# 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:** 95
**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 17, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1881 "2025-03-17T16:42:50Z")
Wasn’t there also an Orson Welles / John Houston film released on Netflix a few years back that had been stuck in production for decades. I couldn’t make it through it. ---
**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 17, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1882 "2025-03-17T17:48:49Z")
There’s a Wikipedia entry with many films that took a long time to produce, one of them taking 45 years: > **[List of films with the longest production time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_with_the_longest_production_time)** > > This is a list of films shot over three or more years. This list does not include projects composed of series of films shot over an extended period, except where individual films within those projects meet this criteria. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1883 "2025-03-17T19:49:43Z")
I wonder if Mongolia gets a fee as well. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1884 "2025-03-17T20:26:03Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Wasn’t there also an Orson Welles / John Houston film released on Netflix a few years back that had been stuck in production for decades. I couldn’t make it through it. Maybe Dead Calm? Orson Welles started filming in 1966, his effort eventually collapsed, the final re-shot film released in 1989. > **[Dead Calm (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Calm_(film))** > > Dead Calm is a 1989 Australian psychological thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, produced by George Miller, and starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. The screenplay by Terry Hayes was based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Williams. > Filmed around the Great Barrier Reef, the plot focuses on a married couple, who, after tragically losing their son, are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship. > Notably, t... Not on the wiki list, however. Nor is Shakespear In Love (late '80s to 1998). j ---
**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 17, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1885 "2025-03-17T20:34:22Z")
I looked it up. It was _The Other Side of the Wind_. Production started in 1970 and post production finished four decades later and released in 2018. > **[The Other Side of the Wind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Side_of_the_Wind?wprov=sfti1)** > > The Other Side of the Wind is a satirical drama film co-written, co-edited, and directed by Orson Welles, and posthumously released in 2018 after 48 years in development. The film stars John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg, and Oja Kodar. > Intended by Welles to be his American directorial comeback after years spent abroad, the film began shooting in 1970 and resumed on and off until 1976. Welles continued to work intermittently on editing the project into the 1980s, but i... ---
**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:** [March 17, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1886 "2025-03-17T20:40:13Z")
The future King George VI took part in the men’s doubles event at Wimbledon in 1926. He and his partner lost in straight sets. ---
**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 17, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1887 "2025-03-17T22:47:51Z")
Fourteen royal family members from various countries have competed in the Olympics: > **[14 royals who have competed in the Olympics](https://www.businessinsider.com/royal-family-members-in-olympics-2021-6)** > > Princess Anne was the first member of the British royal family to compete in the Olympics. Her daughter, Zara Tindall, won a silver medal in 2012. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1888 "2025-03-17T23:00:37Z")
Dude changed his name _to_ Bob Random? ---
**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 17, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1889 "2025-03-17T23:06:34Z")
Apparently, he was born with it. Very Canadian of him. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2025, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1890 "2025-03-18T03:41:08Z")
One of the most beautiful etymologies out there: the ‘pupil’ of the eye is named after the Latin ‘pupilla’, ‘, little doll’ - because when we look into the eyes of another, we see a tiny, doll-like reflection of ourselves. ---
**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 18, 2025, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1891 "2025-03-18T04:24:24Z")
Similarly the word ‘muscle’ comes from the Latin “musculus,” meaning “little mouse,” because ancient Romans thought that bulging muscles, especially biceps, resembled mice running around under the skin. ---
**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 18, 2025, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1892 "2025-03-18T06:22:10Z")
Denmark’s current king, Frederik, should be an honorary member of this list. He’s an endurance athlete, having completed many marathons, and is the first royal known to have competed in an Ironman event. He’s regularly included on Olympic organizing committees, and met his wife, an Australian woman, while he was in Sydney in 2000. She apparently knew him only as an amateur athlete and had to be convinced he was a royal when they started dating. (We learned this story from the tour guide when we were in Copenhagen.) ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2025, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1893 "2025-03-18T09:03:14Z")
