# 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:** 218
**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:** [March 21, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4341 "2026-03-21T18:23:53Z")
I was led to this strange bit of New York history by a recent crossword puzzle clue. Apparently the zoot suit isn’t the only attire to incite a riot. > **[Straw Hat Riot | Background](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_Hat_Riot?wprov=sfti1#Background)** > > Straw hats had appeared in the 19th century as summertime wear, usually in connection to summer sporting events such as boating (hence the name boater). Soft Panama hats were likewise derived from tropical attire but began to be worn as informal summer attire. Initially it was not considered good form for men to wear these in big cities even at the height of summer (women's hats were different). By the early 20th century, straw boaters were considered acceptable day attire in North American citie... ---
**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:** [March 21, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4342 "2026-03-21T18:23:56Z")
Legal doublets. Post 1066 England used a French and an equivalent English word in legal definitions so that speakers of either could understand so we now have: Breaking and entering Ways and means Aiding and abetting Null and Void Cease and desist …and many more ---
**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:** [March 21, 2026, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4343 "2026-03-21T22:03:38Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Breaking and entering I’m having trouble verifying this one, but _break_ has so many meanings I’m likely missing it. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4344 "2026-03-22T00:14:23Z")
In the 9th century, Sigurd, the Earl of Orkney, was killed by a wound inflicted by the decapitated head of his enemy, the Scots Earl Melbricta the toothy. Or so states the [The Orkneyingers’ Saga](https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/is3/is302.htm). > These two agreed between themselves to meet, Sigurd and Melbricta toothy the Scot-earl, that they should meet and settle their quarrel at a given place, each with forty men. And when the day named came, Sigurd thought to himself that the Scots were faithless. He made them mount eighty men on forty horses; and when Melbricta got to see them, he said to his men: “Now are we cheated by Sigurd, for I see two feet of a man on each horse’s side, and the men must be twice as many again as the steeds that bear them. Let us now harden our hearts, and let us see that each has a man for himself ere we die;” and they got ready after that. And when Sigurd saw their plan, he said to his men: “Now half of our force shall get off horseback and come on them in flank when the battle is joined; but we will ride at them as hard as we can, and break in sunder their array.” And so they met and there was a hard battle, and not long ere Melbricta fell and his followers, and Sigurd caused the heads to be fastened to his horses’ cruppers as a glory for himself. And then they rode home, and boasted of their victory. And when they were come on the way, then Sigurd wished to spur the horse with his foot, and he struck his calf against the tooth which stuck out of Melbricta’s head and grazed it; and in that wound sprung up pain and swelling, and that led him to his death. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4345 "2026-03-22T15:23:29Z")
**The hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers”** - Arthur Sullivan (Gilbert and Sullivan) wrote this in 1871 (the music - lyrics had been written a few years before) for little kids at the summer camp where he was music director. He created the marching ditty because, after vespers each night, the youngest kids were afraid to walk back to their cabins in the dark. So his new hymn got them stomping through the woods unafraid. Churchill and FDR attended a church service in 1941, in which Churchill chose the hymns. “We sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers” indeed, and I felt that this was no vain presumption, but that we had the right to feel that we were serving a cause for the sake of which a trumpet has sounded from on high. When I looked upon that densely packed congregation of fighting men of the same language, of the same faith, of the same fundamental laws, of the same ideals … it swept across me that here was the only hope, but also the sure hope, of saving the world from measureless degradation.” - Wikipedia ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4346 "2026-03-23T00:13:52Z")
Interesting tidbit: 3 mayor cities pretty much equidistant from equator … - **Santiago de Chile** - Latitude: ~33.5° S - ≈ **3,720 km south** . - **Cape Town** - Latitude: ~33.9° S - ≈ **3,760 km south** . - **Sydney** - Latitude: ~33.9° S - ≈ **3,770 km south** . if you feel generous, you can throw in **Buenos Aires** as well, with a bit over 3,850km from equator ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4347 "2026-03-23T00:50:53Z")
