# 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:** 16
**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:** [August 26, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/301 "2024-08-26T18:10:51Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Dubious.cetacean needed Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! (funnier with the superscript) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/302 "2024-08-26T18:36:20Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > I cannot directly vouch for his scholarship. I can in general terms (though I have not read this book). He is one of the foremost paremiologists on the planet and while he might be wrong about any particular thing, it will not be due to a fault in his scholarly abilities. (Edit: he’s also really nice, and if you were really interested and had a question I bet he’d answer your email.) ---
**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 26, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/303 "2024-08-26T18:51:21Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > This is why Montgomery Burns uses “ahoy-hoy” as a greeting when he answers the phone. It’s one of many little touches suggesting how old-fashioned he is, and probably the most obscure one. > > [https://screenrant.com/burns-simpsons-phone-joke-clever-history-reference-explained/](https://screenrant.com/burns-simpsons-phone-joke-clever-history-reference-explained/) “I require unleaded petroleum distillates for my horseless carriage. And don’t dilly-dally, you whippersnapper!” ---
**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:** [August 26, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/304 "2024-08-26T18:54:24Z")
“Yes, I’d like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?” ---
**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:** [August 26, 2024, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/305 "2024-08-26T19:35:35Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! > > (funnier with the superscript) Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch! Hmm. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/306 "2024-08-26T20:08:44Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Either way, he’s probably a person to avoid. Like my friend who was driving in his car when lightning hit him. Not even the same year as when lightning hit his house. ---
**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 26, 2024, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/307 "2024-08-26T20:35:36Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I learned this week that the word “hello” has a much later origin than I realized. It only began to be used in the 1820’s. Here’s the QI take on it (not that I’m suggesting it’s authoritative). Invented by Edison: [https://youtu.be/fIEzYSz6Iwk?si=t64MYIKZZOD6Sxce](https://youtu.be/fIEzYSz6Iwk?si=t64MYIKZZOD6Sxce) j ---
**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 26, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/308 "2024-08-26T20:38:51Z")
(For some reason that link is really making discourse angry - sorry about the bare link. And the double post is because I’m not even going to try to edit this explanation into the first post.) j ---
**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:** [August 26, 2024, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/309 "2024-08-26T21:06:08Z")
I didn’t watch the whole QI video, but the word itself was certainly not invented by Edison. The OED’s first quotation using “hello” is from 1826 (in the _Norwich Conn. Courier_), and Thomas Edison was born in 1847. ---
**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 26, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/310 "2024-08-26T21:09:01Z")
Yeah, as I said, I’m not suggesting it’s authoritative. As to whether Edison had a role in popularizing it? ::shrug:: j ---
**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:** [August 26, 2024, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/311 "2024-08-26T22:52:30Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Like my friend who was driving in his car when lightning hit him. Not even the same year as when lightning hit his house. Was your friend named Rod? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/312 "2024-08-27T03:04:16Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I didn’t watch the whole QI video, but the word itself was certainly not invented by Edison. The OED’s first quotation using “hello” is from 1826 (in the _Norwich Conn. Courier_), and Thomas Edison was born in 1847. So apparently this is a question you should not ask Jeeves. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/313 "2024-08-27T11:41:32Z")
😁 ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/314 "2024-08-27T12:37:40Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Was your friend named Rod? Sadly, no. He did have a great sense of humor about it, at least. ---
**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:** [August 27, 2024, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/315 "2024-08-27T22:51:00Z")
So, I was reading a biography of a certain well-known person, and came across this line… > [@](#): > > \himself concluded that if sexuality was measured on a scale of one to ten: “Well, you know, I must be right smack in the middle. Because I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive.” Anyone care to guess who it was? Note that he had a lifelong, and by all accounts happy, faithful, and monogamous, marriage to a woman. Fred Rogers ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/316 "2024-08-27T23:16:48Z")
If (1) you’re bisexual and (2) inclined to be monogamous, this would be the case 50% of the time. With the intense social (and formally legal) pressure to be monogamous, probably most of the people 3-10 on that scale would have wound up in heterosexual marriages. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2024, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/317 "2024-08-28T01:05:37Z")
Remember when delving into the sexual behavior of famous people was not really done in public? We knew about Charles Nelson Reilly but did not discuss it much, perhaps because it was too obvious.        In those days, we refrained because the subject was taboo. Sometime in the next decade or so, we will refrain on the grounds of _WFC – everybody is a pervert one way or another, so this is just boring_. ---
**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 28, 2024, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/318 "2024-08-28T01:12:09Z")
People mostly do not marry everybody they are attracted to. People mostly do not date everybody they are attracted to. People mostly do not ever meet everybody they are attracted to. Using attraction as a metric for sexuality is a fallacy. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/319 "2024-08-28T01:25:53Z")
Are you saying that a person could be straight and still find people of their sex attractive, or that people can be bisexual and not find people of one or the other sex attractive? However, probably all people are not attracted to every person they meet/see. I argue that who you find attractive is a better indicator of your sexuality than who you date or marry ---
**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:** [August 28, 2024, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/320 "2024-08-28T01:36:54Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > If (1) you’re bisexual and (2) inclined to be monogamous, this would be the case 50% of the time. Considerably more than that, even in a completely accepting society, because a bisexual man’s potential partners are straight or bisexual women, and gay or bisexual men, and of that group, the women outnumber the men. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > People mostly do not marry everybody they are attracted to. > > People mostly do not date everybody they are attracted to. > > People mostly do not ever meet everybody they are attracted to. > > Using attraction as a metric for sexuality is a fallacy. By this standard, it would be impossible for a person to be both monogamous and bisexual, and someone who keeps seeking dates (with whomever) but keeps getting turned down wouldn’t have any sexuality at all. Besides which, it wasn’t just someone saying “I’m attracted to both men and women”. It was someone saying “My sexuality is right smack in the middle”. If you can’t take a person’s statements about their sexuality as evidence of their sexuality, then what can you go by? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=17)