# 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:** 255
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5081 "2026-07-17T03:13:53Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > C. W. McCall has an airtight alibi. And Rick Griffen? [571230268\_10239621673222556\_825142437830464749\_n.jpg (526×763)](https://scontent.fmel7-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/571230268_10239621673222556_825142437830464749_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_tt6&cstp=mx1412x2048&ctp=p526x296&_nc_cat=106&_nc_map=urlgen_bucketless&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=Gr-lVPBPGaoQ7kNvwGcM3MY&_nc_oc=AdoZHgcNklPchd95SRvAnpH-iB2HdGONOvTSk4MvwJVSDsEOF-vqo-vl_5E9NjCbJXi8cmG8bHZyVgRFFQFe11zh&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fmel7-1.fna&_nc_gid=TpG_6B3VxXf7beWIRdAd6Q&_nc_ss=7b289&oh=00_AQAGeLoC1FqGBwrLe5h6rKXYuizB5M8TR8t9JTHNs6J7QA&oe=6A5F6D29) ---
**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:** [July 17, 2026, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5082 "2026-07-17T12:06:21Z")
Frank Morgan is known for five roles in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), but he also had one more role that gets overlooked. He also played the disembodied head of the projected Wizard. According to one of the books on the movie’s production, the head was some kind of mask, but with Morgan’s mouth showing. It’s always been pretty obvious that he was doing the voice, but it was also the bottom part of his face. \*Professor Marvel, Coachman, Gatekeeper, Guard, The Fake Wiz ---
**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:** [July 17, 2026, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5083 "2026-07-17T12:15:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m re-reading H.P. Lovecraft’s **The Case of Charles Dexter Ward** as my bedtime reading (for the umpteenth time) and I noticed something that hadn’t struck me before. The portrait of Joseph Curwen that Charles Dexter Ward finds in the hose at Olney Court is described as wearing an “Albemarle wig” (but otherwise closely resembling Charles himself). I know about colonial era wigs, but didn’t know what an “Albemarele wig” looked like. So I looked it up. I might have found the source for Lovecraft’s use of the term. I suspect that we owe to him the coining of “Albemarle wig”, since it doesn’t show up anywhere before his “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” that I know of. I suspect that Francis van Wyck Mason was a Lovecraft reader who used the term in his _Cutlass Empire_ because he thought it was a common term, and that Bullock and Tonkin tried to explain what an “Albemarle wig” might be because they were besieged by Lovecraft fans (and maybe even Mason fans) who wanted to know what the hell it was. Looking through Google Books, and filtering out entries after 1930 (Lovecraft wrote the story in 1927, but it wasn’t published until well after 1930) I found that a book entitled _England in the Days of Old_, written by William Andrews was reviewed in another publication, which lists the Contents and Illustrations. Evidently there was a long section on wigs, which show up in both the contents and the illustrations. In the middle of a lot of illustrations of different types of wigs (“Egyptian wig”, “campaign wig”, “periwig with tail”, “Rammillie wig”, “Pg-tail Wig”, etc. ) is the simple entry “The Earl of Albemarle”, presumably with an engraving based on the painting I show earlier, or one like it. It was evidently used to illustrate the style of wig he wore, and, coming as it did in a line of pictures labeled “wig”, it wouldn’t be surprising if Lovecraft misremembered it as “Albemarle wig”, or else simply called it that because it had no other title. The book reviewing it was _Bygone Devondshire_ (evidently part of a Bygone \_\_\_\_\_\_ series) by Rev. Hilderic Friend, published by William Andrews and Co., London 1898, and the review appears here: > **[Bygone Devonshire](https://books.google.com/books?id=auAMAAAAYAAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PT5&dq=Albemarle+wig&hl=en)** Not surprising that William Andrews would be plugging a book he wrote in another he published. It’s also the kind of book that would have appealed to the antiquarian Lovecraft. On the way to looking this up, I stumbled across something else that almost made me do a spit-take. In a book entitled _Costume in England_ by F. W. Fairholt (Chapman and Hall, London, 1846) on page 579 we find this priceless quote: > Holme, in his _Academy of Armory_ (1684) has engraved [a peruke] “having the side or bottom locks turned up into bobs or knots turned up with ribands [ribbons].” He also calls it a "_campaign_ wig ", and says “it hath knots or bobs, a **dildo** on each side, with a curled forehead.” > **[Costume in England](https://books.google.com/books?id=ORswAAAAYAAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA579&dq=Albemarle+wig&hl=en)** This is the first time I’ve encountered **dildo** (my highlighting) used in this sense. In fact, looking up the etymology of the term on various websites I find no notice that the term was ever used for a feature of wigs at all. All the sites claim that the word derived from nonsense syllables, and achieved its present erotic definition by 1593. Clearly wigmakers were naming features of wigs after marital aids. ---
**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:** [July 17, 2026, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5084 "2026-07-17T17:41:33Z")
This info needs forwarding to every site with an interest in the subject. Bravo! ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5085 "2026-07-18T00:34:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > All the sites claim that the word derived from nonsense syllables, and achieved its present erotic definition by 1593. Shakespeare used it as a double entendre in _A Winter’s Tale_. > SERVANT: He hath songs for man or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves. He has the prettiest love songs for maids, so without bawdry, which is strange with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings, ‘Jump her and thump her’; and where some stretch-mouthed rascal would, as it were, mean mischief and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer, ‘Whoop, do me no harm, good man’; puts him off, slights him, with ‘Whoop, do me no harm, good man!’ (4.4.190-98) The songs are without bawdry, or filthy imagery. Which he proves by their “delicate burdens of dildos and fadings” both of which have innocent meanings - dildos being the fa-la-la nonsense syllables and fadings being refrains (with a secondary meaning of a lively dance). But by then dildo had taken on a sexual connotation and fadings would be understood as dying, just as an orgasm was a _petit mort_ or little death. You had to be there, I guess. The rest is still understandable to modern folk once the tone of the speech is parsed. ‘Jump her and thump her’ indeed. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5086 "2026-07-18T01:02:41Z")
I get sidetracked and forget what I originally wanted to post. You can see from the [original](https://www.google.com/books/edition/England_in_the_Days_of_Old/ubFMAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=albemarle) that William Andrews made a slight goof. He calls the illustration George, Earl of Albemarle. But the illustration is clearly of [Arnold](https://www.google.com/search?q=1st+earl+of+albemarle&num=10&newwindow=1&client=firefox-b-1-d&hs=MxbV&sca_esv=39eb56e0a03d1f43&udm=2&biw=1920&bih=893&sxsrf=APpeQnt64mrnlxjzkhG6AwcWglKcbLlkrw%3A1784336395805&ei=C9BaaovlMMzIp84PxP-EiA8&ved=0ahUKEwjLlqCIg9uVAxVM5MkDHcQ_AfEQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=1st+earl+of+albemarle&gs_lp=Egtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZyIVMXN0IGVhcmwgb2YgYWxiZW1hcmxlMgcQIxjJAhgnSMc2UKQTWLA1cAF4AJABAJgBlAGgAdgRqgEENi4xNbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCFaAC0RPCAgsQABiABBixAxiDAcICBRAAGIAEwgIIEAAYgAQYsQPCAgQQABgewgIGEAAYBRgemAMAiAYBkgcEMS4yMKAH_1eyBwQxLjIwuAfRE8IHCjAuMi4xMS43LjHIB6QBgAgB&sclient=gws-wiz-img), the 1st Earl. [George](https://www.google.com/search?q=3rd++earl+of+albemarle&num=10&newwindow=1&client=firefox-b-1-d&hs=NxbV&sca_esv=39eb56e0a03d1f43&udm=2&biw=1920&bih=893&sxsrf=APpeQntzMdvL95YT3CuMJcHiMMNgbJa2Cg%3A1784336408886&ei=GNBaat3iNarJwN4Po8HhwAI&ved=0ahUKEwjdzr6Og9uVAxWqJNAFHaNgGCgQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=3rd++earl+of+albemarle&gs_lp=Egtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZyIWM3JkICBlYXJsIG9mIGFsYmVtYXJsZTIEEAAYHjIGEAAYBRgeMgYQABgFGB5IlwxQ8QRY8QlwAXgAkAEAmAF2oAG6A6oBAzAuNLgBA8gBAPgBAZgCBaAChwTCAgcQIxjJAhgnwgIGEAAYBxgewgIIEAAYBRgHGB6YAwCIBgGSBwMxLjSgB9oHsgcDMC40uAfqA8IHBTItMy4yyAcugAgB&sclient=gws-wiz-img), the 3rd Earl, doesn’t have on a wig in his many portraits. Another George was the 6th Earl but too late to be a candidate. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5087 "2026-07-18T01:49:09Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Shakespeare used it as a double entendre in _A Winter’s Tale_. As a general rule, if you’re ever not sure if Shakespeare was talking dirty, he was. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5088 "2026-07-18T02:09:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > As a general rule, if you’re ever not sure if Shakespeare was talking dirty, he was. The same goes for Blues lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2026, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5089 "2026-07-18T03:51:22Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > A word for something that doesn’t even exist? I have to admit I had to google it, because in German that fantasy is rendered as “Chi”. In Scrabble it doesn’t matter if it is a word or not in various dictionaries, it only matters if it’s legal to play (i.e. if it’s included in the Scrabble dictionary). Scrabble doesn’t really have much to do with vocabulary, it’s more of a math game. There are champion English-language Scrabble players who can’t even speak English or tell you what (m)any of the words mean. > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I remember that when you put two words parallel to each other ALL the transversal combinations must make sense. They needn’t make sense, they merely must be legal to play. That’s two very different things. And yes, I am more familiar with competitive Scrabble. “Living room” Scrabble doesn’t make much sense to me. Mostly because people change the rules. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2026, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5090 "2026-07-18T04:11:55Z")
