# 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:** 189
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3761 "2025-12-07T16:21:00Z")
In Norway, if you want to describe a situation as being a crazy, mixed-up mess, you might say _Det er helt Texas!_ — literally, “that’s totally Texas.” ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3762 "2025-12-07T16:48:22Z")
There’s a similar idiom in German. When you think something is fishy or suspicious, you might say “Das kommt mir Spanisch vor”, “This appears Spanish to me”. I have no idea where that comes from. ETA: wait, I lied and just remembered a possible explanation for the idiom! When Charles V from the House of Hapsburg, who was born and raised in Spain and didn’t speak German, became Holy Roman Emperor and first went to Germany, he introduced new (for the Germans) customs and of course a language that puzzled the local population. So these strange things seemed “Spanish” to then. Not sure if this is the correct origin of the term, though. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3763 "2025-12-07T16:48:39Z")
In Spain jeans used to be called tejanos: Texans. I’m showing my age, I guess, they have been called **[vaqueros](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantal%C3%B3n_vaquero)** now for a long time (Link in Spanish. Also in **[English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeans)**, but that article does not mention anything about Spanish nomenclature). Vaqueros: Cowboy trousers. _Jeans_ was never an option. I read it is usual in Mexico and further to the South. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3764 "2025-12-07T16:52:16Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > no idea where that comes from. There is even a **[Wikiarticle](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_kommt_mir_spanisch_vor)** about it (**[English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me)** version). Karl the Fifth’s (or, as we had to learn it at school: Carlos-primero-de-España-y-quinto-de-Alemania) fault, yet again. ETA: Reading the list in that article about which languages are used to express _I don’t understand nothing_ in different languages it seems the most common language used for that is Chinese, the second is Spanish, French/Greek a distant third/fourth, and German is far in the back as also ran. Don’t know how representative this list is for the many languages of the world, but they often group together. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3765 "2025-12-07T17:24:16Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > There is even a **[Wikiarticle](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_kommt_mir_spanisch_vor)** about it (**[English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me)** version). Karl the Fifth’s (or, as we had to learn it at school: Carlos-primero-de-España-y-quinto-de-Alemania) fault, yet again. Yeah, see my edit, I remembered the explanation just in time. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3766 "2025-12-07T17:51:50Z")
I’m not sure that’s the same idiom as “it’s Greek to me”. The English expression just means that you don’t understand something; it doesn’t have the implication of being fishy or suspicious. I have heard that if you start with any language and take their expression equivalent to “It’s Greek to me”, and chain it to that language, and so on, you always end up on Chinese. Chinese, meanwhile, refers to something that cannot be understood as “heavenly script”. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3767 "2025-12-07T19:31:00Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Vaqueros: Cowboy trousers. _Jeans_ was never an option. I read it is usual in Mexico and further to the South. Yeah, “bluyin” or just “yin” is what I hear Spanish speakers here in California use. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3768 "2025-12-07T19:34:58Z")
No, it is indeed not the exact same idiom, but Wikipedia links one to the other in the languages. I like comparing the different linguistic versions (_déformation professionelle_, no doubt) and such discrepancies happen quite often. Sometimes they are really wild, with completely different takes on the same subject, or they link to something completely different as if it were the same, and sometimes the differences are subtle. Very often the article in many languages is the original English article, translated, sometimes abridged. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3769 "2025-12-07T21:09:13Z")
The actual first words spoken from the surface of the moon were: - _ALDRIN: Contact Light_ Only after that do we hear the famous line spoken by Armstrong, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3770 "2025-12-07T22:41:15Z")
Once you hit touchdown, you want to make REALLY sure that the engine is off and is going to stay off. First things first. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3771 "2025-12-07T22:54:51Z")
Gary Oldman is younger than Gary Numan. By two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3772 "2025-12-08T05:44:33Z")
Nitpick: the first words from the surface were probably Aldrin’s _second_ line above. > The landing pad of each leg incorporated a 67-inch-long (1.7 m) surface contact sensor probe, which signaled the commander to switch off the descent engine. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module) So Aldrin’s call, “Contact light,” and Armstrong’s response, “Shutdown,” were spoken between the time the contact probe touched the surface and the time the lander’s pads actually settled onto the lunar soil after the engine stopped. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3773 "2025-12-08T12:16:35Z")
It’s nice that the first word was “okay,” a word understood and used far beyond English, inadvertently emphasizing _humans_ going to the moon rather than _Americans_. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3774 "2025-12-08T12:39:22Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > The landing pad of each leg incorporated a 67-inch-long (1.7 m) surface contact sensor probe, which signaled the commander to switch off the descent engine. I anticipated by this nitpick. It all depends by what you mean by “on the moon,” A good argument can be made that once the probes were touching the surface then the craft was “on the moon.” An argument can also be made that it wasn’t until the landing pad itself was touching the surface. Let’s have a debate. My position is that it was when the probes were in contact with the surface. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3775 "2025-12-08T13:21:22Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > The actual first words spoken from the surface of the moon An argument could also be made that “One small step for man…” were the first words spoken from the surface of the moon, as those are the first words uttered by Armstrong once he set foot on the moon itself. If I’m in the 2nd floor of my house, am I on the surface of the earth? I actually don’t know the precise definition. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3776 "2025-12-08T13:24:04Z")
HIs feet were not on the surface. He had boots on. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3777 "2025-12-08T13:33:07Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > HIs feet were not on the surface. Then there have never been words spoken from the surface of the moon. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3778 "2025-12-08T13:52:50Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Then there have never been words spoken from the surface of the moon. One could imagine them being some variation of “Ackkkk——–!” just before expiring. There’s nothing like taking off your space boots and feeling the spiny scratch of lunar regolith between your toes. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3779 "2025-12-08T13:58:15Z")
In space no one can hear you “Ackkkk——–!” ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3780 "2025-12-08T14:43:06Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > A good argument can be made that once the probes were touching the surface then the craft was “on the moon.” An argument can perhaps be made, but I wouldn’t characterize it as “good,” since I hold the opposite position. 😁 > [@Railer13](#): > > > [@Ynnad](#): > > > > HIs feet were not on the surface. > > Then there have never been words spoken from the surface of the moon. [Golf clap.] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=188) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=190)