# 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:** 19
**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 4, 2024, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/361 "2024-09-04T11:02:16Z")
“Who [cough] cares?” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/362 "2024-09-05T05:55:07Z")
In the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine” it looks like Pig is female, which means that (according to previous strips) Pig is lesbian, if not bi-sexual. [Comics: | The Seattle Times](https://www.seattletimes.com/comics-universal/?amu=/pearlsbeforeswine/2024/09/05) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/363 "2024-09-05T12:35:26Z")
Actually I’ve seen a number of ‘marriage trees’ just hiking in the forest. I don’t think it is as rare as all that in unmanaged forests. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/364 "2024-09-05T12:36:30Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I’m guessing “WFC” doesn’t mean “Wells Fargo Company” in your post (the most common search result shown by Google). What did you mean if not that? My guess: who fucking cares. ---
**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 5, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/365 "2024-09-05T13:45:01Z")
I knew that Rodney Dangerfield was originally named Jacob Cohen, and I had always thought that he had legally changed his name to Rodney Dangerfield. Well, I was half right, he did change his legal name, but it was actually “Jack Roy.” His father, according to wiki, had used the name “Phil Roy” in his vaudeville days. ---
**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:** [September 5, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/366 "2024-09-05T18:19:56Z")
He spent years as a failing comic named Jack Roy before reinventing himself. Now you know the rest of the story. [couldn’t resist] ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/367 "2024-09-05T20:22:47Z")
Not sure if this trend is reflected in the US, but in the UK the singles charts are now entirely dominated by solo artists. In the first half of the 1980’s there were 146 weeks where a band had the number 1 single. In the first half of the 1990’s that number was 141. So far in this decade that number is 3. Just three bands who spent a week each at number 1. And one of those was a band of solo artists the BBC had put together for a one-off song, another was The Beatles, and third was probably the only proper contemporary “band” - a girl group called Little Mix who as far as I know are like a modern version of the Spice Girls. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2024, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/368 "2024-09-06T00:10:21Z")
How exactly is music charted in this day and age? ---
**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 6, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/369 "2024-09-06T00:43:41Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > In the comic strip “Pearls Before Swine” it looks like Pig is female That Pig is. Pig gets butchered every couple of months (because he/she/it is delicious, after all) and replaced with a new Pig. That’s why Pig is always so naive. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/370 "2024-09-06T15:49:50Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > How exactly is music charted in this day and age? It certainly has changed, with streaming counting heavily towards chart positions. But the way things are counted does not change the fact that solo artists seem to have taken over the new music scene. Bands make their money from touring these days, but most of the big bucks in that realm are made by legacy artists. ---
**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:** [September 7, 2024, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/371 "2024-09-07T19:12:08Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Not sure if this trend is reflected in the US, but in the UK the singles charts are now entirely dominated by solo artists. > > In the first half of the 1980’s there were 146 weeks where a band had the number 1 single. > > In the first half of the 1990’s that number was 141. > > So far in this decade that number is 3. > > Just three bands who spent a week each at number 1. And one of those was a band of solo artists the BBC had put together for a one-off song, another was The Beatles, and third was probably the only proper contemporary “band” - a girl group called Little Mix who as far as I know are like a modern version of the Spice Girls. Do Wham! not count? They were no.1 on four separate occasions with Last Christmas. But I take your point. Shame really. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/372 "2024-09-07T19:21:12Z")
In my original post I was going to write “solo artists and duos” but figured duos would be a very small number so I kept it simple. Wham! count as a duo. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/373 "2024-09-07T21:13:28Z")
A while ago i discovered that the much-maligned government cheese was actually made by kraft by government request and was a tweaked version of Velveeta cheese because it was more shelf-stable than actual cheese Apparently, the tax write-off was substantial enough that when they stopped making it the loss negatively affected the earnings ---
**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 9, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/374 "2024-09-09T02:17:39Z")
Singer Ray Stevens used to claim that he was the great-grandson of CSA Veep Alexander Hamilton Stephens (a life-long bachelor who had no children so far as we can tell). ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/375 "2024-09-09T19:08:09Z")
In gold, at entrance Temple of Goddess Sekhmet, in Karnak; “I only ask you to enter my house with respect. To serve you I do not need your devotion, but your sincerity. Neither your beliefs, but your thirst for knowledge. Enter with your vices, your fears and your hatreds; from the greatest to the smaller ones, I can help you dissolve them. You can look at me and love me as Female, as mother, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend, but never look at me as an authority above yourself. If the devotion you have for any god, is greater than the one you have for the God that within you, you offend them both and you offend the one.” ---
**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 9, 2024, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/376 "2024-09-09T19:23:40Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > “I only ask you to enter my house with respect. To serve you I do not need your devotion, but your sincerity. Neither your beliefs, but your thirst for knowledge. Enter with your vices, your fears and your hatreds; from the greatest to the smaller ones, I can help you dissolve them. You can look at me and love me as Female, as mother, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend, but never look at me as an authority above yourself. If the devotion you have for any god, is greater than the one you have for the God that within you, you offend them both and you offend the one.” That’s impressive, and I would never have thought that the old Egyptians had such respect for religious individuality and self-determination from all I know about their history and cults. ---
**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:** [September 9, 2024, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/377 "2024-09-09T20:00:22Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I would never have thought that the old Egyptians had such respect for religious individuality The Cult of Sekhmet was also known for feeding people to the lionnesses. ---
**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 9, 2024, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/378 "2024-09-09T20:26:07Z")
Well, there goes my respect for religion and humanity once again, like so often before… ---
**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 9, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/379 "2024-09-09T20:30:43Z")
And Sekhmet was also literally blood thirsty: she was once defeated while she was on a rampage by the other gods who made an awful lot of beer and dyed it red, like blood, so she drank it believing it was blood. From the Sekhmet [wikiarticle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekhmet): > In the myth, Sekhmet’s bloodlust was not quenched at the end of battle, and this led to her going on a bloody rampage that laid Egypt to waste and almost destroyed all of humanity. To stop her, Ra and the other gods devised a plan. They poured out a lake of beer dyed with red ochre or so that it resembled blood. Mistaking the beer for blood, Sekhmet drank it all and became so drunk that she gave up on the slaughter and returned peacefully to Ra. ---
**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 9, 2024, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/380 "2024-09-09T20:35:52Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > And Sekhmet was also literally blood thirsty: she was once defeated while she was on a rampage by the other gods who made an awful lot of beer and dyed it red, like blood, so she drank it believing it was blood. From the Sekhmet [wikiarticle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekhmet): Hey, I heard this bit of Egyptian mythology just the other day, though I didn’t remember that it was about Sekhmet. It was on one of the many documentaries about old Egypt on zdfinfo, one of my favorite channels. It reminds me of the German saying “Mit Speck fängt man Mäuse”, “It’s bacon you catch mice with”. only in this case the bacon was beer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=20)