# 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:** 14
**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:** [August 22, 2024, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/261 "2024-08-22T05:58:04Z")
The letters pages in pulp mags and comic books also printed the addresses of letter writers. Thus putting readers in direct contact with each other and birthing organized fandom. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/262 "2024-08-22T09:45:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Hm, looking it up, “cetane” is linear C16H34 (whatever the source), but the [origin of the name](https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=cetane) is in fact whale oil. I’m an armchair enthusiast of etymology. I often look up words to see where they come from, but somehow it never occurred to me to look up the origins of cetane. Talk about an interesting random fact - thanks for finding that. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/263 "2024-08-22T21:04:36Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > OK, I’ll grant you that Brotherhood of Man featuring Tony Burrows (wiki spelling) had just the one hit, but the (manufactured) band are still around to this day (no original members, obviously) and, over the years, have had [a depressingly large number of hits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Man_discography#Singles) - fifteen if you’re generous about territories. They even represented Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest, with the remarkably awful **Save Your Kisses For Me** (number one in five countries, god help us). Granted the Brotherhood of Man has no original members, but they have had the same 4-person line-up since 1974, and with the exception of a short hiatus in the 80s have been touring and performing together ever since. And I quite like them. And so does my mum. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2024, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/264 "2024-08-22T21:40:50Z")
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. 😉 In other news: > [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I glanced at the BFHS yearbook for 1935… I was foolish enough to google BFHS, thinking that I might find out where it was. No luck, but I;m pleased I did, because now I know that these guys exist, which pleases me: > **[Welcome to The British Federation for Historical Swordplay | The British...](https://www.thebfhs.org.uk/)** > > The BFHS is an alliance of groups across the UK, who are engaged in the research, study and practice of historical fencing and European martial arts. j ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/265 "2024-08-23T16:54:19Z")
As recently as the 1970’s, our local newspapers published the names and addresses of lottery winners (in Montreal at the time, lotteries were still technically illegal, so it was disguised as a “voluntary tax”). Earlier papers would publish the names and addresses of everyone killed in an accident. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/266 "2024-08-23T18:12:29Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I was foolish enough to google BFHS, thinking that I might find out where it was. That’s the Benjamin Franklin High School in Rochester, NY that I referred to in post #183. The 1935 yearbook is available on [this page](http://www.franklinhighschool.net/yearbooks.htm). ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/267 "2024-08-23T18:30:27Z")
Ah, sorry, I had forgotten that post. Thanks for the link, btw - I just took a peek and it’s a different world. j ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/268 "2024-08-23T19:10:24Z")
Some things didn’t change. I just took a look at my 1968 yearbook and there it was, my address under my picture. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2024, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/269 "2024-08-23T20:54:16Z")
The old “society pages” were good source-material for burglars too. Truman Capote’s black and white ball generated much anticipatory press, including attendance by Alice Longworth Roosevelt. While she was up in NYC, robbers struck her DC home. The heist was noteworthy enough that major newspapers stopped giving thieves advance notice. For her part, Princess Alice planted poison ivy around her house’s foundation. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/270 "2024-08-24T00:52:12Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > As recently as the 1970’s, our local newspapers published the names and addresses of lottery winners That happened in Australia as well. In 1960, Bazil Thorne won the Opera House lottery (run to raise funds for the building of the Sydney Opera House). His 8-year old son, [Graeme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Graeme_Thorne), was kidnapped for ransom. The child ended up dead. (The killer was found and jailed for life). The law was changed after that to provide the option for ‘anonymity’ for lottery winners. The law is now usually ‘anonymity by default’, unless the lottery winner specifically asks for publicity. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/271 "2024-08-24T13:15:06Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > Earlier papers would publish the names and addresses of everyone killed in an accident. The use of street addresses is how we know that the Fred Trump arrested at a klan rally in the 1920s was, indeed, Donald’s father. > [@](#): > > The incident was picked up by news site Boing Boing in 2015. It cited a _New York Times_ article from June 1927 saying that Fred Trump was named among seven men who were arraigned following a “free-for-all” between “1,000 Klansmen and 100 policemen.” > > The article states that “Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Road, Jamaica, was discharged.” A follow-up article by _The_ _Washington Post_noted this address matched records from the 1930 census. > **[Was Donald Trump's father in the KKK?](https://www.newsweek.com/was-donald-trump-father-kkk-1864382)** > > Post in wake of Donald Trump primary wins reenergizes speculation over whether Trump's father had ties to the white supremacist group. ---
