# 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:** 161
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3201 "2025-09-18T18:11:51Z")
Yesterday I was a passenger with someone who had an open cable combination lock (similar to [this](https://a.co/d/7trqJJ2)) that they needed to find the combo for. 4 positions, each with 0-5. Thinking I might as well start the process while I was there, I set it to 0000, try to push the lock part in, it immediately goes in one space. I suddenly realize that I only need to solve one digit at a time while it is unlocked, meaning only 24 possible combinations. So it actually worked like password crackers on TV/movies (I’m looking at you, _War Games_) finding passwords one position at a time. I’m not stupid, this should be obvious about an open lock like that if you gave it a moment’s thought, it is just that before yesterday I never _had_ given a situation like that a moment’s thought. (It took only 6 or 8 of those 24 tries to get the combination.) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3202 "2025-09-18T18:21:55Z")
The first Rivian police cruiser is on the streets of Palo Alto and [another has been donated to Manteno, Illinois](https://www.shawlocal.com/daily-journal/2025/09/18/manteno-pd-to-receive-rivian-squad-car-from-gotion/) ( by [Gotion](https://www.gotion.com/) ). > **[First Rivian Police Cruiser Reports For Duty In Tesla's Backyard | Carscoops](https://www.carscoops.com/2025/08/palo-alto-police-skip-local-tesla-hq-to-buy-countrys-first-rivian-r1t-police-cruiser/)** > > While Palo Alto is home to Tesla, the local police department went to rival Rivian for its first electric police cruiser ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3203 "2025-09-18T18:22:44Z")
No no, I read @CalMeacham’s book about it and he definitively was in Rome. ---
**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:** [September 18, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3204 "2025-09-18T18:27:10Z")
That was Tenobius, not me. I was probably off gallivanting around Athens or some such place. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3205 "2025-09-18T18:33:00Z")
I thought Tenobius was a pseudonym you used in ancient Rome. ---
**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:** [September 18, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3206 "2025-09-18T18:55:33Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > No no, I read @CalMeacham’s book about it and he definitively was in Rome. Third Rome? That would be Moscow. ---
**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:** [September 18, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3207 "2025-09-18T20:18:48Z")
The cheaper combination locks like that have enough give to them that even when locked, it’s obvious if one of the digits is in the unlocked position. Bike thieves figured that out long ago. They’re only worth using on a bike barely worth stealing. ---
**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:** [September 18, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3208 "2025-09-18T23:52:54Z")
Yeah, last year, we got one of those locks at the church rummage sale, probably because the owner forgot the combination. During a slow time, I started fiddling with it. It only took me about 15 minutes, and I’d never done it before. ---
**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:** [September 19, 2025, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3209 "2025-09-19T01:53:50Z")
I’ve just finished a book on the Great Hurricane of 1938. I knew something of it, since it hit my home town, and I’d seen photos of the damage. But we got off lightly, since there was no storm surge.\* The hurricane took everyone by surprise. It had been headed for Florida, but took a turn north, where hurricanes usually died. But it moved so fast – 50-60 mph – so it didn’t have time to weaken and hit Long Island and Rhode Island at full force – and at high tide. One forecaster predicted it fairly accurately, but he was new on the job and the more experienced forecasters overruled it. Lots of stories of destruction and the storm completely changed the character of New England, even as far away as Vermont. Entire communities were wiped out. The Shinnecock Inlet on the south shore of Long Island was created by the storm. Katherine Hepburn was caught in it. She had even played a round of golf earlier that day (got a hole in one), but was far enough from the water so the surge wasn’t an issue. She had been seriously dating Howard Hughes at the time, but when Hughes didn’t go to help – and sent only water to help out – she ended it. \*I lived on the North Fork of Long Island, and the South Fork took the brunt of the water. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2025, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3210 "2025-09-19T04:22:06Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The Inuit people of Greenland are not indigenous, not aboriginal. Latinate words: Aboriginal == first peoples Indigenous == Native, Born in a country Both are often understood to mean something like **autochthones** , so I don’t object to your use, but I prefer to make the distinction. In Australia, “native” referred to the Australian-born children of English convicts and colonizers, so “indigenous” referred to the first naturalized peoples, and has the particular implication of being localized: aboriginal Australians are indigenous to areas of mainland Australia: Torres Straight Islanders are indigenous to the Torres Straights. In my language, the Inuit people of Greenland are perhaps not aboriginal, but are indigenous. ---
