# 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:** 220
**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:** [March 25, 2026, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4381 "2026-03-25T03:16:13Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > In Aus, a milk shake included a small scoop of ice-cream, about 1"", before it was frothed. Without the ice-cream, it was “flavoured milk”, which was frothed on the same mixer that was used for a milkshake. At my school canteen (in Sydney) in the 60s a milkshake was simply milk with some flavouring added then frothed, plus optional malt - no ice cream. There was no flavoured milk as a separate product at the time. Possible what was available in milk bars at the time was fancier, including eg a lime spider (basically soda water, green colouring and ice cream). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4382 "2026-03-25T20:53:49Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > the stone and rocks came from AKA “road metal” ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4383 "2026-03-25T21:42:16Z")
Incidentally, if you’re in Rhode Island and you want a frappe (what you degenerates call a milkshake), you need to order a cabinet. ---
**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 25, 2026, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4384 "2026-03-25T22:16:05Z")
Plottwist: i thought this post was still about the whole tarmac metal strata things and the name Rhode Island came from… . Road Island ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4385 "2026-03-25T22:46:46Z")
No, but not only is Rhode Island (mostly) not an island, but there no island in Rhode Island that anyone calls Rhode Island (the island that is officially called “Rhode Island” on USGS maps is called Aquidneck Island by more or less everyone). Also, the mascot for the Rhode Island School of Design is Scroty the Scrotum. Rhode Island is weird. ---
**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 25, 2026, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4386 "2026-03-25T23:05:56Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > the island that is officially called “Rhode Island” on USGS maps is called Aquidneck Island by more or less everyone Maybe by everyone who lives on that island, but there are certainly people elsewhere who call it Rhode Island. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4387 "2026-03-25T23:09:21Z")
And now there’s at least one person who is going to start calling the state Aquidneck. ---
**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 25, 2026, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4388 "2026-03-25T23:13:08Z")
Does it take an Act of Congress to change the name of a state, or merely the state’s legislature? ---
**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 25, 2026, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4389 "2026-03-25T23:17:12Z")
No. Rhode Island and Providence Plantations shortened their name to just Rhode Island six years ago by a referendum that amended the state constitution. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2026, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4390 "2026-03-26T08:24:51Z")
Well, sure, there’s those weirdos at the USGS. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2026, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4391 "2026-03-26T20:30:23Z")
Lemurs like to get stoned on millipedes: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/d-MTFxRUiqM/maxresdefault.jpg "Lemurs get STONED!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-MTFxRUiqM) ---
**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:** [March 26, 2026, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4392 "2026-03-26T20:34:01Z")
When Dylan said “everybody must get stoned”, he meant EVERYBODY. ---
**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 26, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4393 "2026-03-26T20:54:29Z")
I complied. Never felt superior to a lemur. ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4394 "2026-03-27T00:07:59Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Rhode Island is weird. As someone who can stand on his roof and see that sorry excuse for a state…. I’ve contended for years that we should dig a trench around Rhode Island, give it a good shove, and send it out to sea. It is the Ocean State, after all, shouldn’t that be where it lives? But since no one would want to pay to dig the hole, we should split the place it two. Everything east of the Bay and the Providence/Blackstone Rivers goes to Massachusetts, everything west goes to Connecticut. We’ll do three rounds of rock, paper, scissors; loser gets Jamestown. ---
**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 27, 2026, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4395 "2026-03-27T16:12:07Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > You know that Konrad Adenauer, later first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, and mayor of Cologne before the rise of the nazis, built the first Autobahn from Cologne to Bonn from 1928-32? And that the idea originally came from Italy, la autostrada? I didn’t know that. But I have noticed that Adenauer pronounced backward sounds like Rwanda, and vice versa. Not quite, but close. ---
**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 27, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4396 "2026-03-27T16:31:45Z")
When Margrethe II of Denmark abdicated in January of 2024, there were no female monarchs for the first time in over 200 years. ---
**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 27, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4397 "2026-03-27T16:49:46Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > But I have noticed that Adenauer pronounced backward sounds like Rwanda, and vice versa. Love it. Not sure why, but I do. ---
**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 27, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4398 "2026-03-27T17:20:08Z")
Thanks! I’ve compiled a long list of these. I’ve got to start a thread on this sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4399 "2026-03-27T17:58:19Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > no female monarchs Queen Sonja of Norway isn’t a monarch, but she’s the Queen Consort since she’s married to King Harald V. The interesting thing about her is that she was Harald’s girlfriend for nine years before they were married. Harald’s father Olav V forbid him from marrying her during that time because she was a commoner. (She had planned to become a fashion designer.) Harald told Olav that in that case he would never marry. Finally after nine years Olav permitted him to marry Sonja. ---
**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 27, 2026, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/4400 "2026-03-27T18:00:38Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > But I have noticed that Adenauer pronounced backward sounds like Rwanda, and vice versa. Not quite, but close. Are you one of the people who can speak every word and sentence they hear immediately backwards? My sister’s best friend can do that, it’s amazing. And btw., Adenauer means inhabitant of the town of [Adenau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenau). This is a common pattern for last names in the Rhineland. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=219) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=221)