# 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:** 131
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2601 "2025-06-05T16:59:15Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > “Oh a GERMAN male, then it will be child’s play - have a good hike” 😂 Would have been the best answer. ---
**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 5, 2025, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2602 "2025-06-05T17:37:33Z")
Germans are Ok. Years ago I had a job dealing with every possible nationality as they emerged from long, long airplane rides. If _in vino veritas_ is true, _in circadian dysrhythmia veritas_ is an even stronger paint-stripper to reveal the true colors. The Germans were brusque but not nasty: they just wanted the transaction completed efficiently. Other nationalities that I won’t name somehow thought no business can be conducted without also reinforcing the servility of the other. (Oh, I will name them: French and rich Californians) ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2603 "2025-06-05T17:39:02Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Yeah, those fuckers had all kinds of euphemisms for the crimes they did, to cover them up. And they were cynical about it, see “Arbeit macht frei”. It’s as old as humanity. In the mid 19th Century in the US they called slaves servants and slavery Our Peculiar Institution. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2604 "2025-06-05T20:22:55Z")
The 60s counterculture film _Wild in the Streets_ starred Max Frost, who said that since half the country was under the age of 25, the voting age should be lowered. Soon, at the age of 24, he becomes President. The theme song by a studio group called Max Frost and the Troopers was “Shape of Things to Come,” by the wonderful Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It’s a classic of classic rock. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pEqWCH_4srU/hqdefault.jpg "Max Frost And The Troopers The Shape Of Things To Come") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqWCH_4srU) Things came. The only Gen Z member of Congress is Maxwell Frost, who was elected in 2022 at the age of 25. ---
**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, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2605 "2025-06-05T20:48:54Z")
I was going to mention that there’s one Gen Z canonized saint, Carlo Acutis, who was born in 1991 and died at the age of 15. But it turns out that, while he was scheduled to be canonized, Pope Francis died just before the scheduled date, and Leo has not yet set a new schedule for him. ---
**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 6, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2606 "2025-06-06T00:57:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The 60s counterculture film _Wild in the Streets_ starred Max Frost, who said that since half the country was under the age of 25, the voting age should be lowered. Soon, at the age of 24, he becomes President. Yeah, the population demographic of the 1960s led to some wild fiction. Like “Logan’s Run” postulating that people would be euthanized after the age of 30. Or “Soylent Green” and other works postulating a Malthusian nightmare of a world with 20 or 30 billion people. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2607 "2025-06-06T01:34:02Z")
Not really a population film. At the end of Wild the kids rebel against the elders who are in their 20s and want the voting age lowered to 10. It’s as 1968 as the Chicago Seven trial. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2608 "2025-06-06T12:04:39Z")
And yet we can’t get people to vote nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2609 "2025-06-06T15:48:48Z")
Dion DiMucci did not ‘keep away from Sue.’ In fact he and ‘Sue’ (Susan Butterfield) have been married since 1963. I don’t think he even knew her when he recorded ‘Runaround Sue,’ so the names are coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2610 "2025-06-06T16:10:23Z")
“Runaround Sue” charted in 1961, so it was apparently written that year. Sue Butterfield, Dion’s wife, was born in 1946. So she was apparently 15 when it was written. If she ran around that much before she turned 15, she would have had to have gotten started really early on it. She got married at a time that would be considered very early these days, at 17. Hence it’s unlikely she was the inspiration of “Runaround Sue”. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2611 "2025-06-06T16:16:54Z")
For 18 days in 1998, the U.S. recognized _six_ Great Lakes instead of five (the five we know plus Lake Champlain). ---
**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:** [June 6, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2612 "2025-06-06T21:09:55Z")
Churches in Germany and Austria built at a certain time period had “Holy Ghost Holes” in the ceiling (but not going through the roof – you want to keep the rain out) for celebrating Pentecost. This is the Church Feast where, fifty days after Easter \* the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the form of a wind and “tongues of fire”: > [@](#): > > When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. The traditional symbol of the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost/Paraclete, however, is a dove. So on Pentecost, while the people were gathered in the Church, they dropped a living dove through this hole in the ceiling, like an avian version of Ceiling Cat. Ideally, the dove flapped its wings before hitting the floor like one of Len Nessman’s turkeys. Maybe there were a few such accidents, because the live bird got replaced by a replica on a rope. Sometimes they threw down pieces of burning oakum, to simulate the “tongues of fire”. I’ll bet _that_ caused a few accidents. > **[Holy Ghost hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Ghost_hole)** > > A Holy Ghost hole, or Holy Spirit hole, is a circular opening in the ceiling of a church which symbolises the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The openings are often used for liturgical performances. > They were most commonly built in churches in