# 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:** 211
**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:** [February 23, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4201 "2026-02-23T18:07:28Z")
One piece of trivia I have known most of my life is that koalas have two thumbs on each hand. I always assumed there was one on each side with three fingers in between. Nope. [![](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTbypzSIxWT41oLIQtcf-28xFC-wajaI5ZuAVkZPhOCsg&s=10) ](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTbypzSIxWT41oLIQtcf-28xFC-wajaI5ZuAVkZPhOCsg&s=10) ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4202 "2026-02-24T18:09:23Z")
Evidently, curling is a business is tough-as-granite and stones weigh more than souls … especially the finest ones … … or is it owed to the “pre-woke” years? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4203 "2026-02-24T18:42:23Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Gorilla is the common name of the animal _Gorilla gorilla gorilla_ but no one calls it by the full scientific name. Delayed nitpick- _Gorilla gorilla gorilla_ is specifically the Western lowland gorilla. There is also the extremely endangered _Gorilla gorilla diehli_ and the Eastern gorilla _Gorilla berengei_, which is also split into two subspecies; _G. b. berengei_ and _G. b. graueri._ Used to be just 3 subspecies, all of _Gorilla gorilla_ when I was a kid, there’s been some reclassifying going on recently. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2026, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4204 "2026-02-24T19:03:05Z")
Sportcaster Al Michaels’ first job in television was picking the women who would appear on “The Dating Game.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2026, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4205 "2026-02-26T00:20:50Z")
Many of us have likely read at least some of the brothers Grimm fairy tails. But I was surprised to learn that they wrote a version of Cinderella, in which the stepsisters cut off their toes to make their feet fit into the slipper. Grimm, indeed! ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4206 "2026-02-26T00:59:22Z")
Andre the Giant was born in France, but his father was from Bulgaria, and his mother was from Poland. While he was French by birth, he also identified as Polish, and his family spoke Polish in the home. Why Polish and not Bulgarian is something we’ll probably never know. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4207 "2026-02-26T01:04:35Z")
I vaguely remember hearing that one such original ending featured someone being put inside a barrel lined with nails and then the barrel being rolled down a hill. Was that it? ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4208 "2026-02-26T01:08:25Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Many of us have likely read at least some of the brothers Grimm fairy tails. But I was surprised to learn that they wrote a version of Cinderella, in which the stepsisters cut off their toes to make their feet fit into the slipper. Grimm, indeed! In the Grimm’s version of Snow White, the evil stepmother/queen is forced to wear red hot iron shoes on Snow White’s and the Prince’s wedding, and dances herself to death. These are some dark tales before having been Disneyfied. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4209 "2026-02-26T02:07:19Z")
And if I’m remembering correctly, Rapunzel’s eyes get pecked out, and Little Red Riding Hood strips and gets into bed with the Wolf. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4210 "2026-02-26T02:31:21Z")
And Goldilocks was originally burned, drowned, impaled on a church steeple and eaten by the bears. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4211 "2026-02-26T02:38:06Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Many of us have likely read at least some of the brothers Grimm fairy tails. But I was surprised to learn that they wrote a version of Cinderella, in which the stepsisters cut off their toes to make their feet fit into the slipper. Grimm, indeed! The Grimms did not write the tales; they collected them from oral legends. Note that Jacob Grimm formulated an important law of how sounds change over time. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4212 "2026-02-26T03:44:50Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The Grimms did not write the tales; they collected them from oral legends. Nitpick: while they did collect and publish legends, the tales you are talking about are Märchen (folktales). ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4213 "2026-02-26T22:02:49Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Andre the Giant was born in France, but his father was from Bulgaria, and his mother was from Poland. While he was French by birth, he also identified as Polish, and his family spoke Polish in the home. **Why Polish and not Bulgarian is something we’ll probably never know** Because his mother was polish? **MOTHER** tongue? Mother talked with her baby the language that she knew and that later gets carried on. The same as in my family. … except for the Bulgarian the Polish and Andre. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2026, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4214 "2026-02-26T22:05:25Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > In the Grimm’s version of Snow White, the evil stepmother/queen is forced to wear red hot iron shoes on Snow White’s and the Prince’s wedding, and dances herself to death. These are some dark tales before having been Disneyfied I’m pretty sure in DIsneys version the evil stepmother would not have been blonde but rather dark-haired, too. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4215 "2026-02-26T22:35:11Z")
She was in the Disney film, IIRC. It was the first film I ever saw in a theater at maybe 6 or 7 (of course on a re-release. I’m old, but not THAT old). ---
**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:** [February 26, 2026, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4216 "2026-02-26T22:45:14Z")
Christopher Columbus’ son Hernando Colón also made a major mark on history. He’s credited with discovering\* the great idea that books should be displayed on shelves with their spines visible to make them easier to find. This is one of those great ideas that sound obvious, but previously books had been normally stored in trunks or on their sides on shelves built for one huge open book. That worked when even the Vatican library in 1477 had a mere sixteen chests with stacks of books piled on their tops. The coming of the printing press immediately upped the number of books by orders of magnitude. Hernando had a collection of 15,000 in 1539, more than me at my peak, and the need for organization had become critical. \* or at least championing ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2026, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4217 "2026-02-26T23:50:57Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Christopher Columbus’ son Hernando Colón also made a major mark on history. And HIS son made a minor mark ; ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4218 "2026-02-27T01:14:53Z")
I hereby award you one (1) shiny, internet point. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4219 "2026-02-27T03:34:08Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > But I was surprised to learn that they wrote a version of Cinderella, in which the stepsisters cut off their toes to make their feet fit into the slipper. Musical fans know this because Sondheim included it in Into the Woods. Somewhat surprisingly, the movie version retained that bit, even though a lot of the darker stuff was otherwise Disneyfied. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4220 "2026-02-27T17:45:53Z")
I only just learned that The Beach Boys’ 80s hit, “Kokomo” was co-written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas. His primary co-writer was Scott McKenzie, best known for “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” written by… John Phillips. The two were in the folk trio The Journeymen together before Phillips formed TM&TP. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=210) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=212)