**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:** [September 19, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3211 "2025-09-19T14:40:55Z")
Actress/Stuntwoman [Sandra Gimpel](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Sandra_Gimpel), who played the Salt Vampire in the premier episode of “Star Trek” TOS was also Billy Mumy’s stand-in on “Lost in Space.” ---
**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:** [September 19, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3212 "2025-09-19T20:17:11Z")
Watching TV last night, I came across some Cockney rhyming slang which I had never heard before: _ **a Commodore** _ = £15 (as in, “Lend us a Commodore, mate.”) I’ll spoiler the explanation just in case anyone wants to try to figure it out (but it’s difficult): £5 = a Lady ([Lady Godiva](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Godiva) = fiver) [Three times a lady](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Times_a_Lady) = 3 x £5 = £15, hence _a Commodore_ j ---
**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:** [September 19, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3213 "2025-09-19T20:34:16Z")
Even in a thousand years, I wouldn’t have figured that out. I find cockney rhyming slang very weird, but fascinating. ---
**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:** [September 19, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3214 "2025-09-19T20:36:11Z")
I think a native Londoner (East End) would stand a decent chance, but otherwise, no, I’m with you. j ---
**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:** [September 20, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3215 "2025-09-20T15:19:24Z")
TIL that although the first humanoids to go around the Moon flew in December 1968, the first Earthlings were two tortoises that the Soviets had sent around the Moon–and landed them safely–back three months earlier in the Zond 5 mission. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3216 "2025-09-20T15:22:43Z")
I’m going to score some bar bets with that one. Thanks! ---
**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:** [September 20, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3217 "2025-09-20T15:31:34Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Even in a thousand years, I wouldn’t have figured that out. You’re not meant to. It works on assumptions about common culture, and as a born and bred Londoner, I don’t think the name of the Commodores would be particularly salient in my memory bank. That said, a lot of people try to invent new ones - some stick, some don’t (in one TV series, one character was prone to ordering a Vera and Philharmonic, i e, gin and tonic, Vera=Vera Lynn). Likewise, few now remember the 1950s singer Ruby Murray, but some may well talk about going for a ruby, meaning curry. Nor is it unique to London. The Scouse (Liverpool) drag act Lily Savage was once on a chat show with a comedian who’d had testicular cancer and was fronting an awareness campaign. Our Lil asked him how his Jacob’s were: you’d need to live here to make the association Jacob’s=cream crackers=knackers (slang for testicles). Then again, pretty well across the country, people know “cobblers” as a comment meaning “rubbish/nonsense”: but I doubt if they think it derives from cobbler’s [+awls]=balls=testicles [meaning nonsense, as also “bollocks”]. Yup, you have to grow up with it. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3218 "2025-09-20T15:41:42Z")
I remain convinced that the “rhymes” in Cockney slang are actually completely irrelevant, and the Cockney people just randomly assign slang words, and occasionally retroactively invent a rhyme etymology for them. Including for things that do have actual etymologies: For instance, “dukes” for fists, or “duking it out” for fighting, obviously derives from dukes being renowned for their martial prowess, nothing about forks required. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3219 "2025-09-20T16:19:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For instance, “dukes” for fists, or “duking it out” for fighting, obviously derives from dukes being renowned for their martial prowess, nothing about forks required. It should be marquesses after the 9th Marquess of Queensbury. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3220 "2025-09-20T22:17:14Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > […] Vera Lynn). Likewise, few now remember […] Ah, **[yes](https://youtu.be/jl20jlVnvYs?list=RDjl20jlVnvYs&t=5)**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=160) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=162)