**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:** [August 24, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/272 "2024-08-24T14:11:47Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > [Tony Burroughs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Burrows?wprov=sfti1#Solo) was lead singer on the following Top Ten hits for five different “one-hit wonder” bands: > > 1970: “My Baby Loves Lovin’” by White Plains > 1970: “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” by Edison Lighthouse > 1970: “United We Stand” by Brotherhood of Man Question for mansion and yacht owners only\*: who _played_ on these three songs? (Caveat: my cite says that they played on _“My Baby Loves Lovin’” by White Plains_ etc, but it’s possible that this is just badly worded and they played on a knock-off copy for one of those hits compilation albums. I can’t (yet) find a confirmatory source.) Answer: Rick Wakeman [Cite](https://www.rwcc.com/guest.php) - see under Various Artists j \* - not really; this is nothing more that me messing around and using a style of question asking from an ancient British TV show, Ask The Family. _Question for father and youngest child only_ - that sort of thing ---
**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:** [August 24, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/273 "2024-08-24T16:39:48Z")
The nugget about _My Baby Loves Lovin_ etc comes from about half-way down a rabbit hole I stumbled into. Out on the bike, with my mind wandering, I thought: “If it’s the Trident piano\* on Bang A Gong (Get It On) by T Rex, does that mean it was Rick Wakeman playing it?" (Answer: at least some of the piano part, it seems). Which led me to a site listing his sessions (see my previous post); which led me to a search for Super Hits Of The Seventies on YouTube; and then, to establish if the songs are by the original artists, I had to listen to In The Summertime from that album to try to determine if it really is Mungo Jerry (it appears to be); which led me to singer and songwriter Ray Dorsett’s wiki page; which produced 2 more interesting facts (1) He also wrote Feels Like I’m In Love, a hit for Kelly Marie though, bizarrely, [wiki says he wrote it for Elvis Presley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feels_Like_I%27m_in_Love). The hit by the former means that Dorsett is one of few people to had a UK number one themselves and written a number one for someone else. (2) Dorsett now lives in Dorset. C’mon now, that’s irresistible, isn’t it? j \* - see post 3820 et seq of part 1 of this thread ---
**Author:** ![kwintenstraler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kwintenstraler/32/10698_2.png) [@kwintenstraler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kwintenstraler)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/274 "2024-08-24T16:44:09Z")
When I hear his son playing, it immediately reminds me of the father ---
**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:** [August 24, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/275 "2024-08-24T23:48:56Z")
Never mind. Will repost later. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/276 "2024-08-25T17:27:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Newspaper letters to the editors of that era often included the full address of the writers, > > Today that would be a license for harassment. Back in the era of telephone books, it was normal and expected. People wanted their address to be available publicly… The people who were worried about it would hide their name, not their address. For example, single women living alone would sometimes not list their full first name, only the initial. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2024, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/277 "2024-08-25T17:29:53Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > The people who were worried about it would hide their name, not their address. For example, single women living alone would sometimes not list their full first name, only the initial. Because that was the only option other than being unlisted (which also cost extra). ---
**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:** [August 25, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/278 "2024-08-25T17:35:53Z")
When I was a kid in Madrid there were two different telephone books available: one, the most commonly used one, was sorted alphabetically by usernames, and it included the name (sometimes only the initials of the first name), often the address and always the telephone number. The other one was sorted by addresses: all the streets, alphabetically too, then by number, and all the names of the users in that particular house with their respective numbers. The weird thing was that the first book, the “normal” one sorted by usernames, was considerably thicker than the other one. It was the same in Barcelona and probably in all of Spain. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/279 "2024-08-25T17:36:55Z")
I knew people who did that as long as telephone books lasted. In fact, I knew a married professor who kept her last name rather than take her husband’s. She had the listing as C. [Last Name] forever. I think she felt she was more likely to be subjected to harassment from errant students than a random woman. ---
**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:** [August 25, 2024, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/280 "2024-08-25T17:45:27Z")
We had something like the address book too, called a [city directory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_directory). They were mostly thought of as alternatives to the yellow pages, the listing of all business telephones (plus paid ads). Very useful when cities were centered on downtown and many buildings housed both businesses and residents and people just walked around their neighborhoods for goods and services, less so when the suburbs started to sprawl and the expense to produce them did as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=15)