# 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:** 180
**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:** [November 16, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3581 "2025-11-16T22:39:58Z")
Like in Spanish ñ is a different letter while é is not. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3582 "2025-11-16T22:42:53Z")
Indeed, as you can see in the ordering of letters in the dictionary. The accent does not change the ordering sequence, there is no separate chapter for e and é, while the ñ has its own chapter. ETA: This diacritic sign ⟨ **~** ⟩ is in turn called a **[tilde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde)**. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2025, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3583 "2025-11-16T23:05:36Z")
Ah, thank you for the clarification. I was aware of the dual meaning of the two-dots-over-a-letter mark, but didn’t know which one was meant here, nor that one is generally considered a different letter but the other isn’t. English is pretty boring with our alphabet, compared to most languages which use (variants on) the Latin letters. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3584 "2025-11-16T23:19:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > English is pretty boring with our alphabet, compared to most languages which use (variants on) the Latin letters. English typography used German fonts, so the non-boring letters ( ‘th’ ) were just dropped. And AIR, Turkish added extra letters by using ‘lower case’ and ‘upper case’ differently. How did the Germans get different letters indicated by unlaut? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3585 "2025-11-17T00:17:30Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > How did the Germans get different letters indicated by unlaut? Originally those letters were simply the letter followed by “e”. So “ae”, “or" and “ue”. The e eventually moved to the top of the letter (I don’t know what process led to that) , which eventually morphed nto two dots. Before widespread computer use, you would still see “ue” etc. if using, say, a typewriter without an umlaut function. My German textbook had a picture of a Munich license with “Muenchen” (München) on it. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3586 "2025-11-17T01:26:42Z")
Answered above. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3587 "2025-11-17T02:25:34Z")
Today I was reading about ‘Galloping Gertie’, the Tacoma Narrows bridge that collapsed in 1940. There were no human fatalities; however, there was one victim. One of the drivers on the bridge, reporter Leonard Coatsworth, abandoned his car and ran to safety, but he couldn’t convince his dog, Tubby, to get out of the car. Two other men tried to save the dog, but also failed; one of them suffered a bite to his finger. Tubby was the only casualty of the collapse. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3588 "2025-11-17T03:00:22Z")
However, the [metal umlaut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut) doesn’t affect the pronunciation at all, but only the coolness of the word. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3589 "2025-11-17T04:19:38Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > And AIR, Turkish added extra letters by using ‘lower case’ and ‘upper case’ differently. What does “AIR” mean in this context? ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3590 "2025-11-17T04:45:05Z")
You mean the metal ümlaüt. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3591 "2025-11-17T06:32:44Z")
I assume it’s “as I remember.” ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3592 "2025-11-17T07:54:01Z")
Used to indicate an unsourced / unreferenced idea. But I would expand it to “As I Recall” Does anyone have a source or reference? ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3593 "2025-11-17T09:25:33Z")
That is why I was careful to distinguish phonetics and typography. Typography in general is much cooler than phonetics, if you ask me. > [@Chronos](#): > > […] nor that one is generally considered a different letter but the other isn’t. I cannot guarantee the “generally”, there are many contexts. What may be considered a different letter in the context of sorting words, like in a dictionary, or in the context of how it is spoken (but English can speak the same letter in many different ways) or how it is represented in print, not to mention the dreaded hand writing in cursive may vary a lot. Probably from country to country too. In Europe, for instance, cursive hand writing is still considered normal. So normal that it does not even have a name, nobody calls it cursive. They call it writing. So how many letters does the German word **[Stößel](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Stoeszel)** have? And if you write it like this? **Stoessel**. Both are correct if you type them, but only the first is if you write the word by hand. It was just a harmless nitpick, no hill to die on. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3594 "2025-11-17T11:53:32Z")
Of course, many languages (including English) have examples of words with alternate spellings, and even of spellings which are considered correct in some contexts but not others. And English also has cases where proper orthography differs between handwriting and type: For instance, titles of complete works should be in italics, in formats which allow for that, but since handwritten italics are very difficult to distinguish, underlined then. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3595 "2025-11-17T12:53:35Z")
I think you meant to quote **Pleonast** ’s previous post? ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3596 "2025-11-17T14:10:16Z")
Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Freud and Tito all lived in the same part of [Vienna](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21859771.amp) in 1913. They apparently all visited the same cafes. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3597 "2025-11-17T15:25:29Z")
In addition to the Big 3 broadcast networks, there was a short-lived fourth network for a few weeks in 1967, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United\_Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Network), which aired one program hosted by Bill Dana. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3598 "2025-11-17T17:01:23Z")
Comedian and actor Ed Wynn (he was Uncle Albert in **Mary Poppins** , among a great, great many other roles) tried in 1933 to start up a major radio broadcasting network, Amalgamated Broadcasting. It was much harder and more expensive than he’d anticipated, and Wynn lost a huge amount of money and had a nervous breakdown, then went back to comedy. > **[Amalgamated Broadcasting System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamated_Broadcasting_System)** > > The Amalgamated Broadcasting System (ABS), sometimes referred to as the Amalgamated Network (or simply Amalgamated) was an ambitious, although unsuccessful, attempt to establish a national "third radio network" in the United States. Its primary promoters were the company's president, American comedian Ed Wynn, and its vice-president, Hungarian-born violinist Ota Gygi. The network's inaugural broadcast on September 25, 1933, was carried by a small group of stations located in the Nort In the earl... ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3599 "2025-11-17T18:58:23Z")
Caterpillars apparently don’t morph directly into butterflies in the chrysalis. The caterpillar releases enzymes that liquefy itself into a “goo” or soup during the pupal stage inside a chrysalis before reforming into a butterfly. That’s wild, but more than that, how in Zeus’s’ toot-hole, did that system evolve ? ---
**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:** [November 17, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3600 "2025-11-17T18:59:32Z")
On the topic of defunct TV networks… > **[DuMont Television Network | Origins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuMont_Television_Network?wprov=sfti1#Origins)** > > Allen B. DuMont Laboratories was founded with $1,000 in 1931 by Allen B. DuMont in a laboratory in his basement. He and his staff were responsible for such early technical innovations as the first consumer electronic television receiver in 1938. Their most revolutionary contribution came when the team extended the life of a cathode ray tube from 24 to 1,000 hours, making television sets practical for consumers. The company's television receivers soon became the standard of the industry. > During ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=179) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=181)