# 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:** 38
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/741 "2024-10-27T11:50:49Z")
Maybe you read this [thread about a Cecil column](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-lights/567099) that @Machine_Elf started 13 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/742 "2024-10-27T13:04:30Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I’m not in any way condoning such restrictions, mind you, just explaining what I’ve been given to understand the justifications have been. I understand the reasoning behind them, it’s just the PITA factor. It’s gotten far enough now that many of the stores, even at a checkout stand, will ask for my ID, and I certainly look older than 30. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/743 "2024-10-27T13:23:03Z")
I visited Ireland this year and was surprised to learn that in 1847 the Choctaw Nation came together to raise over $170 (equivalent to $5,000 today) to support the Irish during the Great Famine. Those connections continue to this day with memorials erected in both Ireland and the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/744 "2024-10-28T17:36:47Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > My local supermarket’s self checkouts always ping when i try to buy meds (paracetamol > or ibuprofen)… This reminded me of something. In the last few years, loperamide (Imodium) has become somewhat of a drug of abuse. It’s an opioid, and so (like morphine in the good old days) will slow down gut action to help treat diarrhea. It’s advantage is that it’s very poorly absorbed from the gut, so that systemic levels are low (and in effect it’s simply a locally acting drug, passing through your digestive tract). However, if you take a whole load of it, enough will be absorbed systemically to (amongst other things) produce euphoria. Not that it’s a particularly good idea. > In recent years, there has been a noticeable incline in the use and abuse of loperamide as a means of self-management of opioid withdrawal and an inexpensive method to induce euphoria, ie, to achieve a euphoric state. Vakkalanka et al found a 91% increase in reported loperamide exposures, including 8 deaths, from 2010 to 2015 across Poison Control Centers in the United States. [Source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557885/). j ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/745 "2024-10-28T19:17:06Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Syracuse, NY has the US’s only upside-down traffic light On the other hand, in France upside-down town signs are everywhere > **[Rural France turned upside-down by farmers](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67702462)** > > Road signs have been unscrewed, flipped over and screwed back on in a growing campaign. The article is from last year, but it’s still true as of a couple of weeks ago (cite: me on vacation). j ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/746 "2024-10-28T23:20:59Z")
(I might have seen this before, but it could be completely new to me.) Davy Jones [appeared](https://www.edsullivan.com/davy-jones-on-the-ed-sullivan-show/) on the _Ed Sullivan Show_ in 1964 as part of the [cast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hSYLLdKQx8) of _Oliver!_. (He played the Artful Dodger and got a Tony nom for that.) This was the same episode where the Beatles made their American TV debut. Watching from backstage he realized “… I want a piece of that.” A year later he became a Monkee. (Too many people dismiss the abilities of the Monkees prior to their show.) ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/747 "2024-10-28T23:29:47Z")
I posted this in the Trivia Dominoes thread, but it’s worth posting here as well. Tom Dempsey once set an NFL record when he kicked a 63-yard field goal in 1970. That record has since been broken. However, Dempsey set another record 3 years later, one that will never be broken (unless the rules are changed). He kicked a 7-yard field goal, which is the shortest field goal ever converted in the NFL. Since the goalposts were moved from the goal line to the back of the end zone after that season, his record will never be broken, unless the goal posts are moved back to the goal line, which seems highly unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/748 "2024-10-29T01:23:58Z")
There’s currently a shortage of IV fluid in the US, thanks to Hurricane Helene. [Tidal Health experiencing IV shortage due to Hurricane Helene - 47abc](https://www.wmdt.com/2024/10/tidal-health-experiencing-iv-shortage-due-to-hurricane-helene/) I’d heard of this a week or so ago, and was reminded of it today at a doctor’s office, when i saw a computer monitor with a BIG warning of the problem. I guess I’m glad I had my “so bad I had to go to the ER” bout of diarrhea in September, and the “minor” one afterward. Good planning on my part, or something. Not sure how this will affect some planned surgery… ---
**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:** [October 29, 2024, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/749 "2024-10-29T01:41:28Z")
In a crisis one could try to make due with lots of oral rehydration fluids such as Pedialyte® ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/750 "2024-10-29T03:53:36Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > There’s currently a shortage of IV fluid in the US, thanks to Hurricane Helene. > [Tidal Health experiencing IV shortage due to Hurricane Helene - 47abc](https://www.wmdt.com/2024/10/tidal-health-experiencing-iv-shortage-due-to-hurricane-helene/) > I’d heard of this a week or so ago, and was reminded of it today at a doctor’s office, when i saw a computer monitor with a BIG warning of the problem. Planet Money had an episode this week about shortages of all kinds of injectable generic drugs (including saline). > **[Why do hospitals keep running out of generic drugs? : Planet Money](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1210942193)** > > There's something strange going on in hospitals. Cheap, common drugs that nurses use every day seem to be constantly hit by shortages. These are often generic drugs that don't seem super complicated to make, things like dextrose and saline (aka sugar... ---
