# 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:** 71
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1401 "2025-01-21T14:41:58Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > One of the motivations for the Lewis and Clark expedition was to find living American elephants. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1402 "2025-01-21T14:44:28Z")
[How Thomas Jefferson’s Obsession With Mastodons Partly Fueled the Lewis and Clark Expedition](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/573995/thomas-jefferson-mastodon-obsession-fueled-lewis-and-clark-expedition) > Blockquote > By the 1800s, American mastodons—prehistoric relatives of the [elephant](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/86712/12-interesting-facts-about-elephants)—had been extinct for roughly 10,000 years. Thomas Jefferson didn’t know that, though. The Founding Father dreamed of finding a living, breathing mastodon in America, and this lofty goal ended up being a motivating force throughout much of his life. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1403 "2025-01-21T14:45:23Z")
I have read that as well: the reason was that the USA had an inferiority complex because no big animals lived there, which seemed to imply that it was a weak and declining continent. Elephants or mastodonts had to be found to restore the pride and virility of the young USA. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1404 "2025-01-21T14:45:51Z")
I read something similar, not specifically about mammoths, but general megafauna (because at that time Europeans were boasting that the old world fauna was “more robust” than the weakling new world fauna) in “_A Short History of Nearly Everything_” by Bill Bryson ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1405 "2025-01-21T14:47:53Z")
(Triple simulpost!) ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1406 "2025-01-21T14:49:00Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > (Triple simulpost!) Yep, but you have the best reference. Or the most accurate memory. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1407 "2025-01-21T14:50:26Z")
It’s just that I read the book more recently, (last month). ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1408 "2025-01-21T16:55:24Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > In this Smarter Every Day video, they explain the _massive_ amount of overhead time associated with each EVA. > > With over three hours required just to begin an EVA, it makes sense now to gang your tasks into one EVA instead of just doing an hour of EVA stuff and then coming back in for a snack or something. We badly need the sort of science-fiction suits that people can comfortably wear all day in pressurized ships and stations, and then just pop on gloves, helmet and oxygen supply to go into vacuum. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1409 "2025-01-21T17:47:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, technically, there are creatures that are dinosaurs whose existence Washington was aware of. What he wasn’t aware of was the category of dinosaurs. I don’t think this is true. I thought that perhaps Washington might have been aware of dinosaur footprints, but the first of those weren’t discovered in North America until 1802, three years after Washington’s death. I sidestep the issue of birds. Many of the quasi-mythological creatures said to be based on fossil animals were actually based on mammalian fossils, not dinosaurs (see Willy Ley’s articles on the topic). The only such creature that is well-known and based on dinosaur fossils that I’m aware of is the Griffin, which appears to be based on ceratopsian species like _Protoceratops_ and _Psittacasaurus_ . ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1410 "2025-01-21T17:48:23Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > “_A Short History of Nearly Everything_” by Bill Bryson Very entertaining book! ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1411 "2025-01-21T19:34:19Z")
Indeed! ---
**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:** [January 21, 2025, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1412 "2025-01-21T19:53:55Z")
It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, but I liked it too. 👍 ETA: and I think that it’s no coincidence that regulars of this thread have read the book, it’s very much in the same spirit. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1413 "2025-01-22T05:55:47Z")
Chazz Palminteri cast Robert DeNiro as Cologero’s father in _A Bronx Tale_ as a thank-you to DeNiro, who had given Palminteri his first break in films years earlier. From what I’ve read Palminteri was really casting DeNiro as his own father because the film is essentially autobiographical. I don’t know if that’s 100% true, but it is true that Palminteri’s given name is Cologero. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1414 "2025-01-22T19:27:59Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I have read that as well: the reason was that the USA had an inferiority complex because no big animals lived there, which seemed to imply that it was a weak and declining continent. Elephants or mastodonts had to be found to restore the pride and virility of the young USA. you mean … [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Republicanlogo.svg/1200px-Republicanlogo.svg.png) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Republicanlogo.svg/1200px-Republicanlogo.svg.png) ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1415 "2025-01-22T19:30:24Z")
Make America Paleolithic Again ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1416 "2025-01-22T20:55:54Z")
Today I learned that, in Weimar Germany, people were occasionally issued a _transvestite pass_, which essentially sanctioned their choice to present as a different gender. > **[Transvestite pass](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transvestite_pass)** > > A transvestite pass (German: Transvestitenschein) was a doctor's note recognized by the governments of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic, under the support of sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, identifying a person as a transvestite. Transvestite at this time referred to all individuals whose gender identity or preferred clothing was discordant to that associated with their assigned sex, and so included both cross-dressing and transgender people. As gender-confirming surgery was only an emer This all stopped when the Nazis took power. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1417 "2025-01-22T21:05:03Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Today I learned that, in Weimar Germany, people were occasionally issued a > _transvestite pass_, which essentially sanctioned their choice to present as a different gender. I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t surprise me much for the Weimar Republic, which was socially very liberal and allowed many subcultures to bloom during the roaring twenties. But what astounds me is that the first “transvestite passes” were handed out as early as 1908, still during the imperial period. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1418 "2025-01-22T21:05:33Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > This all stopped when the Nazis took power. any coincidence with 2025 actions must be considered happenstance /s ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1419 "2025-01-22T21:14:48Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Ozzie Nelson, his son Ricky and his grandsons Matthew and **Gunnar** (Emphasis mine) I see they honored their Scandinavian heritage unto the fifth generation. Ozzie’s paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants and Gunnar as a name is about as Scandinavian as it gets. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1420 "2025-01-22T21:24:43Z")
Just around the corner from where I live is the Magnus Apotheke, a pharmacy named after that very same Magnus Hirschfeld, whose portrait in black and white looks beautiful in the window: > **[Magnus-Apotheke](https://www.magnus-apotheke-berlin.de/kontakt)** > > Herzlich willkommen bei Ihrer Magnus-Apotheke, Berlin. Wir bieten Ihnen kompetenten Service rund um Ihre Gesundheit. Ihr Apotheker Tesfay Andemeskel It is in the Motzstrasse, and he opened it himself about 100 years ago. I did not know about the Transvestitenpass, but it is fitting that today this is still the gay quarter par excellence in Berlin. ETA: Google Maps Streetview shows it too: [![](https://i.imgur.com/3Ssm19P.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/3Ssm19P.png) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=70) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=72)