[Too late for edit] > [@Chronos](#): > > No, all of the connecting words must be valid, so AQUA directly next to TIME wouldn’t work, as you said. Which makes a solid repertoire of valid two-letter words all the more crucial. Even with all of the words needing to be valid, competitive players manage it quite often. “AQUA” placed vertically directly next to “TIME” (A next to T, Q next to I, etc.) actually does work and is a legal play. AT, QI, UM, and AE are all legally playable words. That play would probably get you a good number of points. > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > AT and QI are valid words, but UM or MU and AE or EA are not In international English Scrabble UM or MU and AE or EA are all legal and playable. All of those words except EA are legal and playable by the North American English rules. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2026, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5091 "2026-07-18T05:05:39Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > although in general Plattdeutsch dialects are considered to be closer to English generally. And even closer to Dutch than it is to High German, I believe. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5092 "2026-07-18T11:26:15Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > And even closer to Dutch than it is to High German, I believe. That’s true. My grandmother who spoke Sauerländer Platt used to tell a story: she was taking a walk in a park in Bonn with a friend where she met some Dutch people. They first tried to communicate in Dutch and High German, but she soon switched to Plattdeutsch and told us that they could talk quite easy that way. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5093 "2026-07-18T12:33:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > [Arnold van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arnold_van_Keppel%2C_1st_Earl_of_Albemarle) And FWIW, an ancestor of Queen Camilla ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5094 "2026-07-18T12:37:03Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > in general Plattdeutsch dialects are considered to be closer to English generally. On my first school exchange trip to Hamburg, my host family turned on a TV play in Plattdeutsch, and I found I could follow it by imagining they were people from North-East England trying to speak German, so close are the speech intonation and rhythm. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2026, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5095 "2026-07-18T21:14:54Z")
Just been watching some top-level Scrabble on YouTube (from Thailand - of all places). Memorize all the 2-letter words, such as “OO” and “ST”, play words not very family-friendly (C\*NT), and play oddball ones like “BRRR”. I don’t know what restrictions there are on profanities (although I saw the F-word set up on someone’s rack, but he played something else). The Thais seem to be excellent players. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2026, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5096 "2026-07-19T06:15:50Z")
In the Bronze Age and probably earlier, people in eastern Europe and the Black Sea region used sheep fleeces to gather stream-borne gold dust and small nuggets, which would get caught in the wool. From there to the legendary Golden Fleece of Jason and and the Argonauts wasn’t much of a stretch. It’s interesting to realize that even today there is the knightly Order Of The Golden Fleece, whose conceptual antecedent goes back thousands of years. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5097 "2026-07-19T15:40:36Z")
Do you have a source for that? I always find there are far too many people who think humans have no imaginations, and that everything weird in mythology somehow comes from real-world examples (e.g. the Cyclops from elephant skulls). ---
**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:** [July 19, 2026, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5098 "2026-07-19T16:11:09Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Do you have a source for that? I have been sporadically reading that story about the Golden Fleece for decades now. I always stored it in the “urban myth” (or perhaps rather rural prehistorical myth) category. There would have to be enormous amounts of gold in the river sands to shine even a little bit. I don’t buy it. As for the Golden Fleece Order, there is also a street in Brussels called Toison d’Or (which means exactly that: Golden Fleece), and there is a condecoration in Spain that is also called that. Powerful people have used imaginery to cement their power for ages. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5099 "2026-07-19T16:21:20Z")
AFAIK, the first story to feature a female inventor of robots was “Air Lines” by David. H. Keller M.D. in the January 1930 _Amazing Stories_, post-Gernsback. The wife is a professional inventor of air craft, and she finds she is constantly interrupted by the needs of her new baby. So she whips up a squad of household robots to free her time so that she can make her masterpiece, a robot plane with a robot pilot - not an automatic plane, a robot that sat in the pilot’s seat and hand-worked the controls. Female robots were rare in those days; only a few appeared in fiction for housework or as sex objects. But female robot inventors were far more rare. I’ve searched and can’t find a second appearing in the next four decades. By then robot stories were totally passe and seldom published and I gave up looking. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/5100 "2026-07-19T16:28:32Z")
SF could be incredibly sexist in those days, but you are ignoring the elephant in the room: Susan Calvin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=254) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=256)