Must have left audiences a bit mystified. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2079 "2025-04-06T14:36:47Z")
> [@Santos\_L\_Halper](#): > > all scenes with Nazis were removed Including La Marseillaise? Damn! ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2080 "2025-04-06T15:32:05Z")
I would be interested in seeing that, if only to see how removing Nazis affected the plot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=103) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=105)