I’ve just read about Sakaweston, a Wampanoag man captured in 1611 off New England, and taken to England where he lived several years. This is interesting enough but, unfortunately, not unusual. It is estimated that by the beginning of the 17th century, about 2,000 Native Americans had been brought back to Europe by mainly Spanish and Portugese, but also some French and English explorers. What is fascinating is that Sakaweston ended up as a mercenary fighting in the Thirty Year’s War in… Bohemia, and this is where we lose track of him. Given that the Ottoman Empire was a major power in eastern Europe at the time, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that Sakaweston might have met Muslims, or at least heard of Islam. This is purely theoretical, but he may have been the first Native American to encounter Islam. Thousands of kilometers away from his home. In the 17th century. Mind-boggling. ---
**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 18, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1894 "2025-03-18T13:27:22Z")
> [@Moonrise](#): > > This is purely theoretical, but he may have been the first Native American to encounter Islam. The Portuguese and Spanish were importing Muslim slaves into the New World nearly a hundred years before that. _On Christmas Day in the year 1521, and half a world away from home, a group of enslaved West African Muslim warriors led a slave revolt on the island of Hispaniola_ [![](https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/websites.harvard.edu/dist/1/19/files/2021/01/three_mulattos.jpg) ](https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/websites.harvard.edu/dist/1/19/files/2021/01/three_mulattos.jpg) [https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/african-and-afro-indian-rebel-leaders-in-latin-america/#:~:text=Over%20the%20course%20of%20the,Africans%20enslaved%20in%20the%20Americas](https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/african-and-afro-indian-rebel-leaders-in-latin-america/#:~:text=Over%20the%20course%20of%20the,Africans%20enslaved%20in%20the%20Americas). ---
**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:** [March 18, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1895 "2025-03-18T20:30:04Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Fourteen royal family members from various countries have competed in the Olympics: Unfortunately that article was cookie-walled, so I didn’t read it. I apologize (for the repetition) if it contained this little nugget (my bold): > From 1968-88, all women wishing to compete in the Olympics were required to undergo sex testing. (With one exception, that being **HRH Princess Anne** of Great Britain, who competed in the 1976 Olympics in the equestrian events.) [One of many cites](https://www.olympedia.org/definitions/74). j ---
**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 18, 2025, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1896 "2025-03-18T20:51:17Z")
Are you claiming that the Princess Anne who competed in the 1976 Olympics in the equestrian events was not the horse, but the rider? TIL… ---
**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 19, 2025, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1897 "2025-03-19T03:21:58Z")
For years and years, I was under the impression that the imperial gallon was 5 quarts, presumably because that was the easiest way to describe it. No one ever clarified the difference for me, so I simply assumed that was all there was to it.        Then I happened to notice that my conversion app says a UK gallon is 4.803799702 US quarts, which is kind of close-ish to 5, but a fair bit short. There seemed to be no correlation between the imperial gallon and any other measure, other than its imperial sub-measures.        Turns out that a US gallon is precisely defined as 231 cubic inches, whereas an imperial gallon is defined as the volume of ten pounds of water at 62°F. (My dad taught me “_a pint to the pound the world around_”, which is inexactly close for US pints but obviously incorrect for imperial pints.) ---
**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:** [March 19, 2025, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1898 "2025-03-19T04:12:06Z")
If you made $100,000 every single day since the birth of Jesus Christ and never spent a penny you still wouldn’t own even 1/5th of Elon Musk’s net worth. So I’ve read. I didn’t do the math. ---
**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 19, 2025, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1899 "2025-03-19T04:21:00Z")
I get about $74 billion. Musk has 320. Pretty close. Make it 1/4th. ---
**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 19, 2025, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/1900 "2025-03-19T05:21:20Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > If you made $100,000 every single day since the birth of Jesus Christ and never spent a penny you still wouldn’t own even 1/5th of Elon Musk’s net worth. If you each year lived on the first day’s $100,000 and invested the other 364 day’s $100,000 each in an account that gives you an interest of 2% per year, the money just from the first year alone would be worth more than $90,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is more than 200 million times Musk’s net worth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=94) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=96)