**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:** [October 29, 2024, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/751 "2024-10-29T11:20:12Z")
This is/has been an international problem [https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9997](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9997) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/752 "2024-10-29T14:01:45Z")
And that’s what places are doing (certainly what would have happened to me back in September). Not as useful if you’re having surgery - and I’m now envisioning an inverted Gatorade bottle hanging from an IV pole! ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/753 "2024-10-29T15:28:14Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > This is/has been an international problem > > [https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9997](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9997) Britain isn’t the best example when it comes to drug shortages - where parallel importation of medicines from the EU was concerned, we were the most enthusiastic of Europeans. Brexit resulted in the loss of supply chains and loss of access to cheaper medicines - so there’s a UK-specific double whammy of supply chain disruption and increased cost. j If anyone is interested: to a certain degree EU countries can limit the price they pay for medicines (by negotiation on a national level with the manufacturer). Also, free flow of goods in the EU meant that the UK was heavily reliant on importing cheap medicines from low-cost countries like (say) Greece or Spain or Portugal. Yes, it is a crazy situation. I suspect that part of our current problem is that, at least in some cases, the UK Government didn’t negotiate their own drug prices hard enough, because, after all, they weren’t expecting to pay that price anyway. It’s a viable approach - so long as you remain in the EU. (This is the simplified version. The full story would take way too long.) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/754 "2024-10-29T18:44:38Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I’d presume lighter fluid, in the hands of bored miscreant ~~yooots~~ youths, could be similarly misused. Although you might assume it’s to cut down on arson and criminal mischief, it’s more likely because of the dangers of huffing. Lighter fluid is often misused as an inhalant. As you may guess, it’s extremely dangerous to do. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/755 "2024-10-29T22:22:29Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > We didn’t have any sources of information about bands. You didn’t have magazines and books about popular music? When I was a kid 40 years ago, I had access to a plethora of both, many dating to the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s (so going a generation back). I learned loads about bands and artist from those, decades before the internet. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2024, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/756 "2024-10-29T22:25:31Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > You didn’t have magazines and books about popular music? When I was a kid 40 years ago, I had access to a plethora of both, many dating to the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s (so going a generation back). I learned loads about bands and artist from those, decades before the internet. Yeah, Rolling Stone magazine started in 1967, and Creem in 1969. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/757 "2024-10-29T22:42:12Z")
Obligatory Frank Zappa quote: “Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.” ---
**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:** [October 29, 2024, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/758 "2024-10-29T22:45:17Z")
Or another one attributed to Zappa (maybe apocryphal): “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. I still love reading about music… ---
**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:** [October 30, 2024, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/759 "2024-10-30T02:47:58Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > > [@aceplace57](#): > > > > We didn’t have any sources of information about bands. > > You didn’t have magazines and books about popular music? When I was a kid 40 years ago, I had access to a plethora of both, many dating to the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s (so going a generation back). I learned loads about bands and artist from those, decades before the internet. They existed, but lots of people never came across them. I started getting my information from Lillian Roxon’s _Rock Encyclopedia_, but that didn’t deal with new releases. Information was sporadic and was in many areas it only included _Tiger Beat_ and the like. You knew nothing about what was coming out. I was a bit ahead of the game since my father sold records and we got catalogs about what was coming out. But We’d also be sent a box of new records every week, often with no idea what was in it. John and Yoko’s got a lot of mainstream publicity that it was released in a plain brown wrapper. So when a plain white record was sent to us saying _The Beatles_, we though it might be _Two Virgins_. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/760 "2024-10-30T03:00:41Z")
> Oh, it doesn’t matter what they say in the papers > ‘Cause it’s always been the same old scene > There’s a new band in town > But you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine… > Aimed at your average teen [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=37) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=39)