Austria and southern Germany during the Middle Ages and Baroque period, though classicizing architectural elements often replicate their appearance. Baroque organ sound-holes, in particular, were often decorated or disguised as Holy Gho... - Pentecost, as the Greek name implies, takes place fifty days after Easter. But fifty days after Easter is necessarily a Monday ( seven weeks = 49 plus one), so Pentecost actually should be celebrated on a Monday. But when I was a kid, Pentecost was a Sunday celebration. Nobody ever told me about the switch. - In Britain, Germany, and some other places Pentecost is a two-day holiday. In England it was WhitSunday )or WhitSun) and WhitMonday. (The “Whit” means “White”. People disagree on why it’s called this). The Monday was a secular as well as a religious holiday. It sort of marked the unofficial Start of Summer, like Memorial Day in America. Well, at least until 1971 in the UK. Then the Conservative government, apparently annoyed about the way the holiday drifted through the calendar with Easter, established a permanent and fixed Bank Holiday in the spring instead. In Germany they still get Pentecost Monday (_Pfingsten_) off. ---
**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:** [June 6, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2613 "2025-06-06T21:32:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In Britain, Germany, and some other places Pentecost is a two-day holiday. In England it was WhitSunday )or WhitSun) and WhitMonday. (The “Whit” means “White”. People disagree on why it’s called this). In Germany, “Weißer Sonntag” (White Sunday) is the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday and the traditional day for first communion of children (usually at the age of nine). ---
**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 6, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2614 "2025-06-06T21:33:47Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > “Runaround Sue” charted in 1961, By a strange coincident (or maybe not) I heard that song on the radio today. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > [Holy Ghost hole - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Ghost_hole) > A Holy Ghost hole, or Holy Spirit hole, is a circular opening in the ceiling of a church which symbolises the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The openings are often used for liturgical performances. And similar, but opposite: **Haint blue** is a pale blue-green paint color traditionally used to paint porch ceilings in the Southern United States, particularly in the coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina. The Gullah-Geechee people, descendants of enslaved West Africans, are widely credited with using haint blue as a way to ward off “haints,” or ghosts and evil spirits. The Gullah-Geechee people, who inhabit the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia, are deeply rooted in African spiritual traditions.They believed that haints, or spirits, could be deterred by the blue color, which was thought to be similar to the sky or water, both of which spirits were believed to be unable to cross. ---
**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 9, 2025, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2615 "2025-06-09T13:59:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Pentecost, as the Greek name implies, takes place fifty days after Easter. But fifty days after Easter is necessarily a Monday ( seven weeks = 49 plus one), so Pentecost actually should be celebrated on a Monday. But when I was a kid, Pentecost was a Sunday celebration. Nobody ever told me about the switch. I think you count Easter Sunday as 1, which would make Pentecost Sunday 50. The Apostles lived a long time ago, so they used Fortran instead of C. ---
**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 9, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2616 "2025-06-09T14:02:26Z")
If Easter Sunday is three days after Good Friday, the Christian calendar is a little squishy to start with. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2617 "2025-06-09T14:23:32Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > If Eas You could argue that these are examples of the fence post problem. In a fence, the distance from the x-th fence post to the y-th fence post is (x-y) times the length of the fence from one fence post to the next fence post. However, the number of fence posts in the fence from the x-th fence post to the y-th fence post is (x-y) + 1. So the the number of days from Easter to Pentecost is 50, but Pentecost is 49 days ahead of Easter. The number of days from Good Friday to Easter is 3, but Easter is 2 days ahead of Good Friday. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2618 "2025-06-09T14:37:45Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > If Easter Sunday is three days after Good Friday, the Christian calendar is a little squishy to start with. It’s a common misunderstanding. Christ arose “on the third day”, as phrased in the Bible. Modern Americans don’t use the phrase “on the _N_th day” as often as “after _N_ days”. So we unconsciously switch, without adjusting the number of days. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2619 "2025-06-09T15:09:53Z")
Similar to the confusion over “day’s rest” for pitchers. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2620 "2025-06-09T18:04:34Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Interesting. That’s a lot. And they are all staffed by American and Canadian customs/immigration 24-7? Not necessarily. For the U.S. side at least, some of the more remote crossings are unstaffed, but if you enter that way you’re supposed to report by phone to the nearest staffed border station, or by now maybe there’s an internet-based option. I assume Canada has similar provisions. U.S. authorities offer a smartphone app to report in when you wnter at a remote crossing; I hope somebody thought to wnsure there were enough cell towers to make this arrangement work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=130) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=132)