When Daddy Anson and Mommy Anson love each other _very much_… > [@fedman1](#): > > Fact: the first Be[a]tle record released in America was by VeeJay records– Yup. It’s because the British record company EMI’s American partner, Capitol, was really slow in, well, capitalizing on the surging Beatle popularity, so VeeJay sneaked in with a little 1963 contract. > [@Pleonast](#): > > I’m having trouble verifying this one, but _break_ has so many meanings I’m likely missing it. Indeed, I think “break” was the same as “breech,” as in to break through a barrier and thus enter the space. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4348 "2026-03-23T08:01:30Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > , I think “break” was the same as “breech,” as in to break through a barrier Indeed, it’s cognate with the German “brechen”, so from Anglo-Saxon, whereas “entering” is clearly from French ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2026, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4349 "2026-03-23T09:25:20Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > On the other hand, Pennsylvania 6, 5000 is more likely to be recognized? I recognize it from the Jazz music, but I did not realise it is a phone number. I thought it was actually a reference to a train line. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4350 "2026-03-23T11:16:38Z")
Except for the final “ing”, that turns into a verb, that’s pure English, I think. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4351 "2026-03-23T11:24:12Z")
Of course, I (we) meant “breach,” not “breech.” The sense of “breaking through a barrier” goes back to Old English – but it turns out the more general sense of breaking something goes back much further. Indeed, it’s [one of those Proto-Indo-European roots](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/b%CA%B0reg-) that has changed the least, in form and meaning. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4352 "2026-03-23T12:26:11Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > turns into a verb A **[gerund](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund)**, to be precise. Which is the verb form that functions as a noun. > In [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language), the gerund has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable by an [adverb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverb) and being able to take a [direct object](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_object). The term “_-ing_ form” is often used in English to refer to the gerund specifically. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4353 "2026-03-23T12:32:56Z")
Correct, thanks 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4354 "2026-03-23T14:37:06Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I was led to this strange bit of New York history by a recent crossword puzzle clue. Apparently the zoot suit isn’t the only attire to incite a riot. > > [Straw Hat Riot - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_Hat_Riot?wprov=sfti1#Background) just read that article and found it amusing that one of the judge who sentenced the offenders was named Peter Hatting. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4355 "2026-03-23T17:39:48Z")
That’s a latitude with a pleasant climate. The same is true for the northern latitudes. Los Angeles, Beirut, and Zhengzhou, China are each around 34° N. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4356 "2026-03-23T17:59:32Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The same is true for the northern latitudes. But in Europe that latitude goes way up, thanks to the Gulf Stream. Lisbon, Madrid, Rome: 40° N (+/- 2°). Paris: 48° N. London, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin: about 50° N. OK; Berlin can be cold in winter. The Gulf Stream influence fades away the further from the ocean you are. Let’s hope the Gulf Stream does not collapse during our lifetimes, otherwise we are in for North-Canadian temperatures. Montreal: 45° N, Quebec City 46° N, Ottawa 45° N. Brrr! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2026, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4357 "2026-03-23T21:23:32Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > The Y is first letter of the Arabic word Yad, meaning ‘hand’. The full name of the star is Hand of Orion. Funny, the way I learned it many years ago, the original word was ibṭ ‘armpit’. It was supposed to be ibṭ al-jawzā’ ‘the giant’s armpit’. I taught an astronomy class once and typed up a list of all the star names that come from Arabic. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4358 "2026-03-23T21:31:44Z")
I saw someone point out once that “remacadamized” contains roots from five different languages: “Adam” is from Hebrew, Scottish adds the patronymic “Mac” to form the name “MacAdam”, “-ize” is from Greek, forming the word “Macadamize” (apply the process named after MacAdam), “re-” is Latin, to form “remacadamize” (apply the process named after MacAdam again), and the -ed suffix is from German (the process named after MacAdam was done again in the past). ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4359 "2026-03-23T21:40:13Z")
That’s all fine and interesting, but what does the word mean? Who was that MacAdam the word is referring to? I googled it and all I could find was a site with the same claim as yours, without an explanation of the meaning. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2026, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4360 "2026-03-23T21:43:34Z")
The process that MacAdam invented was paving roads using asphalt. I think it’s more often used in British English than in America. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=217) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=219)