# 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:** 129
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2561 "2025-05-30T22:10:44Z")
> [@motu](#): > > TIL That the Chinese gooseberry was not renamed for marketing reasons but a US importer advised his New Zealand supplier to rename the fruit because he felt with the name gooseberry would maker it harder to get out quarantine. European gooseberries grow closer to the soil than Kiwifruit and could come onto contact with Anthrax bacteria infected soil. Eventually, all NZ exporters started using the new name. Kiwis (aka Chinese Gooseberries) are not even related to gooseberries. They grow on very large vines with big fuzzy leaves, and are from China. The fruit may vaguely resemble giant gooseberries if you squint. Gooseberries are spiny shrubs related to currants. Not the currants you get in the store, because currants, like gooseberries, are hosts to White Pine Blister Rust, which is a killer of merchantable pine. Because of this, some states ban growing black currants in particular (there are also red currants, usually permitted). Because of all this, the currants in stores are not currants at all, but are tiny raisins from a tiny variety of grape called Corinthian. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2562 "2025-05-31T00:55:29Z")
I’ve got one for you. The word _currant_ itself was originally coined for those very same Corinthian raisins. Corinth \> currant, get it? The name was only secondarily applied to _Ribes_ spp., which are ironically now called the “true currants.” ---
**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, 2025, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2563 "2025-05-31T01:04:36Z")
Didn’t Ricardo Montalbán once talk about those rich Corinthian raisins? ---
**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:** [May 31, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2564 "2025-05-31T01:20:59Z")
Whenever I hear “Corinthian”, I hear it as the third thing after “Doric” and “Ionic”. I do not believe that the Corinthian capital typically included currant leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2565 "2025-05-31T06:29:34Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Ribes I did not know that. Hence, I guess, [“Ribena”](https://www.suntoryoceania.com/brand/non-alcohol/ribena/) ---
**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, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2566 "2025-05-31T15:10:36Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Gooseberries are spiny shrubs related to currants. Not the currants you get in the store, because currants, like gooseberries, are hosts to White Pine Blister Rust, which is a killer of merchantable pine. Because of this, some states ban growing black currants in particular (there are also red currants, usually permitted). Because of all this, the currants in stores are not currants at all, but are tiny raisins from a tiny variety of grape called Corinthian. That explains that! I’d heard somewhere that currants were a variety of grape, but my mom, an expert on all sorts of berries, assured me that that was not the case, and that the currants she used for jams were nothing at all like grapes. On the Tyler’s grandson one, one a bit closer to home: The school I teach at was founded in 1890, which makes it a very old school indeed, by American standards. This year, one of our counselors retired, after 46 years of service in various forms to the school. The principal pointed out that this meant that she’d been working for the school for over a third of its existence. When she started, there were still nuns teaching at the school, and they’re famous both for their longevity and for working long past when most folks would retire, so it probably wouldn’t take too many links to get back to the school’s founding. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2567 "2025-05-31T21:06:32Z")
Thank you! ---
**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:** [June 2, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2568 "2025-06-02T18:39:41Z")
Wikipedia’s “Did you know” section today mentions that Chicago’s tornado sirens have been described as creepier than actual tornados. After listening to it, I have to agree. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/LnkMSmLc6mM/hqdefault.jpg "Tornado Sirens in Downtown Chicago! (Original Video Recording)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnkMSmLc6mM) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2569 "2025-06-02T19:00:48Z")
In all the years I lived in Chicago I can’t remember ever hearing that, But I may have just wiped it from my memory. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2570 "2025-06-02T22:47:22Z")
TIL (though wasn’t surprised) in 1918 a movement of war-fevered hyper-patriotism flared up in Wisconsin. Reactionary against the reluctance among its German-American, Socialist, and pacifist elements, it included incidents of violence against Wisconsin citizens deemed not in line with the national mood. [![](https://doughboy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sedition-Map.jpg) ](https://doughboy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sedition-Map.jpg) ---
**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:** [June 3, 2025, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2571 "2025-06-03T02:35:40Z")
Sounds like something from a “Siren Head” video. ---
**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:** [June 3, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2572 "2025-06-03T02:39:27Z")
I was thinking the wails the US Army used to scare the NVA. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2573 "2025-06-04T02:02:54Z")
In a 1953 episode of _This is Your Life_, Hanna Bloch Kohner became the first Holocaust survivor to be interviewed on U.S. national TV. She was “presented as grateful for her new home in the United States—a country that had, in fact, denied her refuge before the war…note that the word ‘Holocaust’ is never heard” during the episode. > **[TIYLv8.pdf](https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/TIYLv8.pdf)** > > 2.45 MB This article puts the appearance in context of both Hollywood’s and the U.S. government’s pre-and-post-war approach to the Holocaust. The episode itself is on YT. I found it uncomfortable viewing primarily owing to the intrusive - and sickeningly inappropriate - plugs for the show’s sponsors (and because I got to know Hanna and her husband Walter not long before their deaths). ---
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2574 "2025-06-04T02:40:42Z")
If gravity acts like a force, then wouldn’t any objects in free-fall continue to experience the same force they feel at rest. If you were in free-fall and you tried to push something away from the direction of the fall, wouldn’t it “weigh” as much as if you were trying to pick it up off the ground? That’s not what we observe, however. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2575 "2025-06-04T22:31:35Z")
A Philadelphia radio DJ coined the term “blue-eyed soul” in 1964, initially to describe the Righteous Brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2576 "2025-06-04T22:36:55Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > After listening to it, I have to agree. Dude, WTF!? Who thought that was a good thing to play at a time of impending doom? ---
**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:** [June 4, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2577 "2025-06-04T22:41:39Z")
Because a big city has a lot of sirens and alarms during the course of a normal day, something like a tornado warning has to be distinctive (AKA “weird”) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2578 "2025-06-04T22:54:23Z")
Yeah, I guess that makes sense but it does sound weird and gloomy. ---
**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:** [June 4, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2579 "2025-06-04T23:03:54Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > In a 1953 episode of _This is Your Life_, Hanna Bloch Kohner became the first Holocaust survivor to be interviewed on U.S. national TV. She was “presented as grateful for her new home in the United States—a country that had, in fact, denied her refuge before the war…note that the word ‘Holocaust’ is never heard” during the episode. Holocaust was not used at that time. It didn’t develop as a term until the late 60s > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Holocaust%2B&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3)** > > Google Ngrams: Holocaust, 1800-2022 ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2580 "2025-06-05T12:57:26Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > A Philadelphia radio DJ coined the term “blue-eyed soul” in 1964, initially to describe the Righteous Brothers. In other words, “They have that black sound, but it’s OK for all you racists out there, because they’re white”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=128) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=130)