# 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:** 91
**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 4, 2025, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1801 "2025-03-04T08:13:30Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > the context of overseas tourism operators reluctantly accepting American currency, but disliking the dime In my experience foreign money handlers, be it banks, tourist operators or whatever, dislike coins, not just dimes. When you exchange money to buy foreign currency the usual procedure is you buy foreign notes and you pay the small change to make up the usually round amount in the foreign currency notes in local coins. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1802 "2025-03-04T11:29:40Z")
Yeah, like I said, the claim seems questionable. ---
**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 4, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1803 "2025-03-04T12:55:00Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > People know the value because they’ve learned to associate “dime” with ten cents, not because they’re reverse-engineering the value based on the derived meaning. So, exactly like every other word in the language. The word “dime” means “tenth”, just like “cent” means “hundredth”. The coins say “one dime” and “one cent”. The only difference is we don’t use the word “dime” in other contexts much any more. In fact, it’s the “nickel” that is the outlier. All other currently minted coins under a dollar are stamped with their fractional dollar value: “half”, “quarter”, “dime”, “cent”. Only the five-cent piece has a non-fraction. (We used to have “half cent” coins as well.) I think the confusion might be thinking that “dime” is a slang term like “nickel” or “penny”. It is not, it’s a fractional word. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1804 "2025-03-04T14:18:09Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > In related “interesting fact” news, the American dime is the only unit of currency which does not state its explicit value. Even more so, American coins do not have numerals. Makes it hard for young kids and non-English speakers to know the value of the coins. > [@Pleonast](#): > > In fact, it’s the “nickel” that is the outlier. It’s official name is the five cent piece and “Five Cents” is what is stamped on it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1805 "2025-03-04T16:48:06Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > the American dime is the only unit of currency which does not state its explicit value It says right there in the name that you are supposed to ask: in Spanish, “dime” means “tell me”. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2025, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1806 "2025-03-04T20:09:24Z")
And the 5-cent nickel replaced the [3-cent nickel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-cent_nickel). ---
**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 5, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1807 "2025-03-05T16:11:23Z")
Getting a little meta the word factoid is relatively new, coined by Norman Mailer in 1973. He defined it as a fake fact that first appeared in print in a newspaper or magazine as the original source. It might be true but there’s no true original source. By the early 1980s the more common usage was similar to trivia. > **[Factoid](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid)** > > A factoid is either a false statement presented as a fact, or a true but brief or trivial item of news or information. > The term was coined in 1973 by American writer Norman Mailer to mean a piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it is not actually true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print. Since the term's invention in 1973, it has become used to describe a brief or trivial item of news or information. > The term was coined by American w... ---
**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 5, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1808 "2025-03-05T20:47:03Z")
The [half-dime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_dime) - or half-disme (pronounced “deem”) - was a silver coin worth five cents. It was minted through 1873. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2025, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1809 "2025-03-05T23:11:30Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > And the 5-cent nickel replaced the [3-cent nickel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-cent_nickel). So Americans once had “thruppence”. 😄 ---
**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 5, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1810 "2025-03-05T23:15:11Z")
And worth three times a much as a single US vice-president. ---
**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 5, 2025, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1811 "2025-03-05T23:30:49Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > In related “interesting fact” news, the American dime is the only unit of currency which does not state its explicit value. The penny says “one cent,” the quarter says “quarter dollar,” every bill gives its dollar value, etc etc… but the dime says only “one dime.” Yes, and that’s its explicit value. A dime coin is worth one dime, just like a cent coin is worth one cent and a dollar coin is worth one dollar. “Dime” is one of the five units of money, in the US (the other four being “Mill”, “Cent”, “Dollar”, and “Eagle”). ---
**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 6, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1812 "2025-03-06T03:17:49Z")
The first movie to include a scene where someone walks on the walls and ceiling in a room was not _Royal Wedding_ in 1951 (where Fred Astaire dances on them). If you haven’t seen that scene before, you can do so now on YouTube. It was in the 1919 silent film _When the Clouds Roll By_. You can watch that whole film on YouTube. ---
**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 6, 2025, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1813 "2025-03-06T06:39:47Z")
Ladies: don’t [felate and get stabbed](https://www.livescience.com/health/fertility-pregnancy-birth/diagnostic-dilemma-teens-improbable-pregnancy-occurred-after-oral-sex) at the same time, you may become pregnant. For real. Link goes to a reputable source, Live Science. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1814 "2025-03-06T10:20:59Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It was in the 1919 silent film _When the Clouds Roll By_. You can watch that whole film on YouTube. Thanks. Found it. [Here is the scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJS65TOxToU&t=582s). ---
**Author:** ![DETXL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/detxl/32/19366_2.png) [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1815 "2025-03-06T19:18:08Z")
YouTube had been recommending [Dr. Collier’s video on Richard Feynman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc), and the various things he’s had posthumously attached to his name, for a while so I finally got around to watching it. I had kind of assumed that Richard Feynman’s books were written by Richard Feynman, and were not transcripts of him chatting with his colleague’s son over drum sessions. It’s not like Dr. Collier is blowing this one open; checking James Gleick’s biography, he mentions it (and Feynman’s opposition to calling _Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman_ an autobiography) towards the end. But the role Ralph Leighton has played in his legacy was new to _me_. > **(in retrospect this makes sense)** > > Like, the context Gleick and Collier provide explains why so much of _Surely You’re Joking…_, rereading it now, does sound like a 50-year-old with a complex about not being thought of (as Gleick puts it) as a “sissy” trying to sound cool to a guy 30 years his junior. Like, of course you played pranks on people by breaking into safes to read classified material _at the freaking Manhattan Project_ and then you pretended to speak Chinese to someone who speaks Chinese and _they_ got embarrassed because they thought you were speaking Cantonese and they only speak Mandarin and then you beat up a biker dude in a bar and scared his friends off. Those are things that for sure happened, bud 😛 ---
**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:** [March 6, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1816 "2025-03-06T22:44:24Z")
That’s a 2 hour 48 minute video. Um. maybe I’ll watch it when …, um, well, not now at least. ---
**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 6, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1817 "2025-03-06T23:32:45Z")
That article concludes that sperm migrated from her damaged digestive tract to the uterus, but I’d think it more plausible that some semen ended up on her skin and went in with the stabbing. ---
**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 7, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1818 "2025-03-07T01:08:38Z")
Hmm, kind of reminiscent of the Civil War era “bullet pregnancy” hoax. > **[Did a Woman Become Pregnant from a Civil War Bullet?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pregnant-civil-war-bullet/)** > > Did a woman become pregnant from being struck by a bullet that had passed through the scrotum of a Civil War soldier? ---
**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 7, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1819 "2025-03-07T07:42:18Z")
That was not a hoax, it was a great monologue from Tom Waits in his film and album “Big Time”. It was hilarious. I’ll look for it later in the web. ---
**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 7, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1820 "2025-03-07T14:19:04Z")
Found it: it was **[the intro to “Train Song”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKCbtfXsinQ&list=PLTMN6OMDTnKm6lg19COi12ariXxuBMRaN&index=12)**. Brilliant! The Snopes article was later and should have mentioned it IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=90) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=92)